AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He sits, his hands on the steering wheel without moving for a minute, then he runs his hand through his hair, looking nervous. It's funny to me that I can make him feel that way. Finally he says, "I have some college friends here, would you, um, would you be okay with meeting them? You don't have to, I just thought you might be sick of just being with me."
Friends. Meeting. If we're really going to go through with engagement, I guess I'm going to have to meet people as his fiancée.
Might as well start now.
"I'd love to."
"Really?"
His surprise surprises me. "I can meet people. I've been known to know how to use cutlery and say excuse me when I burp and everything."
"It's not that. It's... well, I don't know."
"Matthias Baxter, are you feeling nervous right now?" I poke him gently in the side and he pretends to squeal in pain.
"Ow! Shut up. Let's go then, 'goddess,'" he says in Gio's accent and speeds away.
***
Matthias's friends Anna and Dom, or Domenico, are just about the most wonderful people I've ever met.
Both professors at the university, one in art history, and the other in anthropology, everything that comes out of their mouths is fascinating. They share stories about their crazy adventures without sounding as though they are bragging; if anything, they try to one up each other in their roasts of each other and self-deprecation.
When we get to their apartment, I'm surprised to see that a dining table has already been set out on the balcony with a tray of antipasti already laid out, and a bottle of Chianti in a rustic ice bucket against the wall.
"Clarissa! What a beautiful name. It means 'light,' yes?" Anna says, enveloping me in a big hug.
"It does," I beam, unconsciously emulating my name's meaning. But it's not hard. Anna is effervescent and friendly. Dom lets his wife take the lead while hanging back and catching up with Matthias.
"Sit, sit. We have some cotoletta with insalata coming. Is that okay? Sorry, Matthias did not give us much time or details," she says accusingly and punches him lightly on the chest.
"I was testing your hospitality skills, Anna," Matthias teases. "Come on, Rissie," he says, guiding me to the balcony.
The view takes my breath away.
I don't know how they can afford this place on professors' salaries, but then I remember that Matthias met Dom at Eton so his family probably has money. The decor is simple but elegant. Probably helps that Dom is an art history professor,
I sit back and listen to the three of them catch up. From what I can tell, it's been almost six months since Matthias has been back in Milan. He makes a joke about being the only one of his brothers actually doing any work and gives me a little wink.
The little gesture lodges into my heart. It's intimate and playful and I don't know what to do with it. It's hard to not replay the way he'd called me "my love." Yes, it had been during sex, during an experience that elevated our relationship but Matthias has never misspoken in the entire time I've known him, and I don't just mean in the last few weeks. He talks a lot and a lot of what he is saying is joking but in the tiniest twinkle of his eye, I know everything he says has been turned over in his head.
And the day that he says something that hurts me, I know he'll mean that too.
"Anna, tell Rissie how your scum of the earth husband here stole you from me."
The three of them dissolve into howls.
When she finally catches her breathe, Anna cocks her head at Matthias. "As far as I remember, I met Dom because Matthias was trying to hit on my roommate. He spent one night with her and never saw her again, and I had to deal with her asking me a hundred times if she could tag along with me and Dom just in case she could run into him."
Matthias drops his mouth open in an exaggerated shock. "I remember nothing of the sort. Don't listen to her, Rissie, she lies. She's not even Italian. I heard her sound like a valley girl one time over the phone when she thought no one was listening."
Anna opens her mouth and a string of what I can only imagine are very Italian curses spews from her mouth. She grabs a bread roll out of the basket and pelts Matthias with it.
He guards his face as he shouts, "Rissie! I'm dying, tell my family I loved them all! Actually, no! Tell them I loved all but one of them and let them try to figure out which one it was."
I laugh so hard I choke on my wine, and Anna has to stop attacking Matthias to pat me gently on the back.
"Clarissa, no, don't die over him. He's not worth it. I'll introduce you to some Italian men. And you will forget this blond manwhore in no time."
