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A minute later Gio himself brought a pair of sodas over. The baby smiled and cooed at her father, and as soon as he set the glasses down, he plucked her right out of Tara’s arms.
“Thanks, love,” Tara said as she unwrapped her straw.
Gio smiled at his wife and gave his baby daughter a kiss on her chubby little cheek before turning his attention to me. “Surprised to see you back here already.”
“You are?”
He laughed. “No. But I thought there was a chance you could light a fire under that brother of mine. How are things looking? Dom promised me he’d get those boxes moved out of the office.”
“He lied,” I blurted out before I could stop myself. Gio looked startled, so I tried to be more diplomatic. “I mean, Dominic indicated that he understands the challenges ahead, and while he is committed to getting the office in order, he’s been swamped with the renovation work.”
“Ah,” Gio nodded. “Kicked you out of there, did he?”
“So fast I wondered if I smelled bad.”
“You don’t smell bad,” Tara assured me with a sympathetic pat on the hand. She exchanged a look with her husband.
“Dom is ...,” Gio started to say, then trailed off.
“Stubborn and territorial,” Tara finished with a sweet smile.
“Tara,” her husband warned, but I could see he was trying not to laugh.
“Sorry,” she said. “I swear I’m not trying to scare Melanie off.”
Gio checked the time and announced that he had to get going to a meeting with a local organic farmer who was looking to supply the restaurant’s produce for salads and toppings.
Tara held her arms out to take baby Leah. Gio kissed them each on the forehead and asked me to do the daily bank deposit, which I’d already gotten used to.
“I’ll be back in time for the dinner rush,” he said. “In the meantime Aimee and Carl are serving, and Tim, Juan, and Dmitri are in the kitchen. They’ll help you figure out anything that comes up.”
“Sounds good,” I said.
As soon as he stepped out the door, Aimee, a college student who was rather flighty but seemed all right mostly, approached the table holding a pizza.
“Hot out of the oven,” she said, and I grabbed a piece as soon as she set it down. I’d never been a huge pizza fan, but I had to admit I’d changed my mind since I started working at Esposito’s. These guys knew how to do pizza right.
Tara had covered herself with a pretty blue scarf so she could breastfeed Leah discreetly. At our first lunch she’d told me the story of how she met her husband. Back when Esposito’s first opened, Tara had been working at a nearby coffee shop, and one day she wandered down here at lunchtime to see this pizza that everyone was raving about. She said that the moment she laid eyes on Gio she just knew she would fall hopelessly in love with him. I supposed it really did happen that way for certain people. Gio and Tara were so obviously in love they fascinated me. It sounded corny, but I could swear that even the air got happier when the two of them were together in the same room. They were a true love story, like my parents. Knowing that such couples were possible made the rest of us onlookers feel as if we might have a chance to find that kind of love for ourselves.
I was really glad to have Tara in my life, and not just because she’d given me the tip about the job. She stopped by several times a week to see Gio and always took the time to chat with me. We’d had several lunches together, and I even met her downtown at the art museum for a few hours last weekend because there was an exhibit on hoopskirts that she was dying to see.
“So,” said Tara, giving me a rather mischievous grin. “Now that Gio’s gone, you can freely state what you really think of my brother-in-law.”
I nearly choked on my pizza. I didn’t want to bad-mouth my boss, but maybe Tara had some insight to offer. Maybe then I could stop feeling paranoid that Dominic Esposito was searching for a reason to get rid of me. I already liked working here, and my ego was still bruised from one fall from grace this year. I didn’t want to think about getting fired again.
I leaned in and kept my voice low so none of the other staff would hear. “He seems rather, um, intense.”
“You mean like he’d rather cut his pinkie finger off than accept help from anyone?”
“Something like that.”
“Yeah.” Tara sighed and frowned. “Now, I love Dom like he’s my own brother. He’s devoted to Gio, and he would move the moon for our baby girl, but sometimes it’s like he doesn’t quite get that a wide collection of people inhabit his orbit. I mean, I understand why he’s wary on some level. You know the history, right? What happened with the original family restaurant?”
Gio had mentioned that Esposito’s was modeled after the New York original. The first Esposito’s had long been out of business, and the brothers were looking to recreate their legacy here on the other side of the country. Tara filled in the rest of the details about how Gio and Dom’s grandmother, Donna, moved to the other side of the country.
Tara paused in her story and shifted the nursing wrap, settling a sleepy Leah on her shoulder. “So you see,” she said, “these two men believe they are trying to restore their family’s good name, and they’re awful serious about it, especially Dom. Gio tells me you’re doing a great job. Dominic will come around and see that, once he gives you a chance. And he will. Just don’t get chased off before that happens. Promise me.”
I winked at her. “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere unless forced.”
