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Melanie’s face fell. She wasn’t happy with me. I wasn’t happy with me either.
“Okay,” she said, nodding and avoiding my eyes. “I’m just going to grab my purse from the office.”
An uncomfortable silence reigned as soon as Melanie left the room. I cleared my throat.
“I thought you weren’t coming back tonight,” I said to Gio.
He raised an eyebrow. “Tara and the baby are asleep. I felt shitty about needing to cut out of here early, so I figured I’d make up for it by handling whatever cleanup work was left.”
“You really didn’t have to. I’ve got it covered.”
“Do you?” he muttered.
Melanie returned, pizza box in one hand, purse in the other. “Well,” she said, a little too brightly, “good night, gentlemen.”
“Night, Melanie,” Gio said. “Good job all around.”
Melanie smiled and then turned to me, but instead of saying anything, I just kind of lamely saluted. I wasn’t sure what I wished harder for, that I was leaving with her or that I’d never crossed that forbidden line tonight.
Either wish was futile at this point. As the door chime sounded again, signaling Melanie’s departure, something occurred to me that made me feel even worse about what had gone down. I hadn’t even kissed her.
Why the hell hadn’t I kissed her?
But there was no time to dwell on that because there was something more immediate to worry about. Now that we were really alone, I had no choice but to face Gio.
When questions of conscience arose, Gio was the touchstone. Gio could level me with a knowing look when he chose to. As he stood there in the kitchen doorway with a scowl on his face, I could read his disapproval without him saying a word. But he spoke anyway, summing up his censure with one soft question to let me know that I hadn’t fooled him one bit.
“Really, Dom?” he sighed, and then went to work stacking plates.
