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“What business?”
“Salvatrice, that sentence needs to disappear from your vocabulary for good. I’m serious.”
“Right.”
“Eat, baby. I’ll be back for you.
~~~
I didn’t want to tire Salva too much, so instead of making her walk all over Manhattan, I took one of the convertibles, and drove her around. I knew she loved the Manhattan Bridge, so I drove over it a few times, then around Central Park and stopped to buy her some cotton candy from a street vendor. After that I took her to a nice place called Gigino so we could have some lunch and gelato. We took the ferry to see Lady Liberty – finally! Salvatrice and I never went to see the Statue of Liberty up close, ever. It was crazy to think how easy it was to dismiss the things that made this city so special, just because we’d lived here all our lives.
When we came back to shore, we hopped in the car and she leaned to kiss me.
“Today was nice, Roman, thank you.”
“Baby, it’s only five o’clock. I still want to take you some places.” To be honest, the entire day was an excuse to give her this private tour without her suspecting where we were going.
I drove on 10th Ave, until I finally made it close to Morningside Heights, and made a right on 112th street. Salvatrice didn’t look at me, but I could tell she knew exactly where we were.
“Remember this place, amore?”
“Yeah,” she replied with a sniffle, “our old apartment.”
“Don’t cry, baby. This is a happy place.”
“I know, I just…we were happy here. I ruined everything.”
I kissed her hand and turned her head towards me.
“I never want to see you cry again, ok? Smile for me.” She did and the whole street lit up. “Let’s walk around for a second.”
“Sure. Are we going upstairs?”
“We can’t. My tenant is a single mother with three young kids and I don’t want to disturb her.”
“Oh, ok. Where are we going?”
“Just around here.”
I put the car in park and killed the engine. Salva took my hand and we strolled down the street. She followed me without a word and frankly, I didn’t need words. We were both feeling the nostalgia flooding the air. It was almost like I could look around and see us when we were younger. I looked at the entrance of the building and saw Salvatrice jumping in my arms when she came home from work. I looked across the street and saw us running home while rain was pouring, both hiding under my trench coat, but still drenched.
We walked maybe ten minutes until we made it to Columbia campus and saw the coffee shop.
“This is it,” I said when we were in front of the entry. “Remember this place?”
“Roman, I worked here for four years. Yes, I remember it. It’s a little changed, the lights hanging everywhere are new.” Yeah, there’d been some changes to the design.
“I bought it, you know?”
“The coffee shop?”
“I couldn’t care less about the coffee shop, I bought the place where I first saw you, where you became mine.”
Her eyes filled with tears again, but remembering my words from earlier, she smiled through them.
“I always knew you loved me, Roman,” she said, hugging my waist as hard as she could. “But I didn’t understand how much.”
“More than you could ever know. I remember the day I saw you; I was struck. I knew there was no way I’d walk out of here without you. I knew one day I’d marry you.”
Pushing her away a few steps, I took her hands in mine and slowly went down until one of my knees hit the ground and pulled out the diamond ring that had our names engraved on it. The one I got for her the first time I proposed.
“Roman.”
“I always knew you’re mine, Salvatrice. You said you’d marry me once. Say it again, amore. Say you’ll be my wife.”
“Yes.” It was only a whisper, but it was all I needed.
I picked her up and spun her around. Her laughter was clear and smooth, like the sound of an orchestra singing only for my heart. I don’t know why, but this time it felt sweeter, stronger.
Salvatrice was finally home.
