Fucker.
I reached for the tie of the apron around my waist and pulled the knot free. “Take this fucking job and shove it then. You go explain the hair to Mr. Canali and tell him you still expect him to pay for his meal. He’ll never be back, and neither will I.”
Without giving him another glance, I lifted the apron off over my head, bundled it into a ball, and handed it to the cook before storming out. For the first time since I’d moved here, I didn’t marvel at the architecture or romance of the city. I was blind to the history, the beauty, and the magic of it all as I marched to my apartment.
It was a tiny two-bedroom that I shared with my best friend, but Elena wasn’t home yet. A constant rant played through my mind as I slammed our door behind me and went straight to the kitchen.
Hopefully, there was still an open bottle of wine in our fridge. As I flung it open, intending to grab whatever alcohol was in there and drinking it from the bottle, I spotted Elena’s bulletin board against our wall.
On it was a red post-it note with the word “rent” scrawled in thick black marker. It was placed on the block only a few days from now.
I groaned out loud.
Fuck.
My bank balance wasn’t going to be happy with me if I had to pay rent before I got a new job. In fact, it might even be so pissed off that it wouldn’t allow me to access even the amount of money I needed just to pay my half.
I need a new job. As soon as fucking possible.
Chapter 3
Marco
“These are beautiful,” the cashier at the flower shop said when I laid my choice on the counter in front of her. She lifted her clear blue eyes to mine, smiling suggestively as she took me in. “A bouquet like this must be for one lucky lady.”
Irritation flickered in my gut, but I pushed it down. I’d never understood it when people hit on someone they had reason to believe was in a relationship.
While the cashier wasn’t physically unattractive, batting her eyelashes at a man she thought was buying flowers for another woman obliterated any hint of attraction I might have felt toward her. I also wasn’t in the habit of picking up women in random shops.
If she hadn’t just turned me all the way off with the way she was ogling me while believing I belonged to another, I might have considered flirting a little bit. As things were though, I didn’t want to play into the idea of leading her on when I knew nothing would come of it.
“I’m the lucky one,” I said. “They’re for my mother.”
She blinked in surprise. Then her dark eyelashes fluttered again and a predatory smile spread across her face. “Hot and sweet. There’s a combination I don’t see every day. Give me your number and we can grab a drink after my shift.”
A statement, not a question.
I pressed the corners of my mouth in and shook my head. I reached into my jacket and extracted some cash, tossing the amount for the flowers down in front of her before picking up the bouquet.
“That’s not going to happen. Have a nice day.” I gave her a nod and walked out of the shop, leaving her gaping in my wake.
Tiny pricks of guilt over the way I’d treated her followed me out into the sunshine, but I shook them off. I had done nothing wrong. I hadn’t even been as impolite as I could have been.
Maybe it was just knowing that I was on my way to see my mom that was giving me a sudden attack of conscience. She was waiting for me to bring home a nice Italian girl to settle down with, and here I was, snapping at anyone who took a shot.
I was afraid my mother was shit out of luck on the settling-down thing. Aldo and I had never been big on relationships. Although if and when we had found ourselves involved in one, we had always been completely faithful.
We liked to remind our mother of that fact when she started lamenting about having done something wrong in raising us. While we weren’t following down the paths she’d wanted for us, at least we were loyal. That had to count for something.
Our mother lived in a quiet residential neighborhood in one of the older parts of town. The streets were narrow, and the cobblestones were smooth and stained from centuries of use.
Sunlight filtered in from above, but the red stone and brick of the Gothic-style buildings on either side of the street spared me from a direct onslaught of its heat. Scents of freshly baked bread and the bitterness of brewing coffee wafted from the houses and from the food trucks down the block.
I took in a deep breath, allowing the familiarity of the smells and the dips between the stones underneath my feet to ease some of the tension in my muscles.
Edward and his team didn’t end up flying back with us. They had been summoned to some or other emergency meeting, which they had assured us had nothing to do with our deal, so they had postponed their trip for a couple of days. They were due to be arriving today, and I was expecting his call, knowing they would take me up on the offer of a proper celebration.
A night out on the town wasn’t my idea of fun, but I was the one who had made the offer in the first place, and I knew what they expected of me. Cradling the flowers in the crook of my elbow, I slid my free hand into my pocket as I turned the corner to Mom’s house.
What I saw when I did made all my worries about the night out
