Oh come on, seriously? “But you love the restaurant. It’s how we met. If you hadn’t applied for a job as manager…and you said it was your passion, your life.” She shook her head trying to clear the fog of mixed memories assaulting her. “I thought you loved it as much as I do.”
“I do. What I can’t deal with is having to share you with it with each waking breath. It always comes first with you. Everything is about the bloody restaurant. That’s why you need to see your solicitor and see what offer I’ve put on the table. Now if you don’t mind, I need to sleep. I have a training session in the morning before I go into work.” Cole leaned back on the bed and swung his feet up. He closed his eyes and rested a hand over his face, shutting her out and ending the conversation.
“Mum.” Oh no, Kyle. How much did he hear? Lena turned as Kyle walked up the stairs to the bedroom level of the warehouse that she and Cole had brought the year before. Her first restaurant had been in a small side alley in Kings Cross where the rent was cheaper. Her hard work paid off eventually and she had a following; people who loved the type of food she cooked. The mix of Italian and Australian cuisine became her signature, and to get a table at Cibo Buono you could put your name down for a reservation and wait for weeks. Right now it all meant nothing.
This place was more up market in the center of Sydney’s busy downtown. A disused warehouse in a sought after street had been Cole’s find, and she’d been dragged along with his energy. Together they’d pooled what money they’d had, borrowed the rest, and brought the building. Now it was where they lived and worked. Upstairs, a split level apartment was big enough for the three of them with room to spare and she were was there for her son. The perfect situation in her mind.
Her son, the most important person in her life. “You should be in bed. School night, remember.” Lena glanced at her husband once more before she closed the door. She forced a smile on her face before she walked toward her son, her arms out for a hug she so desperately needed. Kyle had always been cuddly and growing into a teen hadn’t changed him at all. Even Cole’s ribbing about boys hugging their mothers hadn’t changed him. If anything, it had made him more determined to show his mother his affection. Lena put it down to his Italian heritage. They were a big loving family and her son was following tradition. She could rely on him—Lena knew that and took solace in it.
He kissed her before he wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her shoulder. At twelve, Kyle was as tall as she was and looking at the measurements her mother had taken of him when he was two years old, he was going to top six foot before he even looked like he would stop growing.
“What’s going on?” Mango fragrance from his shampoo sweetened the air and Lena ruffled his damp curls, brushing them off his forehead.
Not going there, buddy. “Nothing, it’s all okay.” She swallowed the panic rising in her throat as the wheels began to turn in her head. Lena was a planner. Everything had to be worked out, slotted into place, and checked over twice before being passed and accepted. Time to start planning again. Fabulous, not.
“Mum, don’t lie to me. I’m not five anymore you know.” He walked with her as she guided him out to the lounge away from the bedrooms. Large wooden beams gave the open plan room character and the unpainted brick wall at the end of the lounge added to the industrial design of the room. The tall windows were devoid of curtains and you could look out over the city. The sensation of hovering amongst the high rises around them never ceased to thrill her. Lena could sit on the couch with the lights on low and lose herself in the view after a big day downstairs in the busy restaurant.
You are growing up far too quick, my boy. “I know you’re not.” She squeezed him, the urge to spill out her story to him as she used to do when he was a baby and her only company almost too tempting. “It’s fine, really. Cole and I are having a few issues we need to deal with ourselves. We’ll get there; most marriages have a few bumps along the road.” Some bigger than others it would seem.
“Except Nona and Pop. They never fight.” Lena’s parents had a marriage made in heaven and it was all she wanted, to have what they had. Sadly it wasn’t looking like that was ever going to happen.
“Yeah, I know, but everyone’s not as lucky as they are.” I wish, jelly fish. Lena pulled him down onto the ottoman in front of the big windows. She leaned into him, the shock of Cole’s statement starting to become a reality she wasn’t ready to face. “Do you want to go and see them at the weekend?” Anything to get him out of the way of what could turn into a nasty situation.
“Something must be seriously wrong if you’re going away this time of year.” He looked at her, his big brown eyes wise beyond his years. “Mum, whatever’s wrong, we can deal with. It’s been you and me before. We can do it again if that’s what’s on the cards, you know.”
“I hope it won’t come to that, and when did you get to be so wise
