“Four years ago, the restaurant almost went out of business. It’s a little family run place. A husband and wife team, and now their two daughters. The wife got cancer, and as you can imagine, the business became less of a priority to the family. By the time she went into remission, they were so far in the red, they were on the verge of losing their home. They put that place on the market. I got wind of it and went to view it with the intention of buying it. I talked to my dad and told him I wasn’t going to change a thing about it. I was going to leave the family to run it their way. I explained this to the owners. I expected them to be happy, but they refused to accept my offer. Giuseppe, the owner, told me that’s not how he wanted to live his life. He wanted to support his family, but he would never be happy being answerable to anyone else. He taught me another valuable lesson. The one about working for myself instead of someone else. I’m close with my family. My brothers and I work very closely together, but I knew I needed something that was all mine, not handed down to me.”
When he paused I waited as I could not take my eyes off of him.
Matt goes on to tell me the rest of it, “I bought my first restaurant after that out of money I had saved over time from my wages. It was La Trattoria. That’s why this whole Marco thing felt so personal to me. It’s part of the family business officially, because it’s easier that way, but I have never felt so proud as I did the day I opened that front door and knew that place was mine, paid for with money I had earned. The same day, I did something else. I expected my dad to be proud of me for buying the restaurant and absolutely livid with me for the other thing. He was nonchalant about the restaurant and gave me a little lecture about how I better make it work and all that…” He trails off and looks into the distance for a moment.
Just when I think he’s not going to elaborate any further he turns back and smiles at me.
“But the other thing? The thing I thought he’d drag me over the coals for? That made him proud. He told me then he knew he had raised me right.”
“What did you do?” I ask.
He smiles. “I went back to Giuseppe. I told him I had learned everything I knew about working in a restaurant at his place. It was true. Until I took that job, I knew I liked cooking, but I had no idea I would fall in love with the restaurant business. I told him I’d bought a restaurant and that it was all down to him. And then I gave him an envelope with a check inside and told him it was a thank you. It took a lot for me to convince him to accept it, but eventually, he did. He saved his business and his family was happy again.”
“That’s an amazing thing to do,” I say. “I can see why your father was proud of you in that moment.”
“I’m not telling you this to blow my own trumpet Callie. I’m telling you this because I want you to know that money doesn’t have to be bad. Having money doesn’t have to make someone greedy and ruthless. And I hope you can see I’m not like that. And in time, I hope you come to see that my family isn’t like that either. We’re pretty normal really, boring I guess you might say.”
“I think you’re anything but boring.” I smile.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Matt
I look out over the city as I tell Callie more about me. She said she feels like she doesn’t know me anymore, but she’s willing to get to know me, so I have to open up to her. I have to tell her everything about me so she can see I am the person she’s known from the start, just with a little more money and a little more power.
When I finish telling her about Giuseppe, I tell her I have some champagne in the fridge and I ask if she’d like some. She nods and I go to grab it.
I feel lighter now since I’ve told Callie the truth. All of it. Even the scary part. The part where I admitted that I’m in love with her. The part where she could have laughed in my face and walked away from me, taking my heart with her.
I don’t just feel lucky; I feel like the luckiest man on the earth. And I meant it when I told Callie I would spend every day showing her how much I love her and who I really am. I will never, ever lie to her again, and if she’ll let me, I’ll hold her close to me until the day I die. I don’t care how slow we have to take things. As long as she’s willing to try, I’m all in.
I open the champagne and fill two glasses and then I put the bottle in an ice bucket and fill it up with ice. I’m whistling to myself as I head back to the balcony. The whistle dies in my throat when I see Callie.
She’s standing where I left her, bent forward resting on the balcony wall on her elbows. Her panties are beside her on the ground, her dress around her hips and her legs spread, exposing her glistening wet pussy. My cock is hard as a rock the second I lock eyes on her. I try to speak but the words freeze in my throat and I stand in the doorway, the glasses
