As he entered his car, he decided to message Anna. “The important thing is that she knows I’m on my way.”
The beeping of another message was coming in as he placed the phone on the passenger’s seat and made him regret his choice; he was risking an endless chat with his wife, but at the same time, he was glad she promptly replied. ‘Whatever you do, don’t take the Tiburtine Road to come back. There’s been an accident, and the traffic is completely jammed. You’ll spend the night there!’
“Why am I not surprised about it? But that’s a great piece of information, I will have to set up the navigator to find an alternative road.” He typed a fast ‘Thank you, sweetheart’ and started on his new route.
Every evening was the same old story, and many times, together with his wife they considered the possibility to move to another part of the city. Yet, every time they thought about it, either the real estate market was frozen, or the apartments were completely unaffordable.
“I’m afraid we should hire a real estate agent to search for something for us. This is not certainly the way we can go on,” he mumbled. “It might take some time, but if we don’t take a firm decision about it, we will live forever trapped by the confines of Tiburtine Road.”
It took almost two hours for Maurizio to reach his apartment and considering the deviation he needed to take to avoid the accident on a route, which was supposed to be the fastest, he considered himself satisfied.
Coming inside the apartment and slipping off his shoes to fit into more comfortable house sleepers, gave him a sense of peace, one that put a smile on his face, regardless of the day he had.
The scent of food coming from the kitchen and the television on made him feel that this was the only place on earth he ever wanted to be: his home, with the only people he would never have enough of.
“Maurizio, you just arrived in time for dinner, go wash your hands and join us!” The chanting tone of Anna’s voice reached him like the trumpets of Heaven. He looked around and realized how lucky he was, and how he never appreciated enough of what he had.
Anna was the most amazing gift he had from life, with her patience to put up with his job that caused him to behave almost carelessly.
Returning from the bathroom, he hurried to the dining room, where everything was waiting for him, and almost with tears in his eyes, he reached Anna and held her tightly to himself.
“What have you done?” she asked with a suspicious tone, parting from him. That was a behavior she was expecting when he had something to be forgiven for.
“I have never appreciated you enough, and I’m afraid I’ve also taken our relationship for granted, when instead I should have worked harder to make sure nothing could ever disturb this perfection. Yet, although I know, how important it is to remind you about my love, I never do so. I keep forgetting things, and let you wait.”
There was a long pause of silence between them, when Anna tried her best to understand whether he was just kidding, as usual or he was serious.
She brought her hand to his forehead, “No, you’re not feverish.” Her voice started fickle with concern.
“I have been thinking about the argument we had, and you were completely right.” He needed to take out all the right words coming out from his soul. “I don’t take into account the effort you are putting into our life; the care for Giovanna, the care for the house, and your work...”
“Maurizio, Giovanna is at the kindergarten from eight in the morning to four in the afternoon, and the home is clean mainly thanks to Ms. Pina, who comes three times a week to take care of it,” She tried to explain that she wasn’t by any means to be compared to Cinderella. “Of course, there are things I care for by myself here, but they are minor things if we compare to those who can’t afford paying for a maid.”
He closed his eyes and held her hands in his own, “I wish to have more time to spend with you two and be more present. I have chosen a terrible job to start with, but maybe I can try to make it up to you. I was considering moving us to a better part of the city, where none of us need to be stuck in the terrible traffic of the Tiburtine Road.” He looked deep into her chestnut brown eyes.
“We tried many times, but without any success,” she protested. Anna hoped they could move away, but if she started to think about moving, and packing everything, she already started to feel tired.
“I will take care of everything; all you need to do is come with me to see the available homes. I’ll call a real estate agent tomorrow, first thing in the morning, and from that moment on, you won’t have to think about it,” he assured. “This is the least I can do.”
Her face brightened up, “Then we have a deal, but how about we eat our dinner, now? I’m starving!”
As they were eating, Anna scrutinized him, “How is the investigation going?” She hesitated a bit to ask about the latest case, also because she knew the family requested the press blackout to protect their privacy, but sometimes there isn’t the need for any press to make sure the news is spread around the population.
“We are still at the preliminary phases; we are gathering all the information
