Page 108 of Capo
“Did you like Bietini?”
“Oh, it was wonderful! The people, the silence, the feeling that time didn’t matter. Alessandra made me feel like one of them, as if she was my sister. Actually, can I have her number? I want to tell her I’m home.”
Home?
Time stops. Chloe keeps my gaze, then drains the glass and holds it up.
“Sure.” I refill her glass before I tap up Alessandra’s number on my phone. “I’ll share her contact info.”
She jumps as her phone buzzes and then digs it out of her back pocket. “Damn, I’m totally not used to carrying around one of these anymore. Hang on.” She taps away on the phone, her thumbs moving quickly over the screen, then she puts it on the table. It only takes a few seconds before it buzzes again. She looks at it and smiles, holding it up for me to read.
‘I’m glad to hear you are okay. Tell him to behave or he’ll have the whole village to answer to. You’re one of us now.”
My heart somersaults. Those simple words mean the world; to hear that she embraced my people, and that they loved her.
“What makes you happy? More than fresh air and country life?”
“Oh. Ehm… I used to love to take rides along the coast. I walked a lot. I liked to exhaust myself, work every muscle until they burned.”
“So, you do like pain?”
She scoffs. “Shut up. You want me to answer your question or not?”
I gesture for her to continue as I pick up a piece of marinated asparagus.
“Silly, brain dead TV shows. Music. I love music. I used to love to go to concerts.”
“Yeah? What kind of music?”
“Rock. Punk… Leather and lace kind of music.”
“I listen to opera.”
“How Godfather of you. ‘I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse’.” She makes her voice grave, faking a heavy Italian accent.
I laugh. “You’ve got that down to a T. I’m just kidding. I hate opera. I don’t have time for music, or movies, or concerts. I have very little free time.”
“Can’t you decide that for yourself? Isn’t it your business?”
I shrug. “I set the ball in motion and it doesn’t stop rolling. People will question my authority if I slack off.”
“You’ve seemed to have had a lot of time for me.”
“I’ve been motivated.”
She cocks her head. “Why?”
I hold her gaze. I don’t know how to answer that. I wanted a plaything, a slave. Had she budged early on, she would have been that and nothing else. I would never have gotten to know her. I would never had seen her with my son, never have known her background. “I have no answer that would come out right.”
“Since when do you care about that?”
“Since now.”
Chloe is silent for a long time. The air between us thickens. She drains her second glass and I refill it. “What changed?” she finally asks.
“My whole world changed. Everything. I’m in a deep fucking pit and I’m trying to claw my way back up. I realized how wrong I’ve done you and I want to make it right.”
“How?” she whispers. “How are you going to make it right?”