Chapter 22: Four Plates

Gianna's POV

On Saturday Marco handed the keys to 4C to the landlord, and then he stood on the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets.

I had come to watch him do it.

He had spent more than a week on my couch.

He had washed every dish with his gold chain tucked into his collar, and he had said nothing about anything.

"I picked her over you for a year," he said now.

"I know."

"I believed every word she said, because it was easier than asking you."

His jaw worked.

"You asked me about the plate in the empty kitchen, and I could have told you then."

"Mom made you promise."

"Mom said not until you were grown. You were grown at eighteen." He looked at the pavement. "I hid behind her."

I waited, because I had waited for him my whole life, and I wanted to hear all of it.

"I'm sorry, Gia."

"Okay."

"That's it? Okay?"

"It's a start. You're working Saturdays for Dino's crew, aren't you?"

"Carrying lumber." He almost smiled. "A guy called me pretty boy this morning."

"Good."

"I deserved that?"

"You deserved the lumber."

He laughed, and then he put his arms around me.

I stood there with my face in his dealership polo until my eyes dried.

On Sunday afternoon Carla knocked on the side door with a grocery bag in each hand.

"I'm cooking," she said.

"I'm cooking," I said. "I've cooked every Sunday for two years."

"I know. That's why I'm doing it."

Keep reading free with an account. Start No Seat for Me at This Table from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.