Chapter 6-  Friendship mixed with Italian Food

I yawned the next morning as I was just getting out of my bedroom 2 hours late for my morning run at Central Park. I hadn’t slept enough and I was distressed. As it was a Saturday, I just needed to go to work for a few hours in the afternoon so basically I had the day free. My face looked like genuine crap. I had to do something about it, especially because Allegra was there and I wanted to give her a lasting impression. I mean, how many times would I have had the opportunity to make her see how sexy I could look just after waking up?

So after taking a shower, brushing my teeth, and leaving my 5 o’clock shadow, I was now leaving my room dressed in only my pajama pants, my hair still wet from the shower.

“Hi, Chris.” My sister said when I joined her in the kitchen.

“Hey, sister, what are you doing awake? I mean it’s Saturday. Normally you should be in your bed.”

She huffed “Yeah, whatever, I just thought it was nice waking up earlier today since we have guests.”

I sent her a mischievous smile “I know.” I messed up my hair with my right hand.

“Eww.” She verbalized “I can’t believe you, Chris, seriously. You disgust me.”

“That’s how it is supposed to be.” I smirked at her discomfort.

“Put a shirt on, please.” She pleaded. I just shook my head and grinned.

“Hello.”

My sister and I turned around to see a messy, but extremely sexy, Allegra. Her hair was messy and all over her face: she looked as if she just had woke up from a night of fire and flames and alcohol…a night of wild and rough sex.

“Hi.” I smiled sweetly at her. My smile turned into a smirk when I saw how she was eyeing me appreciatively. “You like what you see?” I asked in an innocent tone.

She scoffed “As if.” She was avoiding me.

“Okay…” my sister said trying to release the tension that was now filling up the room. “So..who’s up or breakfast?”

“I am.” I smiled at Kirsten and decided to help her cook breakfast.

A few hours later Allegra and I were in her car, driving to this restaurant ‘Baci & Abbracci’ in Williamsburg. I’d never been there and I was extremely curious. She had told me that the restaurant was amazing and that she loved it, plus the food was wonderful and it was affordable. Not that money was a problem. I would have gladly spent a few hundred dollars just to spend time with her.

She parked somewhere near the restaurant and we got out of her car. Thank God for that. I hated the car ride, especially because I kept having flashbacks of what had happened the first time I’d been in it…anyway let’s change topic.

Allegra was wearing a light blue shirt over a white undershirt, simple pair of jeans, and high heels. Now she was almost as tall as me, although I was still a couple of inches taller than her.

“What are you staring at? Come on, Fitzwilliam.” She took my hand and dragged me in the restaurant.

A stupid smile was plastered on my face as a waiter who seemed to know Allegra escorted us to a table. We both got seated.

I frowned when I saw the waiter checking Allegra out. This was no good. I cleared my throat and grabbed the waiter’s attention.

“Can we have the menus?” I asked, my voice icy.

“Ehm…yes, sure.” He said quickly and gave us a menu each.

“Grazie, Marco.” Allegra smiled warmly at him.

A pang of jealously got me. I frowned and sent Marco a look full of hatred and threats. The message was: “Stay the fuck away from her!”

“Prego, Allegra.” He said, his voice slightly nervous.

“Bene, allora io vado.”

“Ecco, bravo, vai.” I mumbled. I looked at him in disgust.

“What’s wrong?” Allegra asked me, confused.

“Nothing…do you have an idea of what you plan to order?” I changed the subject. I didn’t want to admit that I was jealous.

“Yes. I am going for Cozze as a starter, and Linguine alle vongole as my primo. Would you share the cozze with me?”

I just nodded. I did enjoy eating mussels, but I thought that eating them with her would be just a great occasion.

“I’m taking carpaccio di manzo and…ravioli di spinaci.” I said before closing the menu.

“Great.” She smiled shyly at me and fixed her eyes to her hands.

“Well..while we are waiting for the waiter to come, why don’t we start planning the surprise party?” I asked, just to get her attention.

“Huh?” she looked up and sighed “What did you just say?” she inquired, confused, her eyes revealed a sadness I had never seen before.

I tentatively put my hand on hers “Are you okay, Allegra?”

“I’m not.” She sighed again.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I slowly caressed her hand and then squeezed it, to give her comfort.

“I don’t think I should discuss this with you.” She mumbled while avoiding my gaze.

“Oh.” I said and stopped squeezing her hand. “Well let’s get down to business.” I put on a fake smile.

“Yes, let’s focus on this party.” She took out of her bag the famous I-pad. “I was thinking Four Seasons, or the Plaza for the location....if it’s going to be something formal, otherwise we could make it at my house.”

“I don’t know really. Do you have a guest list?”

She produced it from her bag and handed it to me. “Here.”

“Thank you.” The people invited were much more than what I had expected. “I didn’t think Giselle was a person that liked extravagant things…I always thought she was a simple kind of girl.”

“She is…but if we want to throw the party in a major hotel, it is important to have a long guest list, and then, if we consider that Laurence is a business man, it is important for his colleagues and partners in business to be there, otherwise we would create some sort of conflict if we did invite the closest ones and not the other ones.”

I looked at the list. “I agree.”

“Good.” She put her hand on her neck and seemed to touch some kind of necklace that I had never noticed before.

“What are you playing with?” I asked curiously as I observed her keeping to touch the necklace.

“Oh…it’s a necklace…” she said, being clearly embarrassed.

“Really?” I asked sarcastically. “Can I see it?”

“Sure.” She said and took it out from under her blouse.

It was a necklace indeed, but it seemed that there were two rings attached to it. One was definitely a diamond ring, probably an engagement one, while the other one was a white gold wedding band.

“Are you married?” I asked, my voice filled with sadness.

“I am.” She answered, a bitter smile on her face.

“How come I never met your husband?” I was kind of mad at the thought of Laurence not telling me that I was lusting after a married woman who was clearly off-limits. Hey! Why wasn’t she wearing those rings?

“He’s not here anymore.” She said flatly.

“He doesn’t leave in NYC, you mean?” Maybe they were having this long-distance relationship..or maybe they were going to divorce or something…

“No. I mean that he’s dead.” Her words were said with no emotion. I didn’t know what to do. I was slightly embarrassed and I kind of felt sad for her…pity.

“Don’t. Don’t pity me.” She ordered as if she could read my thoughts.

“Sorry, it’s just that..”

She interrupted me. “Yeah, I know. That’s exactly why it’s easier to say that I am not married, because if I say that I am  people start asking me questions I don’t want to answer all the time.” She just stared me in the eye. “Your eyes are just like his, you know?”

“What happened?” I asked cautiously.

“Cancer happened. Well in this case pancreatic cancer. 1 year of chemotherapy, hospital visits, and then he refused to get cured because he was dying anyway, at the age of 28. It happened 3 years ago.”

“Was his name Blake? Because yesterday you kept mumbling that name…”

“Yes. His name was Blake Cavendish…if you don’t count all his other names…”

“Other names?”

“Yeah..” she grinned, her eyes shining. “He hated them, though. He thought they were silly old-fashioned names. I loved them, really. Sebastian Blake August Cavendish.” She sighed happily “He was a great guy.”

“Hi, Allegra!” someone yelled before approaching the table.

“Serena, hi.” She smiled politely.

“Who is this?” she smirked eying me.

“This is Christopher Fitzwilliam, a friend. Christopher, this is Serena.”

“Nice to meet you.” She said and took out a small notepad. “Are you ready to order?” she asked.

Allegra ordered what we had established we were going to eat earlier.

Serena left with a smile on her lips.

Allegra just rolled her eyes “What were we talking about?”

“Wait…you just said to her that I am a friend.” I smiled big “Do you really think so?”

“Well…it’s not like I have any choice.” She said nonchalantly.

“That means a lot to me, you know?”  I whispered, a half-smile on my face.

Her green-hazel eyes immediately met mine, astonishment written all over her face. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. I mean, that means that you trust me, right?”

“I think I do.” She said uncertain.

“Good, then.” I smiled sheepishly. “Anyway..tell me more about Blake. How did you meet him? If you want to talk to me about him.”

“I met him at Oxford. He was a typical British guy of the upper-middle class, he went to private schools all his life and he was studying for his DPhil in Economics, while I was at my first undergraduate year reading Law. I don’t know how it happened, but at the start of my first Michaelmas term at Brasenose College, I decided to meet my neighbor. A friend of his lived across the hallway. I thought it would be nice to say hi, you know, so I knocked on the door and he was the one that answered it. His friend was doing the laundry, so while we waited for him to come we just talked and talked…and the rest as they say, it’s history.” Throughout her story telling she had a dreamy look on her face. She still loved him a lot, even though he wasn’t there anymore to return her feelings.

“College lovers.” I smiled at her and took her hand in mine.

“Yeah.” She shrugged.

Serena came with our antipasti and we started eating.

 I took a mussel out of her plate and popped it into my mouth. Once I swallowed it, I inquired curiously “When did you get married?”

“A year after meeting each other. He proposed to me after we had been together for 7 months. We were both still in college, and our parents wanted us to wait, but we didn’t care. My dad was so pissed I was getting married at just 19, while he was barely 25 and he thought that I was gonna drop college or something. Well I proved him wrong.” She shrugged. “And then we finished college. Together. We moved to Los Angeles, where he was working for a multinational company whilst giving lectures at UCLA, and I was studying for my master in Human Rights Law. We were absolutely fine. We argued sometimes, but you know what they say, what doesn’t break you, make you stronger. He was so happy, and then he started getting sick. We found out that he had cancer, exactly when we had started planning to expand our family. In the end he was just tired. He didn’t have the strength to fight anymore, especially after I lost our baby due to stress and other complications…he just kept blaming himself…and then…he died.” She said carelessly. However, it was clear that she did care, a lot.

I was truly sorry for her. And it hurt me to see her hurting like that, even though she was trying to hide it.

“What about you? Any tragic story to share?” she whispered half-jokingly.

“Well…yes. It is not nearly as tragic as yours, really, but I think it might stand a chance.”

“Pray tell, then.” She smiled sympathetically.

“You know, it’s just the typical cliché story. I had a girlfriend, she was my world. I even proposed to her. And then she met one of my best friends…and let’s just say that I caught them fornicating...”

“Woah….that’s pretty bad, isn’t it?” she was shocked. “Talk about a bitch.”

“Yes…and she had the audacity to blame it all on me, as if it was my fault she had  let my best friend into her knickers.”

She huffed.”Some people are just unbelievable.”

“Tell me about it.” I agreed and shrugged.

“Do you still love her? Do you..do you still care?”

“I don’t know.” I sighed. “I thought I did….but now I am just confused.”

“Why?” she stared directly in my eyes. Hazel-green met blue. And I felt again those stupid butterflies.

“Well it happen a year ago…and I feel that I still feel something for her. It’s not hate, because I know a part of me will always love her. I mean we dated for almost 9 years. We did break up a few times but still…we were living together. Now, however, I think I am finally moving on. I don’t think about her as much as I did before…”

“Is there someone else?” She inquired curiously.

I just blushed and looked away. “Maybe…I am not sure, Allegra.” I replied honestly.

“Well I hope you will figure it out and master the courage to tell her. Maybe she is the one for you.” She grinned at me.

I fought the instinct to laugh bitterly in her face. She had no clue she was talking about herself.

We got back to eating. Soon enough our ‘primi piatti’ were coming and we happily chatted away and got to know each other a little more while eating and discussing over details for Laurence and Giselle’s surprise party.

At the end we agreed that the venue needed to be the Four seasons. We both preferred it to the Plaza, and we knew that Laurence had proposed to Giselle there. We couldn’t decide the color of the decorations, nor the catering. I was insisting on French food, while she was fighting for Italian food. We came to the conclusion that we should choose what the couple favorite dishes were.

I paid for lunch, much to Allegra’s dismay, who wanted everyone to pay for what they had ordered.

“Do you have to be anywhere?” she inquired once we were out of the restaurant.

“Now? No. But in a few hours time, yes. Dinner.”

“Date?” she arched her eyebrow and smirked.

I just stared at her, awestruck. Gosh I can’t believe she was teasing me. She was more similar to Laurence than I would have ever imagined. “No. It’s just dinner with…with a friend.”

“Is this friend the woman you were talking about before? The one you may have feelings for?” she demanded to know.

“No, God, no! I am a guest at the dinner of a friend of mine, who is a he! Dinner with him and his wife…and maybe his kids. I honestly don’t know.”

“Okay. I believe you.” She smirked at me. “Well…now that we are friends I think you can come with me and help me with some stuff.”

“Stuff? What stuff?”

“You know…stuff.”

“No I don’t know, and I am not coming with you if I don’t know what I should be helping you with.”

She sighed exasperatedly. “You are such a nuisance. You’re no fun.” She hit me on the shoulder.

“Hey! That hurt.” I joked.

“Whatever. We are going to play tennis, because I feel like it.”

“And why should I come with you?” I raised my eyebrow.

“Fine, be like that.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s how you treat friends, you shameless person.” She started pouting. “Please…” she batted her eyelashes, her bottom lip started quivering.

“Oh come on, don’t pull that face, please!” I implored her. The typical face I saw her pull on Arisa was now directed at me, and I hated it. “Kristen told you to pull that face, didn’t she?”

“Just say yes, already, or you know what is going to happen.” Her voice was filled with fake sadness.

I put my hands up in surrender. “Okay, I am coming with you.”

“Wicked!” She exclaimed. “More time to go over the party details.” She clapped her hands. “Do you play tennis? Or should I ask if you can hold a racket without killing people?”

“Ah ah. Very funny.” I said sarcastically. “I don’t have any appropriate clothes to play tennis, nor I have my favorite racket. I am not playing. Sorry. And I have to go to work. I totally forgot.”

“Okay.” She sneered. “But be ready, because next time I will ask you to play a match you are coming whether you like it or not.” She huffed and started walking towards her car “Since we don’t have anything to do anymore, as you just spoiled my fun, I am dropping you off at your office or at your house. Your choice.”

“Take me home, so I can take my car and go to the office for a few hours before the dinner.”

She grinned at me “The dinner with your date.”

I laughed “How many times do I have to tell you that it is not a date? You said you believed me.”

“I did. For like two seconds. And then I changed my mind.”

She opened her car and hopped in. I did the same. We sat in silence as she started the car and drove into the traffic. However, it wasn’t an awkward silence. It was quite calm and comfortable.

I’d been experimenting all sort of feelings throughout the time we spent together that morning. I was getting to know her at a level I had never imagined being possible. And I came to the conclusion that even  in a long future there was no possibility for us to be together as a couple. There were too many problems, too many complications. But I was in too deep. I was, unfortunately, already whipped. I was falling in love with her and there was nothing that could change that.