Callie
“An Uber?” I looked at Josh with wide eyes. “We can’t take an Uber.”
“Why not?” he said, staring at me, a strange expression on his face.
“Because Ubers are expensive. We can take the subway. Where are we going?”
“We’re going to get some pizza.” He cocked his head to the side, questioning. “I thought I said that.”
“Yeah, but there are loads of pizza places around here. We…”
“It’s fine. I have a coupon,” he said, holding up a piece of paper in his fingers. “The money I save on the pizza is for the Uber. Supposedly, the pizza’s amazing.”
“Okay. I guess.” I bit down on my lower lip. I wasn’t sure if this was the best idea or not. Josh and I didn’t have the best past. I mean, it was nothing like Antonio and me, but…
“Don’t overthink it, Callie,” he said softly. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to Uber you to some private club and expect anything from you. We’re just friends. For now, at least.”
“We’re just friends, Josh.”
“I know, but maybe one day we’ll be something more.” I shrugged and got into the back of the Uber. The car took off, and I played with my fingers. Josh was humming an unfamiliar song under his breath, and I could smell his cologne. He’d put on slightly too much of it, and it didn’t smell very nice, but I didn’t want to be rude.
“Do you mind if I put the window down?” I asked the driver.
“Fine,” he said. I rolled the window down quickly, grateful for some fresh air. Even if it was the stench of the city, it was better than Josh’s cologne.
“So where were you last night?” he asked.
“With a friend,” I said quickly.
“Oh. Okay. So I was going to—”
“Can we not talk about anything related to us or the dorm or anything?” I asked him quickly. “How’s the baseball season going?”
He stared at me for a few seconds and blinked. “Okay.” He shrugged. “Do you even like baseball, Callie?”
“Sure. Touchdown,” I said, raising my hands.
“We don’t have touchdowns in baseball. We have home runs.”
“That’s what I meant. I was just checking to see if you were listening to me. I was just kidding,” I said quickly.
His eyes gazed into mine, and he just shook his head. “You seem a little bit flustered.”
“Just a little bit,” I said, laughing nervously. “It’s been a really long couple of days.”
“I know. And if you want to talk about it.”
“I’m okay,” I said, grateful when my phone started ringing. I pulled it out of my handbag and saw that it was Gia. I frowned slightly.
“Are you going to answer that?” Josh asked, looking at the screen.
“I didn’t want to be rude,” I said quickly.
“It’s okay,” he said.
I reluctantly answered the phone. “Hi, this is Callie.”
“Hey. It’s me, Gia,” she said. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t it be?” I said with forced cheerfulness.
“Because I know the Marchesi brothers, and I don’t think everything is okay.”
“I’m fine. I can’t actually speak right now. My friend Josh and I are about to head for some pizza, so can I call you back?”
“Callie, you’ll call me back, right?”
“Yeah, I will. Of course.”
“Callie, are you with Antonio? Is he holding you against your will? Is—”
“No, I’m in the back of an Uber with my friend Josh.” I pressed speakerphone. “Say hey, Josh.”
“Hey, Josh,” he said in his deep voice and then chuckled. “Sorry. This is Josh. Hi, whoever’s on the other line.”
“Hi,” Gia said softly. “This is Gia. Josh, how do you know Callie?”
“We’re dorm mates at NYU. Why? How do you know her?”
“I met her at a party.”
“Oh, the fancy party she went to the other night?”
“Yeah. She told you about it?”
“Yeah. I mean, I wanted to hang out with her that night, but she decided that—”
“That’s enough, Josh,” I said quickly, taking the phone off speaker. “So you see, Gia, I’m okay.”
“I don’t know what’s going on, Callie, but you sure sound weird,” Gia said. “Can we meet up tomorrow?”
“My best friend Imogen is flying in. So…”
“Why is your best friend Imogen flying in?”
I sighed. “Fine. We can meet up tomorrow. I’ll text you some details.”
“Okay. And you promise you’re okay?”
“I promise. And Gia?”
“Yes, Callie?”
“Thanks for calling and asking.”
“No worries,” she said. “When I told you I knew we’d be friends, I meant it.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I hung up and then looked over at Josh.
“Wow, who’s she? She sounded pretty hot.”
“Really, Josh?” I started laughing. “Just ten minutes after you were telling me I was the girl for you and you wished you hadn’t hooked up with so many other randoms.”
“Well, I don’t know that I’d say I wished.” He shrugged. “Plus, you said we’re just friends, right?”
“Yes.” I nodded quickly. “We’re just friends.”
“So then, if I try and figure out your friend’s details…”
“You don’t even know what she looks like, Josh.”
“If she looks half as sexy as her voice, I think she’s a winner.”
I just shook my head. “Oh my gosh. You’re too much.”
“What? I’m a man.”
“That’s what every guy says, like it’s an excuse for being a douchebag and a…” I paused as I realized I was going to start going off.
“Hey.” He held his hands up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you thought I was a douchebag.”
“Sorry, I’m not even talking about you. I was thinking about someone else.”
“The mystery guy?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. I nodded. “That dude that was at the dorm the other day?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know which guy that was.”
“If it’s the guy I’m thinking of, he was older. And honestly, he definitely wasn’t right for you, Callie.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because he looked like the sort of guy that wouldn’t care about your feelings. He looked like the sort of guy that thought he was running the world, and that would likely mean he was running you, too.” I stared at him. He was pretty astute for a college jock.
“I’m hungry,” I said, answering. “I hope this pizza is as good as you say it is.”
“Well, I didn’t say it was good because I know it’s good. I just heard that it’s good, and it got good reviews. And I have a coupon.” He laughed.
“Oh boy,” I said, shaking my head. I was glad I was hanging out with Josh and wasn’t alone in my room. I knew that if I had to stay there by myself, I’d most probably go crazy or call Antonio and try to tell him off or something, and I never wanted to speak to him again. “Hey, do you mind if I just call my dad real quick? I want to see if I can have breakfast with him in the morning.”
“Of course.” He nodded. “I guess that means we’re not getting breakfast together.”
I stared at him in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“You know. Normally, when a date goes well, the guy and the girl hook up. And then in the morning, if it went really well, they have morning sex. And then he makes her breakfast and…” My face paled at the memory of Antonio asking me what I wanted for breakfast. “Oh my God. I’m sorry,” Josh said quickly. “I was just joking. Obviously, I do not expect us to hook up tonight. It was just a joke.”
“I know,” I said. “It’s okay. Sorry, it’s just…”
“It’s been a long couple of days, huh?”
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“Well, tonight we’re going to have fun. We’ll have pizza and beer, and we’ll play pool, and maybe we’ll even go to karaoke,” he said.
“Karaoke?” I stared at him in surprise. Josh didn’t seem like the sort of guy interested in karaoke, and I knew I couldn’t sing worth shit.
“Yeah. Karaoke’s always fun, but you have got to be really drunk. So tonight, we get really drunk.”
“I don’t know about karaoke, but…”
“Then we’ll go dancing,” he said. “You look like the sort of girl that’s into dancing.”
“I like dancing okay, but…”
“But nothing. Tonight, let me take your mind off whatever’s been bothering you,” he said. “I promise we’ll have a good time. And if you’re not, we’ll go home, and I won’t expect to be in your dorm room with you.”
“Okay,” I said. “We’ll have fun.” The Uber pulled up outside a restaurant, and I stared at the sign—Melba’s Pizza. The name sounded familiar, and then I remembered. It was the restaurant I called about a job, but they hadn’t been hiring. What a small world it was. We got out of the car, and I wondered if I should inquire if they were hiring someone. I still needed a job, and there was no way I was going back to Lupo.
“So here we are,” he said. We walked inside the restaurant. A cute redhead was standing at the front.
“Welcome to Melba’s Pizzeria. Table for two?”
“Yes, please,” Josh said, and she beamed at him.
“Follow me.” We followed behind her to a small booth next to a jukebox. “Here you go. Your server will be with you in just a second.” She handed us two menus. “Do you want some waters? I can get them for you.” I had a feeling that wasn’t her normal job, but the way she looked at Josh made me believe that she was flirting with him, which was rude because she didn’t know I wasn’t his girlfriend or something.
“Yeah. We’ll get two waters with lemons, please,” Josh said. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” she said with a pep in her voice. When she walked away, I leaned forward and shook my head.
“How rude.”
“What?” Josh said, blinking at me in confusion. “Did you not want a water with lemon? Did you want it without lemon? I can call her and…”
“No, but did you notice she’s just been talking to you the entire time? She didn’t ask me if I wanted a water or…”
“Oh,” he said, shrugging. “I didn’t notice.”
“Of course you wouldn’t,” I said, opening the menu. I could smell greasy pizza and chicken wings in the restaurant, and my stomach grumbled. I was hungry, really hungry.
“You want to get a pitcher of beer as well?” he said. “Looks like they got a deal. Ten bucks.”
“Sure,” I said, shrugging. I wasn’t a beer person, but I didn’t want to get wine in an establishment like this. Plus, beer got you drunk pretty quickly.
“Do you know what beer you want? It looks like—”
“I’m fine,” I said, interrupting him. “You can choose. I’m not any sort of beer connoisseur, so I don’t know which would be the best one.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “I guess we’ll start with some Bud.”
“Sure,” I said. “It smells delicious in here. I feel like I could eat a cow.”
“I could eat a horse,” he said, and my stomach curled at the thought of the horse’s head that had been on the bed. I wasn’t going to think about it. Focus, Callie, on anything other than Antonio. “So what do you want on your pizza?” Josh asked, his eyes glittering as he looked around. “It must be a pretty good spot. It’s quite packed.”
“Yeah, it is,” I said, nodding. At least five other couples were seated, and three large parties of what appeared to be five to ten people. They were pretty slammed. They must be doing good business. Maybe I would ask if they had any vacancies. Should be good tips. But then, it was so far away from the dorm. I didn’t know if I wanted to walk all the way to Brooklyn.
“So is that a yes or no to olives?” he asked me, and I just stared at him.
“Oh, sorry. I was just looking around. I’m not huge into olives, but we can get half a pizza with them.”
“Okay, so cheese on all.”
“Yep.”
“Pepperoni?”
“Sure. I love pepperoni.”
“What about sausage?” I wrinkled my nose. “Okay, so sausage will be on the side that has the olives.”
“Sounds good to me.” I laughed. “What about basil?”
“Basil? What? On a pizza?”
“You’ve never had basil on a pizza before?”
He shook his head. “To be quite honest, I don’t even know what basil is.”
I burst out laughing. “You don’t know what basil is, and yet you’re making a face and acting like it’s the most disgusting thing in the world?”
“I mean, it just doesn’t sound like it should be on a pizza. That’s like saying, ‘Do you want broccoli on a pizza?’”
“Ew, that would be disgusting,” I said.
“I bet you in California they have broccoli on pizza.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked.
“Because they love to be healthy there. Every dish that’s meant to be delicious and greasy is healthy. How do you freaking have broccoli on a pizza?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve never been to California, though my best friend lives in Berkeley, and I know they’re pretty health conscious there as well. She was always complaining when she first went there.” I paused. “I really want to go and visit her before she graduates as well. I just hope I can raise enough money.
“Berkeley’s kind of cool. I love San Francisco,” he said. “Well, I don’t know that I love San Francisco, but it’s cool. I visited once.”
“You seem like you’ve been to a lot of places.”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “I got scouted for a lot of different universities and my parents travel a lot.”
“That’s cool.”
“Not really. We were in an RV, which sounds like it should be fun, but it’s really not when you do it every single summer.”
“Oh wow,” I said. “That’s a lot of RVing.”
“Yeah, it was.” He paused. “So, anything else you want to add?”
“No, I think I’m good.” I smiled. “But do you want to get some chicken wings as well?”
“I think I love you,” he said. “What flavor?”
“Barbecue?”
“Marry me, Callie.”
I started giggling then. All of a sudden, he froze. “Hey. Is everything okay, Josh?”
His eyes were wide, and his jaw dropped. “Shit,” he said under his breath.
“What is it?” I turned toward the door where he was looking and felt all the blood drain from my body. Antonio was there with Alessandro, and a cute girl was standing behind them, looking bored. What the fuck? Was he following me? I turned back to look at Josh.
“That’s the guy, huh?” He nodded. “So, that’s the guy you know?”
“Yeah.” I wasn’t sure if Antonio had seen us, and I tried to bend forward so that he wouldn’t.
“Fuck, he’s coming over here,” Josh said, grabbing my hand.
“What are you doing?” I said quickly.
“Just play along with me,” he said.
“Okay.” I gave him a wide smile and sat back, acting as if I didn’t have a care in the world.
“Callie.” Antonio’s voice was deep and dark as he stood next to me.
I looked up at him with wide eyes and smiled sweetly. “Oh. Hi, Antonio.” I stared at him. “Fancy seeing you here.”
“I own the place,” he said, blinking at me. There was a murderous glint in his eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“If you can’t tell, dude, she’s on a date with me,” Josh said, looking up at him. “So please, back off.” Antonio’s fist curled, and I wasn’t sure if he was going to punch Josh.
“Don’t,” I said, staring at him.
“Don’t what?” he said, glaring at me.
“Don’t even think about making a scene.”
“Why are you out on a date having pizza?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I said softly. He stared into my eyes as if he were searching for something. I heard Alessandro chuckling behind him. I looked over at Alessandro. He was shaking his head, running his fingers through his hair. He really was handsome, not as handsome as Antonio, of course, but I knew some women would think he was better-looking. He had a more boyish, youthful look to him. The girl was standing there, and I was curious who she was, but I wasn’t going to ask. I didn’t want him to think that I cared.
“Well, it was nice to see you, Antonio.” I paused. “Actually, that’s a lie, and I don’t like lying as much as I don’t like liars,” I said. “So if you’ll excuse us.”
“We need to talk, Callie.”
“No, we don’t,” I said, shaking my head.
“She says back off,” Josh said.
“Do you really want me to have another conversation with you?” Antonio said with a hiss. I could see Josh’s face paling and wondered what that was about. What conversation had they had and why? What had Antonio said to him previously? There was so much that I didn’t know, so many ways Antonio had weaved his way into my life that I’d been unaware of.
I was annoyed with myself. I thought of myself as someone that was acutely aware of my environment and the people around me. I thought I was one of the best judges of characters I knew, and yet I had no clue about who Antonio really was as a person.
“Callie,” Antonio said. “A minute?”
“Fine. You have one minute,” I said, folding my arms.
“Not here,” he said. “In private.” I glared at him and got up slowly.
Josh jumped up as well. “You don’t have to go with him, Callie. You…”
“It’s fine. I’ll be right back,” I said. “Where do you want to chat?” I gave Antonio my best attitude.
“Follow me,” he said, grabbing my hand and marching me toward the back of the restaurant.
“We shouldn’t be back here,” I said.
“We can be anywhere we want in this restaurant. Like I said, I own it.” He opened the door. There was a guy sitting down. “Get out,” Antonio said. The guy didn’t even respond. He jumped up and left the office. Antonio shut the door behind him and pushed me back against it. “What the fuck is going on, Callie?”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re here on a date after everything that happened?”
“I told you. I had someone waiting for me. Did you think I was going to be at home crying my eyes out, thinking about you and your lies?” I rolled my eyes, my heart racing. “I don’t give a flying fuck about you, Antonio Marchesi.”
“You’re such a fucking liar, Callie,” he said, his lips coming close to mine.
“Oh yeah? Look who’s talking?” I said, glaring at him. And then I felt his lips pressed against mine, and all air was slapped out of my body. I didn’t want to respond, but I couldn’t stop myself.
He pressed himself against me, and I felt his fingers running down the side of my chest, groping my breast. I ran my fingers into his hair, scratched them down his skull, and dug my fingernails into his neck. I gasped as his tongue entered my mouth, and we kissed passionately. He slipped his hand under my shirt and played with my nipple, and I could feel my panties growing wet. I wanted him. I wanted to feel him inside of me. He shifted slightly, and I could feel his hardness against my stomach.
“I want to fuck you, Callie. I want to show you who you belong to.” I heard him unzipping himself, and I gasped as he went to unbutton my jeans. I wanted it as bad as him. I didn’t care. But then memories of everything that had happened came flashing through, all the lies, the fact that he’d been using me, and I pushed him away with all my might. I lifted my knee and hit him square in the groin.
“Ow!” he shouted, backing up. “What the fuck, Callie?”
“Get your hands off of me, Antonio Marchesi. You may think I’m putty in your hands, you may think I’ll do whatever you want to because I’m attracted to you, but I don’t like you and I don’t want you. So fuck off. You hear me? Fuck off. Go fuck whatever bimbo you want to fuck if you’re horny, but you’re never going to fuck me again. In fact, I’ll let you know a little something.”
“What?” he hissed, glaring at me.
“While you’re fucking someone else and thinking of me, I’ll be fucking Josh tonight. And trust me when I say I won’t be thinking about you. I never want to see you again. Stop following me.”
“I’m not following you. This is my bar.”
“Whatever,” I said. “You had your chance, and you screwed me over. Quite literally. Do you really think I’m going to let you fuck me again right now?”
“You know you want it.”
“Sure, my body might want you, Antonio, but I don’t want you. You’re a piece of shit.”
He blinked at me and then started laughing. “You really do have a mouth on you, don’t you? You’re fucking sexy as hell when you go off on me like that.”
“Do you think I’m laughing? Do you think this is all fun and games?”
“I don’t,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t think that at all. But what I do think and what I do know doesn’t matter in this instance. I understand that you’re upset with me. And I don’t know if there’s ever going to be anything I can do for you to understand, but I just hope that one day you will.”
I pressed my lips together and just stared at him. There was a sadness in his eyes that I’d never seen before, and I wanted to believe what he was saying was true. I wanted to believe he was being sincere.
“I really liked you, Callie.” He touched the side of my face. “I didn’t mean to fall for you. That wasn’t part of the plan.” He sighed. “But I guess sometimes life doesn’t go as we plan, huh?” I stared at him, hating myself for weakening at his touch and thinking that what he was saying was real because I honestly couldn’t tell. He grabbed my hand and placed it on his heart. “You feel that?”
“Feel what?” I said under my breath.
“My heart racing,” he said softly. “It’s racing for you.”
“It is?” I asked. “Whatever. It’s racing because you need it to race for you to live.”
He chuckled then. “So cynical. What have I done to you?”
“I don’t know, Antonio, but I do know that you won’t get to do it again.”