Chapter 3

 

 

“What can I get you?” I asked, like I would any other customer.

Ricky stared at his menu. He was probably trying to decide between two main dishes, trying to have his cake and eat it too. He preferred not sticking with just one.

The redhead beamed at me over the menu, completely oblivious to how much I hated her right now. “Can I please have the salmon?”

“Sure,” I replied, considering putting down steak just to cause more awkwardness. “And you, sir?”

“Sir? Come on, Alice, you don’t need to be so formal,” Ricky said. His tongue ran over his lower lip, I used to find that cute. Now it was annoying. Go figure.

“You two know each other?” Redhead interjected, sounding genuinely curious.

It was a tossup between protecting my future tip versus my actual emotions. I forgot about the tip. “Ricky and I dated for two years before he started fucking another girl without telling me.”

Her optimistic expression dropped. Clearly it wasn’t the cute tale she had expected. Ricky stepped in before it got any uglier. “I’m sure we don’t need to rehash ancient history. I’ll have the pasta special.” He closed his menu and held it out for me. Redhead’s knuckles were going white while she gripped hers.

I wrangled the menu from her and took them both, snatching Ricky’s. “Any drinks?”

“A bottle of the house red,” Ricky said quickly.

I flashed them both an innocent smile before turning tail and heading toward the kitchen. Only a little bit of guilt crept in about potentially ruining that poor girl’s night. It wasn’t her fault her boyfriend was a douche.

If Ricky thought he was going to get good service tonight, he was seriously mistaken. I skirted his table and ignored him for most of his meal. Every time I did covertly glimpse his way (because I like to torture myself, apparently) he didn’t look too happy.

Yeah, I was a bitch. But I had good reason to be. It was a special kind of torture serving your cheating ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend on Valentine’s Day.

“Who’s that?” Antonio asked, sidling up beside me while I lingered near the kitchen, waiting for an order.

“Nobody,” I lied.

Antonio shrugged. “Must be someone for you to be frowning like that. Do you know them?”

I should have lied but Antonio didn’t deserve deceit. He was too sweet and kind. “I used to date that guy.”

“Ah. An ex. Were you together long?”

“Two years.”

“And it ended badly?”

I let out a laugh. “How can you tell?”

“Well, let’s just say if looks could kill I’m pretty sure I would need to be calling an ambulance right now. It wouldn’t look good in the newspapers tomorrow.”

“He cheated on me,” I conceded. “But not with that girl, she’s new.”

We stood in silence for a few more moments. I really wished Ricky’s presence didn’t upset me as much as it did. I wanted to be over him and the whole ordeal. But seeing him again made all the memories of our relationship come flooding back to me.

It hadn’t all been bad. When we’d managed to spend time together it was nice. Ricky was funny and he could be very charming when he wanted to be. Our jobs had kept us too busy, our lives had been ruled by making ends meet, and we’d started living separate lives.

Maybe we’d both been too busy to see the warning signs. I dealt with it by burying my head in the sand; Ricky dealt with it by getting a new fuck-buddy.

He should never have cheated on me, but perhaps the tragic end to our relationship wasn’t entirely his fault. It was the first time I’d allowed myself to think that deeply about what happened and it was startling.

“Have I ever told you the story of how my grandparents met?” Antonio said out of the blue. Talk about a random change of topic.

“No, I don’t think I’ve heard that story.”

“They were fifteen years old, living in a tiny fishing village in Italy. They went to school every day, my grandfather went fishing in the afternoon and my grandmother helped her mother in the kitchen.

“One day a huge storm rolled through the village. My grandfather was fishing and was caught off guard. He was washed off the rocks and thrown into the ocean. He thought his life might be cut short as he fought to stay afloat.”

Antonio paused, I think for dramatic effect. I could imagine a younger version of him, struggling to stay alive in the Mediterranean ocean.

He continued. “My grandmother was hurrying home and saw something bobbing in the water. She raised the alarm and rushed into the ocean to save him herself when they took too long.

“She singlehandedly pulled him from the ocean and saved his life. They’d never spoken a word to each other before that day.”

“Let me guess, it was love at first sight?” I asked.

“No, not at all.” Antonio laughed. “My grandmother said she could never love anyone who was stupid enough to go fishing in a storm.”

Not what I was expecting. “So how did they end up together? They obviously did or you wouldn’t be here.”

“My grandfather said that when you find a good woman, you never let her go. He made it impossible for her to say no to him. Every day for three years he hand-delivered a bunch of flowers to her and asked if she would agree to go out with him. Eventually she said yes.”

“And the rest is history,” I finished for him.

“Indeed,” Antonio agreed. “When you find that good woman, you should never let her go.”

Ricky had let me go. He didn’t even try to fight for our relationship. Why the hell was I giving him any space in my brain when he hadn’t cared at all to even stay and fight for me?

He was Redhead’s problem now. I should be happy for the fact I didn’t have to deal with him. In fact, I should be feeling sorry for her.

But still, it was difficult to watch.

“Hey, cheer up,” Antonio said, interrupting my thoughts. “If he didn’t realize what he had, he’s a fool. You are far better than that.”

“Maybe I deserved it.”

“No. Trust me, Ally, if he didn’t know what a beautiful, smart, witty woman he had, then you are better off without him.” He patted me on the shoulder before heading back toward the kitchen.

He left me speechless. Beautiful, smart, and witty? Nobody had ever called me that before. Mouthy, stubborn, and impatient, maybe.

My lips quirked into a smile before I realized just how happy those words made me.