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I DREAMT OF DAD, A strange adaptation of a memory from five years ago.
Mom and I had spent half the day at the laundromat. We trekked wearily along the sidewalk to Selena’s, balancing a laundry bag on our backs when Dad called Mom’s name.
It took six days after he’d beaten her for him to track us down that time.
Running to Mom, he took her bag and reached for mine. I shoved him away. “Leave us alone. We hate you.”
Dad’s lips sagged in sorrow. He lowered his eyes.
“Don’t you ever say that!” Mom yelled at me. She uncurled my fingers from the laundry bag and transferred it to Dad. The muscles in his scrawny arms quivered from the weight, but he didn’t complain. Dad never complained.
“Fai.” His voice cracked. “I know I’ve broken promises to you. I know I don’t deserve anything good.”
Mom silenced him. Hugging herself, she swallowed back the tears. “You keep having your pity parties. That’s what’s driving you to keep using. I...c–can’t make you love yourself for the incredible man that you are.”
Dad’s face shriveled into a weeping old man’s. “I–I h–hurt you.”
“The real you doesn’t know how to hurt me.” Mom brushed a tear on the back of her arm. “I know the difference. I know you. I know my husband, and he’s the one I want.”
The bags slapped the concrete as he grabbed Mom and held her—a touching love scene for the movies. But in real life, I wanted to puke.
“Come home,” he whispered.
She needed no convincing.
Dad was an angel again. All was right in the world.
The house was spotless when we entered. No sign of Dad’s glass pipe, his drug buddies, or random pieces of junk from his dumpster diving expeditions—his other side hustle for fast money. A receipt for services rendered laid face-up on the ledge of the bookshelf by the front door. Dad had used a cleaning service to make the house liveable.
Chills coursed through my body as I followed them into every room, carrying behind my back the old wooden bat Dad used to leave by the door to fend off anyone crazy enough to try and break in. Flashbacks of bloody battles in these rooms skipped through my mind, keeping me on edge.
They reached their bedroom. I paused in the doorway. My body trembled to watch those same violent hands touch her in the same places where he left those painful marks. He soothed them with tender kisses and bathed them in his tears.
“I’m so–sorry.” Dad’s voice quaked. “I thought y–you were a man tryna break-in and hurt my family. I–It was so real.” He paused to meet her eyes. “It won’t happen again. I promise. I promise.”
Mom stroked his patchy-haired cheek and led him to the bed.
My eyes popped open. I relaxed the tension in my body when Mom’s phone in my hand reminded me of Dad’s call. I checked the time: four-thirteen in the morning.
I tiptoed to Selena’s office. Mom’s soft snore played like music to my ears. Any other sound was better than her threats to kill me. To think about it stung my heart, especially after the amazing day we’d spent together. But I understood. For the first time, I saw her love for my father through a different lens. I imagined all the ways meth could ruin Giovanni. How it could make him erratic, wild, aggressive. Dad never wanted to be a monster. He never wanted to hurt his family. Mom understood that, while all I could see was the pain and chaos he’d left us buried under.
Using the lit screen from my phone to guide me, I tiptoed the rest of the way inside of Mom’s room and connected the charger to her phone.
“I’m sorry, Sammy. I tried,” Mom mumbled in her sleep. “Don’t tell her. She’s not ready.”
I stood motionless, absorbing her words. “Who’s not ready?” I whispered.
“Joy. She always judges me.”
My heart ached.
“What is Joy not ready for?” I asked.
Mom mumbled something I couldn’t make out and hugged the pillow tighter.
She was dreaming, I told myself. Dreams were manifestations of desires, fears, and experiences. But were her secrets hiding there too? Had she been seeing Dad behind my back?
I replayed what Dad had said earlier. He spoke as if they’d stayed in touch over the years.
“When was the last time you saw Sammy?” I asked softly.
“February 2nd.”
That was two months ago.
I swallowed. “Where did you see Sammy?”
“Hmm. Our hotel.”
I hurried to my room and paced tirelessly, wishing I could erase everything I knew. February 2nd was my parents’ anniversary. But did she mean this year or when they were together long ago? If it was years ago, then what didn’t she want me to know?
I collapsed onto my bed. Doubts about my parents cycled my brain like a Ferris wheel. With sleep beyond my reach, I laid on my side and stared at the travel posters through the darkness.
Last week, when Mom went through her episode I wondered what she would do without me, Selena, and Lucy. But would she have been better off battling the monsters at Dad’s side than without him?
I’D HEARD THE CALL Mom had made to her former employer, letting him know she wasn’t coming in to work today or tomorrow. She had officially quit her old job.
I worried about what reckless thoughts would entertain her for the next two days. With no one to keep her from seeing Dad in jail, would she go, especially to spite me for last night?
I tiptoed down the hall to survey my escape route. Mom sat at the table two feet away from the exit. Sneaking out of the apartment without confrontation would’ve been impossible, but I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t avoid her forever.
“What are you doin’?” Selena startled me. Shaking her head, she squeezed by dressed in a frilly, yellow top and black pants and paused at the counter. “Fai, do you know what time it is?”
“I’m not goin’ to work today. I’ve got too much to do.” Mom sighed. I peeked at her from the edge of the hall. “I’m signing the papers for our new place today. Plus, I’ve gotta clean and paint. I wanna get moved in this weekend, but Joy’s gotta work.”
“That’s great,” Selena said, sipping the coffee Mom had prepared for her. “Have fun.”
Had Mom told Selena about the apartment to avoid revealing her real plan? Mom would’ve hated me even more if I were to interrogate her about it in front of Selena if she hadn’t. But it was the only way to get her to answer me.
Judging by how they spoke to each other, Selena had no clue about Dad’s call last night. I still debated whether to announce it to her when Mom caught me spying from my conspicuous corner. Rising from her seat, she started toward me, her puffy eyes watching me like an enemy.
“See ya later, guys.” Selena hurried through the door.
Mom stopped in front of me. I swallowed and swallowed. No matter how many times I tried, the lump refused to budge. Mom’s jaws clicked. Her nostrils flared, but she said nothing. She had no need to.
Picking up her feet, she continued on to Selena’s office and closed the door.
I considered going in there and demanding the truth from her. On second thought, I wasn’t sure I could have handled the weight of knowing.
I bolted to my room to grab my phone when I noticed the flyers I’d made for dog walking on the nightstand with Selena’s stapler. I packed the stack away, threw the heavy bookbag around my body, and rushed to leave.
Giovanni’s fist hovering in mid-knock nearly rammed my face as I opened the door. Before I could say hello, his lips muffled the sound. I shut the door against my back and leaned into his kiss.
Giovanni would’ve been content to skip school and stand there all day with me in his arms. As wonderful as that would’ve been, I had flyers to hang up around town.
I slouched against the elevator wall and chewed my bottom lip.
“Joy.” He shook my arm to get my attention.
I met his sleepy eyes and forced my concerns into the backseat. “Sorry. I was just thinkin’...about last night.”
“Me too. I am curious about your hidden talent?” He raised an eyebrow. “Is it something dangerous?”
I laughed at the thought. “Oh, yeah. Super dangerous. So, don’t ever make me mad.” Wrapping my arms around him, I slipped my fingers into each of his pockets and hid everything I found into the front flap of my bag. “Wanna see what I can do?” I separated from him quickly and smiled.
He supported himself on the wall and watched me with great anticipation. Mirroring his stance, I watched him back.
“Do not be shy, Joy. Show me.”
Without a word, I revealed the items I’d stolen from him.
Giovanni stared wide-eyed and confused at the objects in my opened palms and patted his jacket and pants in disbelief. “How did you do that?” As he lifted his keys, wallet, and phone from my hands to conceal them in their rightful places, his smile and frown dueled with one another.
“My dad taught me when I was younger. He used to bring me to Times Square to pick people’s pockets when he got extra desperate for drug money.”
Giovanni’s smile slipped away at my revelation. I grew serious too.
“He said because I had small hands and I was short it’d be easier. Plus, people don’t expect little kids to rob them as much as they do grown-ups. I know I shouldn’t be proud of it, but I was pretty good.”
Giovanni opened the glass door for me to step outside.
“After my parents split up, that was the only reason he wanted to spend time with me. And Mom refused to let me be alone with him until he got clean. She still doesn’t know about it.”
I put away the memories of my father and grinned mischievously at Giovanni.
“I still practice, though, on Selena and my mom. You should see them go crazy looking for their things.”
“I am going to put things in my pockets for you to take. What other talents do you have?” he inquired, even more excited than earlier to hear my answer.
“Let me see. Well, when I get really, really mad, I ugly cry. Does that count?”
“I do not know. Show me.” He stopped walking to watch me.
“I gotta get mad first,” I reminded him, laughing at the notion.
Giovanni playfully tugged the French braid resting on my shoulder and threw his arm around me. His body heat protected me from the cool, damp morning air.
“Hey. Would you help me hang up flyers?” I unearthed the stack from my bag along with the stapler.
Giovanni held one of them in the air. “Doggy services include a thirty-minute walk, thirty-minute play time and cuddles...That is what you do with me.”
I laughed at the look of betrayal on his face. “Yeah, but I don’t charge you or offer you baths...or to clip your nails, because that would be weird.”
I stapled a flyer onto an electric pole.
“I forgot to tell you. We found an apartment. It’s two floors up from Selena’s.”
His face brightened at the news. “Good. I am glad you will not be too far away. I like to walk together with you.”
“Me too.”
THE HAIRS ON THE BACK of my neck stood to attention. I scanned the area. Everyone appeared to be where they belonged—construction workers setting up, kids walking to school, and parents dropping their children off at the babysitters’.
Despite the appearance of normalcy, that feeling of being watched lingered, and it kept me on edge.
To offset my nerves, I hugged Giovanni a little tighter and continued sweeping my gaze along the streets until we were safe aboard the bus.
“Hey, Giovanni.” The same greeting in three different voices echoed around us as we searched vacant seats.
He wasn’t kidding about making new friends. Even after we arrived at our final stop, the entire ride to school, people right and left struck up friendly conversations with him. Still, in the midst of that weirdness, all I could think of was that creeping sensation from earlier messing with my mind.
TRINA STALKED UP TO us in the hallway, her small, glaring eyes fixating on me and a bright, eager smile curling her lips—a look I learned long ago implied nothing but trouble. I never understood what her problem was with me.
“Hey, Joy. I heard about your dad,” she announced loud enough to humiliate me in front of everyone, including Giovanni.
I recoiled under the fiery spotlight she’d cast upon me and skimmed the faces watching me intently. Thanks to Trina, they had something new to talk about as they readied their phones to record in case one of us got physical.
“It was on the news last night,” she said.
I scowled at the miserable girl before me—the eagerness in her dark eyes, the smile on her normally down-turned lips waiting for the cue to spit her poison.
“Don’t tell me you missed it.”
My body tensed with anger. “You want some kinda medal for watching the news?” I cut my eyes at her. “Why do you care so much about my family and me anyway? This ain’t eighth grade anymore. Why don’t you grow up for once and worry ‘bout yourself?” I pushed past her to get to my locker.
“Really? So what? Now you think you’re better ‘cause you got a boyfriend? You’re still a loser! Giovanni, you know you could do so much better.” She gave him her best flirty smile. I could’ve slapped it off her face.
“I’m sure he could, but you ain’t it!”
“You should go to your class and leave her alone,” Giovanni interjected.
“Or what? You gonna make me?” Trina raised her chin smugly as she regrouped with her clan to talk about me.
“Ignore that girl,” Giovanni whispered into my ear with our onlookers hanging on to our every word.
I led him to the library in the opposite direction of my homeroom, grinding my jaw so hard it ached.
“You were perfect,” he said once we were alone. His encouragement fell on deaf ears.
“Everyone knows about my dad because of her. Did you see it on the news last night?”
“No. I do not watch the news. It does not matter.”
“It does matter!”
Gripping my shoulders, he bent forward to level his eyes with mine. “I am sorry about your father, but you say you do not care what they think or say. Relax. Do not let her win.”
“I can’t relax. That’s the kinda crap I had to deal with in middle school. And you don’t get it. How could you?”
He winced as if my words had slapped his face, and it horrified me. He was the only real friend I had, and I was treating him like an enemy.
“I’m sorry. But I–I thought I was done with Trina and my dad.”
Giovanni stroked my cheek. “You forget what is most important: your father was on the news, not you. Forget about him. If anyone says anything to you about it again, tell me, and I will take care of it for you.”
Imagining him nicely telling people off brought a smile to my face. On the other hand, seeing him jump into action to protect me from that creepy man was impressive. How could I resist showing my appreciation for him when he took such great care of me?
“I worried you would hurt that girl,” he said softly as we ambled down the hall.
She wasn’t worth the trouble.
“Are you sure you are okay?”
With a deep sigh, I nodded. We met halfway to kiss goodbye when a guy teacher said, “Ew! Gross. Nobody wants to see you guys sucking face in the hall! Please stop.”
Giovanni and I broke away from each other immediately. I was glad my flushing face wasn’t nearly as obvious as his.
“Ciao, bellisima,” he sang, walking backward with a cheerful grin.
I blew him a kiss and skipped down the empty corridor.
IMANI LEANED AROUND Noman, the Pakistani boy trapped between us, during culinary class. “Did Giovanni tell you about my party?”
“Yeah. What about it?”
“You’re comin’, right?”
“You’re seriously inviting me...after the crap you tried to start with me last week?”
Imani shrugged. “Sorry. But I tried to talk to you, and you got an attitude with me first.”
“Why would I talk to you? You barely even looked at me before. Nobody did until you started tellin’ people my business.”
“I’ll go if she don’t wanna,” Mason interrupted from the table behind us.
“I don’t think so,” Imani whispered. She returned her attention to me. “I’m sorry about last week, alright?”
Mr. Clement cleared his throat. “Please, ladies. Finish your conversation. Don’t let us keep you.”
Imani smiled and took him up on his offer. “So, will you come?” she asked me again.
I nodded quickly and looked at Mr. Clement to continue his review about mixing methods for baking.
He lowered his head to eye Imani over the rim of his glasses and picked up where he’d left off.
“It’s on Saturday, right?”
“Tomorrow,” Imani whispered.
Hunching my shoulders, I scowled with pretend disappointment. “I already have plans for tomorrow.”
“What about Giovanni?”
“I think he’s free.”
She beamed excitedly. “Well, you can catch the next party, then.”
Imani’s scheming eyes said it all. Giovanni would be easy prey without me around.
I ENTERED THE CAFETERIA and stumbled on Mariah leaning into Giovanni on the long bench at our table, basking in his beauty like a walrus in the sun. I slowed my pace and shoved the jealousy into my back pocket. Watching Giovanni try to ignore her and carry on a conversation with Kai calmed my heart instantly. Not even her low buttoned shirt piqued his curiosity. Or if it did, he was convincing in pretending not to notice the cleavage begging for his attention.
“Hey.”
Mariah grimaced at the sound of my voice and turned to look at me with a phony smile. I stopped behind the table as Giovanni scrambled out of his seat to get to me.
“Bella. Finally, you are here.” With a bearhug, he raised me off the floor.
“Wanna go outside, just the two of us?” I whispered into his ear while I was close enough to reach.
“No. I want to hang out with Kai and Boris.” Giovanni chased my eyes. “Please stay. Save me from this crazy girl.”
Once I was steady on my feet, he led me a few steps to our table and said, “You remember my beautiful, Joy.”
Mariah snorted her amusement.
“What are you smirking at?” Kai said to Mariah.
Scanning the length of me, an amused smile graced her plum-colored lips.
“Ain’t your little friends missing you already?” Kai said impatiently. “Giovanni don’t want you. Can’t you tell? He don’t like snakes.”
Mariah challenged Kai with an icy stare.
Only he could get away with that. Had I said anything rude or otherwise, she would’ve tried to fight me.
Surprisingly, Mariah rose stiffly from the bench and returned to her table on the opposite side of the room.
I claimed the seat she’d vacated. “If she’s such a snake, why do y’all hang out with her?”
Kai gave me a dirty grin. “You saw how friendly she was gettin’ with Giovanni? She likes gettin’ friendly...a lot, and with that body she got...hmm.” Kai shook his head and put his pervy smile away.
“Does Imani know you two hook up?” I asked, trying to tune out Boris’ mouth breathing in my ear.
Kai laughed. “Imani ain’t got a say in it. She wishes she did.” Turning serious, he said, “You need to watch out for Mariah. She’s got that look, and I got a feeling Giovanni ain’t never gonna give her what she wants.”
Kai and I turned to behold Giovanni as he self-consciously sipped his bottled water.
“What are you guys sittin’ over here for?” I interrogated Kai.
“Giovanni looked lonely over here by himself. Plus, you know I talk to everybody.”
“Yeah. But why today?”
“Me and Giovanni was talkin’ ‘bout Imani’s party tomorrow. It’s gonna be lit. You are goin’, right?”
“Unfortunately.” I sighed.
“Yeah, well, your day’s about to get worse.” Kai’s brows waved with concern. “Mariah’s comin’ over here again.” His eyes followed her movements. “Don’t worry ‘bout it. I’ll take care of her.” He rummaged through his bookbag and patted the seat for Mariah to sit next to him. To his dismay, Imani hurried to snatch the spot before Mariah could.
“I made your favorite cookies.” Imani placed the carefully wrapped bundle in front of him and clung to his scrawny arm like a lifeline.
“Aww. I think Imani’s in love,” Mariah teased.
She was. Kai was not. His glare bounced between the girls.
“You and Imani look so cute together.” Mariah spoke in a baby voice. Standing behind him, she pinched his cheeks. Kai couldn’t swat her away fast enough with Imani glued to his arm and his mouth full of chocolate chip cookies.
Mariah wasn’t lying, though. Kai could never deny Imani’s beauty. He relished in her attention and returned it whenever it suited him. But Kai liked to keep all of his options open.
“Ya know, I would’ve never put you together as a couple,” Mariah said, pointing at Giovanni and me like she’d given me a second thought before last week. “Joy, you don’t look old enough to be with him. I mean, you’re cute, but like in an adorable-alien kinda way.”
Trina cackled behind me, reminding everyone of her existence and her rotten breath.
“Ooh. You should let me do your makeup,” Mariah continued. “I know exactly how to make your eyes look...not so weird.”
Kai nearly choked on Imani’s cookies when Mariah’s underhanded comment reached his ears.
“I think I’ll pass,” I said. “Giovanni likes my adorable-alien looks.” I smiled uncomfortably at him and gripped his hand firmly, trying to relieve the anxiety swelling in my chest. Giovanni was all about keeping the peace, even if it meant enduring Mariah’s taunts hyper-focused on me.
Kai chimed in. “She don’t look like no alien!” He freed himself from Imani’s clutches and glowered at her.
“You’re just sayin’ that ‘cause she’s literally the last girl you ain’t been with yet.” Mariah moved to the front end of the table and rested her elbows on the table, making sure to give Giovanni a more in-depth view of her charms.
Trina yanked a hair out of my head. I stood from the bench and faced her. “Touch me again. Go ahead,” I told her.
Trina held her hands up.“What? I didn’t do nothin’.”
“Can we please go outside?” I said to Giovanni again.
He frowned at Trina behind us and nodded. I lifted my bag off the floor and Giovanni followed suit.
“Where y’all goin’?” Mariah asked.
I ignored her, but Giovanni took it upon himself to explain.
“You and Trina are mean to Joy,” he said. “So, we are getting away from you.”
Kai dusted the cookie crumbs from his fingers and got to his feet in a huff. “Yeah. Me too. Boris, you comin’?”
Sleepy Boris dragged his bookbag-pillow from off the table and stretched his muscular body.
“You guys are right. I’m sorry,” Mariah said, moved by her imaginary conscience.
Her apology woke up Boris. His droopy eyes opened the rest of the way as they joined Kai’s, Imani’s, mine and Giovanni’s in examining Mariah for further signs of illness.
She stopped a foot away from Giovanni, restraining herself from touching him. “Think about what I told you. I’ll see ya ‘round.”
Mariah and Trina returned to their table.
“Remember what I said before...‘bout lookin’ out for Mariah?” Kai asked me with an eager Imani still adhered to his side.
I nodded.
“You’d better start now,” he said, warming his seat again.
My gut told me he was right.
“JOY, ARE YOU OKAY?” Giovanni asked on our stroll to the bus.
“I’m just thinkin’.”
“This is how you were this morning. What is it?”
I told him about my mom talking in her sleep and Dad’s phone call.
My hands hung wearily at my sides. “What if they are seeing each other? What if he has been clean all this time? If he is, why didn’t she say anything?” I knew the answer to that last one. No matter what she would have told me, I would have barricaded us inside our apartment with a wall of his unforgivable sins, refusing to believe it.
Mom was gullible. How could she know the truth when he’d say anything to get her back?
“He looked like a regular guy the other day,” Giovanni pointed out.
“Exactly! A regular guy who shot my dog.”
“But what if it was someone else?”
“Why? What motive could someone else have for targeting me?”
“What would be the motive for your father to do it?”
I gripped my owl pendant. “Why did he stab that person? Mom said there was a second shoe print at the scene. Oh my God! What if that was the guy who killed Storm? What if Dad stabbed him?”
I perused my phone for the news article to find out the name of Dad’s victim.
Giovanni guided me on-board the bus. After scanning our cards, we plopped onto an open two-seater toward the front.
I found no mention of a single detail except that Dad’s victim was a man. I blew out a breath and rested my head against Giovanni’s shoulder, trying to fit the clues together in my head like a puzzle.
We got off at the bus terminal and weaved around the people shopping or mesmerized by their phones.
I clicked my phone to check the time and incidentally snapped my picture. That was it. I grinned to myself as a solution revealed itself to me.
Traffic zipped by us on our wait for the light to change at the broad intersection. It was taking forever. Once my foot touched the curb on the other side, I tore off running and zigzagged around leisurely strollers.
“Joy. Wait!” Giovanni called out.
I had no intention of stopping. I needed to get home.
Before I knew it, his long legs carried him past me in a flash.
“That’s not fair!” I ran faster, determined to beat him.
Giving me a silly grin, he slowed his pace. We sprinted the length of the sidewalk, only pausing to catch our breath at the street crossings. I lost every time.
After hauling myself up the cement steps, I collapsed onto the top stair of the stoop outside of his house and rested my elbows on my knees. His key clinked in the lock.
“You told me...you don’t run,” he said between breaths.
“I just proved it, didn’t I?”
I hadn’t run like that outside of gym class since the day Storm died.
“It wasn’t a fair race.” I balanced myself on burning legs. “Your legs are like ten times longer than mine.”
Laughing at my pathetic argument, he shut the door behind me and hurried to disarm the alarm.
“I know what I can do to get the answers I need,” I said, leaning wearily against the door. “I’m gonna buy a spy cam. Maybe I can get one for school too.”
Giovanni wiped a bead of sweat gliding down his face. “Why do you need one for school?” he asked, motioning me to follow him to his room. He stomped up the stairs.
“You heard what Kai said, and you see how Mariah is with you. Knowing we’re together doesn’t matter to her. Who knows what crap she and Trina are gonna pull?” My legs strained to carry me over the final stair. “Plus, I need to spy on my mom when I’m not around.”
Giovanni frowned disapprovingly. “I do not think you should spy on your mother.”
“If she were a normal mother, I could understand why you’d say that,” I said. “But you don’t know her. She’s lied to me a million times before about my dad. I can’t trust her...And I need answers.” I leaned against the door frame and fanned myself with my hand. “Mind if I use your computer?”
Giovanni bobbed his head and crossed into his room to tap the button on the silver laptop. “Now we have fifteen seconds.” He nodded to the screen as it sparked to life. “Kiss me.”
Before I could speak, Giovanni grabbed my waist, pulled me toward him, and made every second count.
I held the hair off of my neck. “Can I get a washcloth? I’m burnin’ up.”
He ambled down the hall to fulfill my request.
Removing the polo shirt insulating the top half of my body and leaving behind my navy tank top, I laid it along the back of the chair and balanced on the cushy seat’s edge.
“Here—” His words tapered off.
I peered over my shoulder to make sure he was alright. The boy stood in the doorway, ogling me with a pink washcloth dangling in his hand.
I slipped past him, retrieving the rag from his clutches, and crossed the hall to the bathroom.
I dampened the cloth under the faucet and pressed it to my cheeks.
Giovanni, joining me in the room, encircled my waist. The humidity from his body steamed my back. “You are so perfect,” he mumbled, the heat of his breath trailing along my already-sweltering neck. The cloth fell into the sink with a splat as I cringed at his agitating compliment. I wrung the washcloth out.
If only he knew my secret, he would know the word perfect applied to me least of all. I was as defective as they came. But if he really loved me, he would blind himself to it the way Mom had done with Dad. That was real love, Mom said.
Giovanni unbuttoned his shirt, hung it on the back of the door, and took his place behind me again.
I swallowed, too scared to test the depths of his feelings for me by exposing my ugly scars to him. Casting my eyes to the washcloth again, I doubled it over and laid it on the sink’s edge. “I’m gonna go home. I can look up the cameras there. And I really need to shower.”
“Do not leave yet.” He stroked his face along my hair with closed eyes like a cuddling cat. “We did not spend much time together today. Please.”
I spun around to face him. “But I’m all sweaty and gross.”
Sweat pegged the white undershirt to his long, lean body. I tried not to stare. Taking my arms, he linked them around his waist and sniffed my neck.
“You smell so good,” he breathed against my skin, sending more heat through me.
“You are desperate, aren’t you?”
He kissed me anyway, proving me right.
I savored the softness of his lips until his hands, once cradled in the curve of my lower back, sneaked underneath my top. My eyes popped open. Moving away, I caught his roving hands.
“What is wrong?” he asked, feigning innocence.
I stared into his eyes for a long time and set him free. “I don’t like that.”
“Okay.” Putting his hands in mine, he said, “Where do you want them?”
An uncertain smile teased his lips, and I matched it as I placed his hands over my clothes again. Backing him against the door, I lost myself in his kisses.
He tore himself away too soon. I waited patiently for him to pick where he’d left off, and upon opening my eyes to see what the delay was, I found him standing there, smirking at my still puckered lips. I lowered my face from his view. “I think I’m gonna go.”
“Please stay. You can shower here.” He claimed my hands once more.
“I don’t have anything to change into.”
“You can wear my clothes,” he said excitedly.
I pried the door open and walked backward into his room across the hall, laughing. I pulled him along with me until I bumped the chair.
Giovanni brushed my cheek with the pads of his fingers. His mesmerizing eyes, like a silver medallion, pored over every inch of my face with longing. “Did I tell you how beautiful you are today?” He cupped my face in his hands and grazed my cheek with the tip of his nose.
I had every intention of leaving but somehow lost my sense of urgency. The boy knew exactly how irresistible he was. My lips welcomed him back, never wanting to let him go. He lifted me off the floor, holding me so tightly that if my lungs got crushed between us, I would’ve been too high to feel it. Giovanni couldn’t get close enough. His tongue joined the party, adding a whole array of colors to the fireworks exploding through my body.
“Gioia. You are here!” Mrs. Vitali said out of nowhere.
Giovanni dropped me to my feet and grinned sheepishly.
“You are leaving now?” Her eager smile slipped away. “I hoped you could stay for dinner,” she said, stepping deeper inside the room.
I rolled my lips inward and nodded awkwardly, still in recovery from the interruption I was secretly grateful for. Unfortunately, my brain failed to process her words, let alone form my own to answer. I held my arm and shifted nervously from one foot to the other.
“Gian! Your shirt. Where is it?”
Giovanni stuttered an explanation for our sweaty situation to his mother. I quickly pulled the damp polo over my head, resolved to leave.
“Will you stay for dinner?” Mrs. Vitali asked again.
“My mom should be off now, so I’ll ask. Thank you.”
Mrs. Vitali nodded contentedly and abandoned us for the kitchen.
Giovanni rifled through my bag in a frenzy.
“What are you doing?”
“I will call your mamma.” He shook my phone in the air. “You do not need to go.” His chin wrinkled a little while he spoke. Before I could question him about it, he dialed Mom’s number and put the call on speaker.
“Hey. I’m leaving work now. I need you to get dinner started. Selena’s running late, and I’ve still got some stops to make.”
Giovanni handed the phone to me to reply.
“Okay,” I said, shrugging apologetically at him.
The call ended.
“I thought you were gonna ask her.”
“She needs you,” he said.
“What? And you don’t?” I shook my head and started for the door when he threw himself in my way.
“I thought we would have more time together tonight.”
Taking his hand, I pressed a tender kiss to the back of it. “Then walk me to Selena’s.”
Giovanni’s chest heaved as a look of sudden distress swept over him. He twisted his hair and considered my proposal.
What was wrong with him?
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. Uh, I will meet you there.”
He kissed my lips once more and saw me off.