Page 94 of The Great Dating Fake Off
“You’re welcome. I’m glad those oats weren’t milked in vain.”
Her laugh is like that first plunge in the lake on a searing hot day. For a second, we’re back there in the cool water, our bodies a breath apart as we tread water. “We wouldn’t want that.”
The only sound between us is the hum of the store patrons as I take a sip, watching her over the rim of my cup. After two weeks of thinking about her nonstop, it’s hard to stand here and act casual.
And if there’s one thing I learned at the wedding, it’s that I’m terrible at faking shit.
She watches back, her chest gently rising and falling. “How’s Enzo feeling?”
I pause with my drink halfway to my mouth. “He’s not responding to me or Alessia beyond one-word answers to let us know he’s alive. So, not well, I’d say.”
Her eyes flicker with something I don’t recognize. “That’s terrible.”
“Yes. Big time. Rosalina hasn’t been staying at their house. What’s that look for?”
She peers sideways, flashing her delicate profile. “Gia was here two days ago. Ro is miserable, too. I’ve just been trying to figure out what I can do to help. I am going to visit her at her work soon, at Adventureland.” Hope paints her eyes a pretty shade. “It helps to know Enzo is upset, too. I feel terrible for him, but I’m glad to know there’s still a chance he wants to be with her.”
“Yeah, he’s struggling. Alessia says he’d rather not stay with any of us becausehe doesn’t like people fussing over him. So instead, he’s just hiding away. She says leave him alone and let him cope the way he needs to, but I disagree.”
“Their friends and family don’t want to push them.” She pinches her mouth shut for a second. “But their family is the problem, which means they are too close to the issue to help. There’s a lot of weird, ancient hurt there. But we can’t just do nothing. Enzo and Ro were going to get married. That love doesn’t just go away.”
Relief and determination band together inside me, twining through my limbs. “I completely agree. There’s got to be something we can do to fix this.”
She cranes her head to look past me. “Shoot. I’ve got to take care of the register. Give me a sec.”
“Take your time.”
I take a seat in the café to wait for her, but when a group of women swarms the place for a weekly book club meeting, I’m back on my feet to give them room to sit. The store grows even busier when a young family with four kids comes barreling in.
Perhaps this wasn’t the best time to try and talk to Miss Manager.
She greets the book club with a promise to come back and chat in a few and continues ringing people up on the register. The crystal blue skies must’ve inspired a lot of people to flood downtown Great River, because the store is swamped.
I slide out the front door.
Only because she’s busy now, and because we do need to talk more about Enzo and Ro, do I consider inviting Nora to hang out.
Specifically, at a place where there will be zero chance we’ll be left unsupervised for even a second.
Poker night.
She and I will work together to get Ro and Enzo back on track again, not just to appease the guilt inside me, but because it’s the right thing to do.
Really, I have no choice. Not even Alessia believes an Enzo intervention is the best idea at this point, but Nora does.
I find our text thread and type out a message.
Any chance you’re free on Friday?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sebastian
“Get up and change, Z.” Alessia tosses jeans and a clean shirt on Enzo’s horizontal form. “When one twin looks bad, it brings down our combined average.”
Enzo glares at her from his couch. His dark hair is disheveled, and his gray sweatpants are torn.He reaches forward for a glass of wine, which sits on his coffee table next to the entire box of Barefoot Merlot and an untouched deli sandwich.
The Italian equivalent of a cry for help.
