Page 93 of Two for Charging

The food arrived before the discussion could continue. Luca had rarely eaten more tense tagliatelle al salmone, including at his nonna’s seventieth birthday lunch, when she revealed to the whole table and her startled husband that she knew about his affair and had all along.

He should introduce her to Chris. They would get along.

At the end of the meal, Chris asked for the check, and no one tried to stop him. In fact, his parents had hardly said a word in twenty minutes.

After he paid, Chris hugged them both. “I’m sorry,” he said. For a moment, Luca was afraid he would take it all back and bow down to their pressure again. Instead, he said, “I know I threw a lot at you tonight. But I realized I haven’t been happy with the way things have been, and I had to do something about it. Call me if you want to talk?”

His mother softened. “Of course, baby.”

While their parents brought the car around, Matty gave Chris an extra-long hug. “You did good, bro.”

“Thanks.” Chris sagged against him. “You don’t think they’re mad at me?”

“I think you deserve to be mad at them. And hey, uh. You were right.”

Chris pulled away to look at him quizzically. “You never say that.”

Matty smiled down at the ground. “I’m going to have to start. I, uh, I called Tabitha.”

A wide smile broke out on Chris’s face. “Aw, yay!”

“Yeah, we’re meeting up over winter break.”

“Good. She misses you.”

Matty laughed. “Way to ruin the suspense. There was going to be a tearful dramatic reunion and everything.”

Chris ruffled his hair, though he tried to duck away from it. “Love doesn’t need to be dramatic.”

“As long as there’s a happy end,” Matty agreed.

The car pulled up, and Matty got in. Chris waved goodbye, and he and Luca waited until they were out of sight.

Chris let out a long breath.

“How are you feeling?” Luca asked.

“I don’t even know what I’m feeling, let alone how.”

“Would you rather go to the hotel? We do not have to—”

“No way,” Chris said. “We have some time left before curfew. And I’ve been looking forward to spending time with you all day. It got me through saying those things to my parents.”

Luca’s stupid heart pounded just for him again.

“Okay, well. Not an easy task, planning a fun thing to do in town for a Montreal native. But I did my best.” He’d done his best to find as unromantic an activity as he could. No boat rides, no restaurants, no arnica gel massages. Outdoors, fresh air, meaning Luca couldn’t smell Chris’s pomegranate deodorant, and in the relative dark, meaning he couldn’t ogle Chris in his suit.

Luca was going to salvage this friendship if it killed him.

They caught an Uber to the botanical gardens. When he heard the destination, Chris bounced in his seat with excitement.

“Oh, I’ve never been there! Cool!”

“We got very lucky,” Luca explained. “They’re doing a special evening opening for the holiday today. Usually, they don’t stay open past dark after October.”

“The holiday?” Chris asked, then smacked himself on the forehead. “It’s Remembrance Day! How could I forget!”

“We live in the US,” Luca pointed out. He hadn’t known Remembrance Day existed until thirty minutes before the game started.