Page 15 of Falling for my Family's Rival

No one answers. I don’t know if it’s simply because no one knows, or because they’re scared of my father. Finally a dishwasher named Leo says, “There was some guy in here earlier doing it. I don’t know him, but he was wearing a uniform and a hat?”

My father’s face reddens again. He has every right to be angry, if this isn’t something that someone else had planned to do or have done. We do hire cleaning people pretty much every week. This isn’t that odd, but I understand that, in context right now, it feels like a much bigger deal. I am ready to put my hand on his arm again to calm him down, when there is a sudden yelp from the other side of the kitchen. We all turn to see flour flying everywhere, billowing out of the stand mixer.

I suck in a quick breath. This is not ideal. Just then Chiara comes running into the kitchen. I knew that her shift started a little bit ago, but I haven’t seen her yet. I’ve been too busy dealing with Dad and the chaos of the kitchen. She looks panicked, and all I can think is that this is whatever she has to say is not going to be good right now.

“Someone screwed up the books,” she says.

“What do you mean???” my father roars.

“We have too many reservations. There’s no way we can turn over tables fast enough,” Chiara says. “I kind of wish that I’d stayed at the hospital, picked up some over time,” she mumbles so Dad can’t hear, but I certainly do.

I shoot her a dirty look. Why does she always have to rub it in, that she has a life and career outside of Little Italy? Part of me wants to punch her, but of course, I won’t. I’m not really angry with Chiara. Mostly I’m just frustrated with my life circumstances.

“How can we have too many reservations?” I ask. “Jodie or I take them all down, and when I looked earlier, everything seemed fine. What am I missing?”

Chiara shrugs. “I don’t know, but the book now has reservations every fifteen minutes. And there are some pretty ticked off people out front.”

Before I can say anything to Chiara, our father pushes past us, heading for the front of the house. I wish my mother would pop up with some kind of explanation that would smooth everything over. I can’t remember what she’s supposed to be doing today and why she isn’t here. There is just too much going on at the moment.

“This has to be the doing of those creeps over at Venetian Dreams,” my father bellows to no one in particular.

He has to stop doing this. Customers definitely heard what he just said, even with all the noise in here. He’s making statements that I think could be considered libel. On top of that, his behavior is just straight up embarrassing. I can’t tell my family why I don’t want them accusing Luca’s family, but I know that I need to get him to stop, nonetheless.

“Pop,” I say, coming up to him. “Let’s go back to the office. We can figure it out there. Where’s Mom?”

My dad doesn’t even give me a passing glance. He’s so focused on getting to the hostess stand so he can look at the reservation book, that he’s ignoring everyone around him. The door to the restaurant opens, and Luca walks in. I’m surprised, but ecstatic to see him here. And yet, I know all too well that this is not the time for my father to catch sight of him, so I veer away and intercept Luca before he can get too far into the restaurant.

“Marissa, hi,” he says, obviously delighted to see me. I grab his elbow and all but drag him out of the restaurant before saying a word. When we get into the bright sunlight outside he is perplexed and asks, “What’s up?”

I know that I must look like a wreck, but I’m so happy to see Luca that I don’t care. Heaving a huge sigh, I reply, “Nothing good. Everything is going crazy inside. Just one of those days, I guess.”

Luca looks concerned, and tucks his hands into his pockets. He definitely doesn’t know what’s going on. He isn’t part of all this craziness. If he knew anything about his family being involved, if they even were involved, I would be able to see it on his face. I don’t see anything there except true sympathy. He works in a restaurant, too, after all, and I’m sure he knows what it feels like when nothing goes right in a day.

“Want to talk about it?” he asks.

“No, not now; but thanks,” I say. “This is a good breather. I needed the break, but I think that I’ll be able to finish my shift after this, after seeing you.”

“When do you get off?” Luca asks. “I was hoping you’d let me take you out tonight, on an actual date…?”

“Three,” I say. “And yes, please! That will give me something to look forward to.”

“I'll be here at three sharp,” Luca promises, smiling from ear to ear.

I bite my lip. “Pick me up at the library,” I say. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea for my family to see us together… not yet, anyway.”

Luca nods in understanding. “Library at three,” he repeats. Then he leans in close to my ear and whispers, “I can’t wait, Marissa.”

My heart flutters and butterflies are doing somersaults around my stomach. “Me either Luca,” I manage to say.

I watch, as he walks back to his car and drives away. I wait to go back into the restaurant, until he disappears from sight. Just seeing him for those few minutes, and knowing I get to see him in a few hours, suddenly revitalizes my spirit. I take another deep breath and head in to face the rest of my shift.

Eleven

LUCA

I’m thrilled that Marissa was obviously so eager to go out with me again when I asked her, and I’m not going to leave any part of this date unplanned. I have never felt so motivated to put planning into a date. Normally I’m a big go-with-the-flow kind of guy. But with Marissa, I want to make sure that everything goes perfectly and, most of all, that she feels special. She deserves magic in her life. I want to be the one to create that for her.

I’ve decided that we are going to have a picnic on the beach at the lake. That makes it easy to do all the things that I want to do with her. The lake is also arguably the best place in the whole area if you want to go on a romantic date.

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