Page 49 of Roberto

“As I was sitting there, I saw a woman sitting at a table at the far end of the room, smoking and having a drink all by herself.

“She wasn’t one of the girls who had come up to me earlier, and she wasn’t in the line-up, either. She was wearing lingerie, so she obviously worked there, but I hadn’t seen her before.

“She looked over at me and smiled shyly, then looked away.

“I was intrigued, so I walked over to her table and asked, ‘May I join you?’

“She smiled and said, ‘Yes,’ so I sat down.

“‘Roberto,’ I said as I shook her hand.

“‘Vittoria,’ she replied.

“She was older than the other women, who were all in their early to mid-20’s. Vittoria looked like she was 30, maybe older. She wasn’t quite as pretty as the others, but something about her drew me in.

“‘I didn’t see you before,’ I said.

“She smiled. ‘I know.’

“‘Why not? Were you with a customer?’

“‘No.’

“‘So why didn’t I see you?’

“‘I saw how uncomfortable all the other girls were making you. I didn’t want to be like them, so I hung back.’

“‘I wasn’t uncomfortable,’ I lied.

“She just smiled and said ‘Oh’ like she was agreeing with me.

“‘What makes you think I was uncomfortable?’ I asked.”

I added as an aside to Mei-ling, “Other than the fact I was souncomfortable that a blind man could have spotted it.”

Mei-ling smiled but stayed silent, waiting to hear the rest.

“I’ll never forget her response. She looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Whatever you’re looking for, the other girls didn’t have it, and you felt bad about telling them they didn’t interest you.’

“Which was a very charitable way of describing it – but it was true. The girls had all been very pretty, but I wasn’t attracted to any of them. Not to mention, I was under an enormous amount of pressure from Adriano. I felt like IHADto choose one of them, and I hated the entire situation.

“I asked Vittoria as though I was challenging her, ‘So whatamI looking for?’

“And she said, ‘I don’t know, exactly… but what I doknow is, for something to interest you, you have to go andtake it.’

“I didn’t fully understand what she meant at the time, but what she saidfeltright. All those women had come up to me,pressuringme to choose them… offering themselves up on a silver platter… and it made menotwant them. It was too easy. It was fake.

“I knew I wanted Vittoria…but I didn’t know why, exactly.

“She asked me, ‘Doyouknow what you want?’

“I sat there staring at her, wanting to say it out loud, but I was too shy. I was blushing so hard that my cheeks felt like they were on fire.

“She smiled at me and whispered, ‘You can say it.’

“And I blurted out, ‘I want to make you come.’”

Mei-ling reared back in surprise, then started laughing.

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