Page 102 of La Dolce Vita

“Women? What about other women? Did they help you get through it?”

“I don’t remember,” he mumbled.

"Yes, you do."

He gave her a cheeky smile. "I was a drunk. And far crueler than I've ever been, that time, those two years were the worst and darkest moments of my life. I hated myself, and I hated the world. What I did, what I became, I have no excuse, Bella."

“I’m sorry love,” she said. “It was awful being away from you. I thought I would never see you again. But you came. And you forgave me. I remembered how sweet and cleansed I felt after forgiveness from you. I know people fear you, but your ability to be compassionate and forgiving is what makes me fall even deeper in love with you."

"I don't remember it the way you do,” he said and began to strum the guitar and play a song she wasn’t familiar with. “I was angry at myself. I was the reason you ran away, hid from the world, had our daughter alone with that... man."

"Kei?" she asked.

"Calderone," he said. "It all started with the Calderones. If Lorenzo and Giuseppe hadn’t tried to bring drugs into the triangle Fabiana would have never been killed, you wouldn’t have run for your life, Flavio wouldn’t be dead, Isabella wouldn’t be in our lives, I can go on and on...” he said.

“It started with Giuseppe Calderone?” Mirabella repeated. “I never really thought of it this way. I guess our lives are a chain of events; one action connects another reaction."

The guitar strap was brought from over his head and the instrument set aside. He crawled over to her. Mirabella drank down the last of the wine and licked her pouty lips. She tossed the glass into the basket. She was ready for him. He could see it in the teasing smile to her mouth, and the way she reclined on the pillows.

"It's time?" she asked in a playful voice.

He nodded. “It’s past time.”

He hovered over her, pushed up by her hands. He stared down at what was his. Yes, he slipped into darkness after he lost her. But he imagined most men would if they lost such a beautiful, loving woman.

“Dove sei stato per tutta la mia vita?--where have you been all my life?” he asked.

“Uhm, Apple Grove, New York, I spent some time in Los Angeles too,” she said.

He chuckled. She reached up and touched the side of his face.

“Finalmente ci siamo incontrati--finally we have met, Mirabella,” he said.

“Yes, we met, we fell in love, and we married and made more babies.Destino,” she said.

“I want to go back to that time. Before you knew the darkness in my life, before it came into yours. I want to go to the beginning. Visit New York, meet you in a café and ask for your phone number. I want to invite you to dinner and dancing. Then take you back to my suite. Make love to you, make you mine, and then start our life any way we choose.”

“Giovanni? Our life is perfect the way it is. And I would never erase our history.”

He blinked away the invisible tears he felt forming.

“Yes, there is pain,caro," she continued. "But that came and went. What stayed is this. It has been you and me, against the world. That’s what’s lasting.”

“Senza di te la mia vita non ha senso--without you my life has no meaning,” he said and brushed his lips over hers.

“Mine either,” she answered and lifted her arms up to his neck. She pulled him down on her. That sweet, almost too soft little murmur of surrender he loved to hear, escaped her after their first kiss. She had soft, pliable, succulent lips, and he savored the berry flavor of wine on her breath. The woodsy funk from the old relic of a wagon used to carry barrels of grapes and olives, mingled with the smell of grass, daffodils, and humid air bearing the first sheen of rain. None of it compared to the crisp floral beauty of his Bella's perfume.

Giovanni’s mouth lifted from hers. He’d never been loved so completely. The sundress she wore reminded him of a long stretch t-shirt, and he loved the way it clung to her hips, and defined the round sweet plump cheeks of her ass. He tugged on the material and pushed it up to her hips.

“Vuoi spogliarci--wanna get naked?” he breathed. He pressed his erection hard against the soft heat protected by the thin layer of her panties

“Out here? Are we alone?” she asked.

“We’re alone,” he said with the intent of stripping her bare. It would be nice to have her consent. He looked into her eyes and saw a hint of fear and excitement. His balls hardened and drew close to his groin.

“Okay. Let’s do it!” she grinned.

He lifted off her. He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it. He started to unbuckle his belt. Her gaze flickered lower to the wisps of chest hair that reached out of the top of the tee. She touched them lightly.

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