Page 7 of Beguiled and Broken

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Walking into the restaurant always felt good. It was always busy and full of happy customers. Even after three years of owning it, I still get a rush of excitement from being there. At the time, it was like an oasis away from the sadness at home.

When you walk inside the pizzeria, you’re greeted with a bunch of square tables draped in red and white checkered tablecloths. If you walk straight, there’s a little path leading to the pickup counter. Booths looking out big picture windows line the right side, divided by half walls with stained glass and ivy all over them. Bianca added those touches. Over the speakers, you can hear Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Andrea Bocelli, and Massimo Ranieri to name a few. We always have a good playlist going and when you mix that with the aroma of pizza as soon as you walk in, it just feels like home.

I had gone to the back of the restaurant to look for Catarina, one of our waitresses. We only had four in total, but it worked because it allowed them multiple days off if needed, without us being short staffed.

“Catarina!” I yelled, hoping she would poke her head out of one of the back rooms.

Then, I hear her holler, “Vinny, in here!” from the kitchen. When I walked in, she was reaching for something up high and standing on top of a bucket. The bucket started to teeter back and forth as she reached further.

“Hey Cat, what are you doing? You’re gonna fall, yeah.”

“No, I’ve almost got it.” That’s when the bucket shifted, and she was on the tip of her toes with zero balance. She screamed so I ran to her before she could fall and hurt herself. She landed in my arms.

I asked, “Hey! Are you ok? Does anything hurt?”

She was like a dear caught in the headlights. Her eyes just stared at me. I’m not sure why, but in that moment, it felt wrong. I remember when I hired Catarina, something felt different about her. It felt like I knew her already, but I hadn’t. That moment, her staring at me had brought that feeling back and I was uncomfortable. Catarina is small in all ways. She was the same age as Bianca, but she looked a lot younger because she’s petite.

I set her down and said, “I’m going to let you down so you can sit here and take a breather,” but before I could think, she was leaping back into my arms, throwing her arms around my neck. I thought,What the fuck is this?I didn’t hug her back. I just sort of froze.

“Oh Vinny! Thank you so much. You saved my life. How will I ever repay you? I’ll repay you somehow. Anything you want.”

“Hey, hey. It’s ok. You’re not hurt. That’s what’s important.” I patted her on the back, hoping she’d let go but she didn’t. “Catarina…” I cleared my throat.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I just wanted to say thank you. Truly. I owe you. Anytime you ever need anything.” Then she just stared at me.

I cleared my throat again and stood up. “Listen, no more climbing up on buckets. I’ll buy us a ladder if we need it, but I think we have one already somewhere. I’ll find it. What was it that you needed me to come here for?” She was quiet for a long while. “Catarina? What do you need?”

“I…um…well, I feel awful about it now. I owe you. I don’t want to tell you now.” She looked down at the floor.

“Hey, it’s fine. You don’t owe me anything. What do you need?”

“Well, I just wanted to give you a heads up that I may be leaving.”

I was shocked because she seemed to like the place and was a good waitress. “Leaving? Why? Where?”

“Well, you know, I’ve been working on my degree, and I’m almost finished. But I want to go into being a nanny full time. Full service, ya know? Like I want to live-in, take care of the house, tasks, all that.”

“Wow. Ok, I don’t know what to say. How long before you think you’ll leave? I had no idea you wanted to do that kind of thing.”

“I don’t know really. I’m going to start looking and we will just see what happens. It could be a month or a year. I really don’t know. Thank you for this job, though. You didn’t know me at all when you gave it to me. Which just further proves what an amazing man you are. You really are, Vinny. You’re incredible.”

“Oh, enough of that. It’s nothin’.” I waved my hand at her. If it was nothing, why had it made me blush. I felt like some school aged kid, but I wasn’t. “Well, listen, if you need a reference or somethin’, just let us know.”

She sounded annoyed and said, “Us? What do you mean? I work for you.”

“I just mean Bianca and me. Either one of us can give you a reference.”

“Oh. That’s ok. I would rather it just come from you. You’re the one that knows me better anyway, right?” Had she been flirting? She took a step closer and then looked up at me.

Yup, she was flirting, and I felt weird. I didn’t want to make an even bigger deal out of it, so I just said, “Yeah, sure. Ok. Well, just keepusposted, ok. I need to head home now. Bianca wasn’t happy I had to come in here again.” I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t need to say that, and she didn’t need to know that.

“Don’t let me keep you. But I appreciate you coming. You really do look out for me, and I’m always grateful you’re there when I need you. Thank you, Vinny.”

I nodded, turned, and left. I was going home to my wife.

Chapter 6

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