Page 32 of Suddenly Single
“Is something wrong?” Jenny asked as he dabbed at his eyes.“Are you all right?”
“Si, si,” he said, dragging a finger beneath one eye.But then, just as quickly he said, “No!How can I be all right when my heart has broken?” He suddenly surged forward and buried his face in his hands.
“Oh,” Jenny said, wincing a little.“Can I help?”
“No. Everything is wrong,” he moaned. “Elizabetta, she is through with me.” He sat up and rubbed his eyes. “She’s thrown me aside like garbage,” he said.“I’ve made mistakes, many mistakes, I admit it freely.Yet I love her, and I am paralyzed by the thought of losing her.” He suddenly twisted about, and grabbed Jenny’s hand.“Have you ever lost someone you cared for very deeply?”
“Si,” Jenny said, nodding.“Not a lover, but you know, Grandma—”
“There is nothing more painful than this loss,” he said, tapping his chest with his fist. “It eats at me every day likecancer.That is why I’ve come here, Jenny Turner—”
“Actually, you can just call me Jenny—”
“Because I cannot bear to see Elizabetta and know that she hates me.I’ve come here, to the place I know so well, to put her out of my mind,” he said, shaking his fist at his head.“And yet, I can’t stop thinking of her. I can’t stop loving her because she demands it.”
He suddenly slumped against the back of the bench.“It’s hopeless.I’m ruined.I will never recover.I will never love again.”
Not likely.“So…” Jenny said, enjoying his performance.“May I ask what happened?”
“Oh,” he said, flicking his wrist.“Nothing to cause such heartache.” He shifted his gaze away from her.
“Well, something must have happened,” she prodded.A movement caught her eye, and she looked up—Edan had appeared on the drive with a bucket in hand.He slowed his step when he saw the two of them there.
Lorenzo didn’t notice Edan at all.He was too busy holding court. “I love her too much, what more can I say?”
“You can say what you did,” Jenny suggested, and waved at Edan.She got a lift of his chin in return.At least he didn’t hightail it into the entry hall and lock the door.
Lorenzo sniffed.He picked a piece of imaginary lint from his trousers.“It was not so big,” he said. “I kissed another woman in the heat of the moment.That is all.”
“Wow,”Jenny said, momentarily distracted from Edan.
“It was not my fault!” he insisted.“She kissedme,and yet no one will believe it.”
“Oh, I believe it,” Jenny muttered as she watched Edan walk on and disappear around the corner.“But it’s not like she attacked you and pinned you down when you were holding a sponge and forced herself on you... was it?”
Lorenzo sighed.“You women, you are all alike,” he said gruffly.“So easily offended, no? Very well, I made a mistake.But Idiewith this mistake.I would do anything to have my Elizabetta back.In qualche modo!I would gouge out my eyes—”
“That’s a little much,” Jenny said.
“I would not joke about such a thing.What else can I do?”
“Well, I’m no expert,” Jenny said, settling back, preparing to be an expert.“But I would start with aheartfeltapology.You probably said something like, ‘I’m sorry.’”
“Yes, of course, this is what I said,” he insisted, his hand stabbing the air with each word.“I am sorry, Elizabetta.But her friends, they talk in her ear,” he said, making a gesture of chattering.“They turn her against me.”
“Mmm,” Jenny said.
“Mmm? What does this mean,mmm?”
“It means that wasn’t enough.You said you were sorry, and she told her friends, and they were all like, girl, you’ve got to be kidding.I think you should send her an insanely expensive bouquet of flowers if you haven’t already.Maybe you could write her a letter explaining what she means to you.Not a text—an actual letter.And you should tell her why you made such a totally boneheaded mistake.”
Lorenzo glanced curiously at her.
“Stupidomistake,” she clarified for him.“You need to grovel.”
“Ah.” He tilted his head to one side, considering what she’d said. “Do you think this can work?”
“I have no idea,” Jenny admitted. “I obviously don’t know your girlfriend.But I know a little about women and I know it can’t hurt.”
