Page 95 of Mafiosa
Well, technically I was.
But it was a special one.
I thought about just covering my face and rolling off the roof, but it was my stupid idea in the first place, so I figured I may as well just explain myself and get the mortification over with.
‘It’s not just a rock,’ I said to the side of his face. ‘It’s more than that, I swear. See, it’s a—’
‘It’s a Sikhote-Alin meteorite,’ he said, looking up at me.
‘Yeah. It is…’ I said, surprised.
He looked back at the rock in his hand. ‘It’s from a meteor crash site in Siberia in 1947. Is that what you were going to say?’ He was looking at me again, and he was wearing the strangest expression on his face. I had never seen it before.
It was… wonder.
I smiled sheepishly at him. ‘I was actually just going to say it’s a fallen star.’
He held it between us, passing his thumb over the small ridges. ‘These are coarsest octahedrites,’ he murmured. ‘Part of the surfaces of these meteorites were blasted off while they passed through the atmosphere on the way to Earth. That’s why it’s not smooth. See.’ He placed my thumb under his, so I could feel it.
‘Do you, um, do you already have one?’
‘No,’ he said quietly. That look, still on his face. His eyes seemed bigger, his mouth fuller, his breathing quicker. ‘I don’t.’
‘Good,’ I said, relieved. ‘Because I had to outbid an old lady from Kansas for it, and it got right down to the wire, but I’ll be damned if I was going to let her play the age card on me. Like, what? I’m just going to let her steal it out from under me when—’
‘I love it,’ he said, cutting me off. ‘I love that you went head-to-head with some sweet old lady and won. And I love that you have absolutely no remorse about it. I can’t believe you did this for me.’
I moved a little closer. ‘Why is that so hard to believe?’
He shook his head, his smile small and sad. ‘Because I don’t deserve it.’
‘Yes, you do,’ I said, willing him to look at me, but he was already disengaging, reaching into his jacket pocket.
‘I have something for you, too, Sophie.’ He pulled out a small box.
I took it from him, and held it in front of my face. ‘OK, this looks a little small to be a unicorn, Luca.’
‘Maybe I was just trying to throw you off the scent,’ he said, leaning closer as I opened it.
It was a bracelet, delicate and silver, with a single, heart-shaped charm. I read the words engraved on it.‘Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, “It will be happier.”’
‘It’s a quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson,’ he explained.
‘It’s beautiful.’ I slipped it on to my wrist, trailing my finger around the heart-shaped charm. ‘I love it, Luca.’
I wanted to say the rest:I love you.But the moment was so fragile and precious, I was afraid I might shatter it.
‘It’s about possibility,’ he said quietly. ‘All the possibilityin your life.’
‘Inour lives,’ I amended.
He didn’t say anything. I could feel the weight of everything pressing down on us, the sadness at the edges ready to swoop in and take him away from me.
He took my hand, and wound my fingers in his. ‘Sophie,’ he said, his voice calling to the space inside my heart. It beat faster as I looked at him. ‘Please don’t come tomorrow. Please stay here, where it’s safe.’
‘Don’t,’ I breathed. ‘Please let’s not talk about tomorrow.’
He laid his forehead against mine. ‘I am begging you.’
