Page 48 of Overtime Goal
She pointed at a box on the counter. “Since it’s your first day, I brought breakfast. I can make cappuccinos for you. The machine here is good.”
I looked inside the box, and my stomach growled at the sight and smell of beautiful pastries. “This is nice of you, and a cappuccino sounds amazing. I’ll get my friend.”
Riley and I ate sfogliatellas and cornettos on the terrace and talked about our day.
“The beach looks beautiful,” I said. “Should we go down there for a while?”
He swallowed a bite of sfogliatella and yawned.
I pointed at his mouth. “Cream on your lips.”
“Shit.” He wiped it off with his napkin.
“Want more?” I raised my eyebrows. “Wouldn’t take me long.”
He blushed the color of the scarlet bougainvillea clinging to the trellis. “Maybe after she leaves,” he whispered, nodding toward the kitchen.
I made the okay sign with my fingers and winked. “It’s a plan.”
He tilted his head. “You’ll reciprocate?”
“You’d better believe it.”
“Then itisa plan.”
I finished my cappuccino and asked, “So… what about the beach?”
After swallowing another bite of his sfogliatella, he carefully wiped his lips. “I’d love to go down there. Then we could knock around for a while, get the lay of the land. We should also pick up a few groceries.”
“Good idea.” I pushed a brochure I’d found across the table. “They rent Vespas here. Want to sign up for one, maybe later this week? If we like it, we’ll have time to do it again.”
He nodded. “It looks fun as hell. And I want to rent a boat one day.”
“No problem, but let’s sign up for one of the boat tours first. Once we take a tour, we’ll be in better shape to explore the high seas on our own.”
For some reason, I’d used a pirate accent. Riley leaned back and laughed. “Who are you? Captain Kidd?”
“Yes, I like that,” I said. “You can be Calico Jack.”
Before he could answer, Giorgia appeared with two more cappuccinos. She set them in front of us and smiled at Riley. “You still look sleepy. Did you come from America yesterday?”
“Yes.” Riley sat up and turned on one of his megawatt smiles. “Will you be the one coming every day?”
Though it’s possible I imagined it, she blushed. “I am off on Mondays, but my sister comes instead. Maybe I could show you around one day. There is so much to see in Positano.”
“Maybe,” he said, glancing quickly at me, then back at her. “It could be fun.”
While she talked about the wonders of Positano, I got an uneasy feeling. They were about the same age, and she was pretty, with long dark hair, brown eyes, and tanned skin. In fact, she looked a lot like the woman in the restaurant the night before, and I had the definite impression she wanted to give Riley a private tour of herself. Worse, he looked like he might be interested.
Fuck, and we were just talking about giving each other blow jobs. Will it be like this every day? Will he ever come home at night?
Acid burned through my stomach while I waited for them to settle on a time. Riley liked women, something that wouldn’t change. A month in Italy meant plenty of chances for him to find someone, and inevitably, he would. I had no doubt he’d end up in her bed, no matter what he’d said last night.
However he felt about me, and whatever I was to him, couldn’t change his instincts. I’d known that from the start. Itwas time to accept it and put up some kind of wall to protect myself before it was too late.
To my surprise, when Giorgia left us alone, they hadn’t set up a date. Riley picked up his new cappuccino, still smiling.
I couldn’t help asking, “Is she hot?”
