Page 108 of 7+Us Makes Nine

“Thank you so much for dinner,” my father said. “Everything was superb.”

“Glad you enjoyed it. Would you like to join me for a cigar?” Mr. Romano said.

“Sure.”

Together, he and my father left the table.

“Let me help you clean up a bit,” my mother offered to Mrs. Romano.

“Thank you so much,” she replied. And within seconds, my mother disappeared with her, carrying dishes to the kitchen and leaving me alone with Giovanni once more.

“Did you enjoy dinner?”

“I tried to,” I said, not bothering to look at him.

He stood from the table and extended his hand to me. “Come on.”

“What?”

“Let’s take a walk.” When I didn’t respond, he leaned down toward me. “Our parents are going to get suspicious if they don’t see us at least trying to get along, you know that, right? And we really do need to get along, don’t you think?”

With a sigh, I stood from the table. “Fine.”

I followed Gio as he led me toward the front door of the house. We passed by our fathers, who smiled and waved at us on the way out.

The evening had turned chilly, but it was lovely nonetheless. Bright stars sparkled overhead.

“Beautiful night, isn’t it?” Gio said. Once again, he reached for my hand, wanting to help me down the stairs, but I ignored him and descended the stairs on my own.

“I guess,” I said.

We walked across the yard and set off down a path along the sidewalk. I shivered slightly in the breeze.

“Are you cold?” he asked. He began unbuttoning his blazer, presumably to offer to me.

“No, I’m fine,” I said, not wanting his chivalry.

His hand brushed mine as he attempted to hold it again, but I snatched it away.

“Look,” I said, coming to a halt, “we may be forced to get married, but that doesn’t mean anything, got it?”

Gio stopped and looked back at me. He tilted his head. “What do you mean it doesn’t mean anything?”

“I mean that on paper, we’ll be married, but we’ll never actually be a thing.”

“Arianna, what did I do? I mean—we had a good time last night, but today, you hate me, and I don’t understand why.”

“The fact that you don’t know why is precisely the problem.”

CHAPTER 11

Giovanni

I knew I was in over my head, but I had no idea how to tell my family.

The not-so-romantic walk Arianna and I had taken after dinner hadn’t ended well. She made it abundantly clear that she wasn’t happy with our pre-arranged nuptial, and she already had no intentions of honoring our union as a real marriage. All because of something I did.

Ironically, before finding out she was my future bride-to-be, I had shared similar sentiments. But after seeing her response, I was beginning to have a change of heart. I wanted to give this thing an actual shot, and it was driving me crazy that she wasn’t willing to do the same.

---