Page 76 of Two Chances With You

“It’s more than one surprise.”

“So, tell me what it is.”

“No, I can’t. Then it wouldn’t be a surprise anymore.”

I park and get out of the car. A valet parking attendant comes running toward me with his hand already extended. I grab it immediately and clasp it vigorously. “Ciao, buddy.”

He laughs. “That’ll be two euros.”

“No problem. But I’ll pay when I get back.” I shake hands, and I kind of overdo it with my grip. “That way I can rest assured it will be in perfect condition, right? I’ll pay when the service is complete.”

He looks at me, worry painted on his face.

“So keep an eye on it for me, I don’t want to find any scratches when I get back. Is that clear?”

“But, after midnight I’m going to be…”

“We’ll be back before midnight.” And I walk away.

“Then I’ll wait for you, all right?”

I say nothing and look at Gin.

“Your brother really cares about this car, doesn’t he?”

“He’s a maniac about it. Right now he’s in a state of despair because he’s convinced that I stole it from him.”

“It’s not like the police are going to pull us over and then we’ll wind up in jail, is it?”

“He gave me the night to get it back to him.”

“And then?”

“And then he’ll lodge the criminal complaint. But don’t worry, I’ve already found it for him, right?”

Gin laughs and shakes her head. “Your poor brother, I can just imagine what you’ve put him through.”

“Actually, he may not know it, but I’ve saved him from plenty of bad situations, all our lives together.”

I think about my mother for a moment. I feel like telling her…But this isourevening together, hers and mine. And no one else’s.

“What are you thinking about?”

“That I’m hungry. Come on!”

And I grab her hand and drag her away. We go to Angel’s for an aperitif, a chilled Martini for both of us, shaken not stirred, the way James Bond liked it, and it’s a dream on an empty stomach.

Gin laughs and tells me stories. Stories from her past, girlfriends from her childhood, and Ele and how they met and the quarrels and jealousies of her good friend. And then I take her by the hand, and I say so long to a guy with an earring who seems to know me, and I take her into the restroom.

“Hey, what do you think you’re up to? This hardly seems the kind of thing.”

“No, listen, don’t worry.” I hand her a twenty-cent piece or maybe it’s a fifty-cent piece or maybe a one-euro coin, maybe a two-euro coin, I don’t even see them. I put them in her hand. I think about the parking attendant. About when I’ll get back there and I’ll have to tell him I’ve run out of coins. “This is the wishing well. You see all the coins at the bottom?”

Gin peers into a sort of well in that restroom decorated with potted plants and colorful carpets, in red and purple and orange. “Okay. Did you make your wish?” She smiles before turning from the well and tosses in the coin I gave her with a wish that’s all hers. It lands at the bottom of the well in the hopes that wish will come true.

I follow suit immediately afterward, and I toss my own coin over my shoulder. And down it drops with great aplomb, vanishing into the water, sinking in a strange zigzag pattern and then settling on the bottom amid a thousand other dreams and a few wishes that may even have come true, to some extent.

We leave in silence while a guy hurries in the door, practically slamming into us as he unzips his trousers, but then at the last minute, he changes his mind and lurches over to the sink and vomits into it. We look at each other and burst out laughing, disgusted and shuddering. We shut the door behind us and get out of there.

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