This neighborhood was a tiny blip in the city but it had been my whole life, my world. Even now I still live here.
I would probably die here too.
Crossing the street I motion to a little cafe, stepping inside as a young girl looks up at me from her phone. She’s a teenager, Rosa Fiore’s granddaughter who is staying with her for the summer.
I’m surprised when Ilaria pulls away from me, walking closer to the girl and smiling at her, trying to pull the teenager under whatever spell she had on people. But the girl looks at me like she was warned about who I am and therefore places the girl I’m with under the same sort of warning label.
“Can I please get an iced coffee and a cafe latte? Do you just want an espresso, Dante?” She says my name correctly this time and I’m surprised she knows what I want but I nod, reaching into my pocket to pull out cash but she’s tapping her phone against the register and I realize she paid for the coffee before I could and for some reason that infuriates me more.
I’m not going to chastise her in public. If I have something to say to her I’ll wait until it’s just the two of us. But the idea of a woman paying for me unsettles me and it’s a sign of disrespect but again I can’t think of a time in my life where anyone paid for me before.
She walks beside me as we cross the street, headed towards the harbor walk, which is close to where I live.
Ilaria shivers, it’s cool with the dark night and the wind off the Atlantic. Even as she sips her warm coffee and I notice that she had already sucked up her iced coffee.
Who even orders that much caffeine at one time?
She huddles within herself I can see the way her flesh turns to small pebbled bumps that I want to reach out and stroke to smooth over.
Shrugging off my jacket I step closer to her, wrapping it around her shoulders. Feeling her tense as we pause in front of a bench.
I guess this is as good as any time.
Reaching into the pocket I pull out the velvet box, flipping it open so she can see the ring inside. A big diamond with a halo band of smaller diamond stones.
It’s a statement to wear a ring like this and I need her to be a statement to the outside world
Her eyes widen as she looks at me as if she’s just realizing now we’re getting married.
“You should put it on.” I tug it out watching her hold her hands by her side, not making this any easier on me and just making me more annoyed with her, “Give me your hand so I can put your engagement ring on.” I command her softly but she shakes her head, that worried look on her face again, “And why not?” I ask.
“Because I can’t wear an engagement ring from you. Not…not when I have a boyfriend.”
I blink once, twice, three times as I try to make sense of what she is saying to me and yet it all sounds like the garble of the Charlie Brown school teacher.
Did she just say boyfriend?
My eyes are on her as if she is going to have the correct answer to have this make sense because right now all I can see is fury. The jealousy washing over me and making me confused by the possessiveness she brings out in me.
It’s not good for me to lose my cool but here I am smoldering from the information that my fiancée is seeing someone else.
Ilaria opens her mouth, an explanation starting to flow from her lips as her voice starts to show off that she is scared about telling me this.
“I’ve been seeing him for four months and things are getting more serious. We have been-”
“The only we is you and me, princess.”
I’m seeing red and trying to stay cool as I look at her.
She is going to get the worst of me tonight and it’s like we both are realizing I shouldn’t have been given any knowledge or this because this shouldn’t be happening right now.
Ilaria had to have known that her father was planning a marriage contract so the fact that she had someone she was dating while our fathers were planning made me even more upset.
It’s disrespectful.
“Did you fuck him?” her mouth opens in fear as if she can see my anger instead of just feeling it in the words. She’s an easy read though and the answer is no.
Good.
Usually, I’d call my cousin in the situation but something has me feeling feral about my bride-to-be. Maybe it’s the honor bound traditions that my family holds us all too. Maybe it’s just the beautiful woman with a smart mouth.
“C’mon, let’s go.” I’m grabbing her as I head to the garage across the street she parked in.
“Where are we going?” Her voice is so soft and I need to calm myself down because I might be scaring her and I don’t want her to fear me or think I’ll be violent towards her.
Her boyfriend is going to fear me but she will never have to.
Anger and violence twisting in a sort of slow dance around my mind as jealousy starts to melt in. It’s new and unpleasant. We may have just met but Ilaria is my fiancée and will be connected to me. She is not for another man.
Not now, not ever.
“To break up with your boyfriend.”
4ILARIA
The way Dante’s eyes flared with the flames of hell as he drove my car made me think twice before speaking.
