*Lucia*
Hands entwined, Bruno and I walked down the stairs. Bruno had kissed me in public right after tying the rope as if to seal the fact that we would be together forever. I felt the butterfly in my stomach jungle around at the thought of his lips on mine. I bit my lower lips as I walked behind him.
“Where are we going?” I asked when I noticed we weren’t walking in the direction of our car. He didn’t turn but kept on walking. “I think we should spend a little more time before heading back,” he says. The city was bursting. Aside from the stars which spread like blankets on the sky, the City was illuminated by lights, some from cars, others leaking from the tall building on each side and some on the street poles.
Beautiful.
That was all I could say. I walked beside Bruno, trying to keep up the pace with him. Seeing that I was struggling to keep up his pace, he slowed down. I smiled at his action. When was the last time we went out together like this to enjoy ourselves? I couldn’t remember if it had been one business after the other, but here we were, like every normal person on the street, walking hand in hand.
I still don’t know where we were going, but I was sure Bruno would not disappoint. “You could have just said you wanted to take a walk around the city,” I said, stopping and removing my hands from his hold reluctantly to tie my shoelace. Standing up straight, I looked into his eyes waiting for his response.
Two girls passed us.
I noticed the way they nudged each other when they saw Bruno. There was no doubt Bruno was an extremely handsome man. The shirt he put on perfectly accentuated his abs. They giggled as they walked past, turning back to look at him from time to time.
I felt like gagging their eyes. Why are we still walking? I suddenly began to wonder, trying to hide my displeasure at the girls who were still in their high school uniform, “Are you going to keep ignoring me?” I asked Bruno.
“I wasn’t ignoring you,” he said, extending his hands for me to hold but I shrugged my shoulders before walking past him not bothering to take his hands. “What now?” He asked, walking behind me. “nothing, where are we going? Or is this just a walk?” I stopped to ask, looking at him from under my lashes. Somehow, I was a little excited about wherever we were going.
“Just come along with me. Wherever we are going shouldn’t matter as long as you have me by your side,” he said, wrapping one hand around me and pulling me to his side. I felt his warmth as he pushed me into his body. I noticed some of the people had their eyes on us. My cheeks warmed up, but I made no attempt to move away; I wanted to enjoy the warmth from his body and inhale the nice, sweet smell of his. I wonder what cologne he used to have such a nice smell.
We resumed walking.
I was beside him.
We crossed over to the other side of the road. It looked less busier than the first. I began wondering while we didn’t use the car if we were going to walk this far off from the car.
“Can you tell me where we are going now?” I asked him.
“We are already here,” he said, pointing to a restaurant where a young man had just stepped out. There was a big sign at the top of the building. “Home Meal” was the inscription on it, and it tingled with light all around it. It didn’t seem like those fancy restaurants Bruno had taken me to in the past. Though we were a few feet away from it, I could tell that this was a local restaurant.
Don’t get me wrong.
It wasn’t local in a bad way. This type of local is what you feel when you stand in front of a house which isn’t yours or has any of your family members, but you can still feel the air of being welcome from miles away.
I felt Bruno’s eyes on me and turned to him. “Let’s have dinner here for the night,” he said. I smiled at him, nodding vigorously. We’d have dinner wherever he wanted. I was fine with that. We stayed towards the restaurant. It has a small door at the entrance, which could fit in not more than three at a time.
A bell attached to the door jingled as we entered, informing the owners of the arrival of a new couple.
Bruno looked extra familiar with this place. My eyes swept across the small restaurant. There were chairs placed around a round table. Two of them were empty, while the rest were filled. For a small restaurant like this, they sure had a lot of customers.
Bruno led me to one of the empty tables which was closest to the wall. I was sure that with the way we were seated facing the others with our back, no one would recognise us. Who would have thought that the greatest and most feared Mafia Lord could be this normal? If not for the tattoo peeping off of his shirt, one could swear that though he was thick and had those muscles pudding out of his shirt, he was an innocent man.
One of the waiters in the restaurant walked up to us. Bruno ordered. I wasn’t familiar with the meals, so I let him order for me, too. “How do you like this place?” He asked with a small but genuine smile on his lips.
I leaned back into the chair, turning around to take one quick look around, “all I can say is that you, my man, are full of surprises,” I said.
“And I couldn’t agree any less,” he said. “Hope you like it here?” He asked. “yes. It’s small, but feels different,” I said, tucking a loose strand of my hair behind my ear. “Do you frequently eat here?” I asked him.
The waiter returned with a tray with two bowls of soup and placed it on the table. Bruno waited for her to finish placing it on the table before ordering a bottle of wine and two glass cups. When the waiter left, he said, “Not really,” he paused as if he wanted to say more but was holding himself back.
Why?
I didn’t push him to keep speaking. If he wanted to go on, he should. If he didn’t, then it was also fine. I was sure he would tell me about it someday. The waiter returned with a bottle of wine and placed it on the table. I muttered a little thank you as she left. “Wow, the food looks nice,” I said. And it was true; I inhaled the scent of the soup sharply, then raised my eyes to see Bruno, who was preparing to take a spoon of his soup.
“Trust me, it tastes better than it smells,” he says, looking into my eyes before moving it to settle on his soup. I wasted no time in taking a spoon from the soup. This was nice, no, that wasn’t the best word to describe it.
“I’m taking a pack home,” I declared.
Bruno smiled. He seemed satisfied that I was enjoying the food. I mean, who wouldn’t?
“This was my mother’s favorite soup,” he said, taking a spoon. I pause, holding my spoon tightly at the mention of his mom. He didn’t like talking about himself or his family. The only thing he has ever told me was that his mother used only fresh veggies that she grew herself. So he grew up eating only food made with fresh veggies.
I didn’t know what to say.
Bruno didn’t say anything afterwards. He just bent his head a little and kept taking sip after sip. Though soft music resounded from the speaker, everywhere suddenly became quiet. And the silence was deafening.
I wanted him to open up to me.
I wanted him to talk about his mother. I knew he was aware that I had stopped eating and was watching him, but he didn’t show it. He just kept taking spoon after spoon, sip after sip, until he was done with his.
“You don’t want to eat anymore?” He asked me. He wiped his lips with the napkin provided by the restaurant. Without another word, I bent down and drank my soup.
He didn’t say anything else about his mom. We just spoke about other things. The decor in the restaurant and how it was different from any other restaurant I’ve been to before, how we should always visit this place, and how I would like to make such nice soup at home for him. He had kissed me again, and though it was brief, I was taken over by it and wished I had deepened it when we parted ways.
I excused myself to go use the bathroom.
If there was another thing I liked about this restaurant aside from its sweet food and nice staff was the cleanliness. It warms my heart to see a place so clean with no speck of dirt anywhere. I know the restaurant was always clean but there was something different about this one, and as I washed my hands after using one of the cubicles, I sang in my mind.
My day was almost ruined by Jason’s sudden appearance, but Bruno had made me have the best night I’ve had since forever. My relationship with him was sealed, and he has started to open up to me. What more do I need?
I looked at myself once more in the mirror before stepping out. I had barely taken two steps when I felt someone grab my hands from behind and the next minute, I was pulled out of the restaurant through a back door. I was ready to fight. But a voice stopped me.
“Lucia, what are you doing here,” what? Jason?
He released my hands. I rubbed the place he had gripped me tightly. I turned to face him. What was I doing here? I should be the one asking him that. “What are you doing here?” I threw his question back at him. My eyes moved to his shadow, which was seen on the wall behind him.
“Who is that man? Why are you here with him? And why the hell did he kiss you, and you didn’t try to turn away or avoid it?” He asked all at once.
I scoffed.
“Are we friends? Why do you think I should answer you?” I raised a brow as I asked him. I didn’t have much time. The last thing I wanted was Bruno seeing me standing here with someone else when I had told him I was going to use the bathroom.
“I am your boyfriend,” he declared.
“I see somebody is still delusional.” I spat. “I don’t know what you want or why you keep showing up in my life, but I hope this will be the last time. There is nothing between us anymore, and we both know there can never be any,” I said.
“I am not giving up on you. I know Sarah hurt you, but I’ve done nothing wrong. All I ever did was love you, Lucia. All I ever did was treat you right and ensure you were safe,” he said. “We were perfect together,” He took a step forward, and I took one back.
“All good things must also come to an end. I’m not changing my mind about you. Please don’t appear in front of me anymore. If you do, I don’t know what I’ll do,” I threatened.
He muttered something under his breath before turning and leaving.
Sigh.
I am happy with Bruno now. I don’t care if he had anything to do with whatever Sarah did, or not. We were over.
I looked in the direction he walked out from one last time before turning back to walk away. I froze immediately I turned. My eyes widened, and my body tensed.
When did Bruno arrive?