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Piazza Bella - Aperitivo: I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII
Piazza Bella - Antipasto: I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X
Hi reader,
I wanted to start with a prologue linking Antipasto with Primi. I plan to publish twice a week, most likely starting next Wednesday with Chapter One.
I have a short newsletter at the bottom.
What did I do?
Oh my god, no.
At first, he looked joyful, and then he smiled ironically, but that wisp of a grin faded quickly as our reality sunk in. He looked sadly at me, shaking his head amid the laughter and joy of a jubilant crowd that encircled us.
The flowers in his hand slipped to the floor, and my heart sank when I realized what I had done and with whom.
Liam saw our kiss as plain as day, and there was no denying the passion of that moment. I slowly unwrapped my arms from around Salvatore’s waist, staring down at the floor, feeling ashamed. My moment of madness gripped me, grinning gleefully, believing his prize was won.
Salvatore hadn’t seen Liam and looked surprised by my adverse reaction to our kiss. When I looked back through the gap that somehow parted in the crowd, revealing my treachery, my boyfriend was gone. My heart slammed off a rib cage that strained, and I couldn’t breathe, so I placed my hands on my hips, stared to the heavens, and sucked in all the air I could.
“Are you okay, Carla?”
“I need to catch my breath.”
“What is wrong? I don’t understand.”
“My boyfriend is here, Salvatore.”
“Liam?”
“Yes.”
“I see. Was I a moment of madness, then?”
“I’m so very sorry to have hurt you.”
“Me too, Carla, but I am nobody’s second choice. I am a good and kind man. I don’t deserve this, and I thought you were a better person.”
Salvatore’s fingers relaxed, slowly releasing me from his tender grasp. He scowled and tapped his brow as a farewell before dissolving into a celebrating crowd. I shed tears for two relationship tragedies of my making.
I’d lost a lover and a friend.
As I searched the crowd for a friendly face, Bella smiled, waved, and looked triumphant. Her husband would survive an illness that had gripped us all in its terror, taking an expanded family to the precipice of disaster.
Now we were back from the brink; I would not spoil my sister’s moment of joy, having already wrecked my own and others’ celebrations.
But I felt forlorn and disconnected from our revelry.
I sprinted with one destination in mind. Liam would go directly to the Giardini water bus stop before heading to San Marco Airport, then be lost to me forever. This was my one chance to make things right before the distance between us made it impossible to save our relationship.
I bounced off a wall, stumbled into a family, apologized profusely, and tore off again, panicked and desperate. When I rounded the next corner, he was there, staring at me with a look of profound sadness.
“I’m sorry.”
“Hi Carla, bye Carla.”
He waved sarcastically and made to leave. My heart pounded, and my head ached from the tumult of negative emotions that surged.
“I am very sorry.”
“It’s not enough to be sorry, sweetheart. Please don’t apologize again because I’m not minded to accept it. I came here because you needed me, but you already found someone to comfort you when it mattered.”
“It was a moment that should never have happened, Liam. I love you, not Salvatore.”
“But you cannot be trusted with my delicate heart, Carla. You just proved that.”
“Is one thoughtless kiss enough to destroy our relationship?”
“The reality of infidelity hurts now, but its memory will destroy our love over time because I won’t let it go. We could go on for now, pretending it didn’t happen, but your inopportune kiss will become a fireball consuming both of us when we quarrel.”
“Are you saying you don’t love me anymore, Liam?”
He smiled ironically and stared to the skies, seeking wisdom or divine intervention, perhaps both; I couldn’t tell. Help wasn’t up there; I’d already looked and seen only sadness curled up into a ball, crying as a faded reflection of me.
“Love cannot vanish into thin air, Carla. I respectfully ask you to leave me alone. Go back to the Trattoria and celebrate Luca’s wonderful news. Focus on your resurgence, not Salvatore, me, or the kiss you say means nothing.”
“I want to be with you, even as a friend.”
“I would be poor company and have no desire to fight or crawl over diminishing feelings. If anyone tells you it is possible for a woman to be a friend to a man who loves them, tell them I think they are mad.”
“Will you ever come back here, Liam?”
“To you?”
“I think that ship has sailed, and I respect your choice. I would rather not think you stayed away from Venice because of me.”
“I don’t know. If our paths intersect again, we are meant to talk at the very least; if not, I am sure our heartbreak will be fleeting.”
Liam turned and walked around a corner without looking back. In a heartbeat, he was out of sight and gone from my life, lingering like a sad veneer coating my soul. I repeatedly thumped a stone wall, cursing my misdeed, then wept like a baby, ruing my stupidity and the moment when hormones had utterly controlled my base instincts.
I had wanted Salvatore in a moment of immense joy and relief because I needed to celebrate. The truth was, I might have bedded him had Liam not appeared. I didn’t know what might have been, but as I sunk to the floor with my back scraping the wall, I waved off all concerned hands that tried to lift and console me.
Eventually, passers-by left me alone as the wretched, lonely soul I deserved to be. My phone buzzed constantly, and I struggled to slip it from my pocket because I sat awkwardly. Bella demanded my presence. She was concerned for me, so I snapped a photograph of the street sign on the wall opposite and hit send.
On my way, sister.
I drew my knees to my chest and bowed an aching head into them, feeling troubled and ashamed. There had been little point in fighting with my ex-boyfriend about the meaning of a cheater’s kiss, mainly because I hadn’t fully processed what happened or why.
Bella arrived quickly, slid down the wall, and scrunched up close beside me, wrapping a loving arm around my shoulders.
“I saw Liam. What happened, Carla?”
“I kissed Salvatore.”
“With tongues?”
“Of course, with tongues. It’s not a real kiss without it.”
“I have also done that before in a moment of high passion.”
I stared at her in disbelief as she grinned as though the matter were the mischief of a naughty scamp. She nodded, then leaned towards me, using her thumbs and a tear-stained handkerchief to wipe away my sadness.
“Did Luca catch you in the kiss?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“It happened while my boyfriend was in Roma. When I first kissed Luca, our passionate affair began, leading to this wonderful day.”
“You kissed Luca while you had a boyfriend?”
“I did more than kiss Luca, but such tales are not for cramped alleyways with ears everywhere.”
“I don’t want Salvatore, at least not as a boyfriend or with any intention of enjoying a future together. I want us to be friends, nothing more.”
“Then why did you kiss him?”
She squinted at me coyly, and I knew there was no hiding the moment when I probably would have slept with Salvatore despite Liam.
“I needed a man to hold me in that moment to seal my happiness at Luca’s great news. I was selfish, Bella, having my cake and eating it.”
“Liam wasn’t there for that moment, although you begged him to come. Some might say he made a grave error, Carla… some being me for sure. Love is like a newborn. It must be fed and nurtured until a hard shell protects it. Liam was foolish, and so were you.”
Liam’s reluctance to support me when I needed him most had fleetingly crossed my mind. If I were churlish and childish, I could have fought back, but then, in my heart, I had to confess to being entirely wrong.
In the end, Liam set aside his fears and traveled, surprising me with his support. Bella stood and grabbed my wrist forcing me to my feet.
“Let’s return to our Trattoria and celebrate with everyone else. We can look forward to a bright future, Carla. If Liam were the one for you, this would never have happened. It doesn’t matter who is at fault because nothing can be undone.”
“That is very true.”
I walked hand in hand with my sister, catching up to Luca, who danced in a man huddle with one friend after another. Slowly, they made their way back to the Trattoria with our kitchen brigade leader at the head of an impromptu street carnival.
At Bella’s, a feast was already laid inside the restaurant and out. When I looked at a spread that took us three days to prepare under dark clouds, I was glad we had excellent news for the great food because the sadness of a living wake was the alternative.
Mom joined me at a table outside the Trattoria, and Bella came too. Meanwhile, Luca kneeled in the center of our piazza, being force-fed exploding bottles of prosecco down his throat by his closest guy friends.
I worried about him overdoing it in jubilation, and I saw my sister did, too. She looked at me, shaking her head like a scolding wife.
“I will give him ten more minutes with the mischief makers until the paving slabs are soaked with bubbles; then, my husband is coming to bed with me.”
“What about the food and this street party?”
“They will survive and continue without my husband. He has work to do.”
“Ahh… of course he does.”
I reveled for a while and even danced with my Mom, Sam, Angelo, and Margarita, but I escaped as they all slipped into incoherence at the hands of a steady flow of alcohol.
Inside my apartment, I was cocooned. I checked messages, saw nothing from Liam, and expected nothing from Salvatore, so I set my phone to Do Not Disturb, tossed it aside, and readied myself for bed.
I woke once in the early hours when our apartment front door opened, then closed as carefully as a semi-drunk young man could manage. Tears matted my eyelashes, and my heart throbbed as I cried myself back to sleep.
The sun streamed on my face when I finally woke, and a new day beckoned. My heart felt heavy but not broken, and I considered my next move while cradling a mug of coffee at my breakfast bar.
Through my open kitchen window, I heard chairs and tables being moved. Angelo emerged from his bedroom, dressed for his shift, smiling at me like a beloved big sister.
“I would marry you and be yours forever if I believed I could satisfy you, Carla.”
“It is enough that you are my friend, sweet Angelo.”
“Shall we go and set up the Cafe? It is our tradition, and in times of sadness, that is what binds us.”
He obviously knew about Liam and me, and in his usual non-judgemental way, my adopted little brother held out his hand, and I grinned. His innocence and kindness were a key that would unlock anyone’s heart, should they be inclined toward good.
“It’s time to start life over again, Carla.”
“That it is.”
News.
First, my apologies to Tim and Maria. I still must complete your prompts. I didn’t ignore them for any reason other than a lack of writer’s discipline. I will publish these prompts soon.
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Have a wonderful weekend.
What a great start Kate to a wonderful series. I knew there was trouble brewing with Carla’s relationships, but I didn’t foresee it happening quite like that. Superbly written as always and heavy with emotion. Well done.
Both in one fell swoop. How painful, but well deserved. Liam cannot reconcile after the death and cheating of his first. Salvatore won't be sloppy seconds. Growth can hurt. I do not believe it will be her last mistake. Thank you, Kate. I do enjoy this series. Have a great evening and a better Sunday.