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“Maybe I was upset over the fact that you coerced me into going to that stupid congress in the first place and then, when that wasn’t quite enough manipulation, you arranged for Ricardo to know my every move. Stop trying to set me up with that man. I am not interested in him that way! And for the final time, I do not want to be an olive farmer or the CEO of the company. Why the hell can’t you and Dad just let me live the life that I want to live?!”
I shot to my feet, leaving my drink untouched on the table, and stormed inside. My phone buzzed as I hit the shady interior of the villa. A short text from Bianca saying that the bus was nearly ready, but she could use some help to install the new seats. I informed her I would be there in fifteen. I roared out of the villa in my car, leaving a cloud of oily smoke and two fucking steamer trunks in the rearview.
***
Bianca met me around back, her coveralls dangling off one shoulder as her left arm was in a sling.
“Holy crapinski, what happened?” I asked, leaping out of my darling little car to jog over to where she was resting beside the van. A van that still looked rough on the outside but was close to being ready to transport workers mechanically.
“I tripped over a fender chasing that bastard!” She pointed at the gander waddling by with his ladies nibbling on the grass behind him. She spat out several violent sounding things then blew out a breath that moved some loose black hair from her brow. “Stupid bird. He is very much aggressive now. One of the geese is on a nest near the barn, and we think she has new goslings, so anytime we go near, he is attacking.”
“Oh well, that’s not good, but it is kind of good, if that makes sense. Did you break it?”
I watched it eyeballing me, so I flipped the bird the bird. He hissed at me but didn’t come charging in for another calf pinch.
“Sì, yes, good and bad. No, just sprained bad. Which is why I need help with the new seats.” She jerked her dirty chin at ten newer than the old benches that she’d torn out of the minibus. “They aren’t heavy, so you can help.”
“Thanks for calling me a weakling,” I teased, laughing aloud when her mouth fell open. “I’m kidding. I know I’m not a big brute like Donvino.” Even mentioning his name made my heart ache. “Is he here today?” She shook her head, her white teeth capturing her lower lip. “He hates me for some reason!”
“No, no, he does not hate you, he is just…” She motioned me over to the new used benches sitting in the shade. After she was seated, I flopped down beside her. “Donvino is having a bad time. He is losing his competitions because he is using an old scull, you know?” I nodded. “They are too much money for him to replace, so he is not making his dreams come true.”
I recalled the trunk sitting in bits on my bedroom floor. “Yeah, I can relate.”
“You both are peas in pods. Pouty over things that you hoped for, then pouty over each other. He is crazy for you, Arlo.”
The chickens darted past. And a fat red hen with a grasshopper in her beak being pursued by her sisters. The rooster trotted along at the rear of the pack, long tail feathers flying, as he hurried to keep his harem in sight.
“Couldn’t prove it by me,” I huffed, tossing my shoulders back into the seat. “He’s not speaking to me and I don’t have a clue as to why.”
She turned on the bench, the hot dry wind tugging on some loose strands of her hair, her expression of utter exasperation. Using her uninjured hand, she flicked my forehead.
“Hey!” I yelped.
“Stupid, you men are stupid. Arlo, he is feeling poor and then he sees you on Instagram with a rich, older man dancing at a club in Venice.” I frowned at the ground. “Then when he calls you for talking about his things, you are drunk with the undersecretary. He is hurt and scared and not knowing what to do because he is not good with his emotions for men. For you!” She flicked my forehead again. I moved out of her reach, rubbing my brow, lost in thought.
“So I’m not supposed to go out and have fun with anyone other than him? That sounds a bit controlling, to be honest.”
A long string of Italian flowed out of her. I did pick out a few words, such as pig, head, and cabbage. Maybe cabbage? No, surely not.
“You men have cabbage for brains,” she snapped.
Okay, so it was cabbage. Go me! “He is jealous, yes, because he feels strong for you and this has never happened for him before.” She tucked some hair behind her tiny ear. “He’s so…what is that term…self-conceited. No, uhm, he’s self-doubtful. Not thinking that he’s worthy of you.”
“Oh, he’s got low self-esteem,” I said, lowering my hand to my thigh.
“Yes, sorry for my English.”
“No, hey, your English is really good! Did you learn working in the city like Donvino did?”
A bittersweet look swept over her lovely face. “That is not how I learned to speak it, no, I learned from running away to America to marry an Air Force man at eighteen.”
“Oh wow, that’s not at all what I expected to hear. What happened with your fly boy?”
She sighed, her sight lifting to the clouds. “It crashed like a plane with no propellers. He was only two years older than me, and I was so in love. I was pregnant soon, and he was doing the good thing to take me to America with him when he left. Papà, he was not happy with me having a baby, but I was over fourteen—the age here in Italy when it is okay to be with someone for sex—and I was near eighteen by just one month. So, I left when I was eighteen and we got married. I flew to America to be with him and then lost the baby four weeks later.”
I grabbed her petite hands, hands covered in dirt and grease, and gave them a squeeze. “Bianca, I am so sorry.”
“Yes, me too. Then things went bad for us. I stayed in America, at an Air Force base in Colorado with him, for two years, and we tried to make things good for us, but in the end, I longed for home and he was tired of me complaining about it, so we split. It was so cold there and I didn’t know anyone. I hated it. So, I come back to Florence with a little money that he gave me for a goodbye gift, and I spend it on an auto mechanic schooling. Now I am making money enough to help out Papà and will one day have a garage right over there.” She pointed to where the geese were dabbling about in the pig’s water trough.
