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Jonathan will be sorry to hear this, but he also knows he deserves it. Anything else?
Dani:
A caesar salad with cheesy breadsticks.
Gianni:
Of course… I’ll make and do anything you want or need. And FYI, Uncle Louie is totally blind without his glasses.
I giggled as I read his last statement, and I had to admit, knowing that about his uncle truly helped, but I wasn’t about to tell Gianni that. Not when I had him cooking for me and begging my forgiveness.
No man had ever come close to being so apologetic to me for anything before. I wanted to hang onto the moment for a while. For all my tough words and all my embarrassment, Gianni Capra had me all confused. The guy was simply too nice.
Dani:
I’ll keep that in mind.
Then I sent him more emoji kisses.
Gianni 15
Okay, I fucked up. That was way over the top, and I should never have put Shannon or rather Dani in that situation.
At least we were still texting. That was something, right?
Still, I couldn’t help but believe that had it not been Uncle Louie, things would’ve gone entirely different.
That crazy reasoning aside, as I walked up the stairs to Dani’s apartment on the second floor, to deliver two pizzas, a breakup pizza and the other, her and Sarah’s favorite combination, along with a monster salad, breadsticks, all kinds of sides, and an extra-large bouquet of flowers I had to work to get at this hour of the night, I felt totally and completely remorseful. I only hoped that when I knocked on the door, Dani would answer so we could finally talk this whole thing over.
And that included where we went from here.
The good news was we were ourselves again.
The bad news was we were ourselves again.
Neither one of us was very bold when it came to sex. That was evident by the fact that we were still at the kissing stage, as Dani reminded me during our last text exchange. We could stay at that level for several more weeks or longer. After all, Dani had no intention of hanging around Hutton Hill or any of the small towns that dotted the landscape of central PA after she received her degree. Which made the likelihood of us falling in love and having a long-term relationship highly unlikely.
Still, I didn’t want to give up. I needed to channel my inner Jonathan even if I could no longer hide behind his character. I knew he was a real person, but I’d never actually looked him up on the dating site. Maybe if I did, that would help me… or not.
Maybe I didn’t want to know who he was or Shannon’s actual identity. Especially now that they were both relegated to our cyber past.
It was all so confusing.
When I arrived at Dani’s door, I froze for a moment, unable to knock or ring the bell. She lived on the second floor, and fortunately, the steps were on the inside of the building. With all the food my restaurant had delivered in the past week, by now, one of the delivery folks would’ve no doubt hurt themselves due to all the snow.
Not that any of that reasoning did anything for my predicament. Part of me wanted to stack everything up in front of the door, ring the bell, and run like hell. That part of me couldn’t face her… didn’t want to face her… ever.
While the other part of me didn’t want to live my life without her, the only way I could get another chance was to knock on the damn door and hope that she’d talk to me.
I softly rapped on the gray colored door and held my breath, scared she’d reject me, but I wanted to see her so bad, it hurt.
When the door finally opened, it was Sarah and not Dani. She was dressed in an oversized sweater that came down to mid-thigh, gray leggings, and thick, cream-colored socks that pooled at her ankles. Her gray-blond hair was streaked with silver foil sparkle that matched her large earrings. Sarah was pixie cute and couldn’t be more than five feet tall, but I knew she was a powerful force.
“Wow! Let me take some of that from you,” she said, as I tried to both hand her some of what I was carrying and peek behind her, looking for Dani, who didn’t seem to be in the room. I’d added a six-pack of dark beer to the mix as well, knowing how much both women liked it.
I’d only been inside their apartment one other time. Also with a delivery… a more fun delivery, and unlike last time, I took a peek inside of the apartment. Right off, I liked all the colors: ocean-blue walls, an orange sofa, a couple of dark-blue round chairs, multicolored patchwork quilts, no doubt made by the local Amish community, and a wide assortment of colorful pillows. I could tell that whoever lived here was fun, daring, and had a romantic heart.
“Is Dani here?” I asked, feeling totally vulnerable.
