Page 7 of Valentino

“Admit it, you haven’t read it.” I tell her.

“No I haven’t read it. But I was going to.”

“Ha, got you. I bet you don’t read it.”

“I wager your bet, Mr. Leone.” She smiles and the air crackles between us.

She’s just so….

“Excuse me.” A voice interrupts us and we glance up to see an old man standing at our table, he must be ninety-nine in the shade, very elderly and frail. “Can you help me, please?” He holds out a crinkled piece of paper. “Do you know where this book is?”

“Of course.” Anna jumps out of the seat and takes the note from him. “I see.” She looks up at the bookcase. “I think….” She walks over to the shelves. “It might be over here.”

The frail little man follows and I watch as she gently leads him around the library in search of his book. She’s sweet and patient and takes her time looking for his book. I watch the two of them for over half an hour, and I find myself sitting in awe at her kindness, and somehow between hearing snippets of their conversation and watching her hold his hand so that he doesn’t fall, it’s not the pink jumper that I’m watching anymore.

Yeah, she’s pretty on the outside, but there’s more to her.

I sit quietly, waiting my turn, and eventually she comes back to sit down, she puts two of the books down onto the table. “Here you go.” She slides one of the books across the table to me. “I borrowed one for both of us. I thought we could read it together.”

“Oh.” I frown, confused. Is this a segue to a pickup line…am I supposed to know what this means? “Like a book club?” I ask.

“Yeah.” She smiles over at me and it drops my stomach. “Why not?”

I stare at her. Do book club members kiss?

“What do you say?” She smiles hopefully.

“I….” I shrug. “That sounds…. Great. Really great.”

Stop saying great.

She smiles at me and I swear to God, I feel it all the way to my bones.

Never read a book before, but whatever…. I’ll read this one if it fucking kills me.

“So….” She pauses. “Will you be coming with Giuliano to the library again?”

“Well yeah,” I burst out over enthusiastically. “I mean—” I try to act casual, “—we have to have our book club.”

“To talk about the book?” She smiles.

Fuck…now I really do have to read this stupid fucking book.

“Yeah.” I nod. “What else would we talk about?”

She stares over at me…big, beautiful eyes and…just fucking wow.

“I don’t know.” She smiles shyly. “What would we talk about?

Okay, that sounded flirty…

I’m thinking we could start the conversation with what’s under that pink cardigan.

Giuliano and Francesca arrive. “We have to go.” Francesca smiles. “Thanks for keeping Anna company.”

“Any time.” My eyes flick back to Anna and an unspoken message bounces between us.

“See you next week.” She smiles. “Nice to meet you, Valentino.”