He checked his watch as they walked hand-in-hand in the direction of the sun. Not bad, still ten minutes to noon and the piazza already in sight, they would be on time for once with some minutes to spare. He relaxed his pace and noticed the sweat forming on his face and in his armpits. The girl at his side had not been in any hurry to begin with and welcomed the change. No one likes rushing over cobblestone in heels and least of all at midday in Mediterranean August. She wore a white summer-dress that shone against her olive skin. Her face squinted in a frown to defend against the sun and she was very beautiful.
They prepared to cross the street and he saw Anna on the other side and she saw him. He could see she recognized him from her smile, they would be late again but he smiled back and waved. Anna waited for them at the other side and once they had crossed over she opened up her arms and waited to be embraced.
He saw no graceful alternative and hugged her. “Hey, Anna.”
“Oh my God, Luca, how are you? It’s been so long! I’ve missed you, Hon.”
“Thanks, it has been a long time. How’ve you been?”
“Oh, great, great, yeah.” She nodded her head with each word, as if to keep rhythm. Her smile was too big. “Man, it’s so great to see you.”
“Anna, this is Stella.”
“Hi, Stella.”
“Hi.”
The two of them shook hands. Anna maintained her big smile and Stella, still facing the sun, maintained her frown.
“Parli italiano?” Anna said.
“Si.”
Anna began speaking to Stella in Italian. Stella answered her questions with one-word responses but didn’t say anything else. The clock in the piazza read five till.
“Sei mai andata negli Stati Uniti?”
“No.”
“No? Come mai?” and to him, “you haven’t taken her to meet your family?”
“No, we’re going next month.”
“Okay, next month, exciting.” She kept nodding. “Your first trip to America. And meeting the fam. Exciting.” Then to him again, “How long since you’ve been back home?”
“Seven years.”
“Seven years! That’s before I met you. Remember how we met? How long ago did we meet? Must’ve been at least five years ago. Was it six years ago? When did we first meet? Anyway, Stella, there I was, minding my own business…”
“I’m sorry,” he said, “We’re going to be late.”
“Oh, sure, no problem. Well it was great running into you guys. Nice meeting you, Stella.”
“Nice meeting you too,” Stella said.
“Take care, and hopefully we’ll run in to each other again.”
“Yeah.” Luca said.
“Okay, bye.”
She turned to go. He watched her for a few steps, asked Stella to wait a second, went after her.
“Hey, before you go, do you still keep in touch with Genelle?”
– J.M., Roman Girls – Novel Submission
Reader: My nature is to be skeptical, so I will tell you that I read on and became more willing to follow the author. My other colleague is always muttering to himself, “This better be good.” Its mid-morning and I am going to be reading this for the next hour. Wish me luck. Wish the author luck, too. This is a big moment.
