Dear Betty,
I couldn't find the words to finish the apology letter I wanted to write to her. With Henry being gone, I thought that if I went ahead and made my move, she would fall head over heels for me. I was completely wrong. I chided myself softly as I balled up the paper and threw it in the garbage and sighed.
As much as I pretended to be, I wasn't much of a ladies man. Sure, I had that general persona. It was because I had been in relationships in the past and I knew what worked and what didn't. The last ended badly. Her name was Adrienne. She was hot and I got burned by her looks. It was then that I had decided not to go for looks alone. I found out that she was cheating on me with one of my best friends. Valiantly, I stepped aside.
"You alright, Gio?" my sister asked as she entered the room.
"The pain will go away. I'm nearly packed and ready to go. You?" I asked looking over toward her.
"Nearly. Our flight leaves tomorrow so I still have time. You're not writing a love letter to metal mouth mood swinger are you?" she asked curiously.
"I thought I would apologize for being so abrasive the other night. What's the use…right? She clearly told me off. I just want to tell her I'm leaving." I shrugged and stood up.
"Is is time to pull out the tiny violin? Gio, there will be plenty of young and beautiful Italian girls who know a real guy when they see him. Betty doesn't realize a good thing when she sees one." Toni paused and continued. "Besides, sitting next the Number Nerd made me realize something."
"Oh?" I raised my eyebrow. This had to be interesting.
"Well when he was texting to Betty, I subtlety looked over at what he was typing. There was one text that wasn't for Betty. Do you know who some Charlie guy is?" Toni asked.
"Only by name. She got knocked up by Egg Salad, why?"
"Well Number Nerd was texting a person named Charlie. I didn't think much of it really."
"What did the text say?" I asked.
"Oh, he was angry about something. Most likely you. I couldn't read anymore because he got extremely pissed when you put your arm around Betty. That's when he commanded that Betty meet him outside." Toni fiddled with something on the table.
"It doesn't mean anything now. Egg Salad's gone and Betty has been acting strangely. Honestly, I'm glad that I'll be in Europe. It will give me the chance to get over her. Clearly, she hates me for unknown reasons." I wondered why she blew up at me in the elevator. Something inside of her made her snap even before I kissed her.
"What do you see in her anyway?" Toni had now turned on the TV and was flipping through channels.
I thought for a long moment before answering with a smile. "I don't know. She's just very passionate about what she does. I've never met someone with so much charisma and character. Whenever she smiles, she seems to light up the room. She doesn't care what people think of her and she is always willing to help people out. Her family is completely amazing and she's always there to save the day." I paused and continued, "at the same time she can be incredibly annoying, stubborn, somewhat the type to fill your brain with complicated thoughts. Yet, there is something about her that is intoxicating. I've never met anyone quite like her. It's like we could spend the whole day talking and I would only know 1/1,000,000th of the incredibly things about her." I finished by smiling to myself.
"Ugh, you've got it worse than I thought. Our trip to Italy better do something for your heart." Toni sighed and turned off the TV. "I hate it when there's nothing on TV. I'm off to bed." Toni yawned and left the room.
With the living room to myself, I sat back down and planned everything. I had someone to look over my deli while I was in Italy. Aunt Giselle was going to meet us at the airport. It had been a while since I had been to Italy. Last time I went, it was to get over a girl. There I met my new love, making food. I was always cooking for Aunt Giselle and she especially loved my sandwiches. She actually pulled a few strings to get my start as the sandwich guy at Mode.
The ride to the airport was fast. Getting through the airport wasn't an easy task. Due to security restraints, it took a few hours to get through JFK. Finally, I sighed as I sat down on the plane and closed my eyes. Immediately her face came to mind. I tried to drown it out by finding a magazine to read. I laughed aloud as I pulled an issue of Mode. I turned the remote on the seat's arm rest to a decent channel and watched the screen that was on back of the seat in front of me. It was a FashionTV update.
"Why does everything I pick up have to do with fashion?" I muttered to Toni.
"Maybe because we're going to Italy and some of the top designers come from Italy." Toni rolled her eyes and pulled out a book to read silently.
This is going to be a long 10 hour flight, I thought to myself as I closed my eyes again and drifted off to sleep. I awoke to minor turbulence a few hours later and one of the flight attendants tapped me on the shoulder.
"Excuse me, sir. Would you like anything to drink?" she asked politely. I looked at her name tag and my mouth hung open. Her name was Betty Solini. I couldn't help but laugh.
"No, I'm fine, thanks Betty." I grinned at her. She was beautiful, but not as beautiful as the Betty I knew. Here I was thinking about Betty again. I decided to snooze some more. I awoke abruptly as Toni hit me on the shoulder.
"What?" I asked sleepily.
"We're about to land."she informed me. Sure enough the 'fasten seatbelt' sign blinked on and people around us were preparing to land.
I stood up and my knees immediately began to kill me as the blood rushed to my legs. As we got off the plane, we were herded through hallways of travelers until we saw the familiar face of Aunt Giselle.
"Casa benvenuta! It's been so long." She kissed both of my cheeks and held them in her hand. "How is my Giovanni, eh?" she asked with a smile.
"Favoloso." I lied as I greeted her with kissing her on both cheeks. "I slept throughout the flight. It's nice to be home." I told her honestly.
The car ride to Aunt Giselle's took a while. While we rode in the car, she talked our heads off about everything happening in Italy. Mostly, she talked about how well her daughter was doing. I had really only met my cousin a few times. She was always busy with work and rarely there when I came to visit.
"Gio…" my aunt looked at me in through the rear view mirror. "What was her name?"
"Who's name?" I replied. She knew that the only reason I ever came to Italy was to get over a girl I had fallen in love with.
"Giovanni Rossi! You're not thinking like the Italian boy that's inside…Ah, we're known in this family for being romantics and tenacious for the things we want." she warned and eyed me suspiciously.
"Her name was Betty." I replied bitterly. I hated just mentioning her name.
"Was? Ay, Gio, you took her out didn't you! Playing at the Italian stereotype, nipote!" she sighed and pulled the small car into an alleyway and parked.
I grinned. People were always quick to assume that just because you're Italian you're a part of a mafia or mob. "Well, I had to do what I had to do. She knew too much!" I said with a fake Italian accent and shrugged with a grin.
"Come, you need some food…the both of you." Aunt Giselle guided us to her tiny little flat. Within an hour, she whipped up a wonderful Italian dish and I was full.
"Beats filling up on sandwiches…" I admitted and Toni nodded with a mouthful of pasta.
Tonight, I decided that I was going to go out and forget that Betty Suarez existed. I missed the nightlife of Italy, which was sometimes better than New York. I was never one much for he nightlife, but when the mood struck, I was there. I pulled on my leather jacket and wandered down a cobblestone street. I passed many bars that were full of people and finally stepped in to one that looked inviting. Amidst all the smoke and people, I felt like I was being sheltered and hidden from the world. My eyes wandered to scan the room for single girls. My heart skipped a beat as my eyes fell on a patch of wavy and untidy hair. Betty! I knew it had to be her and with a grin plastered on my forehead and walked over to her and tapped her on the shoulder.
"You just couldn't get enough of me. Looks like you decided to come back for more." I paused and continued, waiting to see her face. "By the way, the least you could have done would have been to fix up your hair for your lover." I grinned as she turned around. Immediately my face fell.
"Excuse me, but who the hell are you? You're one to talk. You're barely an inch above the ground." The girl smirked rudely at me. She was definitely not my Betty. She definitely noticed I wasn't the tallest tree in the forest.
"I'm so sorry." I admitted. I felt like a complete ass. I was shocked that the girl I spoke to knew English. She had a hint of an Italian accent as she glared at me. "I thought you were someone I knew." I shrugged and turned to leave.
"Hey…wait….I do think I know you…" she said as turned me around and looked into my face. "Yes, I definitely know you. You're the one I've been searching for my whole life. I'm Julianna Bruni, the girl you've been searching for your whole life." She kissed me on the cheek.
I looked at her in all of her confidence. I had to admit that she was fairly attractive. Suddenly, my thoughts that looks were no longer important to me went out of the window as we began to sway and dance to the slow music. I no longer thought of Betty.
It had now been three weeks since Henry left and I was definitely not feeling like myself. The only time I felt this out of control was when I tried on Claire Meade's perfume. This time, it was strictly a matter of the heart. Often, I thought about why I treated Gio so cruelly in the elevator. He had no right to kiss me like that. I sighed as Daniel came over, most likely to flood my mind with work.
"Betty, I have a job related question for you." Daniel was going to get right to the point. He looked slightly frustrated as he sighed and looked at me.
"What is it Daniel?" I asked, subconsciously playing with the pretty green box on my desk. There was something about the box that stopped me from throwing away what was given to me.
"I need you to run an errand for me. It's going to take a while. Are you up for it?" he asked.
"Daniel, you're not going to make me do anything gross, are you? If you've got a bet with Alexis, you need to do it yourself!" I chided him.
"No…no…nothing like that." He fiddled with something in his pocket and then pulled out an envelope and handed it to me.
"Great, you want me to finish your taxes. You know very well that the person for this job is..H…" I couldn't bring myself to finish his name.
"Just open the envelope!" Daniel insisted as he handed it to me. I was afraid of opening it that something gross or creepy would pop out or there would be a picture I didn't need to see. I sighed and opened it. My mouth fell open as I emptied the contents on my desk.
"Four…plane tickets…to Italy?" I looked up at Daniel for an explanation.
"Look, we're doing that major shoot and Italy and I couldn't go without you. After all, you are my assistant and I do need someone to tell me the names of all of those girls I meet…" he smiled.
"…but what about Renee?" I asked. He had already moved on and it wasn't even a month yet.
"I was joking, Betty. Look, you're the most level headed person I know and having you down there would mean so much to me. Plus, you could really use some time away from Mode. Ever since Henry left you've been acting strangely. Plus, once the sandwich guy came to deliver the sandwiches, you really weren't yourself. By the way...I never did get my sandwich..." He sat down on the desk and looked at me with pleading eyes.
"Why did you get the rest of my family tickets?" I asked
"We'll we're going to be there about a month. I know how much your family means to you. Plus, since I never had much of a normal family…yours has been very good to me." He said sadly.
"What about Justin's school?" I asked. As much as I knew Justin would drop out of school in a heartbeat for this opportunity, it worried me.
"Ever heard of mono?" Daniel grinned and gave me the thumbs up and left promptly.
"What was that all about?" Christina had come up behind me rather quickly.
"Oh, hey Christina…" I turned my swivel chair around. "Looks like my whole family's going to Italy." I sighed.
"Oh Betty, that's wonderful! You know…I'll be going too. What great times we'll have. Think of all of those hot sweaty Italian boys dancing up on you Betty because you're single. You can have all of the sexy bastards you want…" Christina stared off into space. Suddenly, I thought of Gio and sighed.
"Cristina, Sexy B..Gio kissed me in the Mode elevator last week." I finally admitted it to someone. She jerked her head back to look at me.
"You mean to tell me that Sexy Bastard bloody kissed you in the elevator and you didn't go at it in the elevator?...or did you?" she looked at me for confirmation.
"No…ugh…of course not! Eww…it was just weird. I suddenly snapped. He hit the stop button and so we were trapped in there together." I muttered.
"Now Betty, that's pretty hot. Oh, I haven't thought of his tomato-slicing hands like that in a long while….I'd better get a sandwich before I pee myself. Want to join?" she asked.
"Umm….sure…" I had no idea why I just agreed to go to Gio's with her.
We walked in silence the entire way there. I smiled as the familiar pickle greeted us as we entered. The bell rang and immediately one of the workers greeted us.
"Er, yes…is the owner around?" Christina asked immediately. I smacked her in the side.
"Actually, no. He's probably not going to be back for a while. He talked about some job he had to take care of. " the worker whispered to us. Then a grin was plastered on his face. "Kidding….really though…he's not here and talked about a wedding or something…" and the worker walked off.
"Wedding, you don't think it's his?" Christina asked me quietly.
"No, Gio wouldn't get married like that. He doesn't seem the marrying type." I said. I felt a surge of jealousy and slight disappointment that I wasn't able to see Gio. I lied with that last thought because it made me feel better knowing he wouldn't want to get married. I honestly had no idea if he was that type or not. Gio...
"Do you know when he'll be back?" I asked another worker.
"No telling with Gio…" the worker replied.
I sighed and turned to Christina. "I'm not very hungry anymore." I frowned and walked outside, waiting for Cristina to get her sandwich.
I had no idea why I felt so down all of a sudden. Truthfully, I wanted to see Gio. Suddenly, the kiss in the elevator didn't anger me as much. I was now angry because he didn't tell me he was leaving. I began to feel disappointed because he left me, just like Henry had. It was at that moment that I realized all the feelings I felt for Gio were because I felt something for him that I was too blinded by Henry to notice. I walked on, without Christina, feeling defeated. This was not love at first sight.
