“I think when you meet ‘the one’ you definitely feel something. But don’t ask me, I met my ‘one’ when I was like eighteen and I still didn’t figure it out until last year.” – April
VIVIANA
Watching my brother struggle with his feelings brought me little to no satisfaction.
Okay, maybe a little satisfaction.
Sometimes it’s fun to watch a pretty boy fail. Just a little.
After Nora announced her name, he turned without a word and marched over to the coolers to grab himself a drink, then promptly disappeared.
Nora didn’t seem to be bothered by this, but just shrugged, reintroduced herself to Archer and me, and we caught up with her. Turned out, she’d been traveling all around Europe, learning different methods of cooking and had turned herself into one hell of a chef with training from some special school in Paris.
I was jealous.
But she’d worked for that, and I was also happy for her. She seemed like a really cool person and we’d exchanged numbers to get lunch sometime before she had to leave the party.
Somehow, I’d ended up at Archer’s side the entire night. I had to fight the instinct that I was bothering him, like I’d felt all through high school and beyond. There was still that doubt in my mind, doubt that he wanted to hang out with Enzo’s little sister.
I did my best to watch his body language, and any time someone pulled him into a conversation, he always included me. It gave me a warm feeling in my chest, especially when he gave me a grin like we were in on something together.
Another part of me wondered if this was some sort of practice run for him and that made my heart sink a bit. But I did my best to just focus on my family and having a nice evening.
Being at a family function was like mingling at a wedding. Everyone and their sister/brother/cousin showed up to these things. My mom and her two sisters, along with their husbands, all lived on this street and had for the past thirty years.
We knew every neighbor, new and old, and their children and some of their children’s children. It was a circus, but one full of love. The Capello family was infamous in this part of the world, well, Capellos and Bianchis and Filos, given that my aunts took their husbands’ names.
Zio Leo was married to Zia Sofia. He was full Italian and loved to speak that more than English.
Zio Tobi, actually Tobias, was married to Zia Caterina, and had a Greek heritage that he didn’t have much in common with other than his skin color and name.
Between the three women, my mother and her sisters, there were a total of twenty cousins alone. This didn’t include the spouses of some of them and then the next generation of children they bore.
So, we were a big family.
I spot my brother Antony and make my way to him and Bianca. I love this couple. They’d been through a lot, but I was thrilled that they were finally making their relationship permanent.
“Tony!” I yell and jump into his arms. I feel rather than see Archer’s presence follow me, I decide right then and there that (a) he is either practicing for our future outings as a “couple,” or (b) he doesn’t actually mind my company.
“V!” Tony exclaims back and hugs me, spinning me in a circle before setting me down and cupping my face. “You look brilliant tonight.”
I beam under his gaze and pinch his arm. “And you! What, do you live at the gym?”
“Gotta get ready for the wedding.” He smiles so broadly that I squeal in excitement.
Bianca extracts herself from some other relatives and I grab her around the shoulders, pulling her into my squealing circle. I catch Archer congratulating my brother out of the corner of my eye.
“Finally you talked some sense into my brother!” I tell her and smile when she blushes, she glances down at her hand and I snatch it up.
I gape at the large diamond. Then I whistle. “Antony, now this is a ring!” I twist it back and forth in the light and let my jaw hang out on the floor at the gorgeous sparkling sensation it’s setting off.
“Only the best for the best woman in the world.” He gazes lovingly at Bianca and I feel a tear well up in my eye.
Just the one. I tell that bitch to go have her pity party somewhere else.
Just because my brother was marrying the love of his life and seemed to have found the perfect someone for the rest of his days, didn’t mean that I would die alone.
I could still get a dog.