She was one of my best friends, though I doubt she realized it.
After she started to pull away, it fucking hurt. I was a moody teenager who lived with his grandmother, and she was the untouchable girl that I would forever love.
Even now, I am still madly in love with Viviana Capello, yet she has no idea.
If Enzo ever found out, he would beat me to a pulp and then warn me away forever. The prospect of not having them in my life at all is too terrifying to think about, which is why my feelings are on a major lockdown.
“I’m so glad you decided to come tonight,” April tells Viviana, giving her a sympathetic look.
I take a sip of my beer. “Why wouldn’t you have come?”
Viv bites her lip and looks over at me. “Uh, no reason!” Her bright, cheery smile isn’t fooling anyone, least of all me. “Just tired.”
“Oh, sorry.” April pats her knees and glances around, noticing my attention hasn’t left their faces. “Just got confused! You know, yeah, she was up super late working.”
“Why were you up late working?” I ask Viv, giving her my sole attention. I usually don’t draw attention to her like this, but something about her terrible lie and the red rimming of her eyes has me conjuring up all sorts of horrible ideas.
Did someone hurt her?
Did she break up with someone?
She’s been working her ass off. Did she not get some sort of promotion?
“What’s going on here?” Enzo asks casually, taking a seat next to me on the sofa and setting a tray of crab puffs on the table.
I think most of our friends commit to game night just to get some of Enzo’s cooking.
“Nothing,” Viv replies with a chirp in her voice. She reaches over and snags two of the puffs and stuffs an entire one into her mouth.
“You okay?” I ask, taking another drink before reaching for my own bite of food.
She nods, chewing. Her cheeks puffed out around the food. Never has she looked so adorable.
“You look weird.” Enzo notices, his eyes looking over his sister’s face. “Is Mom setting you up again?”
Viv rolls her eyes, still chewing, and shakes her head no.
“No? Well, what’s going on? Have you been crying?” He leans in closer, his eyes turning dark in a millisecond. “Did someone hurt you?”
Again, a roll of her eyes. Finally, she swallows. “No! No one hurt me, and Mom hasn’t been hounding me since Antony decided to nail down Bianca.”
I quirk a brow. “They getting married?”
Viv and Enzo’s brother Antony has been on again, off again with his girlfriend Bianca for the better part of five years.
“Finally.” Enzo nudges me with his elbow. “Sorry, thought I told you that. They’re having an engagement party in a few weeks. Mom insists on your presence.”
I nod my head, hiding the grateful feeling in my chest. I love being invited to their family events. They do everything they can to make me feel a part of things.
My eyes drift to Viv, who’s successfully shoving more food into her mouth. Losing the Capellos would kill me. I’m not saying that to be dramatic, but if I were to express my feelings for her and I lost the family if it didn’t work out…
I wouldn’t know what to do.
Which is why I sit back and watch her live her life, date men whenever the mood strikes her and sit in my lonely apartment, wishing above all else I could tell her how I felt. I certainly haven’t been able to move on, no matter how hard I’ve tried.
“Did you sign up for that site yet?” I jerk my attention back to the conversation to catch Viv shooting laser beams out of her eyeballs at Molly.
“Onay alkingtay aboutyay ethay anplay!” Viviana hisses, and I chuckle at her use of the old language of Pig Latin. We learned it in middle school, just the two of us, but I had no idea she still knew any of it.