Love on the Back Burner

by Barbara Oliverio

  What? My mom would never have said something like that. Where did his mother get that idea? I closed my eyes, and my head dropped to my chest.

  “Ah, no, Brady. I think there was a misunderstanding. As a matter of fact, there might have been a LOT of misunderstandings lately.”

  Brady went on, oblivious to my tone. “Well, look, Alex. When you and your friend get back from Pittsburgh, swing by Pete’s. We’ll all be there, you know.”

  “Yep. I know.” We disconnected, and I plopped down on a nearby bench.

  I sat and stared into the distance. Keira sat next to me, taking my hand into hers, not saying anything until I broke the silence.

  “Well,” I said.

  “I know,” said Keira.

  “You were right.”

  “Didn’t want to be.”

  “Can you imagine?”

  “I know.”

  I stood up and started pacing.

  “It’s not that there’s anything wrong with my hometown, ya know? I think it’s a great place for the people who live there. But people who have THAT attitude, the ‘why drive all the way to the city’ attitude—all the way, like it’s a thousand miles or something ...”

  “I know.”

  “And the mere thought of moving to the city. You would have thought I suggested he move to … to …” I couldn’t think of something bad enough.

  “The city?” offered Keira, helpfully.

  I stopped, stared at her, open-mouthed, then realized the humor of the situation and slumped down beside her again, giggling.

  “Come on, Alex,” she said as she rubbed my back.

  “You know you weren’t really thinking about moving back here for some elusive Prince Charming from First Grade.”

  “No. But you have to admit that I COULD move back here as easily as I could move to Phoenix.”

  “Of course you could. But if you do, do it the right way—with a job in the actual city where you would be happy. If you just rush and move back to your parents’ house, even though you love them, you’ll get caught up in working for your dad, joining the Ladies Guild, and hanging out at that Pete’s.”

  “You don’t have to say ‘that Pete’s’ like it’s a shack selling moonshine down by the river, Keira. Sometimes, your hoity-toity upbringing comes out in the strangest ways.”

  “Hoity-toity? You’ve only been here a couple of days, and you already sound like you’re on an episode of Jerry Springer. Should I be careful, or will you pick up a chair and heave it at me next?” She raised her hands in mock fear.

  I punched her arm. “Keira, you are the best. I can hardly even see your tiara under that hat!”

  She sniffed. “We are not amused.” But then she smiled.

  “Look, Alex, I think that you just need to relax a little. What did you learn there? That maybe you were a little overdramatic in thinking that this Brandon—”

  “Brady.”

  “—Whatever—person seemed like the answer to having to pick up and move to Phoenix, or to stay in Denver and look for a new job. You could tell folks you’re moving home for that reason, and you won’t have to tell them about the buyout. ... Oooh, I hit a nerve there, didn’t I?”

  I pondered. “You’re right, Keira. Darn it, I hate that.”

  “Listen, sister, I think you are just going to have to come clean with your folks. You know they think you are fantastic. They’ll support whatever you do.”

  I nodded.

  “And while you’re thinking about that, I really think you should give serious consideration to doing what you really love to do, sweetie.”

  I put my hands over my ears. “If you are going to say ‘be a chef,’ Keira, you know I can’t tell my folks I’m completely changing careers. I can’t let them think I failed.”

  She pulled my hands from the sides of my head and stared me in the eye.

  “For the last time, you have not failed, you are not a failure, you could never BE a failure. If you would choose to switch to a culinary career, we would ALL support you.”

  I pulled away.

  “Alex, I won’t bug you about this again in the next few days, but please do me the favor of talking to your folks about the buyout. You’ll feel better about things if you weren’t on pins and needles for the rest of the weekend.”

  “All right, all right,” I nodded.

  She stood up and smoothed her outfit.

  “Now, look, we came here to shop, and I have been staring in the window of that shoe store since we sat on this bench. Those black sateen pumps are going home with ME!”

  We laughed and went into the store arm in arm.

  We returned from our retail therapy expedition later than we had anticipated, having decided to stop for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. The house was quiet, and we tiptoed in, giggling, with bags rustling. We were surprised by my father, who was sitting at the kitchen table eating a few cookies and drinking what must have been decaf coffee, considering the hour.

  “Pop! We didn’t want to wake anyone.”

  “Oh, I just wanted to make sure you girls got in okay. Keira, it’s good to see you, my dear.”

  Keira reached down to give him a kiss.

  “Now really, Pop, when I’m all the way in Denver, you don’t stay up and wait up. You don’t know when I get in!”

  “No, no,” he stood up to hug me, “it’s not like that. You have your life there, Ally-Cat. I would never deprive you of that. It’s just that when you’re here, I remember what it was like when you were a young girl, and something inside me goes into automatic. I can’t sleep until you are in the house.”

  “You’re not trying to make me feel guilty, are you?” My heart sank.

  “Come on, I just like to take care of my girl. My girls,” he smiled at Keira.

  “We know what you mean, Poppa D,” said Keira as she kissed his cheek again. “And we love it.”

  I dropped my bags and hugged my father tightly. “You’re the best father a girl ever had,” I said, “and I would never do anything to disappoint you.”

  He pulled me away and looked into my eyes quizzically. “Of course I know that, Ally-Cat. Now you get to bed. Your nonna has lots for you to do tomorrow.” Keira began pushing me toward the staircase and managed to get me into my girlhood bedroom before saying, “You must still talk with him.”

  “But Keira.”

  “No buts.”

  “Fine,” I said sullenly, “However, I will do it in my own time.”

  “Okay, but please make it before we are coming back here for Elisabetta’s high school graduation.”

  I threw a pillow at her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The next day and a half were a whirlwind of preparations. It was a lucky thing that Keira had arrived early, because the extra set of hands came in handy for decorating the church activity hall while the others cooked.

  Soon it was Saturday morning, and the gathering of family and friends for the baptism of Elisabetta Maria D’Agostino went off without a hitch. Elisabetta was a squirmy bundle prior to the service, and Anthony was certain that she would prove to be a handful during the actual ceremony.

  However, in her white silk gown and booties, she was the picture of calm.

  As her godmother, I had chosen a dress reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn in my own favorite shade of green, and wore crisp white gloves as a complement to the throwback look. Anthony and Celia bought me a small calla lily to wear in my hair rather than a corsage.

  Ma and Nonna, however, sported huge calla lily corsages on their respective navy and coral suits, and Nonna had broken out a beautiful vintage hat that I secretly made plans to sneak away with after the day ended.

  Keira, of course, looked as if she’d stepped from the pages of Vogue, dressed in a tailored black linen suit with a lemon yellow blouse.

  My father could scarcely hold back a huge grin, but nearly broke into tears as his eldest son’s firstborn was baptized by his other son, the priest. After the ceremony, many p
ictures were taken, and we finally made it to the church hall only when Nonna reminded us that people needed to eat!

  The Ladies Guild performed luncheon serving duties of all the food that our two families had prepared. I felt a shiver of fear as I walked into the hall, remembering my own recent catering experience. This day was different for a number of reasons—not least of which was that I didn’t have to worry about coming up with a substitution for a failed entrée.

  Then I remembered one other reason this day of celebration was different. Natalie’s wedding reception had ended first on a high note with the promise of new love, then had come crashing down with my misunderstanding of Cam and his intentions. I stopped for a moment when I thought of this, but before I had the opportunity to go into a full slump, I was pressed into duty greeting relatives and friends, going from table to table making sure everyone was having a good time.

  Before I knew it, the party was over. By early afternoon, the last guests had gone, taking along plates of food, cookies, and cake as is the custom at an Italian gathering.

  Damian and I were seated side by side, with my head on his shoulder, when Nonna came up and tapped me on the knee. She had a bright polka-dot apron on over her fancy suit.

  “Allora, e tempo di pulire (It’s time to clean up),” she said briskly.

  “Nonna,” I groaned, “give me five minutes—cinque minuti.”

  She shook her head. “Non abbiamo cinque minuti. (We don’t have five minutes.) Presto! Presto!”

  “E Damiano? (And Damian?)” I pointed to my brother.

  She tsk’d. “Il prete non pulisce. (The priest doesn’t clean.) He needs-a go his own church.”

  Damian grinned. “Wow! If I only knew I had those privileges when I was younger, I would have told Nonna I was becoming a priest a long time ago.”

  “Who are you kidding? You ALWAYS had those privileges!”

  “Actually, I do need to get out of here.” He turned to me and took both my hands in his. “Before I go, how are you doing?”

  I stood up and pulled him up as well.

  “No time for THAT discussion. Nonna is returning with a broom. Get out while the getting is good.” I hugged him. “Take me to the airport tomorrow afternoon? We can talk then?”

  “It’s a deal. I’m going, Nonna, I’m going.” He scooted.

  But my mother intervened for me as well.

  “Mama, abbiamo assunti I pulitori (we’ve hired cleaners), see?” She pointed to several young boys who had come in wielding cleaning supplies. “They’ll clean for us.”

  “You pay?”

  My mother nodded.

  “Che peccato! (What a sin!) We can do!”

  With the skill of many years of handling my nonna, my mother extracted the broom from her hand and led her away.

  I sank back into the chair and was joined by Keira.

  “Fantastic party,” she said, munching a cookie and handing me one.

  “I hope Nonna sees us eating cookies. You know she thinks we’re too thin.”

  “She thinks everyone is too thin.”

  “She’s bad for the diet industry.”

  “Yep. Hey, listen. Change of plans, I need to fly out this evening.”

  “But why?”

  “It’s a thing.” She waved her hand. “But a friend e-mailed me an invite to the opening of a new restaurant over in Highlands tomorrow night. Do you want to come with me? Will you be home in time?”

  Highlands was an up-and-coming area of Denver that was home to new little shops and trendy restaurants. “Well, I get back to the airport at around seven. Is that too late?”

  “No. You know how these things go. It will be going till midnight. I’ll pick you up.”

  I looked at her suspiciously.

  “Something sounds fishy about this.”

  She pursed her lips. “Look. I’m doing a favor for a friend and attending an opening. I DO have other friends, you know.”

  “Fine, fine, I’ll go. Sheesh.”

  “All right then.” She stood up with purpose. “I’ll say my good-byes and head to the airport.”

  “Keira, thanks for coming and the whole Brady thing and, well, you know …”

  She waved me off.

  “Hey, we’ve been through thick and thin since the first day of college. No need to stop now, sister.”

  “Too true. Let me walk you out.”

  Keira was off to the airport.

  Damian was off to his own parish.

  Anthony and Celia were off to their own home to get Elisabetta to bed after all the excitement.

  I was sitting on the porch with Nonna and Ma. The only sound was the screech of the swing as I moved lazily back and forth.

  “Can you sit still, Alexandria?” asked my mother, as she had thousands of times in my lifetime.

  Actually, no.

  “Where’s Pop?”

  “He’s down with the seedlings.”

  My father had built a seedling room in the basement of our house, kitted out with long rows of tables, grow lights, and a watering system. It served as a place for preparing plants for the nursery as well as a quiet sanctuary for him. We all knew not to bother Pop when he was with the seedlings. He claimed that they needed the proper atmosphere to grow. In reality, we knew he needed the quiet to escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life. I was usually the only one he let down there with him.

  I loved being beside him as he nurtured the plantlets. I felt the extreme calm of the room, the dark broken only by the eerie otherworldly light. Pop would hum tunes under his breath. While he publicly claimed that he had no idea where Damian got his musical talent, Pop was definitely the source of my brother’s melodious voice.

  I descended the stairs with as much calm as I could muster.

  “Is that you, bella mia?”

  “Do you want to be alone, Daddy?” I said quietly.

  “No, come join me. It’s been a long time since the two of us have been down here alone together. Gum?”

  He tapped his front shirt pocket. I reached in for a stick of Juicy Fruit, pulled up a small well-worn stool beside him, opened my gum, and started to chew thoughtfully. I began folding the wrapper over and over in my hand.

  “What’s on your mind, Alexandria?” he asked as he moved from seedling to seedling, holding one after another to the light, clipping a tiny brown leaf here, spritzing another there.

  “Nothing, Daddy.”

  “Are you sure? You haven’t called me Daddy since sixth grade.”

  I kept folding my gum wrapper.

  “Do you remember in third grade when I collected gum wrappers and folded them all in a giant chain?”

  He nodded. “I do. I remember that you said that Rae O’Malley said she was going to make one ten feet long and you said you were going to make one twenty feet long.”

  “I did it, too.”

  “You sure did.”

  “I used to do lots of things I said I would.”

  “What do you mean ‘used to’”?

  “Oh, Daddy, nothing has turned out the way I thought it would.” I started to sob quietly.

  He put his seedling and tools down, wiped his hands on a nearby towel, sat and put his fists on his knees—a movement I had seen him make so many times in my childhood when he prepared for a serious conversation.

  “Come on, tell me exactly what’s going on.”

  “I lost my job again.” There it was out. He could reprimand me now.

  “Are you sure you lost it?”

  What? That was mighty calm.

  “What do you mean am I sure I lost it? Another company bought us, and there are all sorts of changes. People are being let go.”

  “Yes, but did you get let go? Maybe you got, oh, transferred?”

  I stared at him.

  “You know! How do you know? Did Keira say something?” How else could he know?

  “Calm down, calm down. Don’t upset the babies,” he gestured to the plants. “Do you think your old man doe
sn’t follow the high-technology world business news? Especially since you are part of it?”

  He reached into his pocket for his handkerchief and gave it to me.

  “But how?”

  He tilted his head to the side and smiled.

  “Ally-Cat, the purchase of Media Resolutions by Castle Electronics was big news. And part of the story was the move of the marketing department—the whole marketing department—to corporate headquarters.”

  I stared at him, stunned.

  “Just because we live back here in the ‘sticks’ doesn’t mean we don’t get a business channel or that I don’t follow business news.”

  “No, Daddy, it’s not that. It’s just that I figured you followed what the boys did and that what I did, well … you know … I’m the girl …”

  He pulled me on his lap.

  “Alexandria, you are my shining star. Sure, Antonio and Damiano are stars as well, but in different ways. YOU are the one who said, ‘I’m going to go out there in the unknown world’—kind of like when your grandmother and grandfather got on the boat and came to this country. Look how hard you worked for scholarships to Notre Dame. Then after that, you said, ‘I’m going to see what is out there in the rest of the big world’ and you did it!”

  By now, I was sobbing heavily. “But what if I made a mistake?”

  “What mistake? You’ve been very successful. Just because these two companies have made changes, that’s no reflection on you.”

  “No, Daddy, what if I made a mistake in the CHOICE I made to begin with?”

  “What?” He gently pushed my shoulders away. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

  “I mean”—and I took a deep breath to tell him what I barely could even tell myself—“what if I went to all that trouble to get my marketing degree, and I wasted that scholarship and wasted all the extra money that you and Ma gave me throughout my college years?”

  “Hmm.”

  I knew it! He was mad! NOW the lecture would come.

  I jumped up from his lap and started chewing my nails.

  “Stop biting your nails. I can tell you pay for a manicure and you shouldn’t ruin it, although why you girls need to pay so much is beyond me—”