Oblivion

13| Melting

JOSEPHINE

"I'm glad to see you alive and in one piece, Josi." Valentino sat down on the sofa next to me. "Listen: I wanted to apologize to you," he continued without waiting for my reply.

Confused, I looked away from the window in front of me at him. "Why should you have to apologize? I'm the one who acted completely irrationally and rashly, not you."

"You did, didn't you?" He grinned at me. "But I noticed yesterday that you weren't feeling well and didn't do anything. Maybe if I had stayed with you—"

"It wouldn't have changed anything, Nino. Seriously. Please don't worry about it. Besides, luckily nothing worse happened," I tried to reassure him, because it was true: it wouldn't have made any difference. I had fallen into this spiral too many times, and no matter what I had tried, it had never stopped.

"Well, I would say feeding the hellhounds could be considered worse. Was Domenico very unfair to you?" He sounded genuinely concerned, and I rushed to shake my head.

"No, he was right in what he said. Besides, who knows? Maybe I'll grow fond of the beasts," I replied, and after a short moment of silence, we both laughed out loud at the same time.

"Yeah, sure. Is there more where the milkshake comes from? It looks pretty tasty." He watched the glass in my hand curiously. I offered him the glass, but he declined. "Thanks, Josi, but I'm not you. Vito wouldn't let me off so easily if he found out that I was taking your food away from you. But do you think Maria would make something like that for me if I asked her nicely?" I knew Valentino was trying to change the subject, and I was eternally grateful to him for it. It relieved me to notice no change in his behavior toward me because he somehow felt so easy to talk to. With Vito or Domenico, I was always afraid of doing or saying the wrong thing and disappointing them, but Valentino had a way about him that made it easy for me. Maybe because he avoided topics related to my past, and I hoped it would stay that way. "Well, I can see you're deep in thought. I'll come back right away, and then we'll talk about our plans for the day."

Valentino got up and disappeared, I assumed, toward the kitchen. Grinning, I took another sip as I looked back out the window. The sun had started to melt away the snow, but I could still catch only a glimpse of the garden in front of me. It would probably be beautiful like the rest of the house, and I felt childish anticipation about discovering it. Shaking my head, I was annoyed at myself for my behavior; it was just a garden! But I had never lived in a house with its own garden. Until my parents died, we lived in an apartment but visited the community garden every day. I loved that place. So much so that whenever we had to leave, I would start crying until Dad assured me we would come back the next day. Looking back, I had to admit that Dad really couldn't handle my tears very well. Would it still be the same if they were alive?

"A penny for your thoughts?" Valentino interrupted my reverie, and I tried to smile at him.

"Nothing important. Didn't you want to get a shake too?" I looked at his empty hands in surprise. Maria had told me she had made more when I took this one so that I could have another drink this afternoon.

Sighing, Valentino fell back onto the sofa next to me and rubbed his face. "Maria and I had a conversation about the topic, and we mutually decided that I didn't need one."

"Mmhmm," I simply replied, and he winked at me. "It's always nice to make a 'mutual' decision."

"Exactly. So let's change the subject and never talk about it again, okay? Especially when my older brothers are around." I put a hand over my heart and nodded. "Very good. What are your plans for today?" he asked me.

"Vito suggested I should explore the house. What are you planning to do?"

"That makes sense. He's already expressed his displeasure toward me because I didn't show you everything yesterday. May I give you some advice? It's best to make a sketch of the floor plan. I can imagine you might notice a few things. Whatever—" He took a meaningful breath. "—I have to go get some very important and, above all, secret things later. So secret, I'm not allowed to tell you about them at all."