Notoriously Beautiful

14

Vino Con Amici
(Wine with Friends)

(Six weeks later)
Every night I hear from either Marco, Simona, or Tomasso in the group chat with us four. I love talking to them and texting them but I rather see them in person. Monday through Friday is a little hard to get together with friends but now and again Marco comes to my house, and I go to his house on weekdays. This Friday night, I go to Marco's house.
"Hello? Marco!,"I say. I'm right in front of his house.
He opens the door, he's got no shirt on, he's got his gold chain, and red, up to the knee sweatpants.
"Aey, bella," he says. "One second."
He leaves the door open, but signals me to wait there. He comes back less than a minute later. Now he has his white sleeveless undershirt. Something else is different as well. I look him up and down slow, but not too slow. It's his glasses. He's wearing glasses. He's never worn glasses before, at least not in the last three and a half months that I've known him.
"What's with the glasses?" I ask, smiling.
"Oh, oh wow. I was just reading and," he just stops talking and is slowly taking them off.
"Stop, I love them, you look so cute," I say.
I didn't just say that to be nice. I really do like them. The glasses are black, and boxed shape but big boxes. And grey on the sides. Glasses make him look more, more, I'm not exactly sure. I guess more American college graduate, less Sicilian pizza man who sometimes drives taxis.
"What did you say," he says grinning.
"Shut up! You know what I said," I say.
"I know, but I need to make sure."
"Wow, well you know we don't always get what we need," I say, giving his arm a little shove.
"Come in," he says.
I feel tingly. I've been here before but every time I feel the same tingle.
"Why are you doing that again," he asks.
"Doing what," I ask as we walk towards the navy blue H-couch.
"You know, you do this tingle thing, you shake slightly, and you squeeze your hands really tight together, but not in a fist," he says.
"I—I don't, um, I'm not sure," I say.
"That's alright, so, what do you want to do," we're both sitting on the couch together, and he comes closer.
"I'm not sure, what do you want to do?" I ask.
He moves closer, and I take his glasses and put them on.
"How do I look?" I laugh.
"Not as good as me," he says.
"Oh yeah, is that right hot shot.
"What I mean is, you look way better than me."
I look at him, and I hold the look. I think for a second he might kiss me, but no. It's just a hug.
"Your cologne is so strong," I say, wrinkling my nose.
"I know you like it, you don't have to lie," he jokes.
We decide to ask Simona and Tomasso if they'd like to come with us to Marco's pizzeria. I haven't gone there yet, and I have already been talking to Marco about going for a while now.
We call them, they say yes and we get in the car.
"They'll meet us there."
Yet again, another drive. we reach Tomasso's house, he hoops in the back. Marco's car has a sunroof so Tomasso sticks his head and upper body out of it. That would be fine if the car wasn't moving! So as Marco is driving the car, Tomasso has his head dangerously outside the car frame, and Simona and I are just hysterically laughing as we try to pull Tomasso back in the car. Oh my gosh, so funny.
"Guys, at one point I got scared for Tomasso!" I say.
"Don't be, I do that all the time, right Marco," he says.
"Tomasso, you can't do this! It's dangerous," I say.
He laughs and shrugs my comment off.
Then Simona tells him that she was already impressed, and that he could stop now, in Italian.
Did I mention, Simona was already at Tomasso's house when we called him. (I totally love that couple).
"What makes you think I want to impress you," he says as he pulls his upper body back into the car and sits right on top of Simona's lap. I can tell Simona isn't that uncomfortable but she didn't want him to be sitting on her.
"Get off!" Simona says.
"What are you gonna do about it," Tomasso says.
"La ragazza ti ha detto di lasciare la Tomasso," (The lady told you to get off Tomasso)" Marco says.
"Thank you," Simona says, laughing.
I watch as he gets off of Simona and sits back in his seat, right between Simona and I. I have just realized that no one was in the passenger seat. I was in the back, and once I realized no one was in the front with Marco I paid more attention to him. I saw that once every few minutes he looks back at me to see if I am okay.
"I'm fine, you know," I can't help but say.
Tomasso and Simona are confused because they are only paying attention to each other. Marco though, just starts laughing. He knows exactly why I said that.
"That's good bella," he says, I can see he is slowing down the car.
I look to my right, and then to my left. Then I see it. Pescò Pizzeria. That's a weird name because Marco's last name means fish, so the pizzeria is called Fish Pizzeria, if you translate it to English.
"Fish Pizzeria, very nice," I say, chuckling a little.
"Hey, hey. Don't make fun of it, everyone in a seven mile radius of us knows that Pescò is my last name," Marco says.
"Do you make fish pizza?" Simona asks.
"Nothing about the pizzeria should involve fish!" Marco says.
"You're such a two year old, the lady was just asking a question," Tomasso said, mocking what Marco has said previously.
"Alright, I see how it is. Once you taste my pizza, forget about it, you'll be bowing down to Mr.Fish," Marco says, smiling.
"I believe you," I say.
"I know you do," Marco says.
We get out of the car and Marco comes over to me. He comes and hugs me.
"Are you ready to meet my brother?" Marco asks me.
"Is that a trick question," I ask.
"Well, Marco's brother is..." Tomasso says, looking for the words to explain to me.
"You'll see," Marco says.
Simona and I look at each other confused. I whisper,
"I got your back" to her. We are laughing and the guys don't understand why.
"I got your back too Katerina," she says, in a whisper
as well.
We walk in the store and there are two workers, behind the counter. There are about fifteen tables, and about nine of them are filled.
Right when we step in a tall, robust man starts shouting "Marco, dove sei stato" (Marco where have you been) he's talking in a heavy Sicilian accent. My Nonna has taught me clean Italian, she didn't teach me dialect. Some words were very different.
Marco goes on to tell him he was with Simona, Tomasso and I. He takes his flour covered gloves off and comes over to me and hugs me, and kisses me on the cheek, and to Simona, he did the same thing. Now he shakes Tomasso's hand.
"Ciao, mi chiamo Katerina," I say. That means Hello, my name is Katerina.
He says I know who you are. Which is kind of weird, but I understand that Marco probably has told him.
"So are we going to eat pizza, or what!" Marco says.
"Marco, speak Italian," I say. I can barely understand his English and I can see it is uncomfortable for him to seek the right words. Especially with all the confusion in the pizzeria.
We eat, and we drink. Vino con amici!
"Amici che bevono insieme, stanno insieme," (Friends who drink together, stay together) Marco's brother says.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know your name now that I'm thinking about it," I say.
He gets mad at Marco, because he didn't even tell his friends his own brother's name!
"Vito, my name is Vito!" He proclaims loudly.
"Nice to meet you," I grin.
"To new friends, and great pizza," Simona says, raising her glass of red wine.
"Yes, and to budding romance," Vito says, practically shoving Marco across the table.
My face gets bright red I can feel my blood boil. Vito is staring at me and then back at his brother. Woah, is that what this is?