Make you Mine-estrone Macaroni

Chapter Two

The door of the Argante home echoes the house with three loud knocks. Ottavio, son to Argante, rushes to the door and flings it open. "Leandro!" Weak, Leandro fell into his arms. Giacinta stood behind him. "Ottavio, we had nowhere else to go..." she muttered. "Would you or your father mind if we stay here? With you?" Ottavio, holding Leandro, gently caresses his face. "Of course. Father would be delighted to have you here. I will fetch him." Ottavio picks up Leandro and holds him in a cradle before resting him on a nearby couch. He turns to look at his lover, then leaves to fetch his father. Giacinta sits next to Leandro and worries as she looks at him lay there, weak.

"Father?" Ottavio knocks on Argante's study. "Father, may I come in?" "Yes, my son, come in." Ottavio opens the large wooden door and approaches his father, hunched over his papers. "Father, Leandro is here. Giacinta as well. May they stay with us? Please, Father, they have nowhere to go." Argante turns on his stool toward his son. "Of course they can. A friend of yours is a friend of mine." "Thank you, father."

Meanwhile, as Giacinta comforts Leandro, Zerbinetta enters around the corner. "Giacinta!" She runs to embrace her friend. "Zerbinetta! Thank you for allowing us to stay at your home! I am eternally grateful, as is my brother." Her brother, of course, who was passed out on the couch. "Please, come walk with me in our garden, let us catch up with each other's lives!" Said Zerbinetta as she took Giacintas hand.

As the two ladies walked through the breathtaking botany of the Argante family garden, Giacinta turns to her companion. "Zerbinetta,.." she questions, "Do you ever miss... being married to Leandro?" Zerbinetta stops. "Are you not happy for them?" "No, of course I am!" It's just..." Giacinta sits on a marble bench the girls are standing near. "It's just I miss Ottavio, occasionally." She turns to Zerbinetta to say... "Do you ever feel like that?" Zerbinetta sits to comfort Giacinta. She says.. "Sometimes. But I remind myself... they're happy. And I love them. So if those I love are happy, I shall be happy too." "What if we don't find someone else?" Giacinta replies. "Then we do not. I have no need for a husband. I am perfectly happy." Zerbinetta turns to Giacinta. "Are you happy, Gia?" She takes a beat to think, then.. "I suppose I am." Zerbinetta stands. "Then why risk changing that simply so you may be married?" Giacinta stand to Zerbinetta. "You are wise. Very wise. Thank you, I am proud to have you as a friend." They hug, following to walk back inside.

Inside, the two girls find their brothers together, snuggled up on the couch where it once was just Leandro.