Just Friends

Just Friends (6)

Vinnie walked down the road towards a cafe and sat down at a table closest to the door. He frowned as he looked at his watch. It was Wednesday and he was on his lunch break. Apparently Antonino had something that he needed to talk to him about so he had come. He hoped it wasn’t another talk to get him a girl. In some ways, he felt like he needed a break from them.

He checked his watch again and decided that if Nino didn’t show up in the next five minutes, then he would leave. He heard the door open and he looked up. There in front of him stood Maame, Luca’s wife’s cousin.

“What are you doing here?” He asked frowning.

“I'm supposed to meet Lili here.” She replied.

“I’m supposed to meet Nino here.” Vincent told her slightly irritated.

“Those little fuckers.” Maame muttered.

They had clearly been set up by the idiots that they call friends. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Maame; she was a nice person and a good friend but there was no way that we could ever be more than friends. The sound of her pulling back a chair and sitting brought me out of my thoughts. Vincent raised an eyebrow at her; he was sure that she would have left by now.

“I have to eat otherwise it would have been a waste coming all the way down here.” She explained.

“You better not to be trying to make Tyrone jealous again. He was so pissed off with me the last time.” Vincent warned her.

“I only said we had a nice dinner together; he was the one who jumped to conclusions.” She said raising her hands up.

“Probably because you failed to mention that there were others with us.” He snorted.

She smiled at the memory but didn’t argue with him. She had wanted Tyrone to be jealous so that he would take the relationship more seriously and she knew a mention of his old friend would get him riled up.

“So how are you and Tyrone doing?” He asked smiling.

Tyrone was his oldest friend. They had met in primary school and had been friends ever since. Vincent was actually the one who helped Tyrone to get the job at Luca’s company. Tyrone and Vincent were similar in the way that they didn’t have much when they were growing up and both had to work hard to get where they were at the moment.

“We’re good; he’s taking me out on the weekend.” She replied smiling.

“When are you going to tell everyone?” He asked.

“When I want people to know.” She told me.

“They wouldn’t be so intent on setting you up on so many dates if you told them you already have a boyfriend.” He said exasperated.

“I don’t mind. Most of the time, I get a free lunch or dinner.” She replied shrugging.

“I really don’t understand how Ty deals with that.” He muttered.

“He knew the score when he asked me out and you can’t tell them either.” She told Vincent narrowing her eyes.

He held up his hands. He wouldn’t tell; it wasn’t his business to. He wouldn’t have known if Tyrone hadn’t asked him for relationship advice a few months ago not knowing that Vincent and Maame already knew each other. When Maame found out, she was annoyed and had sworn Vincent to secrecy. He didn’t want to be involved at all so he accepted. He just felt it was really stupid.

He checked his watch and cursed. He should have been back at work ten minutes ago. He looked over at Maame and she waved him away. He left the money for his meal on the table and ran back to work. Nobody would say anything because he was the boss but he didn’t want to look incompetent. He quickly got back and went straight to his office and got down to work.