She giggled at the put-on Eastern accent he adopted as he told her about the ravioli, and she put a tiny serving on her plate.
Sighing in disgust, he took the serving utensil when she handed it to him and whispered, “That’s not enough to feed a flea, darlin’. What? You wanna insult Grannie?” She giggled as he persisted with the accent that he’d be shot for if his relatives could hear him talking to her like that. He put a healthy serving on her plate and said, “You’re gonna thank me for that when you take the first bite, I promise.” He served himself and then handed the spoon to Julián who stood patiently shaking his head.
“Thanks, Guido.”
“My pleasure, Julió.
His aged aunt piped up suddenly. “Julió? Where’s Julió? Julió’s not here, is he?” She looked around from her seat in a rocking chair nearby and Chris smiled at her and replied, “No, Auntie Rosa, Julió isn’t here. I misspoke. Sorry.”
Gwen whispered, “Who is Julió?”
Chris grimaced and helped her with a serving of his mother’s baked ziti as he softly replied, “Julió is her brother. He’s back in Jersey. Last I heard he was in prison. Restaurants weren’t the only family business back in the day.”
“Oh. Moving right along then. What’s this?” she asked, pointing at another dish. He explained and described all the foods he thought she might like, and once their plates were full, they went to a long table in front of the tall windows. Gwen and Julián took their seats. Out of habit at all family gatherings, Chris checked for the stability of his chair before sitting down. His mother served Gwen a glass of wine and placed ice-cold bottles of beer in front of Chris and Julián.
“You three go ahead and eat.”
“Okay, Ma. Thank you.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Julián added as she smiled and patted his shoulder then sat down beside him.
“Julián, I’m so glad you came with Chris and Gwen. We need to find you a nice girl. I know some very pretty single girls—”
“Ma,” Chris interrupted over a bite of Italian bread. “Let Julián alone. He already has a very nice girl.”
“Oh! Well, you should’ve brought her! Is she Italian?”
“Ma! Let the man eat,” Chris said, trying not to laugh at the situation. Julián could barely keep a straight face. Chris’s mother offered again to introduce him to some nice Italian girls who were in attendance that day but he declined graciously, saying that his heart belonged to another. His mother finally backed off with an understanding nod.
Gwen got his attention by squeezing his knee. “Why did you check your chair like that? Looking at the underside and legs?”
“Long story made short?”
“Sure.”
“You sure you want to hear it? It involves me dating.”
Gwen rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. You’ve dated. I’m shocked.”
“I really liked this girl in high school and I invited her over for supper with the family. We all had our usual places at the table where we always sat. They added a chair for her at the end but my brothers doctored up my chair beforehand.”
“Doctored it up?” Her eyes got big. “Oh no.”
“Oh yes. I sat down and landed in a heap on the broken pieces. It was very embarrassing. She laughed too and that made it even worse. She went on to date Roberto. She made him miserable and he broke her heart. So I guess it all sort of evened out.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Ma was pretty pissed about them ruining one of her dining room chairs.” And speak of the devil, his loving mother appeared again, ready to refill wineglasses, looking speculatively at Gwen and then giving him a wink and the waggly eyebrow.
When his mother was out of earshot and while the other family members were still at the serving table, Chris added, “I hope we can pull this charade off without blowing it.” He looked pointedly at Gwen’s hand which was resting casually in Julián’s lap.
She snatched her hand away and sat up straight. “Damn, I didn’t even realize I was doing that. Sorry, baby,” she whispered to Julián as she pooched out her lip. “You’re irresistible.”
Julián patted her arm in a brotherly fashion. “I keep catching myself reaching for you too, love. The feeling is mutual. You look especially beautiful today. It’s hard to not reach for you.”
Her eyes glowed but she cast them down after glancing at him and looked around the room. “Thank you.”
Taking advantage of his ability to do so, Chris leaned back and put his arm around her, slid his hand down to her ass, and squeezed. “I agree. You practically light the room up, darlin’. All my brothers are seething with envy, even the married ones.”