Someone To Watch Over You

Chapter 27

I have the driver take my mom and me out to dinner. I can tell after the meeting with the lawyers my mother's mood has improved, so I'm hoping her appetite has too.

"This isn't necessary, Alex. I'm fine with eating at home," my mother tells me.

"Mom, I had to scrounge for the fixings for a salad. We need to eat. Let me treat you. Besides, we are both dressed for the part." She nods her head and I'm so thankful she agrees.

"Good." I give the name of the Italian Bistro my father would take me out to for lunch whenever I came into the office with him.

"Rossi's?" my mother looks at me with surprise.

"Not in the mood for Italian?"

"No, it's not that. It's just..." she stops talking and looks out the window.

"What?"

She shakes her head. "No, you said you didn't wish to talk about him."

I now understood her hesitation. "Mom, I was angry. I spoke out of anger. Besides, there is too much to discuss that will involve Dad. Not talking about him is an impossibility."

My mom looks back at me. "It was your father's favorite place to eat. Even before he became successful. In fact, it's where he asked me to marry him once upon a time."

I didn't know and instantly regret the decision to go there. "Let's go somewhere else."

"Why?" she asks, her face showing she is perplexed by my change of mind.

"If being there hurts you...?"

"Alex. I know you find this hard to understand, but I loved your father. I never stopped. These memories are fond memories for me. There is no pain."

I wasn't sure what to say to that other than, "Okay, Rossi's it is then."

Within minutes they seat us at a table. The owner came out to greet us. "Ah, Signora, we had heard on the news. We are so sorry for your loss. Your husband was a good man."

"Thank you, Signor Rossi. He loved this restaurant. It is our most favorite place to eat in the whole city."

"You make me blush, Signora surely your husband had much fancier places to eat than this." His arms rose to the roof of the small bistro.

"Bigger is not always better, Signor Rossi. This place was his haven. He loved to come here to escape the pressures of life and you never failed to deliver."

"Bless your heart, Signora. Whatever you wish, your dinner is on me tonight."

"Signor! That is too much to ask."

"Nonsense, it is my pleasure. If it were not for your husband, I would have had to close my doors years ago. It is a debt I have yet to repay."

"He did not expect you to repay it, only to make a success of yourself, which you have."

Signor Rossi picked up my mother's hand and kissed it. "You both had faith in me when no other's would give me the time of day. I have worked three times as hard to earn that faith."

"And this," my mother says, raising her hands to the roof like the owner had a moment ago, "is the magnificent testament that my husband's faith was not misplaced."

Signor Rossi beamed. "What may I get you both?"

"Alex?" My mom broke me out of my daze. My father invested in Signor Rossi? Gave him a no payback loan to save his restaurant? It didn't sound like him.

"Alex!" Signor Rossi looks at me with surprise. "How could I miss the resemblance? Little Alex. You have grown since I'd last seen you."

"Yes," I say, smiling politely, "I'm all grown up."