I lost all my ID before I went away, so I can’t open a new one.”
“Did you call them?”
“Who?”
“The bank.”
“No.”
“Maybe go down there? Do you have a letter from your landlord and your prison paperwork? That might be enough.”
Luis shrugged, and Paolo thought hard for a solution that wouldn’t see him starve. “How are you paying your rent?”
“With a payment card at the post office.”
“So you can pay that with cash?”
“I think so.”
“Okay, well, find out. If you can, I’ll pay you in cash until you have your accounts up and running. If not, I’ll hold your rent money and come with you to pay it by card.”
“Why would you do that?”
Paolo had no idea. He offered a shrug of his own. “You’re no good to me if you’re homeless.”
Luis nodded. “Fair enough.”
It really wasn’t, but they’d run out of time to talk about it. Paolo drained his coffee mug and got up to refill it for the first of the many he’d need to get through the day. He turned to offer Luis more tea, but he was already in the kitchen, rummaging in the fridge for tomatoes and mushrooms.
He found the green and brown chopping boards without being asked and got to work. Paolo figured it would keep him busy for a little while. He fired up the grill and stacked the bread by the toaster. Two fresh mugs of coffee found their way into his belly, but their effects were dampened by the bone-deep exhaustion hanging over him.
Just before six, his phone rang. It was Toni.
“What happened?”
Paolo swallowed a sigh. “She fell in the bathroom. They thought she’d broken her hip, but it’s just a bruise. She’s okay now.”
Toni cursed in Italian and set off on a rant that made Paolo’s ears bleed and his heart ache. His grandparents landing in separate care homes had been the worst thing that had ever happened, and guilt burned craters in his soul that the cafe didn’t make enough money to put it right. Hell, it barely made enough to cover the fractional amount he paid to Toni’s home each month.
With Toni still talking, Paolo set the egg pans to heat, drifted to the front door, and unlocked it on autopilot. A handful of waiting tradesmen wandered in; some faces Paolo knew, others he didn’t.
The ones he knew nodded in greeting. Paolo nodded back and gestured to his phone. “Be with you in a sec,” he mouthed. And to Toni, “Nonno, I’ve got to go. It’s opening time. I’ll call you later, okay?”
Toni sighed with the weight of the world. “Okay, but don’t come and see me tonight. I want you to go and be with Nonna, even if they’ll only let you in for a little while. It frightens me so much to think of her alone.”
“She’s not alone. She’s got friends there, and I’ll take you to see her on Sunday.”
After sixty years of marriage, it was a sad offering, but it was all Paolo had, and Toni knew it. He bid Paolo goodbye and hung up, leaving Paolo to face the world alone.
5
Luis worked as he’d done the day before, a machine of silence and efficiency. From time to time, Paolo found himself watching him, tracking his every move and the expressions on his lovely face as he made them.
He was cute as hell when he was concentrating, all frowns and dimples. Quiet, though. Too quiet. He spoke to no one, not even Paolo, unless Paolo asked him a direct question, and even that was a stretch. Half of Paolo’s efforts to communicate went unanswered, and after a while, he stopped bothering. Another day he might’ve persisted, but fatigue erased his patience.
Not that he’d had much to begin with, especially on a day like today when his existence seemed wired to annoy him. The gas grill’s flickering pilot light, the leaking milk container, and the dripping tap in the kitchen. By the time a full basket of bread slipped out of Paolo’s hand, he was done.
Sliced loaves covered the floor. Paolo swore loud enough for every table in the cafe to pause and stare, and it took every ounce of self-restraint not to hurl the empty basket at them.
He dropped to the floor to clean up the mess.
Luis was already there. He gathered the loaves in ten seconds flat, loaded them into the basket and wordlessly handed it over.
Paolo took it and straightened up, but by the time he got there, Luis had already vanished back into