Tre Ragazzi e Una Ragazza

5 ~ Exploration

We all appointed Cosimo to be our tour guide, since he argued that he had the most knowledge of where all the fun things to do in the city were. We started our adventure by walking around Little Italy. This was a part of the city that I felt the most at home at, considering I lived right in the neighborhood. We even passed my mom's restaurant as we were walking. The boys wanted to stop in and say hi, but I told them my mom would most likely force them to eat a seven-course meal before they left and we didn't have enough time in the day for that. 

We stopped into a deli/bakery Cosimo and Lucio went in to buy bread and deli meat for later. We were all looking at the selection of delicious-looking deli meats, cheeses, and pastries, when Amedeo got a call. He stared down at his phone and held up a finger to us. "Give me a second." He walked out of the store and started talking. What I heard before the door closed behind him was all in Italian. I looked at him through the window and noticed that he looked pretty upset. There was a big frown on his face and his eyes were permanently fixed on the ground. I was a bit worried about what these frequent phone calls meant for him. 

"Do you want any bread, Daniela?" Cosimo asked me, two loaves of rosemary focaccia in his hands. I gave him a quizzical look. He shrugged. "What? I like bread." I smiled. "I'm good, thanks." He nodded and went back to the counter, likely to grab some more food. Lucio had been studying the case of pastries in the corner with a look of desire on his face. The boy sure did like his sweets. He called the owner over and started ordering pastries to take home. He looked at me and brought me over to the case. "See anything you like? I'll get it for you." I shook my head. "No, I'm okay!" As soon as the words had left my mouth, I saw some mouth-watering cannoncini filled with nutella staring back at me from the case. It was like they were calling my name. Lucio chuckled. "And two nutella-filled cannoncini, please." I looked up at him in protest. He shook his head. "Non c'è di che." Don't mention it. I smiled at his generosity. "Thanks, Lucio." He nodded at me and went to pay for his food. 

As I was about to follow them, I looked out the window to check on Amedeo. He was no longer on the phone. He had his back turned to the window and it looked like he had one hand over his mouth and the other on his hip. His head was bent down to look at the ground. I frowned. Something definitely wasn't right with him. "I'll be right outside, ragazzi." Lucio and Cosimo turned to look at me, but I was already heading out the door. 

I slowly approached Amedeo, standing next to him il silence. He didn't look at me once. "Is everything okay?" I now realized he had never even noticed me standing there. He whipped his head around to look at me, a little startled. "Oh, Daniela." He nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." I tilted my head and raised a brow. "Are you sure? It looks like something's wrong." He shook his head. "No need to worry, I'm good." He had the fakest smile plastered on his face. I refused to let him be miserable by himself. I approached the situation tactfully. "You can talk to me. I'm a pretty good listener." I offered. He waved his hand. "No need." He put his hands in his pockets and looked straight out into the distance. I crossed my arms and frowned even more. "Amedeo." I said, my tone a bit firm. He looked back at me. I didn't have to say anything to tell him I wasn't leaving without knowing why he was upset. "You can tell me." 

I broke the barrier. Amedeo's lower lip quivered a bit, but he just groaned and rubbed his eyes with his hands. "It's my nonno."  He barely spoke. He crossed his arms and sighed, looking down at the ground. "He's been in pretty bad shape for some time. He's been sick for a few years now and has been going downhill ever since. The doctors say it's only a matter of time." He shuddered. "It's actually the reason I moved to San Francisco. I had been living on my own for a while not too far from my parents, but when I heard from my nonna how nonno was doing so bad, I knew I wanted to be here to live out his last few years with him." A sad smile spread across his face. "The day of the auditions was the first time I did something without my nonno. I had usually gone with him everywhere. I'm just so scared I'll miss the opportunity to..." He stopped speaking and cleared his throat. His breath was shallow. "There was another health scare today. That's what my nonna just called me about. They had to take him to the emergency room. I guess he's home and fine right now, but I just get so worried. I'm really close with him and I can't imagine what it would be like to lose him." I saw tears form in his eyes that threatened to spill out at any moment. He covered part of his face with his hand. "I'm sorry, I'm putting a damper on our day out."