Tre Ragazzi e Una Ragazza

18 ~ The Final Rehearsal

It had been a bittersweet week. The sweetness of the week was due to how much time Lucio and I had been spending together. We had spent pretty much every day together. In the mornings, he would come by the restaurant, and we would chat over a cup of coffee. Lucio would come over for dinner most nights as well, this unfortunately meaning that my mom had access to show him every single photo album of me as a child that she had. Lucio didn't mind, though. He even saved some of the pictures on his phone, mostly the embarrassing ones. Throughout the week, we practiced our duet together and went on outings when we had free time. We had been able to go to the beach, marveling at the grandiose of the ocean, remembering the beauty of the coast of Italy. Lucio told me about how he visited Italy years ago and loved it, and I told him how I went with my mom a year ago and knew right then and there that that's where I belonged. This sparked another kind of conversation. 

We were able to sit down together and discuss our relationship seriously. We both agreed that, even though we loved each other, we had to put our singing and life goals first. Lucio assured me that he would fully support me moving to Italy, even if that meant us being far away from each other. We had even worked out how we would do a long-distance relationship, in the case that we were living in different countries. Aside from the sad moments when we thought about not being together, we had a great time. On one of our outings, we ended up going to a famous opera coffee shop in Little Italy and got roped into singing Libiamo Ne Lieti Calici together, to which we received a standing ovation. I was even able to meet Lucio's zia and zio for the first time and was force-fed penne arrabbiata until I was too full to move. On Sunday night, the night before our final rehearsal, we even got our families together to finally meet each other and have dinner at the restaurant. Our good feelings immediately vanished when we were asked where Cosimo and Amedeo were. 

We made some sort of excuse, but Lucio and I shared a pensive look with each other. We knew the truth and, even though we tried to ignore it at times, it still stung. We had really been missing Amedeo and Cosimo. Lucio and I loved being together, but sometimes when we were having fun or joking around, we would see or say something that made us think of them. We'd stop our fun when this was brought up and would stay silent for a moment. This moving on was proving to be tougher than I thought. Lucio and would talk about how we wished we could all be friends again, but we knew it was impossible. It still didn't make it any less sad when I would scroll through their contacts on my phone, seeing the funny text conversations we used to have. But then I would think of how they were at the dance and shudder at how they weren't the same men I once met.

Soon, it was the day of the final rehearsal. After today, the next time we would walk into the Solstice Theatre would be for the opera showcase. The thought made me nervous, but also incredibly excited. I was so close to achieving my dream. Let's just hope I could do my best at the showcase to impress any talent scouts from Italy that were in attendance. 

I woke up that morning to a text from Lucio. 

Lucio: Buongiorno, cara mia 💗 today's the last rehearsal so let's make it the best one! 😁

I smiled at his text, quickly typing out my response. 

Daniela: We'll do great, amore! 👍🏻 

A few seconds later, Lucio sent me a picture of a puppy dog with hearts in his eyes that said "Ti amo, amore mio!" I giggled, downloading the photo to a special 'Lucio' folder in my phone, before I set it down to go and get ready. Once I was all ready, I practiced Caro Mio Ben and my part of Vivo Per Lei by myself before rehearsing it for the last time today. Now when I sang, I was about to think of my feelings for Lucio without feeling sick. I just felt happy, knowing that I loved him and he loved me back. I could sing about my love for him without having to hide my feelings, and it felt amazing.