My Kind Of Perfection(EDITING)

8. Family Dinner

I hear the doorbell ring as I finish braiding my hair and give my outfit a final look. 

Emmaline chatters away indistinctively in Italian as I quickly swipe on clear lip gloss and brush some blush across my cheeks. My heart is racing a little with nerves about seeing her youngest son, but I'm in my favorite light wash jeans and the emerald green shirt that makes my hair pop so at least I look good. 

My steps falter at the top of the stairs as a familiar voice laughs. Shit. Antonio is the first to arrive. Of course he is.

"Momma Em, do you need anything carried into the other room?" I continue down the steps, avoiding eye contact with him as they turn to look at me. Em pulls me in at an arms length, giving my outfit the once-over.

"You look lovely, my dear."

"Thanks, Em." I kiss her round cheek. "As do you. How can I help?"

"You could bring the pitchers of water in, si?" She points to the counter. 

"Of course." I grab one, and before I can grab the other, Antonio snatches it.

"Let me help you." He flashes me his signature smirk, and I roll my eyes. Can't believe there was a time when I wasn't immune to his f-boy charm.

I purse my lips. "I have two hands that work just fine."

"Si, I remember they do work quite well." He winks, laying on the Italian accent thick. "I'll help anyway."

I sigh and look over at Em, but she's muttering to herself and turning down the heat on one of her pots. "Fine." I turn on my heel and stomp into the room, placing the pitcher on the table beside the wine. I wish this damn room had a sight line to the kitchen.

"She's right you look lovely, amore." He lowers his voice.

"I think I could care less what you think." I turn around and face Antonio's dark gaze.

He frowns slightly. "No need to bring the sass, I was just being nice."

I click my tongue. "Mhm."

"It's been a while since I've seen you."

I fiddle with the end of my braid. "That was intentional, on my part." I've managed to only see him once since the incident, last year at the family dinner. I gave him the silent treatment and at the end of the night when he tried to apologize again, I simply left. Oh how I miss the silence. 

He tsks and grabs my non-busy hand, placing a kiss on the back of it. "I missed you."

My hand tingles, and I snatch it away as if burned. "Tony.."

"Tesoro mio, how have you been?" He steps closer to me.

My face flushes. "I am not, nor ever have been 'your treasure', so you should probably stop assuming women like to be treated as if they belong to you. I belong to nobody except myself." I snap, taking a step back.

He winks. "Ah. Glad to hear you're still single." completely disregard what I just said. Thanks.

"Happily, I'll have you know. Don't deny that your mama has been reminding you of that fact all year." I say shortly. My thoughts pop to Scott, for some reason.

"Fine, then I won't." Tony smirks. "In fact, I brought Athy to dinner with my mama 'bout six months back, and she said so with Athy right there!" He chuckles as if its amusing to discuss my status.

Athy? Oh. Right. "Poor Athena." I mutter.

"Why? Cuz she had to eat with my momma?" he smirks. "Ah, after that dinner I had to promise she'd come 3 times before me that night. Not easy, you know. The way she'd scream my name and-"He begins.