Ciao, Bella

2022

As she walked through the door of her Manhattan apartment, a sense of familiarity rushed over Cara. Another weekend, another date that was going absolutely nowhere. Almost 30, she thought, and I'm still alone. She sat down on her perfectly white loveseat and weakly kicked off her heels, signaling Roscoe (her beloved eleven year old dog and best friend) to come sit at her side. He hardly shed, which was why he was allowed on the couch, but because of his old age, she probably would have let him get up anyways. 

It wasn’t like the date went badly. He was polite, unlike most New Yorkers that she had been out with in the last several years of her city life. He wasn’t unattractive; he had that clean-cut, businessman attire, barely broken in shoes look that most of her friends from the city would kill for. Maybe she would set him up with one of them? He was a good conversationalist; whenever there was a pause he would ask her a different question about herself. No, it wasn’t the fact that he didn’t seem like a good, even great, guy. It was the fact that it was still eight years later and she was still comparing everyone she had gone out with to Luca. 

2014

Love. This was a new feeling for Cara. She had only been dating this guy for a few months, but everything about him seemed perfect in a nearly impossible way. Maybe it was the bliss of an overseas romance, but it felt so entirely real. He was tall, probably 6’2, a perfect height to match her 5’10 self. His dark, curly hair was always effortlessly messy, falling just above his thick eyebrows that matched his mane. His tan, olive skin made his blue eyes pop like the waters off the Amalfi Coast. Luca was his name. Luca Romano. He spoke broken English, but to Cara it didn’t matter. She could get by with her limited Italian and when he spoke in his native tongue, she thought she was going to faint. 

Although her abroad program was based in Florence, Luca took her to the most beautiful, picturesque places in the countryside and treated her like a princess everywhere they went. He always opened doors, paid for or cooked their meals, and bought her flowers at every stand on every street corner. “Ciao, bella”, he said every time they parted. When he was gone, she longed for him to come back. He only lived half an hour outside of Florence on his parents farm– farm being a generous word. They converted an old castle into a beautiful, working vineyard where they also grew some other crops. Cara got to spend some time at their grand home, and every time she left, she wondered why. Why go back to the city? Why go back home to New York at all? 

Cara’s semester was a week from its conclusion. She was dreading her return to the U.S., but most of all dreading her departure from Luca. For their last weekend together, he planned a trip to Naples. They had been there before, but he had remembered how much Cara loved the restaurant where you could see right in the kitchen as they were preparing your food. He ordered both of their meals, as a true Italian gentleman does, along with a bottle of sparkling Rose. Cara raised a brow at this, as Luca hardly drank wine that his parents did not produce at their vineyard. They ate, drank, laughed, and gazed at each other over the candlelit table in the most romantic spot in Italy. The restaurant was a hole in the wall (literally) built into the side of the cliffs, right on the water. 

What came next was the last thing Cara expected to happen. Luca was down on one knee. There wasn’t a ring box, just a ring, but it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It was his mother’s ring, he told her. She gave it to him after the first time he had brought her to meet his family, telling him he never glowed the way he did when Cara was on his arm. He had never met anyone like her and he wanted her to stay. They could create a life together working the vineyard, traveling, whatever. It didn't matter; they would be together.

2022

Cara sat and thought about Luca for hours that evening. She could picture the proposal clear as day, even eight years later. Oh, how she wanted to say yes. How she wished she said yes. Replaying the hurt in his eyes after her rejection made her heart ache still. She could have gone home for graduation, quit her job she had lined up, and gone back to him. But here she was, her degree hanging on the wall, still with the same company she had left him for. It was the life she thought she wanted before him, but now looking back she couldn’t believe what she had lost. 

Her phone buzzed in her jacket pocket. She looked down at it to see a text from her date that evening. It had seemed like it was years ago. “had a great time tonight, see u again soon?”, it read. This wasn’t the romance she wanted. It hardly seemed like romance at all. Before she knew it, she was scrolling through her contacts. “Please, please say I didn’t delete it”, she whispered to herself and Roscoe who was still sitting silently next to her on the couch. There it was. Luca Romano. Just looking at his name gave her the flurrying sense in her stomach that she hadn’t felt in years. She was so busy thinking about whether or not she should call that she didn’t realize it was already ringing. Shit, she thought. She hadn’t planned out what to– “Ciao, bella”. His warm, soothing voice rushed over her. He had saved her number, too.