Chapter 9 - Twenty Minutes
Alessandro reached the public library eleven minutes early. He wore jeans and a plain coat. Luca waited several blocks away, exactly where Rosa had permitted him to wait.
Lily entered with one mitten on. The other dangled from Rosa's pocket.
"You remember Mr. Alessandro?" Rosa asked.
Lily nodded. "Big house."
"Yes," he said. "But we aren't at the big house today."
She examined him. "You got snacks?"
Rosa raised an eyebrow.
"No snacks," Alessandro admitted. "Your mother said no gifts."
"Good," Lily said, as if approving a difficult exam.
They sat in the children's area with a book about a bear that refused to sleep. Alessandro tried to read the first page in his business-meeting voice. Lily interrupted.
"Bear sad."
"He might be."
"Make bear funny."
He read the next line in a ridiculous growl. Lily giggled so loudly that the librarian looked up. Alessandro lowered his voice, embarrassed.
"Again," Lily whispered.
Rosa watched them from the same table. He wasn't suddenly good at this. He held the book backward once and forgot a character's name. But when Lily asked him to start over, he did.
At eighteen minutes she stood and announced, "Time go."
"All right," he said.
She considered the cover one last time. "Bear come next time?"
"If your mother says there's a next time."
Lily took Rosa's hand. At the exit she turned back. "Bye, bear man."
Alessandro stayed where he was until the doors closed.
Later that afternoon Rosa received a text from Maribel: How was the visit?
He listened, Rosa wrote. Which is new.
At the estate, Luca met Alessandro by the driveway with news from the warehouses. The Romano freight agreement had been withdrawn early. Weekend shifts were being canceled. Employees had started asking whether there would be paychecks next month.
May you like
Alessandro put away the library receipt he had kept in his pocket.
"Get Karen Chen here," he said. "I need to see the payroll numbers before I answer anyone."
