19 Chapter 19

“Him. This…Billy Ray.” His name sounded like an epithet on her tongue. For her, it probably was. “You’re in love with a guy?”

Dario exhaled slowly. “Yes. I never told anybody. I thought if I got married, if I did everything I was supposed to, these feelings would go away. But it’s been thirty years, and it hasn’t worked.”

“You’ve been trying to forget this guy for thirty years, and you’re only now figuring out you can’t?” She sounded more awake, though not necessarily better. “I’m sorry. I don’t…this isn’t how I saw my Saturday starting.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see this coming, either. I should have waited to call you. Or maybe I shouldn’t have called you at all. I’m just…I’m confused. He’s not here, and I’ve met somebody.”

“Somebody. Are you confused because it’s another woman and you thought you were in love with a guy? Or…because it’s another guy, and…it’s a guy?”

“It’s a guy,” Dario said softly. “Somebody from here, though I didn’t know him before.”