Chasing Di'Maggio: a BWWM romance (2 page)

Girl, stop. What if he says he only sees you as a little sister, huh?
she thought to herself.

She thought about the way he touched her back. Even if it was a brief exchange, she loved his touch. Her body seemed to come alive the moment he placed his hand there. She wondered what he meant by that touch, and she wished he had at least given her a hint that he enjoyed touching her just as much as she had.

Going back to the kitchen, she tried to forget that Matty was there. She tried to continue to load the dishwasher, but he asked, “Did you love him, Nico?”

“Huh?”

He had caught her so off guard that she didn’t even know whether she could answer or not.

“Did you love Andrew? That’s his name, right?”

“Yeah, that’s his stupid name.”

“You love him?”

“No, I thought I did, but I don’t. Like we’re not in love at all. You know, I’ve never even introduced him to Mom and Dad. The only person who met him was Gabe.”

Then Gabriel’s voice could be heard, “And I absolutely think he is a prick and she is wasting her time.” Nicolette turned to face Gabriel as he walked into the kitchen.

“Shut up, Gabe. Don’t even remind me right now. Can you believe he just called me again?”

“Same as last time, huh?”

“Yeah, man.”

While Gabe and Nicolette were talking, Matty was standing there dumbfounded, just thinking,
When did Nicolette and Gabe become so close?
I mean, they were around the same age. Maybe they got really close since Matty had been gone. He couldn’t help but get jealous because he really wanted that to be him, but he went off to New York and couldn’t look back because he wanted to make his dad happy. There were times when he wanted to simply call Nicolette and talk to her, but he knew that would break him and he’d have to give up on everything he’d worked hard for.

“So this guy called you when you two were together?” Matty asked.

“Yeah, Gabe and I hang out every Friday, and I told him that Gabe and I were going to dinner and a movie, but this idiot went out with his friends, got drunk, and called my phone. Gabe picked up and he went off on him, and I don’t need to explain myself at all.”

“Well then, it’s a simple misunderstanding, why don’t you go work it out?”

“No, Matty. He’s met Gabe more than enough times. I told him how close Gabe and I were, but if he’s going to be a baby about it and not trust me, then we’re done.”

“You go, Nico,” Gabe said. “Girl power.”

“Haha. Shut up, Gabe,” Nico replied. “Anyway, why are you here in the kitchen?”

“Well, the old folks wanted to see you two. They have something in mind to speak about.”

“Umm, okay.”

Matty and Nicolette were both confused as to why they were put in the same sentence. The only time that happened was when they were young and they both got into trouble for sneaking food to a stray dog. As they got into the living room, all eyes were on them, which made them more nervous.

“Okay so, Nicolette, baby, I love you. And Matthew, I love you too, like my own son.” As Mr. Richards spoke, everyone in the room seemed to be holding their breaths in anticipation. “Matthew, as you know, your parents and the missus and I have been friends forever. We know you and Nico are adults now and you’re responsible, reasonable.” Then he paused, taking a deep breath. “You might want to take a seat for this one.” He waited as Matthew sat slowly and cautiously, then continued. “Okay, so here goes… You guys know that we wouldn't ask you anything if it wasn't to help both of you guys succeed, right?” Nico and Matty nodded slowly. “We do crazy things for family,” Mr. Richards went on. “And sometimes family needs much more than a kidney or blood."

"What are you trying to say, Dad?" Nicolette urged.

"So impatient, little miss,” her father smiled nervously. “Okay well, Antonio needs this. It's for the sake of family. We've discussed it over and over for months now, and this seems like the only way to save his mother from dying miserably.”

"Excuse me, Mr. Richards, I'm trying to understand,” Matty interrupted. Then he looked at his father. “What is it that I need to do to save Grams?" Matthew asked.

"Marry Nico," said Matthew’s dad.

Matthew’s eyes fell out of his head while Nico’s brown skinned turned red.

"Marry Nico?! What?!” Matthew freaked. “What the hell, Dad? I don't understand how this will save her."

"Listen here, boy; we are family, okay? You may not understand, but this is my my mother, and honestly, I couldn’t think of anyone else as perfect as Nicolette. She is our family. She knows us. She knows you. She knows your grandmother, and your grandmother has always cherished Nicolette as if she was her own. She has been wishing for one of you guys to get married, and I know that she will be able to stay alive for a couple of more months if she has a wedding to look forward to.” As he looked on to Matthew’s questioning eyes, he began to beg his son. “Son, it’s for your grandmother...
Please
?"

"But Dad…"

Tommy and Michael were confused, but didn’t say anything. Matty looked at Tommy for help, but didn’t get anything. Then he looked at Gabriel, who was smirking as though he had something to do with this outrageous plan. Michael looked relieved. Matty understood why Michael would look relieved. Usually they picked the oldest son to fulfill this kind of weird thing. Matty shook his head, wondering how and why he was randomly selected out of his two brothers, who were clearly eligible too.

His father’s plea to do this for his grandmother was pulling at his heartstrings. Grams was Matty’s world, and he had always been close to her. Every time he had a problem, he would take the next flight to Italy to see her. She was the most important person in his life besides his parents... and she was dying. His grandmother had pancreatic cancer and there wasn’t a thing anyone could do about it. They got her the best help they could, but they all knew that soon she was going to pass away. The doctors said the life expectancy was five years, but Matty’s family all knew she might not make it past six months. Matty’s grandmother understood what was going on and accepted her fate, saying that she lived her life just as she wanted to.

  Nicolette had nothing to say; she was stunned that her parents would propose this without consulting her first. Like, she knew how much Mr. Di’Maggio's mother meant to him. She understood that he would do anything to save his mother from dying. She’d raised him all alone. Her family had left them a family restaurant when Antonio was young and his mom maintained everything so that they could survive. She was an inspiration to Nico. But could she really marry Matty? There were many reasons why she couldn’t marry him. One: Nico was terrified of marriage. Two: she didn't want Matty to feel trapped with her for the rest of his life. The way he reacted to the chosen girl being Nico made her want to cry. Why was he so against it when he was just touching her like that in the dining room?

But for Nico, she felt as though to save Mr. Di’Maggio's mother, she’d do anything. She had met her many times and each time Antonia Di’Maggio came to visit, she would bring Nicolette a gift, treat her like her own blood. It was the least that Nicolette could do to help her live a couple more years, even if she knew that she most likely won’t last that long. What harm could be done? Plus, when Matty found his true love, he could leave and she’d be happy that she spent a couple of years being Mrs. Matthew Di’Maggio. God, she hated herself for being happy about that part, like she was a loser or puppet.

So if they were to get married, what did that mean? Would they see other people too or something else? What other options were there? Nicolette was just tired of thinking about all of this. Through the whole discussion, she had nothing to say. Every time she wanted to say something, she thought of Antonia and her poor self barely breathing on her deathbed.

Her father’s voice brought her out of her racing thoughts. “Baby? Nicolette? Nicolette?”

“Yes? Yes, Dad?”

“We’ll leave you guys to talk things over and make a decision. We old folks will be in the study.”

Nicolette couldn’t help but roll her eyes at everything right now. The more she thought about it, the more she felt like she was falling into a never-ending hole.

“Nico, look, I didn’t know about this,” Gabe insisted. “I swear.”

“Whatever, Gabe. I can’t think right now,” Nico fussed. “I just want to go home and sleep.”

“Okay. Guys, I’ll take her home,” Gabe said, standing. “Come on, babe.”

Matty got angrier that Nicolette and Gabe had their own thing going on. It was as if she didn’t want to acknowledge him. Why was she acting like this?

“Gabriel, let me take her home so we can talk,” Matty insisted.

“Oh wait guys, maybe we should go out for drinks and relax?” Michael suggested.

Nico liked that idea. “Where would we go, Mikey? It’s Christmas Eve.”

“Our spot, Nico, the pool house. Isn’t that where we all used to play hide-and-seek all day?”

“Yeah,” Nico answered, cracking her first smile since this horrid ordeal began.

“Wait, can you guys give me and Nicolette a second alone?” Matthew asked.

“Sure thing, Matty,” Michael agreed. “Come on, Tommy. You too, Gabe.”

“Okay, boss,” Gabriel sarcastically replied.

Nicolette didn’t understand why Matty wanted to be alone with her; she just didn’t get why he simply couldn’t think this through by himself. He was always the one to worry about things. She just wanted to forget about it, even if it was only for the remainder of the night.

Matthew took a deep breath after everyone left he and Nico alone. “Look, Nico, I know this is sudden and it’s even harder for you because it’s not your immediate family. I’m sorry that you were dragged into this, but my parents must see you as family to ask you for this so please let’s just do this… For Grams?”

“It seems like you dislike this whole idea more than me, so why do it?”

“I do dislike it, but I’d do anything to save my Grams.”

“So then do something else,” Nicolette spit irritably.

“Like what, Nico? This is what they asked of us and that’s all we can give. They didn’t say they wanted us to have babies.”

“Babies? Yeah no, I’m not ready for that.”

“Me either. But what do you say? We could have some sort of agreement about where to live and such.”

“Whoa! I’m not moving. I love my beach house.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple, Nic.”

“What do you mean?”

“The branch that I’m actually moving to is in Miami and you live a little too far. You live in Fisher Island and I can’t move in with you. Hell no.” Matty knew he sounded harsh, but everything was just going off in his head at the same time. He was confused because the girl of his dreams was actually discussing moving with him, but why wasn’t he happy? He knew that it was because it wasn’t the way he wanted it to be.

“What do you mean you can’t move in with me? What’s wrong with my house?” Nicolette interrupted Matty out of his thoughts.

“Look Nico, there is nothing wrong with your place I guess, but no I can’t do that. We move to Aventura and that’s that,” he said. Matty was starting to get irritated by the conversation and just wanted to end it, but Nicolette wasn’t letting up.

“But… Wait. What? Aventura? Oh my God, that’s so far... No, I can’t.”

“Look, right now, you live an hour and some change away from my business and house. If we’re going to live together, then we move where I am. It’s simple. Plus, we won’t have to take the doggone ferry back and forth each day.”

“But Matty, you haven’t even seen my place. You’d love it.”

“You didn’t hear a word I just said about the ferry?”

“You’ll get used to it Matty. I did.”

“Hell no, Nicolette. Let’s be serious. If we move to Aventura, it’s half an hour to work and that’s not bad, but think of traffic.”

“Ugh. Okay, I’ll think about it, but I’m serious about my place. You’d really like it. Give it a chance?”

“I’m sure Gabe’s seen it,” Matty said.

“What was that?”

Nicolette was too caught up in the conversation to realize that Matty was jealous of everyone else’s relationship with her. He didn’t understand her like everyone else did. He got even more irritated at the fact that when she whined, it made her sound so cute. Especially when she called him “Matty” while whining. What the hell was going on with him? He tried to stay focused.

“Matty, hey! Mr. Smart Mouth, you have something to say?”

Ah! Now that was the Nicolette he knew; the fierce one that didn’t take any crap from him. She was okay with people bullying her at school, but when it was Matty that bullied her, she put up her guard and defended herself; no matter what blows he threw at her.

“I’m waiting, dammit! Look, Matty, if you’re just going to ignore what I want, then I won’t do it. Suit yourself… I’m going with the boys.”

“Nicolette!”

Nicolette froze. She knew that he was angry now but why? This man was always hard to read; he would pick on her all day and not get tired.
What’s his problem?
Nicolette thought. Neither were aware that they were in each other’s face. Although Matty was beyond her size, Nicolette hated backing down from him. She hated giving in to whatever Matty wanted, but deep down she had a feeling that she would, because whatever was important to him was important to her. Little did she know that whatever was important to Nicolette was also important to Matty.