CRAVING U (The Rook Café) Read Free

the birthday girl.  Finding her in the
middle of a tiff with Livia over the seating arrangements, he headed her way.  “Sorry
I’m late,” he smiled, freeing her from that annoying barnacle clinging to her
side.  “Coach held a team meeting with the players and managers to talk about
the upcoming season.  From now on, every game is like the finals: there are
some major league scouts who have started to show interest in local teams.” 
His eyes were burning with the fire of ambition born from this unexpected,
dreamlike opportunity.  “Happy Birthday!”  He leaned over and placed a soft kiss
on her cheek.
    “Thanks,” she stammered.  “Do you think
they might come to see you play?”
    “Who knows?”  He shrugged his shoulders
and for a moment was lost in his own dreams, until he turned to look at his
friends and said in a loud voice, “So, when’s dinner?  I can hardly see
straight I’m so hungry.”  He pretended to faint and staggered toward the table
to munch on something while waiting for Carlotta and Dario to get back with the
pizza.
    Quickly taking advantage of the fact that
Matteo was alone with his chips and candy, Lucrezia slid over and glommed on to
him like a piece of gum under his shoe, drowning him in compliments and
flirting shamelessly.
    There was no doubt that she knew what to
do with boys: she was the undisputed champion when she tossed her long curly
blonde hair and pressed in close, batting her heavily made-up eyelashes, or
better yet, shifting her hips to reveal more naked skin than was already
visible.  A master of becoming the center of attention, she wanted nothing less
than to be the focus of every guy in the room, attaching herself to each one of
them like a leech.  She’d been working on Matteo for months... in the meanwhile
she had been – in every sense of the word – with Valerio and Marcello, though
not necessarily in that order.  She hated to waste time.  Her motto was: a rolling stone gathers no moss!
    Matteo, for his good fortune and
especially for Marika’s, had shown no particular interest in Lucrezia, and he
didn’t disdain from revealing all the gory details of her pathetic flirting
attempts.
    At 8, Carlotta and Dario entered with a
stack of pizza boxes in their hands, arguing loudly with each other.
    Dario sat down next to Matteo, while
Carlotta dragged her cousin away from her ridiculous gawking.
    “Hey, not so hard!” she complained to
Carlotta, upset at losing her visual on Lucrezia even for a second.  “What’s so
important that it can’t wait ‘til after dinner?”
    “I can’t stand him!  He’s such a pain! 
Every time it’s just the two of us he’s a total buzzkill.”
    “Who are you talking about?” she asked,
pretending to be interested.
    “Hello?  Marika?  Anyone home?... Dario of
course, ever heard of him??  Lame and annoying?”
    “And so?” she blurted, anxious to get back
and check on those two .
    “He keeps going on and on with his theories
about how Valerio is an asshole who would sleep with anything that moved,” she
huffed.  “But I’m totally into Val.”
    “You want the truth?”  Marika came at her
with the classic backstabbing question that expected no answer.  “I think Dario
has a crush on you, and he can’t stand listening to you go on and on about
Valerio.  And admit it... he’s totally right about Val.”
    Carlotta’s cheeks reddened more than usual
on hearing her best friend speak to her like that.  “I can’t believe you’re
standing up for that moron.  Come on, he’s barely even a man!”  She threw up
her hands.  “Valerio is so freaking hot, but Dario is just....”  She wrinkled
her nose in disgust.
    In truth, Dario wasn’t at all ugly.  He
was shy, and often hid his face behind his dirty blond hair, which he kept cut
at carefully irregular lengths, and his name brand glasses.  You couldn’t say
he had an athletic body, and we have to admit that he was a bit of the