AT THE END OF THE EVENING, it was time to pick Katy up at the Library and go home. Given the facts, now that he was so close to Tony, Tom would need to dedicate more time to work and would have to make a greater effort so that she wouldn't feel the weight of the change.
Leo decided to please her and took her to dinner at one of her favorite places, Cult Burger, a cult-like diner, the kind full of references to old movies and with wooden walls and tables. Marilyn Monroe adorned one wall next to Johnny Depp, who flanked Marlon Brando, and they were followed by hundreds of other artists, through the photos that decorated every corner of the place, sometimes in a nostalgic, cheerful or noir style.
The menus and the names of the sandwiches represented famous movies. It was the atmosphere she liked the most, nothing too luxurious, just fun. Given the rare variations, her order was always the famous one: "Pride and Prejudice", a sandwich consisting of a chicken and salad sandwich with a sweet and sour sauce, accompanied by small pieces of toast and a special butter. The couple always ordered juice.
Leone teased her, saying that Katy only ordered the sandwich because of the name. He himself, however, liked to order: "The Godfather", but because of its size, a huge hamburger with a special bun, two thick cuts of meat, bacon, ham, pickles, lots of cheese, a touch of oregano and a sauce that no one knew what it was made of. It was perhaps one of the biggest sandwiches there, which was good for the hunger that always accompanied her.
Katy responded to his provocations, saying:
— Men and their taste for the mafia…
This was a pleasant night for them. The two identified a lot with their spontaneity, there were no protocols to follow, they just tried to please each other when they could and had freedom when they needed to.
At dusk, they arrived at her house.
— I really need a shower... — Katherine said, throwing her bag on the couch and heading toward the bathroom. — The renovations are going crazy, I'm all dusty...
Leo left the shopping on a table in the corner of the room and also headed to the bathroom.
AFTER RELAXING IN THE SHOWER, they finally lay down. The moonlight almost hovered between the curtains that seemed to spill it over the bed sheets. The shades of blue left the room immersed in an atmosphere of tenderness that seemed to be intentional by nature, mixed with the sound of the wind caressing the foliage outside, a gift for the couple on moonlit nights.
He just looked at his beautiful wife wrapped in the sheets, with her white skin, her black hair framing her face and descending curvilinearly down her neck until disappearing in the shadows that the night formed on her.
The words he had spoken to Benedetti hours before were on his mind, and everything made even more sense at that moment. The weight of the responsibility that Tom would now carry seemed to distance him from his beloved, even though they were so close, and he felt as if it were the last time he would see her like that.
Lying beside her and resting his head on his left arm, he began to caress her lightly, running his fingers through her hair to her neck and then back up to her ear. She calmly adjusted herself, perhaps in response to his caresses, but said:
— I feel like this walk today was for a reason... isn't it?
A brief smile came to her face, intoxicated by sleep.
Leo just smiled, even though she didn't see it. He didn't say anything, he just continued to caress her gently.
— Will you forgive me if I fall asleep? — she said, almost sighing, immersed in drowsiness. — I had a busy day today, you can't imagine...
Her words trailed off along with her sleepy sighs and she spoke more and more slowly. Tom didn't complain, he was content to enjoy his beautiful wife and wait for sleep to come, but a noise came from the living room, it was the phone ringing...
— Leo, it's Tony, I need you in ten minutes, I'll be right there.
— Ok. — he replied, sighing in disappointment with the outcome of his night.
He quickly got ready, there wasn't much to do except get dressed and fix his hair, which was rarely done.
Before Tony arrived, he decided to do something he had never done before, write to Katy on a piece of paper he found in a corner of the living room, he wrote a few simple words, since writing wasn't his strong point, he folded it and put it inside one of the books that was on his bedside table, the ones she always said she needed to finish reading. He did everything very carefully so as not to wake her up.