Read Online Notturno by Z.A. Maxfield - Free Book Online Page B

Beana. I’m damned run-down, though. I’ll need lots of
    food, maybe a protein shake.”
    “You are taking care of yourself, though, aren’t you? You’ve
    been…”
    Adin heard the subtext. “I’ve been tested, and I’m still
    negative. Bean, I may play hard, but I play safe.”
    Deana unconsciously let out a breath she’d been holding.
    “I’m a scientist. You know I worry. Especially when you look
    like you do now.”
    He’d seen himself in a mirror. “Point taken.” Even Adin was
    a little surprised. He looked like one of those worst celebrity
    DUI booking photos. He had dark shadows under his eyes and
    was paler even than usual. It didn’t help that the light yellow of
    his T-shirt, which he’d gotten from some charity event, was not,
    and never would be, his color. His jeans fit like skin, with a wide belt holding them in just the right place to show off his butt and
    the hollows of his pelvis, but today they made him look thinner
    and more hollow than usual. He needed Queer Eye for the
    Dead Guy.
    The door chimed and they got out.
    “I should never wear yellow,” he stated before they asked
    the host to seat them. They were late for the lunch rush, and he
    led them to a table on the terrace.
    NOTTURNO 55
    “Good observation,” Deana said, picking up the menu.
    “Yellow was never your color, or mine for that matter. Makes
    you look bloodless.”
    Adin almost did a classic spit-take with his water.
    When the waiter came over, Deana took the lead. “I’ll have a
    Caesar salad with diced chicken. What are you having?”
    Adin briefly scanned the menu and made up his mind. “I
    think I’ll have a cup of matzo ball soup and a brisket sandwich.”
    Deana smiled at the waiter as he left and then as if she’d
    used up all her patience she confronted Adin. “When are you
    going to tell me what’s bothering you?”
    “What?”
    “Come on, oddball. Who knows you?”
    Adin sighed deeply. “I’m translating that book. It is, of
    course, erotic. But the man writes so intimately of his love affair that I feel…”
    “Whoa, back up. It’s a love affair? I thought it was a book of
    erotica.”
    “So did I. Except I was mistaken. It isn’t at all what I
    thought it would be.”
    “I see.”
    “Do you? Here I was kind of flip about it, you know? But
    this man, he was in love and faithful for his whole life. He
    writes about it as if… In such rich detail… I don’t know. I feel
    as though I’m intruding.”
    “How could you be intruding? It’s five hundred years old.
    It’s a lucky thing you found it, or it might have been lost.”
    “I know. I just wish…”
    “Adin, it’s your job. If you didn’t do it, no one would even
    care about these men. No one would have any idea that a love
    like that existed in those days, right?” Deana smiled at the
    waiter when he brought Adin’s soup.
    “I didn’t.”
    “What?”
    56 Z.A. Maxfield
    “I didn’t know that it existed in any age.” He stirred his
    broth with a soupspoon to cool it.
    “Do you think it’s true?”
    “What? That the journal is authentic?”
    “No. That their love existed. That it was real, and not a
    story, like a fairy tale for an audience.”
    “It was real.” It is real, he thought. Donte still cherished the
    memory of Auselmo as if he were alive. He watched as Deana
    drank her water. “What about you? How is Miss Deana’s love
    life?”
    “As usual, nonexistent.”
    “If I believed that…”
    “Well, there are one or two,” she said and then told him
    what she’d been up to. He concentrated on listening and filling
    himself with nourishing food. After lunch they shopped some
    more, and he made a solemn promise to find a charity and give
    his yellow T-shirt right back. He kissed her cheek at the foot of
    the Bonaventure Hotel and thanked her for the ride. They made
    plans to meet again before he left Los Angeles, and as usual, she
    begged him to consider moving.
    “Not a chance. I like Washington. The sun