It’s a Friday evening, and I’m sitting on the sofa, eating chicken parmigiana with Nonna and watching the news.
The good news is the chicken parm came out perfect. The breading is crispy and the chicken is moist.
The bad news is… well, I think it’s fairly obvious. A woman my age should not be spending all of her evenings hanging out with her elderly grandmother, cooking chicken.
“That ABC news anchor is very handsome, isn’t he?” Nonna announces out of nowhere.
I look at the screen, where a man with golden blond hair and gleaming white teeth is delivering a story about a deadly five car collision in the Bronx.
“I guess so,” I say.
She nods at the television. “You should go out with him maybe.” I stare at her in disbelief. “Him? The ABC news anchor?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“Uh, because I don’t know him?”
“You just camp yourself outside the news station until he comes out,” she says, rubbing her palm over her chest. “Girls do that all the time. Nothing wrong with it. How else are you supposed to find yourself a husband?”
I’ve already nearly gotten the police called on me for stalking Olive.
I don’t need to throw a news anchor into the mix. “I think I’ll pass,” I mumble.
Nonna rubs at her chest. “I am just saying, I have a more exciting social life than you do.”
I can’t disagree with her. Nonna has spent her retirement joining clubs and socializing. Everyone loves my grandmother. “I’m taking a break from dating. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Tomorrow night, I am inviting Mary from my knitting circle and her son.”
“Then I won’t be here.”
Nonna rubs her chest again. “So stubborn.”
I frown at her. “Why do you keep rubbing your chest?” “I’m not rubbing my chest.”
“Yes, you are.”
She rolls her eyes. “Just some heartburn from your delicious dinner.
Nothing to worry about.”
I sit up straight. From my many years of dating Joel, I’ve heard him describe enough stories of heart attacks that my radar immediately goes up. He told me once that women don’t have typical heart attack symptoms, so sometimes it’s harder to identify.
“Are you short of breath?” I ask her. “No.”
“Is there pain radiating down your left arm?”
Nonna gives me a look. “It’s just heartburn. Stop worrying.” But then she rubs her chest again. And winces.
“We should have it checked out,” I say. “Does your doctor have an after-hours line?”
“Doctor?”
I stare at her. My mother mentioned that Nonna didn’t like going to the doctor, but I’m shocked that she doesn’t even have one. How do you live to be so old without having a doctor? “Nonna! You don’t have a doctor?”
She waves a hand at me. “I don’t need a doctor. I lived this long without doctors. They just give you medicines that make you sick.”
“That’s the opposite of what a doctor does.” “Says you.”
But then she winces again. I’m not sure if it’s my imagination, but she seems to be breathing a little fast. I don’t know what to do. Nonna is so damn stubborn—she could be having a heart attack in front of me, and she wouldn’t let me take her to a hospital.
“I’m going to call 911,” I decide, reaching for my phone on the coffee table.
“If a paramedic comes into my home,” she says, “I am going to hit him over the head with a frying pan.”
I don’t doubt that she would.
If I were still dating Joel, I would call him and ask him to examine her. She would let him, because he’s my boyfriend. But that’s off the table now, obviously. After our conversation last month where he accused me of terrorizing his girlfriend, I can’t even ask him as a friend. Especially not on Friday night, when he’s surely with Olive.
But there’s one person who might come.
I reach into my wallet and pull out the white card. I never got rid of Dean’s card with his phone number scribbled on the back. Although at
this point, I’m sure he’s assumed I’m not calling him. And on a Friday night, he’s surely busy.
I look up at Nonna. She’s still rubbing her chest. Does her face look flushed?
Screw it. I’m calling Dean.
The second I punch in the number, my heart leaps in my chest. It rings once, twice, three times… I’m about to give up when I hear Dean’s familiar voice on the other line: “Hello?”
This is so awkward. I never should have called him. He probably won’t remember me at all. “Um… so… I’m sure you don’t remember, but we met at the park a couple of months ago when you were buying a hot dog and—”
“Sophia Loren!” He sounds thrilled. “I can’t believe it’s you! I’d nearly given up hope.”
“Yes, well…” I clear my throat. “The thing is…”
“You haven’t been able to get me out of your head and you want me to rush over right now and ravish you.”
“No.” I cough and look over at Nonna. “I’m sorry, I know this is awkward, but… my grandmother is… well, she’s having chest pain and she doesn’t have a doctor… and she says if I call 911, she’ll hit them on the head with a frying pan…”
Nonna has been watching me this whole time without comment, but at the mention of her, she pipes up, “Who are you calling? Who is that?”
“Just a second, Nonna,” I hiss at her. “No doctors,” she says firmly.
“Fine!” I sigh and return to my conversation with Dean. “Anyway, I was just hoping… well, I thought maybe…”
“You want me to come to your house and check out Nonna.”
My cheeks grow warm. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. I’m sure you’re busy.”
“Not at all,” he says. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Where do you live?”
“Bensonhurst.”
He groans. “Okay, give me thirty minutes.”
I give Dean directions to the apartment and hang up the phone. Nonna is still watching me, but she doesn’t say anything until I hang up.
“Who was that?” she finally asks. “A friend of mine.”
“A friend who’s a doctor?” I hesitate. “Yes.”
Nonna considers this. “Is he handsome?” This time I don’t have to hesitate. “Yes.”
“Well, he’d better be.” She shakes her head. “Or else I’m hitting him on the head with a frying pan.”
Thirty-one minutes later, there’s a knock at the door. I’ve been so worried about Nonna that it didn’t even occur to me to doll myself up for the handsome doctor showing up at my door. And honestly, I don’t care. I called him here because I don’t want my grandmother to have a heart attack and die. Not to flirt with him.
But on the other hand, I wish I weren’t wearing sweatpants and a tank top.
Dean’s face lights up in a grin when he sees me, in spite of my attire. Or maybe because of it. “Miss Loren,” he says. “A pleasure, as always.”
“Come in,” I mumble, barely able to look him in the eyes. “Where’s Nonna?”
I jerk my head in the direction of the living room. “She’s in there.
She looks okay, but she keeps rubbing her chest. I’m really worried.” “Let Dr. Pourakis take a look.”
Dean strides past me into the living room, where Nonna is still in her chair. She hasn’t keeled over yet, and she took the time to get a frying pan from the kitchen. It’s lying next to her on the chair. She raises her eyes when Dean approaches her, and in spite of everything, a smile spreads across her face. “Okay,” she says. “I won’t hit you on the head.”
Dean cocks his head, confused. “Mrs. Mascolo?” “That’s right.”
“I’m Dean.” He sits down on the sofa next to her. “Your granddaughter asked me to come by because she’s a little worried about you.”
“She worries too much.”
“Maybe. But she’s right to worry when it comes to chest pain.” Nonna’s shrewd eyes look Dean head-to-toe. “You Italian?” “Greek.”
She smiles. “Does your family call you Dino?”
He laughs at that. “Not too often. Sometimes. But you can call me Dino if you want. If you’ll tell me how your chest is feeling.”
“Burning. Just a little heartburn. Like I said, nothing to worry about.”
He asks her a few more questions, which she answers with surprising cooperation. She must think he’s really handsome. I watch
Dean’s face, trying to figure out how worried he is. He finally reaches into the black bag he brought with him and pulls out a stethoscope.
“Can I have a listen to your chest?” he asks.
She looks between the two of us. “You can listen if you ask my granddaughter on a date for tomorrow night.”
Dean laughs while I avert my eyes. “I’ve been asking her, Mrs.
Mascolo! She won’t go out with me.”
“Well, she will if she wants you to listen to my chest.”
Both Dean and Nonna are staring at me now. I feel like my face is on fire, but I quickly nod my head. I’ll do anything for Nonna to go along with this exam.
Dean listens to Nonna’s chest for what feels like forever. When he pulls the stethoscope off his ears, he’s smiling. “Mrs. Mascolo, you’ll outlive us all.”
She snorts. “Who wants that?”
“Good point.” He puts the stethoscope back in his bag. “Listen, the pain in your chest might be heartburn, but I can’t be sure without doing some tests.”
“No tests.”
“Mrs. Mascolo…” “No tests, Dr. Dino.”
“Okay,” he sighs. “How about this. Come to my office Monday morning. Let me hook you up to our EKG machine and that’s all we’ll do. It’s like a snapshot of your heart. It won’t hurt and it will take less than five minutes. What do you say?”
Nonna lifts her eyes to look at me. “And you’ll go out with him on a date?”
“Yes!” I wrap my arms around my chest. “I will! Nonna, please just
go!”
“Fine.” She nods. “I’ll see you Monday morning, Dr. Dino.”
They iron out a few more details and then shake on their agreement
to meet on Monday. It sounds like he’s going to come in early just to see her. I don’t know why he’s being so nice to some old woman he just met, but he’s charming as hell around her. If I don’t agree to go out with him, I’m pretty sure she will.
I walk Dean out of the apartment and over to the stairwell after he’s done. I’ve given up on being embarrassed about my sweatpants and the fuzzy slippers I put on. It is what it is.
“So…” Dean says when we get to the stairwell. The dimple on his cheek pops as he offers a crooked smile. “I think she’s right. Probably
just heartburn. But we have to check it out.”
“Thank you so much for rushing over,” I say. “I mean it. I can’t thank you enough. I was terrified.”
“Well, that’s the benefit of knowing a cardiologist.” I frown at him. “You’re a cardiologist?”
He laughs. “It says it on my card, you know.”
I didn’t notice that. All I remember is his name. “Well, thank you.
Again.”
I can’t help but think of how Nonna insisted I should say yes if he asked me out again. I agreed because I wanted her to cooperate. But the thing is, if Dean asked me out right now, I’d be very tempted to say yes either way. I should be head over heels for a guy like him. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.
“You don’t owe me,” Dean blurts out. I blink a few times. “What?”
He clears his throat. “What I mean is, you don’t have to go out on a date with me just because your grandmother said you had to. And you don’t have to go out on a date with me because you feel like you owe me for helping you.”
“Oh.” Disappointment jabs me in the chest. “So does that mean you don’t want to go out with me?”
It must be the sweatpants
He snorts. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You think I’d come all the way to Brooklyn on a Friday night for a girl I don’t like? I’m a nice guy, but not that nice.”
“But…”
“But I don’t need Nonna to force you to go out with me.” He sets his dark brown eyes with the long eyelashes on my face. “I can win you over without resorting to blackmail.”
I manage a smile. “Awfully confident, aren’t you, Doctor?”
“Hell yeah.” He returns the smile. “Call me when you finally realize how awesome I am, okay?”
“Okay.”
As he pushes through the door to the stairwell, I feel a pang of regret. I should ask him to stay. I should tell him I want to go out with him tomorrow, and it has nothing to do with what he did for Nonna. I should tell him to kiss me right here, right now, in the hall of my grandmother’s apartment building in Bensonhurst.
But I don’t.
Joel has really done a number on me.
Instead, I watch Dean leave. I watch him sprint down the stairs, only turning once to wave goodbye. And he calls out to me, “Make sure Nonna comes to see me on Monday!”
