All I Believe (Firsts and Forever, #10)(24)

“It was wonderful,” I said, looking at a bunch of notes strewn across the coffee table. “What are you up to?”

“Clear your schedule for Thursday night,” Nana said. “Or if you’re planning to see Luca then, bring him along. I’m going to need your help with running the whole operation.”

“What whole operation?”

“The rest of us are gonna find us some hotties,” she announced happily, pointing at herself, Jessie and Fiona. “We were gonna arrange some of that speed dating, but we decided we needed more than that to draw people in, so we’re throwing a party instead.”

“Who are you inviting?”

“Everybody! We’re gonna put a half-page ad in the afternoon paper, they’re holding the space for us. It’ll run today, tomorrow, and Thursday. I figure that should get people’s attention.”

“You called the paper already?” She nodded and I asked, “Wasn’t that kind of short notice?”

“It ain’t exactly the New York Times. So they had to shove around a few stories about the library’s new computer or the grade school science fair, so what? With what I’m paying them, they were thrilled to make room for my ad, believe you me,” she said.

“We need to come up with the ad copy, and we want to make some flyers, too,” Jessie said. “Can we borrow your laptop?”

“Of course. Where are you holding this event?”

“Downstairs,” Nana said. “I reserved the bar.”

“You’ve been incredibly busy, especially since it’s not even nine a.m.,” I said as I went over to the table where breakfast was being set up and tried to pour myself a cup of coffee. The waiter quickly intervened and poured it for me.

“We got an early start since Fi has to get to work. She wanted in on the planning,” Nana said.

My cousin got up and plucked a pastry from the table. “Speaking of which, I’m going to be late. I’ll talk to you after work. Make a list for me of what you want me to do.”

“Just tell all your single friends to come,” Nana told her. “This won’t be any fun if it’s just us sittin’ there staring at each other. Make sure they tell their single granddads, too. I want a silver fox!”

“I will. Addio!” Fiona kissed my cheek, waved to Nana and Jessie, and headed out the door.

The waiter asked if we needed anything else, then did some major butt-kissing before he left the suite. I sat down at the table and sipped my coffee, and my grandmother joined me while Jessie retrieved my laptop. Nana was always at her happiest when she had a project, and she looked absolutely delighted at her latest endeavor. “Do you think we should line up some entertainment?” she asked me. “I want to make sure it’s real lively and give all them singles something to talk about.”

“Sure, provided you can find anyone on such short notice.”

“Maybe we can recruit some talent from the bigger cities. It’s not on the weekend, so maybe we can find a band that isn’t booked. We should only have dancing for part of it, though. If it’s too loud, nobody can talk and find out if they like each other. Maybe I should look for a magician for the first half. Or a mime, they’re real quiet. Even better would be a mime who does magic!”


“Well, that’d certainly give them something to talk about.”

“Do you think the gay homosexuals will come? We’re gonna make it real clear in the ad that all are welcome, young and old, straight and gay and the whole rest of the rainbow. I don’t want anyone to feel left out,” she said as she slathered butter on a brioche.

“I hope so.”

She thought about it as she took a big bite out of the roll. Then she said, moving the food to her cheek like a chipmunk, “What we gotta do is reach out to the gay community. Not just here, either. Catania and Syracuse are both decent-sized cities less than an hour away. We need to get the word out.”

“Alright. We can do that.”

“Do what?” Jessie asked as he sat down at the table with my laptop. I told him Nana’s plan, and he did a quick internet search. “There doesn’t seem to be much in Syracuse, but Catania has several gay night clubs. I say we visit them all.”

“And hand out flyers?”

“That, too,” he said cheerfully. Then he added, “I hope local gay and lesbian singles feel comfortable enough to come, not just people from the bigger cities. I know what it’s like to grow up in a small town, they’re not always the most accepting places.”

“We’ll just have to make damn sure they do,” Nana said.

“Hey, how about this for our headline? Gay or straight, come find your mate or a date! Oh wait, it has to be in Italian though, doesn’t it?” Jessie asked. “Also, how am I going to meet guys if I can’t speak the language?”

“Love is an international language. You’ll do fine,” Nana said.



*****



We worked on the newspaper ad and the flyers for a couple hours. My mind kept drifting to Luca so it was tough to concentrate, but I helped them get it done. Once we sent in the ad copy, we took a break and went shopping. My grandmother tried to buy me some more sexy outfits, but I declined and bought myself some things with Jessie’s credit card instead. He would let me pay him back, unlike Nana. I already lived with her rent-free, and I hated taking advantage of her generosity.