Read Tutti Italia: A Novel for Free Online Page B

behind them.  A busboy came over and started to clean up after them. 
Rachel could tell that they weren’t supposed to leave their trays on the table,
and she could see how embarrassed this young man was to have to clean up after
grown men.  She felt bad for him.  She vowed that she would always make sure to
leave her table as clean as possible.  The working class didn’t deserve snubs
from the military class.  It wasn’t right.  She put her tray away and turned to
go.  She caught the young boy’s eye as he watched her leave and smiled at him. 
He smiled back and went back to cleaning the table. 
    When she was back in her room, she put on her pajama pants
and t-shirt, and got herself comfortable again.  She set an alarm to make her
go to bed.  She usually had to, because she loved to read, and she would get so
buried in those stories that she would be wide awake for hours reading, if she
didn’t make herself go to bed. 
    Tuesday morning dawned cold but clear as she put on a
thicker pair of pants and a knit sweater for her class.  The wind whipped her
loose hair around until it resembled a bird’s nest, and tears ran from her eyes
as the sharp wind cut across her cheeks.  She made it into the door, but had to
fight to get it closed after she stepped in.  The woman behind the counter
smiled at her disheveled state, and let her walk back to the classroom.  Rachel
was, again, one of the very first to arrive, so she took the time to try to
arrange herself in the most presentable way possible without a hairbrush,
makeup or a lint roller.  Today’s briefer was a woman with long hair pulled
back into a ponytail, and Rachel could tell that her hair was all over the
place, too.  She sat back and listened to the lectures and took notes.  Today
was really about an intro to the culture and the language.  Rachel was amazed
at how much more family oriented the Italians were than Americans.  The men
didn’t even move out of their parents’ house until they were married.  In some
cases, they were more than forty years old before that happened!  Rachel vowed
that that would never happen to her son.  He could stay as long as he went to
school, had a job, and paid rent.  Then he was gone after college.  Forty years
old was just ridiculous.
    The afternoon portion was spent trying to learn short
phrases in Italian that would help them out in the most basic of situations. 
She made sure she paid extra close attention to it because she wanted to learn
as much as possible.  She’d been sitting in her seat, practicing her Italian,
when she got the feeling that someone was watching her.  She looked
surreptitiously around the classroom, and saw that a young soldier was looking
at her shyly.  When their eyes met, he looked away quickly and blushed.  Rachel
blushed herself.  He was pretty cute.  She put the boy out of her mind and went
back to work on one of the simpler phrases.  She couldn’t help but think about
that boy when she was safe at home in her room.  He was cute, and he didn’t
seem to be a complete and total jerk like the ones she’d seen at the food
court.  She was going to give him the benefit of the doubt, but she realized
quickly that it didn’t matter.  She wouldn’t see him again after this week,
anyway.  She built her tower of pillows and cuddled into it with her kindle. 
Reading for a couple hours actually made her tired, so she turned off the light
early and fell asleep.
    Thursday was the day for the Italian restaurant trip.  The
class was supposed to take a charter bus to a local restaurant, the students
would get to test their Italian, and they would be submitted to an Italian
feast like the locals enjoyed every day.  Rachel had stayed up a little later
the night before, practicing her pronunciations.  She yawned as she got in line
for the bus.  When she chose her seat near the back, there were plenty of empty
seats left, but a few minutes after she sat down, the cute boy