Three amazing, wonderful months filled with meetings to the left of Nonna’s house. That was our place. I still couldn’t believe we had an ‘our place’. That sounded like something that might be real. We usually sat there, just talking about everything and nothing all at once. Sometimes he put his arm around me. He’s kissed me on the cheek, on my forehead. Everywhere but my lips. Yeah. That was getting more than a little obnoxious. I just hoped that this would all change today. Today was a special day. Today was going to be epic. Today was Nick’s birthday, and Nonna and I had been working on a surprise for him. I’d seen this beautiful Italian Rum Cake on the Food Network, and wanted to give it a shot. When I told Nonna, she pulled out her recipe box and flipped through it until she whipped out a well-worn card with gusto. We had decided that, due to being underage, we would be using a rum flavoring and not real rum. Also, I knew that Nick hated almonds, but loved pecans, so we were going to gently press crushed pecans on the side of the cake.
