After ending their dinner date abruptly, or just dinner, Louis went straight to bed. Next morning he decided to join his parents at the shop, thinking he might as well do something he loves while he's stuck in the country.
He enters the shop through the back door with the cleaned plates in a tray, Jessie coming forward taking it from his hands.
"I'll take that."
"Thanks, Jessie." Louis gives her a smile and turns to find Franca daydreaming, a fresh pot of tomato to be squeezed into sauce sitting in front of her untouched, which is unusual. "You squeeze the love out of every tomato as if it were the last." Louis says in an accent his Nonna always used while telling him the same thing.
Franca jumps a bit at the sudden sound and kisses the back of Louis' hand he placed on her shoulder. She goes back with a gentle smile on her face, giving no reply to his teasing. "Nonna, what's wrong?"
"I've been thinking about your nonno." Franca shrugs peeling the tomato that has been in her hand for more than ten minutes.
"Missing him?" Louis asks softly, smiling seeing her give a small nod. "What was he like?"
"The biggest ladies' man in all of Napoli." Franca says with a dreamy twinkle in her eyes, the one Louis has seen multiple times in her wedding pictures. "The charm of ten Italian men."
Louis chuckles at the description. "What made him settle down?"
"I hit him over the head with a piece of prosciutto." Franca says with a straight face. "Out of love, of course." She adds rolling her eyes. "Have you ever been in love?"
Louis bites his bottom lip letting out a breath flustered. "Maybe."
Franca sighs dropping the tomato and cleans her hand. "You take over, bella."
"Okay."
"You tell your papa that..." Franca ponders for a few seconds, "...I went out."
"Okay." Louis takes a seat on the stool Franca was sitting, soon starting with the tomatoes.
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"Figs?" Carlo hums as Harry places the pizza inside the oven using the paddle. "Your father sees this, he's gonna blow a gasket." Carlo chuckles, Harry laughing along with him. "How was your date last night?" He leans back on the table with one hand, looking at Harry with a smug face.
"How'd you know that I, uh..." Harry stammers looking anywhere but at his Nonno.
Carlo smiles knowingly. "Little Italy. It's little." He says pinching his forefinger and thumb together.
"Look, it wasn't a date, but..." Harry smiles shyly, hugging the paddle to his chest. "..it was nice."
Carlo raises his eyebrows, crossing his hands infront of his chest. "Meaning?"
"Nice, you know." Harry shrugs. "It was- it was." He sighs rolling his eyes at his Nonno's teasing look. "It was very nice. But I don't know, Nonno. It's complicated with Louis."
"Harry, here's what I learned about love, life and cooking." Harry nods in an attentive manner. "Learn from your mistakes. Be fearless. But above all, have fun."
Harry smiles but says nothing as he turns around and takes out the pizza, placing the paddle on the counter. "I don't know. I think maybe he's outgrown this place."
Carlo clicks his toungue disagreeing. "Harry, you can take the boy out of Little Italy, but you can't take Little Italy out of the boy. Show him what he's missing." He says placing a hand on Harry's shoulder.
Harry thinks about it for a few seconds amd smiles. "Thanks, Nonno."
Carlo pats his back encouragingly and points outside the shop. "I'm getting a cup of coffee."
"What the hell is this?" Luca wonders stepping into the kitchen, Jogi trailing behind him. "What is that?" He repeats his eyes stuck on the pizza Harry just made.
"Delicious, is what it is." Carlo says slapping his back and walking out of the kitchen.
"Give it a try, Pa. All right?" Harry says walking backwards with a slice already in his hand. "I'm gonna get out of here."
"Oh, my buono! Oh, my God!" Sofia exclaims as she takes a bite.
"Sweet and smoky at the same time! Mm!" Jogi agrees as he chews.
"Delicious! This is fantastic!" Sofia picks up another slice too and walks out of the kitchen with Jogi. "Figs on a pizza! Who knew?"
"Mm! Mm!" Jogi nods his head fast. "Oh, so good!"
Luca blinks at them unamused but takes a bite out of curiosity, his eyebrows raising upto his hairline as soon as the taste hits his tongue. "Oh!"
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"Another caramel latte for Madonna." The barista calls bringing the cup to the table where Franca sat.
"Keep them coming." Franca says finishing her seventh cup of the day.
"You got it, Material Girl."
As Franca lifts the cup to her lips to take a sip, Carlo takes it from her hand. "Hey, hey! That's enough!"
"Hey, hey! Why did you do that?" Franca asks frowning reaching again for the cup which Carlo takes it out of her reach again.
"Come here. Give me that face." Carlo says taking her chin in his hand, wiping her foam moustache off with a napkin. "For your own good." Carlo replies as an answer to her question earlier.
"What do you want from me, Carlo?"
"Well, the other day, you said if I wanted it, I had to put a ring on it. And I did, in front of the Virgin Mary, no less, and you..." Carlo sighs waving a hand at her. "You fled. What is it, my love?" He asks gently.
"It's too hard, Carlo." Franca shakes her head. "After Alvaro died...I swore I would never mourn another man in my life."
"Well, we could have, uh, what do they say, uh..." Carlo shrugs waving his hand aimlessly, "friendly benefits?"
Franca draws back her palm to land a slap on his cheek, making him him hiss.
"You almost sent my dentures flying across the room!" Carlo exclaims holding his cheek where the slap hurt a bit.
"I am a lady." Franca points a finger at him warningly.
"Yes, and..." Carlo nods placing a hand on his chest, "I want you to be my lady." Franca looks down with a sad face. "You don't think that Alvaro wants you to be happy? The only regrets we'll ever have are the chances we didn't take, and the love we didn't make." Franca looks up at him, a small smile playing on her lips. "I don't wanna hide no more, and go back to my stupid son's house alone at night. I want us to have a home together. A place to cuddle and watch The Bachelor in bed." Carlo chuckles as Franca smiles shyly. "I love you, Franca."
Franca snaps her head up at him, a new twinkle in her eyes. "I never thought I'd hear that again." Franca whispers sniffing. "I love you, too, Carlo."
"Franca..." Carlo straightens in his seat and removes his hat from his head placing it on his chest, "with God,and this beardo-weirdo as my witness," he says pointing at the barista looking at them with wide eyes, "I promise I will love you for as long as you live." Franca blinks at him with teary eyes as Carlo smiles at her sweetly. "Come on. Smile." He touches her chin gently, "while you still have your teeth."
Franca chuckles nodding her head. "Yes. I will marry you."
Carlo cheers as all the people in the Starbucks along with the barista claps for them. He fishes the ring out of his pocket raising it in the air once. "Look at that! Whoa!" He takes Franca's right hand, slipping it into her ring finger, with both of them smiling wide. He leans forward to place small kiss on her lips to seal the proposal.
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Louis sighs for the hundredth time since he started making the menu to give to Chef Corrine for the new restaurant. It's like all his brain had forgotten about other dishes and just screams pizza at him. He deletes the picture of the mini pizza on the presentation and lets out a huff.
"Psst!" Louis jumps a bit from the sound, turning around in his chair to find Harry with a big grin on his face, hoodie over his head and a pizza box in his hand at his window. "Hey!"
"What are you doing?" Louis hisses walking upto him, and sees Harry is stood on the ladder he used to climb up, like when they were teens.
Harry gives him a goofy smile extending the pizza box towards him. "Special delivery." Louis chuckles shaking his head at him, accepting the pizza. "Pizza for you, kale included."
"I'm not hungry." Louis shakes his head.
"What are you talking about? You're always hungry at midnight." Harry says as a matter of fact making him roll his eyes. He glances down for a second before looking up. "Hey, do me a favor, would you? Be ready first thing in the morning, okay?" He tells climbing down the ladder before Louis could reply.
"Ready for what?" Louis whisper shouts.
"Just be ready!"
"Louis! It tastes better than it looks!" Luigi shouts from where he was holding the ladder down, whom Louis didn't see yet, making him laugh.
"Shh!" Harry shushes him not to wake anyone up.
Louis gives sents them both away with a wave and settles down onto his small couch to eat his midnight snack. He opens the box and chuckles finding the pizza in a heart shape. He takes one slice and bites into it, soon finding it tastes good, like everything Harry makes.
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Even though Louis has no clue where Harry's taking him, he does get ready just after the sunrise. He's wearing a blue tight T-shirt, in shirted with a dark blue jeans, slightly worried about whether they are comfortable enough for the plans Harry has.
After tiptoeing through the living room not to wake up his parents or Nonna, he steps out of the house, smiling seeing Harry on their delivery scooter with a helmet and another one in his hand.
"Hey." Harry greets him once he sees him walking towards him, already extending the extra helmet towards him.
"Hi. Where are you taking me?" Louis takes the helmet, putting it on his head, buckling it up correctly.
"I want to introduce you to someone." Harry shrugs turning around properly to drive the scooter.
Louis climbs behind him on the scooter and links his hands together infront of Harry's torso, pressing his front closer to his back. "Who?"
"The Louis I used to know." Harry tells before speeding off.
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