The Juliet Club by Suzanne Harper Read Free Book Online

guys later.”
    He vanished. Kate could feel, on the back of her neck, that the boy was still staring at her, but she refused to turn around and risk meeting his gaze again. Instead, she trained her attention on the tour guide and took dutiful notes that later made no sense to her at all.
    â€œ Ciao, Giacomo.” Benno propped his bike up and leaned against the wall next to the bike with a sigh of relief. It was turning out to be a very hot day, he’d been running errands since eight in the morning, and his day wasn’t even half over yet. “Come stai?”
    â€œEh.” Giacomo took another bite of his apple, making a face at its tartness, then shrugged. “All right, I suppose.”
    â€œWhy so glum?” Benno’s witchy-black eyes glinted with curiosity. “Has the lovely—I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten the name of your latest girlfriend—anyway, has she dumped you already?”
    Giacomo gave him a sidelong glance, one eyebrow raised expressively. He did not get dumped.
    â€œYes, that is the only reason I can think of for your sadness today,” Benno continued, a little maliciously. “You are pining away for your lost love. . . .”
    Giacomo raised both eyebrows at that. He didn’t pine away.
    Benno couldn’t resist. “She has broken your heart!” he finished dramatically.
    Finally Giacomo was irritated enough to speak. “My heart,” he said loftily, “does not break.”
    Benno grinned. “Oh, right. You don’t have one.”
    A corner of Giacomo’s mouth lifted in an answering glint of humor. “True.”
    â€œSo if the problem is not your latest girl,” Benno persisted, “what is it?”
    Giacomo sighed and leaned back against the wall. “Truthfully, I do not know why I am so sad. I know I should be happy.”
    â€œYes, you should,” Benno agreed. “No work, no responsibilities, no worries, no cares.” He considered all the jobs he was juggling this summer—selling trinkets to tourists at his uncle’s souvenir stand, working as a waiter for his second cousin’s catering company, delivering flowers for the nephew of his aunt’s best friend, and running errands all over town for anyone who would pay him. He considered all that, and thought black thoughts about Giacomo.
    But he merely added, “ Dolce fare niente . It is sweet to do nothing.”
    â€œYou forget that I am going to be held hostage in a dreary seminar room for the next month,” Giacomo said.
    â€œMe, too,” Benno pointed out.
    Giacomo shook his head. “I can’t believe you let yourself be talked into taking a class during the summer break. I was not offered a choice, but you could have said no.”
    â€œSomeone dropped out and the class has to have an even number of people,” Benno said. He decided not to mention the small stipend he had been offered that would more than compensate for the money he wouldn’t earn. “And it sounded interesting.”
    â€œInteresting!” Giacomo took another bite of apple. “Four weeks of dissecting symbols and metaphors with strangers who didn’t have enough wit to think of a better way to spend their summer!”
    â€œMmm.”
    Four weeks sitting around a cool, dim room in the Villa Marchese . . .
    â€œSummer is a time to have fun, not study,” Giacomo complained.
    Four weeks of not running errands all over town or, at least, not running quite as many errands as usual. . . .
    â€œIt’s not as if I haven’t heard every thought that could be uttered about that wretched play,” Giacomo went on.
    Four weeks of just . . . talking . Not standing in the hot sun selling souvenirs, not washing dishes in a steamy restaurant kitchen, and not carrying heavy boxes up three flights of stairs for old Signora Giordano . . .
    â€œIt will be unbearable,” Giacomo finished.
    If Benno hadn’t been such a