12

Chapter 12 - Feeling secure

Giovanni hadn't returned from work yet, and Brenda had a feeling it was going to be one of those nights he spent away from home, as he usually did once or twice a week.

She had dinner alone and turned on the television, making an effort to understand the dialogues of the movie she had in front of her.

Giovanni's teasing about her language skills had stung enough for her to make an effort to sprinkle her Spanish with Italian words, still lacking enough grammatical fluency to string together full sentences.

But despite her amusing way of expressing herself, Giovanni had stopped laughing at her in that regard and rewarded her with a "Bravo" every time she got the right word, patiently correcting her when she was wrong.

Until that night, she hadn't decided to watch an entire movie, and she was glad to see that she understood enough to guess the plot and some conversations.

Only the actors who spoke very quickly were unintelligible to her.

Once it was over, she