Free Italian for Beginners by Kristin Harmel

“It’s truly ridiculous if you don’t go. You deserve this. You
need
this.” She paused and added, “If you don’t go, I think you’ll always wonder about what could have been. And that’s no way
     to live.”
    “I don’t know… ,” I said, my voice trailing off.
    Kris stared at me for another long moment. Then, without a word, she stepped into my cubicle, nudged me aside, and hit the REPLY button on Francesco’s e-mail.
    “What are you doing?” I asked.
    She didn’t respond. Instead, she typed something into the computer. I watched nervously over her shoulder as the words appeared
     on the screen.
    Are you sure you want me to come? It’s been a long time.…
    She hit SEND before I had a chance to protest.
    “Kris!” I exclaimed. “I can’t believe you just did that! What if he was just kidding? What if he didn’t mean it! What if…”
    Just then, my e-mail clicked again, to let me know I had an incoming message. I stared in disbelief as Francesco’s address
     came up on the screen again. Wordlessly, Kris maneuvered the mouse and clicked. Holding my breath, I read over her shoulder.
    Of course I want you to come. True love, it lives forever, no? Please come to Roma. Soon, my bella.
    “Oh,” I breathed.
    Kris smiled at me. “Okay, Juliet,” she said. “Let’s send you off to your Roman Romeo.” I tried not to think about how that
     particular story ended. “Do you have your passport?” she asked.
    I nodded, numbly.
    “Fantastic,” she said briskly. “Give me your credit card, and I’ll get started on booking you a flight. You start with filling
     out the vacation request paperwork.”
    “ But—” I began.
    “Just do it,” Kris said firmly. “I’m not letting you back out of this one. Now, when would you like to go? Thursday? Friday?”
    I snorted. “Are you kidding me?”
    Kris shrugged. “Do I
sound
like I’m kidding?”
    I felt like I was in a fog—or perhaps living someone else’s life— as I walked down the hall to HR to pick up a vacation request
     form. Amber, the HR coordinator, looked at me like I was nuts.
    “
You
want to take a vacation?” she asked.
    I nodded.
    “My God!” she exclaimed. “Hell has frozen over!”
    I stared at her, not sure how to respond. “I don’t have to go,” I backpedaled. “I mean, or I can take the vacation whenever
     it’s convenient so that I don’t put anyone else out.”
    Amber rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding? I’ve been waiting for you to request a vacation for the past five years. Please!
     Go!”
    “ But—” I began.
    “Don’t say another word,” she said firmly.
    While Amber was still laughing I walked out with the vacation request form clutched in my hand, still not really believing
     that I was going to do this.
    Until I got back to my desk.
    “So, I’ve booked your outgoing flight for Thursday,” Kris said cheerfully. “When would you like to return?”
    “Wait,
this Thursday
?”
    Kris turned and shrugged at me. “I found a great deal on Travelocity. A last-minute fare. Don’t blame me.”
    I took a deep breath. “Kris. This is crazy.”
    She smiled at me. “Yeah,” she said. “It is. And that’s exactly why you have to do it. When have you
ever
done anything crazy or irresponsible in your life?”
    “Nothing good has ever come out of being irresponsible,” I said stiffly.
    She studied my face for a moment and sighed. “Cat, life is messy. Sometimes you have to take chances. You have to step outside
     your comfort zone. You have to do things that are irresponsible or downright stupid. Does it leave you open to getting hurt?
     Yeah, of course it does. But how can you say you’ve lived if you’ve never really gone out on a limb for anything?”
    I considered this as a knot formed in the pit of my stomach. “It just seems like such a dumb thing to do,” I said.
    “Cat, sometimes you
have
to do dumb things,” she said. “Life works out the way it’s supposed to, anyhow. For goodness’