Chapter 66
Chapter 66
Melina called Gio the following day and invited him and his family to Thanksgiving dinner. Gio was a bit apprehensive originally, but eventually Melina convinced him. Melina knew that Marco wouldn’t trust him again easily, but at this point, she was more interested in making sure they can be civilised.
Marco had asked her to cancel her training with Gio for that day and show him what she can do so far. They headed for the gym and positioned themselves across each other in the padded area.
Melina stood straight and focused, while Marco’s stand was looser, drawing confidence from years of experience. He started walking in circles around her, with a predatory grin on his face.
“Let’s see what you have” Marco said. “I’ll go easy on you” he added with another grin.
Before Melina had a chance to respond, he steps in with a lazy jab. Melina parries smoothly, a flick of her wrist. Another jab—she sidesteps, redirects his arm.
“Good” Marco said.
He ramps it up—throws a low sweep, then a quick feint and a jab. MELINA reads it, spins out, and brushes his arm aside.
“Is that the best you can do?” Melina asked.
“Careful what you wish for amore” Marco responded with a wide smirk.
He lunges. The blows come faster now—calculated but not cruel. Melina blocks a hook, ducks a cross, counters with a palm strike that lands light on his chest. A few more exchanges—fluid, fast—then, in one smooth motion, Melina pivots, hooks his leg, and drops Marco squarely on his back with a soft thud. Silence.
Marco blinks up at the ceiling. Then he laughs and sits up. “Damn, amore. It seems you are a fast learner on everything”
“We both know you let me throw you on your back” Melina said and squinted her eyes.
“I promise I didn’t. I was too confident you couldn’t, so I wasn’t paying attention. Gio has taught you well”
“Maybe you should tell him that when you see him tomorrow”
“We will see”
Melina continued her training and when she was done, she took a shower and got to the kitchen to start prepping for the following day. Her plans for the Thanksgiving dinner were ambitious, so her time for cooking was limited.
Melina decided to start with the two pies she would serve for dessert – pekan pie and apple pie. They both needed to have time to set before they could be served, so Melina decided to have them prepared and then warm up the apple pie before serving it.
It took her 3 hours to finish with the pies and clean the kitchen afterwards. Once everything was clean again and the pies were resting on the counter, she decided to prepare the filling for the turkey.
After having read multiple recipes, Melina decided to give a Greek twist in the filling and made it with rice, herbs, chestnuts and turkey mince. The filling was quick to be made and she left it aside for the following day.
She prepared the dough for the cornbread, made the cranberry sauce from scratch and washed and seasoned the turkey. The remaining of the dishes for the dinner, would have to be made the following day. Before she finished for the day, she cooked a large tray of pumpkin pie and once baked, she set it in the counter as well.
By the time she finished the preparations it was late in the afternoon, and she decided to head to her office and see is she had any applications for the job ads she had posted. Both the Web Developer and the Digital Marketing Manager positions had a lot of applications, and she quickly screened through their CVs.
She printed out the ones she found promising and rejected the rest. She had expected that she would have more qualified applicants, especially due to the salary ranges. She would start calling the applicants after Thanksgiving to book interviews with them.
The rest of the day was uneventful, and Melina convinced Marco to have an early night, as the following day would be quite full. When Marco woke up the next morning, he found Melina already dressed and Johnny proudly walking around in a Pilgrim costume.
“Amore, why is Johnny dressed like a Pilgrim?” Marco asked in a sleepy voice.
“Would you have preferred it was you wearing it?” Melina asked back.
“What? NO! Absolutely not” he said in a defensive voice. “Please tell me that I am not getting dressed as a Pilgrim or an Indian. My men are still calling me Prince Ali Ababwa and ask me if I need to take my magic carpet for dry cleaning”
Melina giggled. “No dress up time for you until Christmas”
“What am I dressing up like in Christmas?” he asked incredulously.
“Well…It won’t be actual dress up. Just Ugly Christmas jumpers on dinners with the family” Melina smirked.
“Amore…I-I can’t tell if you are joking or not”
“Good” Melina said and gave him a peck on the lips before she walked out of their bedroom.
She went straight to the kitchen, where she started preparing the rest of the feast. She got the turkey in the oven, to roast it slowly and started preparing mushed potatoes with grated cheese and butter, green bean casserole, mac & cheese, yams and gravy.
Once everything was prepared, she started cutting pieces of the pumpkin pie she made the day before and place the pieces in beautiful triangle Thanksgiving pie slice boxes and placing them in brown paper bags, along with a bottle of mulled wine, a bottle of spiced apple cider and hand-written notes.
The notes were all the same and said:
‘Dear Xx,
This Thanksgiving, I just want to take a moment to say how truly grateful we are for you.
Your hard work, dedication, and care mean the world to us—not just in what you do, but in how you do it. You bring loyalty, reliability, and a genuine commitment to everything, and that doesn’t go unnoticed. We feel incredibly lucky to have you as part of our lives and our team.
Thank you for all that you do—for us, and for those around you. We hope this season brings you moments of rest, joy, and time with the people you love.
With heartfelt thanks,
Marco & Melina’