Wait for Me in Vienna Read Online Free Page B

brother been together?” asked Johanna as they toasted and took their first sips.
    “He never told you about me?” Linda patted Martin lightly on his knee.
    “No, we haven’t talked much the last few years.”
    “Well,” Martin began, “we’ve known each other for about four years; about a year after we first met, we ran into each other at a party. Linda was finally single, and I jumped at the opportunity and talked her ear off.”
    “Yes, you were drunk and babbling like a crazy person. It’s a minor miracle that I agreed to go on a date with you after that.” Before she spoke again, she took another sip and looked at her significant other. “Martin gulped down one cup of punch after another.”
    “Yeah, I was nervous. Men get that way every now and then,” he countered.
    “And you were so charming . . .”
    Johanna looked on in amusement as they got lost in their cute dating story. Then she stood up and went into the kitchen to check on the lasagna. She came back with two plates.
    “Bon appétit!” she said as she put down the plates. “Go ahead and get started. I’ll be right back with mine.”
    However, they waited politely until she came back.
    “So, your turn,” said Linda. “Will you be staying here in Vienna?”
    “Well, I don’t know. I like it here a lot, but honestly, I still don’t know what I want to do. Actually, I’ve never known,” Johanna said candidly, then took a big gulp of wine.
    “Everything will work out great!” Martin said. He worried about making this transition as easy as possible on his sister and wanted to make sure she didn’t feel any pressure. Linda understood; he’d filled her in about Johanna at length. “You’re staying!” he continued. “And for the time being, you live with me. Linda has her own very nice apartment. If you get on my nerves, I’ll hop on over to her place.”
    “I don’t think it’ll be a problem. As you know, I’m a neat freak, and I’m not afraid of housework. You could use somebody like me around here.” Johanna took another sip of the Blauer Portugieser.
    She emptied her glass, then poured herself another. Johanna had a low tolerance for alcohol these days, almost no tolerance at all, actually. It had been over two years since she’d had anything to drink. This became evident when she spilled her wine on the beautifully laid table.
    “Whoops,” she said.
    “Wait a second, I’ll get that.” Linda dropped her knife and fork on her napkin as she hopped up.
    “That’s so sweet of you,” Johanna said, thinking how nice Linda really was.
    Martin started to laugh. “Do you know that I’ve never seen you drunk before?”
    “Come on. I’m a little bit tipsy, maybe, but not drunk. Oh, that reminds me, I’m making a delicious dessert. It’s in the fridge, but it’s not quite finished. Crap,” Johanna slurred as she gestured toward the kitchen.
    Martin stood up, went to the kitchen, and came back with the package of mascarpone. “Do you mean this?”
    “Yes, but it’s not ready yet.”
    “Well, that’s pretty obvious since the package is still sealed.”
    “Exactly. I just have to add plums, rum, and cinnamon. And, um, warm it up and fold the mascarpone in . . .” Johanna gave up and waved her hand dismissively.
    “Doesn’t matter, we’ll eat it some other time. I also bought some chocolate if anybody’s interested.” Martin held up a bar with double truffles and two kinds of nuts. “Or we can have pralines, the good kind, the expensive kind; this chocolate is the bomb, though. They’re both from Zotter. Didn’t you visit the Zotter chocolate factory once?”
    His sister couldn’t follow him anymore. In the meantime, Linda had wiped up the red wine spill and changed the tablecloth.
    “We were there two weeks ago,” she said. “I couldn’t drag Martin out of there. He got really sick from eating way too much chocolate, but there was just no way to hold him back.”
    She poured some more wine for