I hate shopping on Saturdays. It seems that everyone in Milan has had the same idea and that the whole city is parked here. I mean, more than two millions people live here and I have a feeling the streets outside are completely empty.

I push the trolley slowly, like a good husband would do, and Cassandra jumps here and there grabbing several unidentified things from the shelves. From time to time, she glances at me and smirks. The look into her eyes says that she perfectly knows how annoyed I am.

“Come on, Dante, smile…”, she whispers into my ear, chuckling. I shake my head tragically and sigh.

“It’s boring, Cass. And it’s noisy. I wanna go home”, I moan desperately.

“You’re so childish”, she laughs, taking a box of cereals and putting it into the trolley.

“Yeah, yeah, and you’re dragging on…”, I reply quietly, rolling my eyes, “…Jesus, you’re slow”.

“You didn’t say that last night”, she laughs heartily, showing me two different brands of wine. I blush, a little embarrassed by her sexual allusion, and point at the bottle to the left.

“Mathusalem. Two”, I mumble. She nods and carefully places two bottles in the trolley.

“And drop the double entendres, please…”, I murmur, giggling silently.

She smiles at me, tilting her head to a side.

“Look, I didn’t ask you to come with me. I’m perfectly capable to do the shopping without your help”, she says playfully.

I shake my head.

“No, no. It’s a very delicate moment of your pregnancy and I don’t want you to get tired uselessly. I’ll stay here, follow you around like a good puppy, carry the bags and yada yada yada”.

She grabs me by the hem of my jacket and drags me to the frozen food section.

“Come on then, good puppy. I’m itching for some ice cream…”, she laughs.

”Peripheral on the package
Don’t care to settle in
Time to feed the monster
I don’t need another friend
Comfort is a mystery
Crawling out of my own skin
Just give me what I came for, then I’m out the door again…”

Thirty minutes later, I’m standing in line at the cash desk, alone. I rest my elbows on the trolley and take a look around, waiting for Cassandra to come back. She left the bath foam and disappeared again into the ocean of people moving like ants through the aisles.