“Yeah. Mom here serves the community as an executive in a drug company that got sued for the opioid crisis,” Nick said.
She waved the insult away. “The good we’ve done far outweighs the bad,” she insisted.
“I run restaurants. I feed hungry people. You wanna tell me I’m not serving my community?” Miguel shouted, barreling his way into the conversation.
“Oh, please. You charge sixty dollars for a plate of oysters,” Carmela pointed out. “Don’t make it sound like you’re slinging soup to the homeless.”
“Your mother and I give back! We sponsored that 5k last year.”
“It was for diabetes, and you gave every runner a five percent off coupon for caramel flan,” Nick shot back. “They probably had to double their insulin doses.”
“Leave Dad alone,” his sister said, changing sides.
“Stop trying to be the favorite,” Nick told her.
“No one is the favorite. You’re both equally disappointing,” Marie decided.
“Me?” Carmela gasped. “What did I do?”
“You work in real estate development,” Miguel pointed out.
“Because youtoldme to get into real estate development like Mom’s parents,” Carmela said, exasperated.
“How is kicking farmers off their family farms and turning the land into parking lots and strip malls with vape shops giving back to the community and being respectable again?” Nick mused.
“Oh, kiss my ass, Nicky. At least my apartment and office didn’t burn to the ground because of my job.”
Riley looked dizzy by the swiftly changing alliances.
Nick patted her knee reassuringly and then opened another bottle of wine.
“Let’s change the subject, shall we?” Marie said, holding out her glass for a refill.
“So, Riley, what dirt do you have on ol’ Nicky here that forced him to move in?” Carmela asked.
“Carm, why don’t you eat something and stop being so hangry all the time?” Nick asked, topping off his sister’s glass.
“Moving in with a girl and bringing her to family dinner is a first. I assumed there was coercion. Or maybe she’s pregnant.”
Their mother gasped and made the sign of the cross.
“You haven’t set foot in a church in thirty years, Mom,” Nick pointed out. “No one’s pregnant, and I’m the one who did the coercing. I moved us in together and surprised her.”
“I’m just glad you’re not still involved with that woman who got you shot,” Marie said. “What was she? Some kind of hotline psychic or tarot card reader?” She shuddered dramatically. “Can you imagine?”
Riley’s fingers dug into his knee under the table. But he ignored the warning.
“I am still involved with her,” he announced. “And she didn’t get me shot.”
“Watch your mouth at the table, Nicholas!” his dad bellowed.
“He said ‘shot,’ not ‘shit,’ Pop-pop,” Esmeralda said, coming to her favorite uncle’s defense.
“Probably shouldn’t be announcing that in front of your girlfriend, dummy,” Carmela sneered.
“Riley is clairvoyant,” he said.
“Ah, hell,” Riley muttered under her breath.
