“What about me?” Lorie asked in a quieter, more intense voice.
“What about you?”
“I love you. So much. You’re my best friend in the entire world.”
“And you’re mine. That doesn’t have to change.”
“Doesn’t it?” she asked. “Are you going to leave Giovanni?”
“N-no. I’m not going to leave him.”
“What kind of position does that putmein?”
“It doesn’t put you in any position,” I replied. “I know I’ve called you a couple of times and asked you for some help, but I heard you before. You’re not comfortable with that. I won’t do that anymore. You just have to be my bestie like you’ve always been. Let me talk at you about how amazing my boyfriend is.”
“Boyfriend?!”
“Yeah,” I said. “We confirmed it on our date tonight. It’s official.”
“Avion…” She was silent for a long time. “You’re dating a mobster and I’m the daughter of a New York City police chief. Those things don’t exactly go well together.”
“Don’t think of it that way. It’s not like I’m gonna tell you anything he’s up to. As far as you’re concerned, he’s just your best friend’s boyfriend. You don’t know anything else. If the cops ask--”
“If the cops ask?! Now I’m talking to the cops about it?”
“Well… I imagine it won’t stay secret forever that we’re together. Eventually I’ll be tied to him, and you’ll be tied to me.”
“No,” she said. “I don’t think I will.”
“What do you mean?”
“This was what I was trying to say to you the other night, but you wouldn’t listen. Avion, I can’t be friends with someone shacking up with someone theyknowis a criminal. It goes against everything I stand for, for one, and for two, I don’t want to constantly live in fear of waking up to learn that my best friend has been arrested or killed!”
“Wait. But, Lor --”
“No, Avion. No. I’ve thought about this a lot. I’ve had a ton of time since you’ve been running around with the Raines family like you’re one of them. This whole thing just doesn’t work for me. As long as you’re there, you and I… We can’t be friends anymore.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “You don’t break up with friends as adults. That’s middle school stuff. So we have some differences. What’s so wrong with that?”
“Nothing if it’s like you like pop music and I prefer country, or you’re a dog person and I’m a cat person. Not when you’re an accomplice and half my family is on the force.”
“I’m not an accomplice!”
“What do you call pulling strings to have a police raid called off? You interfered with the law to protect wanted men.”
My brothers pulled strings to make the raid happen, why couldn’t I pull strings to stop it? “I don’t think you’re being fair.”
“I don’t thinkyou’rebeing fair,” she spat back. “Fortunately, it doesn’t matter. We’ll never see eye-to-eye on this and we don’t have to, because I’m done.”
“Lor--”
She hung up before I could say anything else.
I was in total awe staring down at my phone. After everything that Lorie and I had been through, never in a million years did I expect her to just drop me like that. I knew that my relationship with Giovanni stressed her out, but I honestly didn’t think it would be that big of an issue.
Was it just wishful thinking?
I stood up and wandered out of my bedroom, actually bound for Gio’s bedroom for someone to talk to when I heard the elevator doors closing.
