And in my mind, I could see many years ahead of us doing exactly that.
I couldn’t wait.
Stephanie - 7 Months
“Is that wrapping paper?” Venezio asked, coming into the apartment where I had four rolls on the coffee table.
“Your observation skills remain unmatched,” I said, leaning my head back for a quick kiss.
“I get Christmas is your thing, babe. But it’s July.”
“I’m not decorating or anything. Yet. That isobviouslywhat you do on Halloween night.”
“Right. Obviously,” he said, dropping down onto the couch with a huff of laughter. Noel was quick to join him, getting all her loving.
“There is just a Christmas-in-July sale. I wanted to take advantage. This is just the first shipment. We’re going to need like twenty times this for the presents this year.”
Not to toot my own horn, but I’d been kicking ass even in the off-season in raising money for Giftmas. So, yeah, beep beep.
We’d reached our goal last year. I planned to smash through it before the season even started.
Along with the little bribe-slash-donation from the Costas.
“How did it go?” I asked once he stopped telling Noel about all the ‘good smells’ she was going to come across when we took our long walk.
“I’m Made,” he said.
“How does it feel?”
“Weird.”
“Care to use more words?” I suggested, shooting him a smirk.
He would never be the most talkative man in the world, but he usually had more to say than he originally seemed to. He just required a little coaxing.
“The whole point of becoming a capo is to take a step back from the grind. To find all the best soldiers and associates and let them do the dirty work.”
“And you don’t like that?”
“I’ve busted my ass every day of my life since I was fucking eleven. I don’t know what it’s like to have time off.”
“I mean… you kind of do, though,” I reminded him. “You’ve taken a lot of days off since we’ve met.”
“When we were being chased through two boroughs?”
“And after, when you were taking care of me. And on Sundays, so we can have date nights with Andy and Sammy. And random afternoons here or there.”
He sat with that a minute.
“Isn’t this just letting you choose when to bust your ass and when to let someone else, er, earn their stripes? Sorry, I don’t know the mafia term.”
“Make your bones,” Venezio said with that smirk I loved so much.
“How does onemake bones?”
“Think about that for a second.”
“Oh.Oh. Well, that wasn’t exactly what I meant, but, yeah, the point of being a boss—and kind of boss—is that youcantake a step back, not that you have to.”
