“That’s them,” I continued, going for another bite of food. “I had Violet bribe a kid in our class to hand his baggie over. They made me…curious.”
He nodded. “How would you fix them with mac and cheese though?”
Growing up, Brando did most of the cooking for him and Maggie Beautiful, and he told me rarely did they have two food items that went together, like peanut butter and jelly. He was truly curious how I would combine the two, probably thinking back on the days he had to get creative with food.
“I’d crumble them on top. Ooh, perhaps I can make them myself!”
“Perhaps,” he muttered, laughing into his beer glass. I wouldn’t put it past him to keep me pregnant for the duration of my fertile years, just to get me to eat.
“I hope you’re not planning on tobogganing us home after drinking.” I stuck my chin toward his two empty beer glasses, a lining of liquid amber coating the bottoms. “It’s not safe. You might run us into a tree.”
He swallowed fast, taken off guard by the comment.
Leaning in, he kissed my temple. “It’s called high resistance. I have it. For a lot of things.” He winked at me as he pulled away.
He excused himself from the table after, running a hand through Mia’s hair as he moved toward the bathrooms. He didn’t make it all the way. He stopped to talk to Nino. They were close, talking in hushed tones, and a time or two Brando nodded at whatever Nino had said in return. A few seconds after the conversation came to an end, Nino left the restaurant.
“What was that about?” I asked when he sat back down.
“Nothing.” He picked up his beer and took a sip. “Finish eating, baby.”
Our conversation seemed to slow, but in general, it was a nice evening out. Even Luca seemed more relaxed, laughing, attempting to make conversation with everyone.
If it’s too good to be true…
It wasn’t long before Luca’s face became a mask of calm. I recognized it right away. It was the same face his son wore before all hell broke loose, the beast out of his cage.
A group of men, five in total, sat at the next table, downing Vodka like water. Russian, by the sounds of them. Each man varied in degrees of height, but they all shared two common traits. Stocky and solid.
In the glow of the fire, they looked like they had jumped in for a minute, scorching their cheeks. It could have been a touch of wind burn, but I wondered if it was from the amount of alcohol too.
The men were older than me, around Maggie Beautiful’s age, or even my mother’s age. Each woman had captured the attention of two separate men, and the one who stared at Maggie Beautiful couldn’t seem to look away.
Maggie Beautiful had always been a gorgeous woman, but after marrying Luca, something about her beauty intensified. She seemed to glow, her red hair afire around her head.
Maggie Beautiful was oblivious to the attention, used to it, but Luca wasn’t. He seemed to ignore the appreciative glances she received, but like his son, he had boundaries, and this crossed them, it seemed.
My mother and father?
Carrying on their conversation. Neither one noticed. My father wasn’t the jealous type, unless the man was overt about it, like Niccolo, Brando’s uncle. Probably because he knew he had something to worry about.
This wasn’t about worrying for Luca, but respect.
Turning, I glanced at the men’s table. One of the men caught me and smiled. One of his lateral incisors seemed to catch my attention. The fire glinted off it and it glinted gold. The rest of his teeth were white. It wasn’t real gold. The tooth was a different color. Stained.
“Find something interesting, Ballerina Girl,” Brando said in Italian, his tone eerily calm.
“Ah.” I shook my head, turning around. I wasn’t getting a good feeling about this.
He drank his beer, not even looking at me, but he knew whereIhad been looking.
“No. I—” I became quiet, not having a good reason to be so curious.
One of the men, I think it was the one fixated on Maggie Beautiful, said something in Russian that made his companions roar with raucous laughter.
The comment made me bristle. The reaction seemed to go straight through me to Brando.
“Tell me,” he said, still not looking at me.
