Then Reno, who was the ring leader when it came to provocation and who was a little tipsy himself, elbowed Sal and then asked his question: “So Roz?”
She jerked her head to the side of the table where Reno and Sal were seated. They even laughed at her jerk. “Yes?”
“How old are you, Roz?”
Tommy and Sal almost got up from that table and ran they wanted to laugh so hard. Reno was taking full advantage of her state of near-inebriation and they knew it.
But Roz knew it too. “How old am I?”
“Yes. Since it’s your birthday and all. Curious minds wanna know.”
“Ain’t nobody curious but your ass, Reno.”
“Okay then I’m the curious mind.”
“Mind?” asked Sal. “What mind?”
“I’m talking to Roz over here. Do you look like a Roz?”
“Just ask your damn question,” said Sal.
“I already asked my damn question.”
“What’s your question?” Roz asked.
“How old your ass is?” asked Reno.
“For your information,” said Roz, taking another sip and then sitting her glass down so hard that her liquor shook in the glass. Then she belched. They laughed. “For your information,” she said again, “I am thirty-five years old today.”
“Thirty-five?” asked a surprised Reno. “Thirty-five minus what?”
“It ain’t no minus you moron,” said Sal. “It’s plus.”
“Actually it’s times,” said Roz. “I’m thirty-five times one.”
Reno looked at Tommy, the brains of the Gabrini men. “What that equal, Tommy?”
The ladies laughed. Sal frowned. “Is there anybody alive that’s dumber than you, Reno?”
“Yet I own the biggest casino in Vegas,” Reno shot back. “Yet I’m voted King of Vegas every single year. I’m the largest employer in Vegas, and I count more money in an hour than you’ve counted in your lifetime. I got a kid that’s a certified genius. YetI’mdumb? You hear that, Tommy? Your kid brother over here says I’m dumb.”
“You are,” said Sal.
“I’m talking to Tommy.”
“And I’m talking to you,” Sal shot back. “You’re the king of dumb, Reno. You’re like the Liberace of dumb. You’re like the Michael Jordan of dumb. You’re like--”
“Okay, Sal, we get it,” said Roz. “He’s dumb.”
“Sal can kiss my dumb ass,” said Reno. “I wasn’t talking to you anyway,” he said to Sal. “Do you look like Tommy?”
“He’s my brother, so yeah.”
“I’m talking to Tommy.”
“He’s talking to Tommy,” said Roz as she belched again. And the ladies at the table, from Big Daddy’s old lady Jenay, to Reno’s old lady Trina, to Sal’s old lady Gemma, to Tommy’s old lady Grace, to Teddy’s Nikki, all laughed. Even Amelia Sinatra, Mick and Big Daddy’s half-sister, was at that table laughing too.
“Thirty-five times one equals thirty-five, Reno,” Tommy finally answered Reno’s original question. “Any number times one equals that number.”
