family is. Suddenly he wasn’t just this beautiful, chiseled, rock-hard, funny, sweet Tony. He was someone who may—or may not—have killed someone. Did he? Don’t tell me! I don’t want to know! No… Tell me—”
“Di—”
“Don’t tell me! See? I’m conflicted.” With that, she blew her nose again.
“Di, he’s not a made man, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Made of what? What the hell does that mean? How could I ask that if I don’t even know what it means?”
“It means he’s not a murderer. Not yet at least, though I can’t make any promises about leg-breaking.”
“Leg-breaking is acceptable.”
“Glad you feel that way. Anyway, it means…well, I don’t know what Tony’s plans are. He more or less functions as my uncle Lou’s bodyguard. They collect book. But after my cousin Sal died—”
“That was very sad.”
I bit my lip. “I know. And after that, I think even Uncle Lou started to wonder if maybe he should encourage his two remaining sons to do something outside the family business. He set up Mikey with a video-store business. Mikey isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but what he loves, more than anything, are movies. He can tell you every single winner of the Oscars since the Oscars began. So he’s out of the family business, and Tony sits on the fence. He’sgoing to have to decide sooner or later, but if he wants to open a restaurant or a shop or a small business of some sort, my uncle will set him up. And if he wants to enter the family business, that’s his other option. Everyone trusts him. He’s loyal beyond belief. And smart.”
Di blew her nose again. “I don’t know what to think. Could I really be falling for him? Could I? Is that preposterous? Me?”
“Stranger things have happened, Di.”
“Well…all along we’ve been flirting. Almost since the first time you introduced us. Remember when he visited us at college?”
I smirked, remembering we had all played quarters, a keg of beer in our bathtub. Di, never very good at holding her liquor, had thrown up in the toilet, and Tony held her hair back. And they say chivalry is dead. “Yes, I remember.”
“And all this time, it all was rather…well, it was all a moot point because it was flirting and it wasn’t real, if that makes any sense.”
“It does.”
“And now…I don’t know. We were under the street lamp and looking into each other’s eyes and I was a bloody goner. Completely in love. In lust. In like. I don’t know.”
“I think that’s wonderful, Diana.”
“He asked me out. For a week from this Sunday.”
I groaned. “Well…that Sunday will be interesting, then.”
“Why are you groaning? You just said you were happy for me.”
“I am. It’s just…” I proceeded to tell her about my “sit-down” with Poppy.
“So you’re going to bring Robert to dinner?”
“I’m not sure if the guy can handle it.”
“It does seem rather early, doesn’t it?”
I nodded. “On the other hand, he seems to find stories about my family amusing. Now he’d get to meet the clan in person.”
“There’s something to be said for getting such meetings over with. That way you don’t build them up into this enormous, nauseating, sweat-producing, sickening event.”
“Thanks for the visual, Di.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Di and I continued to lie on my bed, drinking champagne and talking about men. Or, more precisely, Tony and Robert. Then I found myself telling her about the sad, doomed love affair between Mariella and Uncle Mario. Di cried. It was then we pulled out a calendar and decided the vast majority of Di’s waterworks were caused by PMS. The rest of it could be explained by the fact that, after hearing about Mariella and Mario, Di was beginning to wonder if the moment under the street lamp with Tony was her thunderbolt.
Chapter 7
T he next night, courtesy of the two hundred dollars my grandfather Marcello had miraculously “pulled” from my ears through
“Di—”
“Don’t tell me! See? I’m conflicted.” With that, she blew her nose again.
“Di, he’s not a made man, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Made of what? What the hell does that mean? How could I ask that if I don’t even know what it means?”
“It means he’s not a murderer. Not yet at least, though I can’t make any promises about leg-breaking.”
“Leg-breaking is acceptable.”
“Glad you feel that way. Anyway, it means…well, I don’t know what Tony’s plans are. He more or less functions as my uncle Lou’s bodyguard. They collect book. But after my cousin Sal died—”
“That was very sad.”
I bit my lip. “I know. And after that, I think even Uncle Lou started to wonder if maybe he should encourage his two remaining sons to do something outside the family business. He set up Mikey with a video-store business. Mikey isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but what he loves, more than anything, are movies. He can tell you every single winner of the Oscars since the Oscars began. So he’s out of the family business, and Tony sits on the fence. He’sgoing to have to decide sooner or later, but if he wants to open a restaurant or a shop or a small business of some sort, my uncle will set him up. And if he wants to enter the family business, that’s his other option. Everyone trusts him. He’s loyal beyond belief. And smart.”
Di blew her nose again. “I don’t know what to think. Could I really be falling for him? Could I? Is that preposterous? Me?”
“Stranger things have happened, Di.”
“Well…all along we’ve been flirting. Almost since the first time you introduced us. Remember when he visited us at college?”
I smirked, remembering we had all played quarters, a keg of beer in our bathtub. Di, never very good at holding her liquor, had thrown up in the toilet, and Tony held her hair back. And they say chivalry is dead. “Yes, I remember.”
“And all this time, it all was rather…well, it was all a moot point because it was flirting and it wasn’t real, if that makes any sense.”
“It does.”
“And now…I don’t know. We were under the street lamp and looking into each other’s eyes and I was a bloody goner. Completely in love. In lust. In like. I don’t know.”
“I think that’s wonderful, Diana.”
“He asked me out. For a week from this Sunday.”
I groaned. “Well…that Sunday will be interesting, then.”
“Why are you groaning? You just said you were happy for me.”
“I am. It’s just…” I proceeded to tell her about my “sit-down” with Poppy.
“So you’re going to bring Robert to dinner?”
“I’m not sure if the guy can handle it.”
“It does seem rather early, doesn’t it?”
I nodded. “On the other hand, he seems to find stories about my family amusing. Now he’d get to meet the clan in person.”
“There’s something to be said for getting such meetings over with. That way you don’t build them up into this enormous, nauseating, sweat-producing, sickening event.”
“Thanks for the visual, Di.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Di and I continued to lie on my bed, drinking champagne and talking about men. Or, more precisely, Tony and Robert. Then I found myself telling her about the sad, doomed love affair between Mariella and Uncle Mario. Di cried. It was then we pulled out a calendar and decided the vast majority of Di’s waterworks were caused by PMS. The rest of it could be explained by the fact that, after hearing about Mariella and Mario, Di was beginning to wonder if the moment under the street lamp with Tony was her thunderbolt.
Chapter 7
T he next night, courtesy of the two hundred dollars my grandfather Marcello had miraculously “pulled” from my ears through
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