“Give me your price.”
Enzo knew that Frankie’s father didn’t pay him. He was basically working for free but at least, he had a job - something that he could never get by himself. He was so irresponsible that his father was afraid he would blow up all his money on stupid things, so he’d never paid him.
“Awww man… Don’t do that. Dad’s gonna kill me.” Frankie said with a voice that showed he was actually tempted.
“He doesn’t have to know. That’s between us. Our little secret…” Enzo winked at him, trying to win his sympathy.
“We have to go outside then… Too many ears in here.”
“Alright, let’s go to my car.”
They both walked downstairs and went out near Enzo’s Bentley. Frankie was only wearing a towel around his waist but nobody paid attention.
“So… How much?” Enzo asked again. He was impatient and willing to get rid of him as fast as possible with the girl.
“I… I don’t know… Five grand?” Frankie didn’t seem very confident and was almost afraid to give his price - and he was right.
Enzo slapped him behind the head. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Ouch! What?! That’s half the price already!” Frankie protested.
Enzo knew it was a bargain but he didn’t like to pay without trying to negotiate.
“I don’t care. Give me half of that…” He said.
Frankie opened his eyes wide open. “You must be crazy - hell no! I can’t!”
“Plus a little bit of powder…” Enzo opened his trunk, revealing an impressive quantity of little bags with white powder.
Frankie’s face lightened up like a child in Disneyworld. “Woow… Is that 99%?”
Enzo nodded. “Yes, sir. Pure cocaine. So, we have a deal?”
Frankie hesitated but Enzo knew he wouldn’t be able to resist.
“Okay, man. Deal. I’ll tell her to get dressed. She’ll be here in ten minutes.”
Sunday Morning…
Bip bip! Bip bip! Bip bip!
The sound of the alarm echoed in his ears and made him realize how bad his headache was.
Sunday morning. Hangover. Like every Sunday.
Enzo painfully opened one eye, then the next, still wondering what was going on.
Goddamn it…
It’s already time to wake up…
Enzo cursed. Like every Sunday morning for as long as he could remember, he swore he wouldn’t go out the next weekend and go to bed early. And as usual, he made that promise again.
Despite his lack of energy, he quickly grabbed his cell phone and turned it off. What an awful sound! He hated it but it was effective. He really needed to get up.
He checked the time - 10:00am.
He had an hour to get prepared if he wanted to arrive in time. He had business to do; the most important one of the week - family.
Every Sunday, he was expected at home, at his parents mansion for a family lunch. He couldn’t afford to miss it - ever. That was a family’s tradition and he had to show up no matter what.
Caramel was sleeping besides him and he shook her shoulder to wake her up. They had spent the night together drinking, sniffing coke and fucking. It had been a good night after all.
“Hey, it’s time to go. I have to leave pretty soon.” He told her, admiring her firm, naked body. She’d been a dancer for fifteen years and her body was one of the most beautiful one he’d ever seen.
But it wasn’t THE most beautiful he’d ever touched. No matter how many women he’d slept with over the years, he’d never found anybody who could give him chills down his spine like
She
did.
She
was the only one who could really satisfy him, just by saying his name followed by these three magic words. Love hadn’t been in his vocabulary for a long time and Enzo could feel the bottomless void of loneliness crush his heart again.
Now that the party was over and the excitement had disappeared, it was hard to ignore his true feelings.
He thought he was done with
Her
. He’d been through hell to forget and move on, and had done a pretty good job so far. The first few years had been the toughest. He’d agonized every night, wondering if
She
could ever forgive him.
Then,
She
moved on and met someone else. The day he found out, Enzo contemplated suicide and started a long journey of self-destruction - alcohol, cocaine, unprotected sex, drunken driving and racing, and partying.
Oddly enough, it worked for him. He regained his confidence and decided to build his character the way he wanted to be seen. He became successful and turned into a master of perceptions - and perceptions, were reality.
But apparently,
She
had left an indelible mark in his heart and the wound was about to be reopened very soon.
Enzo looked at Caramel next to him, and suddenly felt the urge to hug her. She wasn’t a bad girl. And she was far from being stupid. She was just struggling to make a living and had to do what she had to do.
She had a son in Cuba, waiting for her to deal with the immigration so they could be together again. Her parents were taking care of the little boy, with the money she sent them eve
ry month.
When she was sober, she was surprisingly interesting to talk to and very wise. Enzo could talk to her about anything and she was always listening. She had been through so many hurdles in life that she had developed a genuine sense of empathy towards others.
She groaned and turned her back on him. “Aww… I’m so tired… Why do you always have to wake up so early…”
Enzo ignored his own rules and took her in his arms, kissing her shoulder. “You want to stay here?” He asked.
She turned around to look at him, a surprised look on her face. “Really? Can I?”
“Yeah, it’s okay…” He said, allowing her to wrap her arms around his neck.
“What’s wrong with you today, uh?” She asked while he was moving on top of her. “Why being so nice? You need something from me?”
He chuckled. “Why do you assume I’m trying to get something in return?”
“Because you’re an asshole… Everybody knows that…” She teased him, caressing his hair.
They both laughed and for a split second, Enzo felt he was alive again. It was just a spark but it was enough to make him realize how much he missed being with someone.
“There’s only one condition, though…” He said.
“What?”
“You’ll have to take Apollo for a walk…”
Apollo was Enzo’s dog, a 180lbs Great Dane nobody wanted to take care of.
“But he’s too big! He’s a monster… HE’s going to take me for a walk!” She protested.
“Feed him before, he’s going to calm down.”
Caramel hesitated but clearly, she wanted to stay in bed.
“Fine, I’ll do it. How about the keys?”
“I have another set. Just come back whenever you can after work to bring it back.”
Enzo cuddled with Caramel and she felt him pressing his
morning wood
against her lower abdomen with insistence.
“Do you want anything else…” She asked, biting her lips. She already knew the answer.
“Yeah… Take care of MY monster…”
***
Enzo was waiting at the gate of his parent
’s mansion. Two men were checking his car, looking for any sort of explosives. They looked everywhere - the hood, the trunk, below and inside the car.
When they were done, one of them talked in his walkie-talkie, informing the man inside the security building to open the gate.
“He’s clear. Copy.”
“Opening the gate. Copy.”
The threat wasn’t coming from Enzo directly but from anyone who could use him as a human bomb. That was the protocol. Since he was using his personal car and didn’t have personal bodyguards, he had to be controlled before entering the property - every single time.
It was easily a ten to fifteen minutes procedure but Enzo had become used to it and wasn’t pissed anymore. He had to wait, right hand on the steering wheel and left arm dangling out the window, tapping his fingers against the door along with the music.
This time, he was listening to something more relaxing; ‘Sex Therapy’ by Robin Thicke. No hip-hop on Sunday.
When the gate finally opened, he slammed the gas pedal, propelling his Bentley toward the mansion, zig-zagging on the long driveway. He parked in front of a huge garage where all the cars of the family were being cleaned by his father’s staff.
A man approached him and he gave him the keys.
“There’s a scratch on the door. Try to fix it.” Enzo told the man.
“Yes, sir.”
He took the white box next to him and walked inside the house. A large dining table and twenty chairs sat in the middle of the living room. Everybody was already sitting, waiting for him.
“You’re late!” An elegant but intimidating man sitting at the end of the table said.
“Give him a break, Giovani.” The woman sitting on his right said with a gentle voice. “We’re just about to begin.”
“You spoil them too much, Maria.” Giovani replied, sending a killer look at Enzo. “Where have you been, son? Your flashy Swiss watch doesn’t work anymore?”
Enzo ignored his father’s sarcastic comment and kissed his mother on the forehead.
“Buon giorno mom. I’ve brought you French macarons.” He said while a maid took the box from his hands. Then, he turned to his father and kissed him on the cheek, while they both patted each other’s back.
“Sorry, dad. I had business to handle.” Enzo said apologetically.
Giovani chuckled. “Business? What kind of business? Pussy you mean…”
Maria slapped her husband’s hand. “Giovani! Don’t talk like that - it’s disrespectful. Let him do what he wants, he’s a grown man.”
Enzo looked at all the people around the table, all of them older men in suits and slightly bent his head to greet them. They nodded back at him in silence. They were all high-ranking employees of his father and members of the board.
He sat down next to the man who was sitting in front of Maria - Danny.
“Hi Danny.” He whispered.
“Morning, kid.” The man replied back. Danny was the
Consigliere
of the family - the adviser of his dad, Don Fancelli - and second most important man of the Famiglia, one of New York’s most dangerous and respected crime syndicate.
“A grown man, yeah!” Giovani continued. “When is he going to get married? Uh? Enzo, when are you going to stop fucking around and get serious?”
“I’m young, dad. No need to rush.” Enzo said without looking at his father.
“Young? You’re getting old, you’re friggin 28! Are you waiting for me to die to have kids, uh? Am I going to see my grandchildren or not?” Giovani said, unfolding his white table napkin.
“It doesn’t work like that, dad. I can’t find anyone, that’s it.”
“When I was your age, you were born already… You know that?”
“Yes, you tell me every two weeks! You met mom when you were 18 and you got married at 23… Fine! You forgot to mention YOUR dad wasn’t a mafioso, it was easier for you…”
“Mio dio! Can we have a normal family lunch, please?” Maria shook her head and took her face in her palm.
Giovani raised his finger and pointed it at Enzo.
“Hey… Nothing was easy for me, got it? I’ve built this entire business from scratch. I had nothing, you hear me? Nothing! I’ve started at the bottom… and now look at me. I have a whole EMPIRE! But it has never been easy. Never. You should be grateful… If there’s anyone around this table who has an easy life, that’s YOU, son!”
Enzo looked down and kept silent. His father always had to compare and make him feel bad. He was the least coherent person he’d ever known.
Indeed, Giovani was the one who had pushed Enzo to study hard and be a great student. He’d pushed him so hard that Enzo got admitted to Wharton School to study business and finance, where he got his MBA. After graduation, Enzo had been recruited directly by a large investment bank on Wall Street, as an equity trader.
And now, Giovani was blaming him for his lifestyle.
“You can’t say that, Giovani. I won’t allow you to say that, because it’s bullshit and you know it.” Maria said, clenching her jaw as she was talking.
Everybody kept silent and looked at her.
“Your son has been sent to the hospital because of you, Giovani. And you didn’t even apologize to him or show any concern. That’s your definition of an easy life?” Maria said, her eyes getting wet.
“Mamma mia, that was YEARS ago!” Giovani said, throwing his hands in the air.
“It doesn’t matter! You didn’t care, and you still don’t! Nobody can touch my kids!” Maria screamed.
“He had to become a man - a real man! I had to be tough with him! It was a lesson and he had to learn. That’s part of business, you’ve got to move on.” Giovani said with a strong voice.