AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She was quiet while she downloaded the information.
I enjoyed the silence while it lasted –
But it didn’t last long.
17
The trip lasted three hours.
It felt more like 15 with all the complaining.
First, she turned on the radio and skipped past a half-dozen good songs until she found some godawful bubblegum pop music.
I lasted about five minutes before I couldn’t stand it anymore. I switched the dial to an American classic rock station she’d skipped past.
“HEY, I was listening to that!” she shouted.
“Yeah, and it was shit,” I snapped.
“What the fuck is this?”
“Led Zeppelin, ‘Whole Lotta Love.’”
That’s the thing about Italy and most of Europe: at least 50% of the music is American. I’d grown up listening to American rock ‘n roll – especially stuff from the 60s and 70s – because my father had loved it.
“Okay, Grandpa,” Lucia scoffed. “How old are you, anyway?”
“Twenty-five.”
“Jesus – you’re only four years older than me, but you have the musical tastes of a fuckin’ Boomer.”
What she actually said was in Italian, so it was, “Hai solo quattro anni più di me, ma hai i gusti musicali di un fottuto Boomer.”
I wasn’t familiar with that last word.
“…Boomer?”
“Jesus, you don’t even know what that is?” she asked contemptuously.
“No,” I said, my blood pressure slowly rising. “I don’t.”
“In the US, they call old people ‘Boomers.’”
“Why?”
“What the fuck am I, a dictionary? Google it.”
“Where did you hear it?”
“Where the fuck do you think I heard it, bitch?” She started counting off on her fingers. “TikTok – YouTube – Instagram – ”
“You should watch your mouth.”
“Why – does it offend you that a girl talks like you and your little mafia buddies do all the fucking time?”
I was going to say, My ‘mafia buddies’ don’t talk like that –
But then I remembered how much Adriano and Valentino cursed. And Niccolo, too, when he was riled up.
