He awkwardly scrambles for his boxers and pants as Teresa all but crawls away. Coward.
“I thought you said you wanted to meet me here.”
Awareness seems to flood his expression finally. I can’t even begin to imagine how many drugs he’s on right now.
“I did, I do, baby!” he slurs slightly as he steps toward me, still fumbling with his belt. “It’s so good to see you.”
“Did you spend all the money you traded me for on drugs?”
Claudio makes an odd, dismissive sound. “Of course not! You paid off a loan, baby. I’m a free man because of you.”
“Clearly.”
“Don’t be like that,” he groans. “Teresa and I are just friends.”
“She was literally just in here sucking your cock!”
He gives me a blank look. “Was she really?”
This isn’t going anywhere, so I change tactics.
“Look, I came here tonight to seeyou.To see if you could be trusted enough to start over again after everything that happened. But clearly, this was a mistake.”
I make to leave and try not to flinch as he grabs my arm. “You can trust me, baby.”
“Can I?”
“Of course. I’m gonna make you a star, remember?”
I pretend to consider his grim smile as something I could possibly adore. “Then tell me something.”
“Anything.”
“Why would you take that money from the mafia? It’s so dangerous! What could you possibly have needed it for to be worth the risk?”
He blinks at me for a moment. “You, baby.”
For a moment, I think I must have misheard him. “What are you talking about?”
“You think flights to Ohio are cheap? You think I could afford all those fancy meals I took you on?”
I shake my head. Even if he’d taken me to Michelin-star restaurants—which he definitely didn’t—there’s no way he could have spent one hundred and one thousand dollars over the course of our courtship.
“You took a loan from the Mafia to pay for our dates?” I can feel a laugh bubbling up inside me. “You really think I’m going to believe that?”
He moans loudly as he slumps down in the seat. “You’re fucking expensive, Cas! I had to buy a whole new apartment for you, remember?”
Remarkably, something does ring true as he says this. But he told me he was moving to the apartment in Brownsville because he got a promotion at work.
A promotion…within the mafia.
I laugh him off. “Who in their right mind, mafia or not, would loan anyone money so they can date someone?”
“I don’t know, Cas,” he slurs. “Ask fucking Bellini.”
Now, he’s really not making any kind of sense. “I’mBellini, Claudio. Cassandra Bellini, remember?”
“Fucking Bellini!” he shouts suddenly, almost startling himself out of the chair in the process.
