Nikki Sinatra looked at the waitress standing at her table. “Excuse me?”
“That black lady up front.” The waitress was motioning toward the entrance.
When Nikki looked and saw that she meant Roz, who was Nikki’s stepmother-in-law, she smiled.
“That’s what I call classy,” the waitress said again. “Every time she come up in here she be all decked-down like she got it going on like that. Every single time. She make us black folks proud. We be talking about her all down in the kitchen and shit. We be just gossiping about that lady,” she added with a grin. “But between you and me and the dirt outside, there’s a reason for it. From what I heard, she’s fooling around with THE Mick Sinatra.”
Fooling aroundwith him? Didn’t this child know that Roz wasmarriedto him? Nikki decided to play with it. “Mick Sinartra? Who’s that?”
The waitress looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “You never heard of Mick the Tick?” Then the waitress lowered her voice. “Between you and me and the dirt outside, he claims he’s a businessman. But don’t nobody in Philly believe that. They say he’s a big-time mob boss. The biggest they get. Like John Gotti and shit. The boss of all bosses is what they call it.”
“Oh I see.” Nikki was amazed that that noisy waitress knew so much about that life but had no idea that Mick was not only her father-in-law, but she was the underboss of his entire syndicate. The first black woman ever in that role. And Teddy, Nikki’s husband, was the boss!
But the waitress kept gabbing. “And know what else I heard?”
Nikki wanted the full tea. “What else girl?”
“Every stitch of clothing that lady wears, he has it shipped in from Paris. Every single stitch. He wants his woman to represent him right. Although I also heard she’s not hisonlywoman. But that’s another story.”
A sadness came over Nikki. Because that was Mick’s reputation too. Although she wasn’t at all sure if she believed it. “I see,” she said.
“I ain’t mad at her though,” the waitress kept talking. “I say if you gonna go for a white boy, get you a rich one. Nobody don’t wanna see no high-class sister like her with no trailer park trash or no Bucky the Beaver. Nobody wanna see that! Get yo’ ass the richest one they got, is what I say. And I hear her man is good looking too?”
Nikki leaned back. “Good looking? Really?”
“Oh yes ma’am! He’s got this sleepy eye that just make a woman wanna do whatever she got to do to get next to him. He ain’t no ordinary mobster. He’s gorgeous for real real. When somebody showed me his picture online, I had to snap my fingers for that sister. I said you go girl. That’s how you do that shit.”
Nikki couldn’t help it. She laughed. “That’s how you do it, hun?”
“That’s how you do that shit,” the waitress said again with a grin. “But anywho, my manager’s giving me the side eye so Ibetter get back on track. Are you ready to place your food order, ma’am?”
“Ah, give me a few minutes, will you? My friend just walked in.”
“Sure thing,” the waitress said without putting two and two together, closed her pad, and left the table.
And Nikki, still amused, looked at Roz as she waited in the short line at the entrance for the maître d to seat her. And that waitress was spot on. Because Roz did stand out as pure elegance in her designer clothes that always highlighted her great figure and enhanced her beautiful, high-cheek-boned face. But from the day Nikki met her, that was always Roz. She was always well put together.
And she was always late. That was Roz too.
Nikki glanced at her watch again. But she knew not to complain because she knew Roz was a busy woman. Not only did she own a successful talent agency, but she still acted in a few Broadway productions herself. She’d always been known to be tardy for the party. But it was highly unusual for Roz to bethistardy. Nikki, who was considered a very patient person by Sinatra standards, almost left that restaurant nearly half an hour ago.
And she was quick to let Roz know it too. “Ma, you are so late. I almost walked right on out that door,” Nikki said with a grin as Roz walked up to her table.
“I was here,” Roz said as she hugged Nikki’s neck and then sat down. “I wasn’t late. I was stuck in my car talking with a producer who wants to fire one of my clients.”
“What happened?”
“She’s always getting into it with the music director as if she knows more than he does.”
Nikki pointed her finger to the dark side of her hand to confirm the race of the actress in question.
“You know it, girl,” Roz said with a nod. “We always got to have more lip and more attitude than anybody in the production. That sister is a good actress, don’t get me wrong. She’s got great upside. But her ass only been in one hit Broadway musical and already she’s acting like she’s the expert? I told her Marvin has directed fifty Broadway shows. Fifty. But let her tell it he don’t know what he’s doing. It’s a headache running that agency. A head-ache!”
“What did the producer say?”
“She’s out. I’ve known Harvey for twenty years. One of the best producers around. And he’s cut me plenty slack, believe that. But even I couldn’t change his mind. She’s out.”
“If she gets a reputation as a problem, she’s in trouble.”
