Page 2 of The Mafia’s Girlfriend

“More like yours, Lucas,” she replied fondly before I grabbed my phone from the charger on the counter and left.

Walking this early in the morning wasn’t a challenge. With the sun’s rise into the clear blue sky, the temperature would soar and the humidity would climb. Now, it was almost pleasant. Not many idiots clogged the roads yet, and I enjoyed the brief solace and peace. The routine of putting one foot in front of the other helped to smooth out the strained muscles from last night, too. By the time I reached the rear employee entrance at the Tropican, I was awake and mostly in the mood to start a long shift.

But not before asking to pick up a few more, especially when last night was the only fight I’d have this week.

“How’d last night go?” my coworker Randy asked as he headed to the entrance with me.

I held out my fist to bump his, and we walked inside. “Fine.”

“Doesn’t look fine.” He furrowed his brow, studying the right side of my face.

“The swelling will go down.”

“You win, though?”

I smirked, amused that he’d have such low faith in me. That hit wasn’t bad. It wasn’t like I had blood dripping anywhere. I still had all my teeth. No broken bones.

“’Course, you did.” He grinned, his perfect white teeth a sharp contrast to his dark skin. “You know, some days I envy you.”

“Bullshit.” I continued through the hallways that routed us around the smaller kitchen in this particular building. Tim’s office was nestled down in the basement layer of the simplest structure on the vast Tropican property. They didn’t need to make the staff area pretty. Only utilitarian. White cinderblock walls threatened claustrophobia the further we entered the bowels of our workplace.

“I envy the money, man.” Randy shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck.

My long-time friend wasn’t in any better socioeconomic shape than I was. Instead of paying for his mom’s medications, he was stuck paying off legal debt for his dad. And while I worried I’d never get caught up with the day-to-day expenses of the simplest needs for me and Mom, he stressed about providing for his wife and kids.

“Alyssa is pregnant again.”

I faced his profile, surprised. “What?”

He exhaled a tired breath as he nodded, but a glimmer of excitement showed in his eyes. This man loved his woman. He adored his kids. But...

“Isn’t King only a few months old?”

His happiness dimmed. He winced. “Yeah.”

“Shit, man. You’ve proven how fucking fertile you guys are.”

“She couldn’t stay on the birth control for long. It was making her sick and she was running out of milk. And breastfeeding is way fucking cheaper than formula, like Regina needed when she was a baby.”

“Ever hear of a condom?” I joked.

He shrugged. “Ran out of them. And even those are expensive.”

Everything was. “I bet having another kid is more expensive.”

Shooting me a dirty look, he pushed open another door for me to enter through first. “Oh, shut up.”

“Congrats, man. Seriously.” I patted his back. I’d never admit it out loud, but I envied him. Having a wife and kids sounded like a pipedream. Settling down in a “normal” life like that wasn’t happening anytime soon for me. “But, damn.”

“Yeah. Damn is right. Two babies in one year is going to break the bank.” He rubbed his hand over his face and sighed. “I’m going to ask Tim for more shifts.”

“Me too.”

He frowned at me. “Really?”

“The cost of my mom’s medications doubled since last month. And if I can’t pay off enough of her old bills, to be in line for that surgery for her, who the fuck knows how long the wait will be.” Last I checked, people needed kidneys to survive. She could only last so long with the dialysis regime she currently had.

“Can’t Jimmy get you more fights?” he asked as we stepped into Tim’s office. The older, balding man wasn’t seated at his desk, but he couldn’t be far. While Randy and I were here because we had to be, Tim practically lived in this office to escape his four teenaged daughters’ wrath at home. Not to mention his wife and mother-in-law who lived with them.