Page 28 of Valentino

“He betrayed me too, Valentino.” Anxiety begins to beat hard in my chest. Honestly, I don’t need this nightmare to continue, I’ve been through enough. We all have.

Valentino drops to the couch, turns the television on and makes himself comfortable while completely ignoring me, and I know if I fight back too hard while I’m feeling this emotional I’m going to blurt out something I shouldn’t.

“I’m taking a shower.” I march into the bathroom, lock the door and turn the hot water on. In a panic I scroll through my phone and quickly add another contact with the name Carlo. I then change Carlo’s name to Monica.

I don’t know if this will do it, but at least if Monica comes up in the call register….

What are you doing?

As the room fills with steam I stare at my reflection in the mirror, the person staring back at me is an empty vessel of a human being.

So lost in lies.

At what point did my life turn into such a mess?

Never in a million years did I imagine knowing someone in an organized crime syndicate. Let alone calling them my closest friends.

Pretending to watch television is a skill I never knew I had, but here I am on hour two. Sitting beside Valentino on the couch doing exactly that.

We’ve ordered pizza and he’s taken a few calls, but in the space between us there are secrets.

I can feel them.

Pulsing in the air as if they had their own heartbeat.

Carlo hasn’t called me, which isn’t surprising but then again it’s probably a good thing. I’m not quite sure how my fake Monica conversation will go down, I’m a terrible liar.

At least I now have a number for Carlo…for some sick fucked-up reason it makes me feel better to know that I can contact him if I need to.

And I do….

For him to tell me that everything that happened is a lie and that he’s still the man that I knew. That this was all a bad dream that I’m going to wake up from.

VALENTINO

Anna stares at the television.

But she’s not here with me…her mind is somewhere else…with someone else.

Knock, knock.

“That will be Tommy.” Anna gets up and answers the door. “Hello.”

“Good evening, Anna,” I hear him say. “I picked up the pizza you ordered and got you the bottle of wine you wanted, they didn’t have….”

I reach down to the coffee table and turn Anna’s phone over to see the screen, it lights up at exactly that moment, I snatch it up and walk into the bathroom and lock the door behind me.

Monica

I watched her type in her code earlier and have memorized it in case I got this chance, I type in her code and swipe it open.

Hi.

I reply,

Hi.

Dots dance as someone on the other end types.