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Mrs. Ricci still expressed her disappointment in me not having gone to college and I had to promise her that I'd put some thought into it before she finally let me off the hook on the topic.
** ** **.** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
Now, I had only one person apart from Mrs. Ricci that I could confide in inside the mob house.
"Ricardo!" I screamed his name loud enough for not only him to hear, just to be sure the sound traveled to him. I didn't even mind the awkward stares given to me by some other men living in the house, almost all perpetually wearing corporate tuxedos.
"Give me five minutes!" The feminine gesturing man screeched back. We were literally supposed to go to a party today and despite the fact that I was the lady, - mythically the one supposed to spend the most time getting ready - Ricardo had been in his room more than twenty minutes longer than I was.
"What are you trying to do?" I asked him jokingly when he finally opened his door. "Steal men from me?"
"Ha, ha. Just watch how surprising today's event would turn out to be," he fake sneered at me before leading the way out of thehouse with me following, both of us giggling and making jest of whoever crossed our path.
Earlier on, Alessandro and I got into an extremely bitter argument after he unanimously decided that I would no longer be resuming at my current place of work. He even took the liberty to call my recruiter and resign without my direct consent and the stupid organization accepted it fully. Now, he had left me with utterly nothing to do but to, "Channel all that energy into raising Artemis right..." In his own words. For the millionth time, how fucking dare he?
"The intrusion is too much!" I complained to Ricardo as we headed to the club in one of the numerous black Mercedes E class cars literally littered across the estate. "What kind of psychological prison is he trying to box me into? All because I bear his child. A child he didn't even know I had!"
"Well, at least he's letting you move in and out freely," he suggested.
"With you!" I widened my eyes at him. "No, I don't mean that in a bad way," he nodded, showing he understood me. "I mean compulsorily with you. I'm not genuinely free. Ever."
"Well, if it helps, you can think of me as more of a bodyguard rather than an instructor. That way, it'd be easier for you to make some liberating decisions, don't you think?" he offered.
"You know..." I contemplated. "That actually may not be a bad idea." I stroked an invisible beard on my chin.
"Well, I uh...see... it's not a bad idea at all," he winked.
"You know the first thing I'm going to do?" My question was delivered with a mischievous sneer.
"Look for a very tantalizing man to bring home with you and then have Alessandro chop off his head?" The mafia assistant suggested with a matching devilish smirk.
Oh.
"Oh...no," I relaxed from my poise, not expecting him to be so direct. "I was thinking about just dancing for the night to ease the tension I'm feeling right now." I rolled my shoulders and head in an effort to free the muscles of their tightness, groaning in mild frustration at the incomplete job I had just done. Oh well, the dance floor will help me finish the job.
"Ugh, you're so boring. I was already looking to be your scout for the night," he whined.
"Don't worry, Ricky, some other time," I shimmered and relaxed into the chair. It was going to be a long ride, especially since I wanted to go to Fauxwood. No place did it better than that place, really.
In a shorter time than I anticipated, the car came to a halt, and I opened my eyes to the neon lit construction of the name of the club.
Huh. I guess you tend to perceive time a lot differently when you're blindfolded and extra alert to your surroundings.
Stepping out into the open, I felt very much like myself again. It had been three days since I had been in Alessandro's estate. Just three days and being here felt like I had missed the place for months. Why wouldn't I feel that way? There was a time in the last three years where every day, for six months straight, I was here. This place was literally where I spent my evenings. Gosh! I had so much to thank Casey and Mrs. Margret for.
Now, reminding myself that Artemis was in pristine hands with her grandma, I walked into the club with Ricardo behind me, almost literally acting as a flunky and waltzed my way to the bar.
"Ah! Bella Mia," Carlos greeted when he saw me, but his smile faded as soon as he saw Ricardo.
"Hey, Carlos, what's up? You look like you're about to kill somebody," I eyed him cautiously and traced his line of sight to Ricardo, who was also glaring back.
"Where'd you know this guy?" he asked me. Okay, I wasn't quite sure how to answer that.
"Umm...okay...so long story short, he's kind of like my bodyguard...ish."
"Alessandro's man," he said simply trying to get it into my head that Ricardo couldn't be trusted. Spending all the time I did in the bar, I got really close to Carlos and maybe would've evendated him if he wasn't gay. I used the bonding time we had to confide in him about Alessandro and how he eventually treated me. Now, I had to tell him how the last few days had turned my entire life upside down.
By the end of my pitiful take, he was fully ready to get it on with Ricardo to leave me alone for good.
