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I’m grinning, and I wink at her.
She points a threatening finger. “I mean it. We gotta be strict. We gotta be tough. Just business and driving.”
“Business and driving,” I echo. “Along with pee breaks and gas station stops.”
“Yes, them too.” Mimi settles back in the seat and gets her phone back out. “We’ll be civil.” She points down. “ Chastity belts as well as seat belts.”
“Oh, I didn’t know you were into bondage?” I smirk at Mimi.
She turns to me, having just put on sunglasses, and looks over the frames at me. “You don’t know what I’m into, Mister Bravera. And by the rules just stipulated bymoi, y’all ain’t gonna.”
I laugh and cock my head at her. “Oh really?”
“Really,” she says. “You made yourself a sandwich but pissed all over it.”
This cracks me up. “What the fuck does that even mean?”
Mimi grins now too. “Let me ask you this, what do you do with a sandwich?”
I look at her for a few moments, my eyebrows arching in surprise. “Normally I’d say you eat it, but by the way you’re talking it’s like you’re expecting me to fuck it.”
Mimi bursts out laughing and can’t help but snort. When she finally calms down she shakes her head. “I was hoping you’d say ‘bite’, because then I could saybite me, but it seems I’m going to have to give you and your sandwich some time alone so you can stick your pickle in it.”
I howl with laughter too and we drive along giggling. Soon I’m calm and shaking my head while changing lanes. “And we’re meant to be adults about this?”
“Civil,” she responds.
“Civil as a couple lawyers.” I click my phone and tap a button on the GPS. “Let’s get driving. We’re about two hours from the first rest point. I’m thinking we head on until lunch and then—”
My phone starts ringing, and a picture of Carlos lights the screen. There's a split second look of wide eyes between us, a flutter in my heart at the light banter we just enjoyed. Then I answer.
“Man!” Carlos begins with. “What thefuck?”
I crack a laugh.
“Nah, man,” he goes on. “What the fuck? I thought I was roadtripping with you? Why the change? I mean, I know this is important from Mister Colombino himself, but you ditched me.”
“Hey, I got the call early too. Things just changed and that is what it is.”
“That’s for sure.”
There’s silence for a bit, and Mimi and I look at each other. There’s a nervous energy in the cab now, like it’s our first test. Test of what? My hand tingles but grips the wheel.
“Am I on loudspeaker?” he asks.
“You sure are, brother,” Mimi calls out.
I can picture Carlos rolling his lips and pursuing them at the voice of his sister. “Damn women and your shopping.”
“Damn sexists and their assumptions,” Mimi shoots back.
Carlos mimics her words back with unintelligent inflection. “So where are you?”
“Like an hour in,” I say. “Headed up to Jacksonville first, then on to Georgia and South Carolina. How’s the warehouse detail coming?”
“I’m not there yet; I’m driving,” Carlos says. I realize the buzz of the car is what’s been ringing in my ears the whole time. He honks a horn. “But I got a call from Luca himself. Gonna do the tour with me and show me the ropes. Is this where you guys store all thegoods?” He says it like it could be exciting, not the legitimate warehouse stock forPiovere.
I nod, then realize he can’t see me. I still feel like we’re flying under the radar, like he hasn’t guessed the truth yet. I swallow. “Yeah, it is. Uh, you’ll be doing a bit of an introduction I suppose.” I mime to Mimi an action of shoveling. She grins.
