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The restaurant he chose for us to meet was nothing fancy, just another pasta place with a street terrace. Leonardo was at a table for two, two cups of coffee waiting in front of him and the fragrance of the beverage got to me first. Oh, I was so grateful for some good coffee, but after everything, I would have loved a glass of wine. Or a bottle. Or a barrel.
As soon as he saw me, Leonardo got up and opened his arms. I was familiar with his hugs, only this time it lasted longer than usual and I blamed it on the few weeks we didn’t see each other.
“Amore mio,” he said, “never do that to me again. Answer your phone when I call, Pina, please.”
“I’m sorry.” I said, sitting down. “It was a hectic time.” I lied. I saw every call, I just didn’t want to answer because I wasn’t sure what there was to talk about.
“You worried me.”
“It wasn’t my intention. You are a good friend, Leonardo.”
“What the fuck happened? Tony is not giving me any details. I don’t know what Caputo did, but if he’s hurting you…”
“No!” I hurried to calm him down. “Garon is not hurting me. He gave Tony the money.”
“Why the fuck did you let him do that? You wanted it?” He snapped at me.
“No, but Garon is not the type of man you ‘let’ do anything. He paid off my debt and informed me after.”
“Pina if I thought there was a chance for you to take that money, I would have given it to you, but you were so adamant to work for it.”
“I still have to work for it. I will pay Garon back, the only difference is he’s not threatening to make me a whore for all the rich men of Rome.”
“Just him then?” He said with bitterness. “Why did you pull away from every man who tried to touch you then, Pina? Were you saving yourself for Garon Caputo?”
For a moment, I thought he spoke Chinese because I couldn’t understand the words… until I did and my jaw dropped. He was sharp, cutting, upset with me.
“Excuse me?”
“I looked after you and now I’m finding out I was just guarding your legs so they would open for some Sicilian fucker? I made some phone calls. If you’re looking to be the next Caputo princess, he’s pretty much cut out from thefamiglia, so you might want to try and score another brother. A better one.”
There was a lot that hurt and infuriated me about his speech. He was crass and he knew exactly what he was doing—what he was saying—but calling me a whore faded into the background when I heard the disgust in his voice when he spoke about Garon.
Leonardo didn’t know me or my family. To him, I just showed up one day at Tony Balbano’s door, just another lost girl looking to get some money to get herself out of trouble, but somehow he managed to find the insult that hit closest to home. He looked at me and saw someone just like my sister, a girl trying to marry a rich Mafia man. Now, I could take being called a whore, but I wasn’t going to allow anyone to tell me I was like Ariana.
“Do not say that.” I slammed my hand on the table and the commotion made Arno and Santo tense up and look in my direction from their table. “I’m not interested in his name or his money or yours.”
“No, not in mine.Mi scusi19, Pina, but I can’t help but be angry at you. I took you under my wing. Do you think I make flexible schedules and personally take care of all the girls working at the Flora House?”
“I know you don’t.”
“No, I don’t. You said you didn’t want to be touched and I made sure of it. In a brothel, Pina! You were the most protected one there. And then Caputo walks in and five minutes later you left with him.” He got more and more tensed. “I admired how you didn’t want just any man to have you and now I find out it was for thatfiglio di puttana20.”
“Leonardo.” I sighed his name. “You were a good friend to me, you were kind, I can’t stress that enough, but that doesn’t give you the right to control me. I appreciate your worry, but I’ve known Garon my whole life. If he says he’s not going to hurt me, then he won’t.” Not physically anyway.
“Like hell he won’t.”
“I didn’t come here to fight with you, Leo.”
“Then why? Somehow I don’t believe you missed me too much.”
“Of course I did.” No, I didn’t. I barely had time to think about him. “I wanted to talk to you, ask you for advice.”
“Advice about what?”
“I need a new job, but don’t know where to start. I don’t know this city, I don’t know anyone.”
I thought we were finally settling down into polite conversation, but something in my answer set Leonardo off. I saw the change in his eyes when he went from slightly annoyed to nuclear and a vein popped up on his neck.
