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“So anyway, Doc says they’re keeping Pops overnight but he will be ok. I take my momma to my sister’s in Jersey. I’m sitting there wondering what I’m supposed to do and I think of this scary Irish giant I just saw. I figure there’s nothing left for me to lose at this point cause my family is everything to me. I walk back into the ER and right up to the biggest one of them I can find. Scary-looking fuck with a red beard.”
“Patrick?”
“That’s the one. Anyway, he tells me to piss off. Just like that, ‘piss off.’ So, I’m this scrawny sixteen-year-old-kid with a busted-up face, I square right up to him and say ‘you first.’ I tell him I need to talk to Sean O’Connell and I’m not leaving until I do. He laughs at me, but I hear this deep laugh from behind me.”
“Sean?”
“In the flesh, baby girl. He tells me to take a drive with him. We get in this big-ass SUV and just start driving. I’m pretty sure I’m going to die. He says, ‘ok, kid, talk.’ I spill everything, from my dad in the hospital to them threatening my momma. He asks why I came to him. I look him dead in the eye and say ‘Because you’re the scariest mofo I’ve ever seen in my life, and if I don’t do something they are gonna kill my family.’ I tell him my parents ain’t ever done anything wrong, they don’t mess with gangs or drugs or anything. They just want to run a restaurant and this gang decided to charge them taxes. I tell him that my family means everything to me, and if he can save them from this, I’ll do anything he asks of me forever.”
Michael is going to town on my hair with a curling iron and industrial-size can of hair spray.
“He looks me up and down. Looks at my busted-up face and asks what I want to do with my life. I’m a little shocked. I tell him I don’t know. He says, ‘You sure as shite do. You want my help, tell me the bloody truth.’”
Michael starts brushing the curls into soft rolls and pinning them up.
“So, this scrawny gay kid looks at the mob boss and says ‘l want to design clothes and have my own store, but that’s never gonna happen, so I don’t know what I’m gonna do to pay the bills and take care of my parents.’ And Sean just stares at me for a while, with those icy blue eyes of his. Finally, he says, ‘ok.’ I give him the address of the restaurant and he starts saying stuff to the other guys in Gaelic. The next day when those guys showed up to hurt my momma, this whole swarm of Irishmen was there. I’m watching these guys who were all big and tough a minute ago almost wet themselves. Sean walks out of the kitchen. He asks which one threatened to rape my mom. I point him out. Sean shoots him dead right there. He looks at the other two, tells them this restaurant and this family are off limits. If he ever hears that we get hassled again, he will do some very unpleasant things I will not repeat to a lady. Then he shoots them all in each knee and his guys apparently dump them back in their territory.”
Holy shit.My hair is now twisted into a gorgeous victory roll, and Michael is taking out the ozone layer with hair spray.
“The next day, he shows back up in the restaurant. He hands me a letter from a charter high school for fashion design and a letter from NYU. I’ve been accepted into both and all four years of college are paid in advance. He tells me he expects to hear from me when I graduate.”
Michael’s eyes are teared up. He sniffs. “My boutique was a graduation gift from him. He didn’t have to do any of that, he didn’t even have to help my parents. We’re not Irish, it’s not their territory. He saved their lives. Saved all of us. I still don’t know why he did it, but I’m grateful to him for the rest of my life.”
I’m speechless. My eyes tear up a little too, and I blink rapidly.
“Oh, no, you don’t! Don’t even think about making that mascara run!”
I laugh. He tucks some tiny black pearl pins into my hair and pronounces me a masterpiece. He spins me around so I can see.
“Holy shit! Michael, I love it!” I look like a glammed up ‘50s starlet. After a grateful hug, I wiggle into the dress and he laces up the back. The simple black leather pumps fit me, and the vintage look, perfectly.
Michael squeals and claps his hands repeatedly. “Oh, my god, it’s so perfect!”
A faint knock announces Sean’s arrival. He’s wearing a black tuxedo with a blood-red tie. His dark hair is freshly cut. His blue eyes give me a soul-searing look.
His voice is hoarse. “Jesus, baby, you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” He steps to me and gives me a tender kiss on the forehead. He withdraws a box from a pocket and produces a necklace of rubies and black diamonds. The rubies sparkle in the light, and a thin trail of diamonds drips down my back.
“You’re not too bad yourself, gangster.” Even when I’m in my heels, he towers over me; I have to get on my tiptoes to steal a kiss. He holds out his arm to escort me out.
We repeat our procession out of the apartment, this time to a waiting limo. Declan sits in the driver’s seat again.
“Thank you for all of this.” I gesture vaguely around.
He pulls me into his lap and kisses me. I’m impressed by the staying power of the lipstick Michael put on me. “You’re welcome, baby.”
“So, Michael still doesn’t know why you helped his family.”
Sean laughs. “I should have known better than to leave him alone with a reporter.”
“Why did you?”
Sean watches the buildings go past the windows, as if far away in thought. “Because I came around a corner and saw this little kid sashay up to Patrick and start making demands. He was shaking so hard I could see it across the room. He was terrified but stood his ground. Then I saw his busted-up face and realized someone had beat the shit out of him already today. So he’s terrified, beat to a pulp, and still busting Patrick’s chops.” He chuckles. “It takes a lot to be that scared and still man up. I was impressed. So I heard him out. He’s begging me to save his family’s life and offering me anything he can give in return. And he’s still shaking like a leaf. I can’t say no to that.” He pauses for a minute. “I’m not sure I would have been as brave as that scrawny kid was. So I took care of his problem.”
“And school?”
Sean smiles. “Yeah, I just wanted to see the kid have a future where he wasn’t begging the mob for favors.”
I just look at him for a while.
