AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hugo Mustafa, are you acting…” I put a hand on my chest mimicking shock, “…like a gentleman?”
“I told you, anything for you, princess.”
My mother was already at the table when we arrived there, and she gave Hugo a quick hug.
“Hugo, darling, I’m sorry if she harassed you tonight.”
“She’s a handful, Simona, but it’s part of the job.” Ouch! “Ladies, I’ll leave you to it and go back to find Roman. He promised me some fun tonight.”
He turned and walked away while I gaped at his back. Roman promised him some fun? He’d better not be talking about that concierge Roman mentioned.
“Catherinelle, honey, I’m glad to see you and Hugo finally getting along. You know your brother only wants you to be safe out there.” The tips of mom’s fingers were touching my chin.
“My brother wants to suck all the fun out of my senior year, and no, mom, I don’t get along with him. I couldn’t bring a date because of him so he had to dance with me.”
“You wanted to bring a date? Is there a boy you like, honey?”
Yeah, and he’s the one hunting the nightmares of many men in New York City.
“It doesn’t matter because Hugo used him to break a table.”
Before mom got a chance to drill me for more information, Patty, Bianca and Lola came to the table together laughing about something.
B came straight to me and pulled me into a hug to whisper in my ear.
“I’ve seen you dancing. You owe me some details.”
“Shh!”
We all sat back to the table, and the gossip picked up right where we left it. Patty was just about to tell us a rumor about my Uncle Pepe that she heard from Vito’s mother, when a shrill and heartless laughter flew above our heads. It was a very distinct sound, almost like a cat being dragged on a nailbed. None of us had to turn around to know exactly who that was.
“Oh, crap,” I said and rolled my eyes. “Weren’t they supposed to be in Barbados until Christmas? Mom, you said she wasn’t coming.”
“The last time I saw her, she said they’d be out of the country for at least a month,” my mother said in her defense.
Patty jumped in to clear things up.
“Nah, they came back to New York last weekend because apparently there was a drop off or something like that, and her husband was needed to pull some strings.”
Victoria Tori was the most obnoxious woman on the surface of planet Earth. She always talked too loudly, dressed to skimpily and smoked too much. Leon Tori, her husband, was well into his eighties, and unfortunately, he was a close family friend, so there was no getting rid of her. Mr. Tori had been associated with the Nucci family ever since my grandfather was running it, and he’d been a very important friend. Half his life was spent in the justice system, and it was never a bad idea to have a friend amongst your enemies. His first two wives died young, and that was how he ended up marrying Victoria twenty years ago. No one knew exactly what she did before that; the official story was that she was a cocktail waitress in Vegas, but Ignazio swore he remembered her being a call girl in Long Island. To use her words, she was a fun-loving woman with an older husband who couldn’t keep up with her. To use mine, she was a slutty cougar who fucked her way through the family. She slept with all her husband’s friends; there had been whispers about her and my father, even about her and Gino and Roman when they were teenagers. Young boys didn’t have to go too far to find a quick bit of fun; they just had to find Victoria Tori. Naturally, no one fucking liked her, and every time she was around, she upset my mother.
The moment Victoria eyed our table, she abandoned the man who was making her laugh and came our way. Great.
“Hello, hello, ladies. Oh, how gorgeous you all look tonight. Simona!” she screamed in her specific high-pitched tone that disturbed dogs. “You look so good. Honey, I don’t know what you did all these years, but you haven’t aged a day. This widow thing really works for you. I’m so jealous.”
She was such a bitch.
My mother smiled politely and raised her wine glass in Victoria’s direction.
“Thank you, Victoria. How was your trip?”
“Too damn short. Leon promised me a month in paradise, and I only got a few days. How is that fair? Oh, Catherinelle, you look lovely. How are you, still no boyfriend?”
I was starting to get sick of this question.
“Nope.” My answer was very hostile in hopes of making her move along the line, and I saw Bianca smiling on the other side of the table.
“Simona, dear, you should do something with this girl. She needs a man.” I have one, thank you very much. “If you would have been my daughter, I would have made sure you knew all the tricks by now.”
