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“You’ll see how it is for yourself when you have children, Cat.” This was one of her favorite things to say to Gino and I. “Come on, let’s go inside. Liz and Stephan are so excited to see you.”
Right when I was ready to go inside, her eyes fell on Hugo, who was standing silently next to his car. I threw him a look over my shoulder and shrugged in my mother’s direction.
“He insisted I had to have protection.”
“You do need protection. Hugo, dear, how are you?”
“Good morning, Mrs. Nucci,” he said it with a stoic grimace on his face, but his eyes were covered by a mist of shame. Hopefully, my mom wouldn’t pick up on that.
"Come inside, dear; it's freezing out here.”
“No need, Simona. I can go to a coffee shop and come pick Catherinelle up later this afternoon.”
“Nonsense. Inside now, son.” There was no room for negotiation in her tone.
Hugo started walking towards us with his hands in his pockets and his head down, trying really hard to avoid my mother’s gaze. I wouldn’t have guessed shame was in his spectrum of emotions, but he was obviously uncomfortable to be in the same proximity with my mom after taking her only daughter’s virginity.
“Simona, I don’t want to intrude. I can wait somewhere for Cat to be done.”
“Don’t talk crazy; we only have a few guests. My sister, of course, is here and the Berlusconi family. Well, just Liz and her son.” Obviously, since Tony Berlusconi was serving fifteen years after he was caught red handed beating the shit out of a guy in SoHo. Maybe they would have let him go with a slap on the wrist if at the time he wouldn’t have been out on parole. “Have you had breakfast yet, Hugo?”
“Not yet, ma’am.”
Oh, boy. Breakfast was my mother’s favorite meal of the day. All my life, she force-fed my brother and I every morning like she was trying to make sure the food would last us all day. I hadn’t been able to eat lunch until my mom moved out of New York City.
“Let’s take you straight to the kitchen.” That would keep him occupied for a while. “Cat, have you eaten?”
“Yes,” I lied quickly. I was too sad and pissed to have an appetite.
“Then go to the living room already. Everyone is waiting for you.”
She basically pushed me in the direction of the cheery voices of two women while she took Hugo to the kitchen. When Aunt Diana and Liz saw me, they both jumped up, excited and opened their arms, so I went to give them both a hug and kiss their cheeks.
“Liz, you look so good.”
“Oh, thank you, sweetheart, I went to the salon this morning to blow out my hair before coming here. Doesn’t my hair girl have a magic hand?”
I mean, it was ok.
“Fabulous.” I tried to be polite.
“Come here and sit next to my Stephan. He was so excited when your mother said you asked for him to stay. Weren’t you, honey?” He just nodded. “But, of course, you wanted to see him. Isn’t he handsome, Catherinelle?”
Not when his mommy was fishing compliments for him, he wasn’t. Stephen Berlusconi was almost twenty years old, and he was a good-looking kid; he always was. God blessed him with blonde hair like his mom’s and deep green eyes like his dad’s, and he was tall and always slender but not skinny. I could bet my left arm that with his name, his money, and that look, Stephan already had a pretty impressive portfolio of girls. I knew that my mom and Liz – especially Liz – would be crazy happy if I’d shown any interest in him. He was a good, catholic, Italian boy, and he was associated with the family. In a few years, Stephan would take over his father’s duties, enforcing my brother’s rules in the Nucci territory. He was exactly the type of man they’d pick out for me – the type of man I was going to end up with – but looking at him right then, I felt nothing. His beautiful face, his dreamy eyes, they meant nothing to me. My heart was craving Hugo’s rawness and imperfections. Stephan didn’t have rough scars on his face so I could trace them with my lips; he didn’t have signs of blisters on his fists from punching walls every time he got mad, and he definitely didn’t have nine silver balls on his dick.
When my mom mentioned Stephan, I had jumped at the opportunity of spending some time with him because I knew she wouldn’t keep it a secret, and sooner or later, Hugo would have found out about my little date and be pissed. Hugo was not the man to appreciate games, but I was hurt, and like a cobra, I wanted to strike back. The fact that he was here to watch was even better, but it was hard to pretend I had eyes for Stephen when I could still feel Hugo inside of me.
“Stephan.” I smiled at him and went in for a hug. After all, we were childhood friends. “It’s so good to see you.”
“Good to see you too, Cat. Hey, you look great!”
Too good for you, Steph.
“Thank you. How long has it been? You never come by anymore. Remember when we were kids, you would come over all the time.” I spoke louder on purpose, making sure Hugo heard me. “I was so happy when mom told me you were coming.”
He smiled, surprised by my enthusiasm.
“Hey, if I knew you wanted to see me, I would have stopped by. You should have called.”
