“Cool? You’re the same idiot as always, you’re incompetent. You’re drunk, you reek of tobacco, and you didn’t even manage to put that criminal in his place.” Raffaella left the room, furious.
Claudio made one last effort to calm her down. “Raffaella, wait!”
“What now?”
“Step says that he’ll go to university.”
Raffaella slammed the door and locked herself in her bedroom.
Not even that last lie had done a bit of good.
Chapter 31
And you won?” Pollo couldn’t believe his ears.
“We took two hundred thousand lire off them!”
“I can’t believe it. So this guy, Babi’s father, is actually a nice guy?”
“He’s incredible! Just think, Francesca told me that she really likes him.”
“He struck me as a loser.”
“Why, when have you ever seen him?”
“When I went back to your house to pick up the dog.”
“Ah, right. By the way, how is Arnold doing?”
“Just great. Believe me, that dog is really intelligent. I’m sure that, before long, I can teach him to fetch and retrieve. The other day I was out front, I threw a stick, and he went and got it.”
Step stopped in front of an apartment house door. “We’re here. Listen, don’t make a ruckus.”
Pollo glared at him. “Why, do I usually make a ruckus?”
“You always do.”
“Oh, really? You know, I just came along to do you a favor.”
They went up to the fourth floor. Babi was babysitting Giulio, the Mariani child, five years old and hair as fair as his skin.
Babi was waiting for him at the door.
“Ciao.” Step kissed her.
She was a little surprised to see Pollo too. He muttered something that must have been meant as a “ciao” and then sat right down on the sofa, next to the little boy. He changed the channel in search of something better than those stupid Japanese cartoons.
Giulio, of course, promptly objected but Pollo tried to persuade him. “No, believe me, now they’re going to show even better ones. Now you’re going to see the flying turtles.” Giulio fell for it hook, line, and sinker. He sat watching the soccer postgame show in silence, trusting that turtles would start flying any second.
Babi went into the kitchen with Step. “Do you mind telling me why you brought him?”
“I don’t know, he kind of insisted. Pollo has a weak spot for little kids.”
“I don’t think so! The minute he got here, he already had the kid crying.”
“All right, then. Let’s say that I did it so I could be alone with you.” He put his arms around her. “You have to admit, I’m quite the truth teller. You seem to bring out the best in me. Come to think of it, why don’t we take our clothes off right now?”
He dragged her, laughing, into the first bedroom he found. Babi tried to resist, but in the end, she allowed herself to be convinced by his kisses. They both wound up on a small bed.
“Ouch.” Step reached around behind his back. A sharp-edged toy tank had poked him right between the shoulder blades. Babi started laughing. He threw it on the carpet as he cleared the bed of some other electronic warriors and several transformable figures.
Then, finally comfortable, Step pushed the door shut with his foot and devoted himself to his favorite pastime. He stroked her hair, kissed her lips, and raced to the buttons of her blouse, systematically undoing them. He lifted her bra and kissed her where the skin was paler, sweetly softer, and rosy pink.
Then, all at once, something stabbed his neck. “Ouch.” Step slapped at the spot where he’d been stabbed. In the darkness, he saw her laugh, still holding a strange action figure with pointed ears. And that fresh young smile of hers, that naive way that she had about her, hit him where he lived.
“You hurt me!”
“We can’t stay in here. This is Giulio’s room. Just think if he comes in.”
“But Pollo’s with him. I gave him very specific orders. That terrible child is basically done for, bound and gagged. He can’t even get up from the sofa.”
Step dove back in and focused on her breasts. She caressed his hair and let him go on kissing her. “Giulio is a good boy. You’re the one who’s a terrible child.”
* * *
Pollo was eating a sandwich that he’d found in the kitchen and drinking a nice, ice-cold beer when Giulio got off the sofa.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“To my room.”
“No, you need to stay here.”
“No, I want to go to my room.”
Giulio started to leave but Pollo pulled him back by his little red woolen sweater, practically dragging him over to sit by him on the sofa. Giulio tried to struggle but Pollo pinned him down with an elbow to the belly.
Giulio started to whine. “Let go of me, let go of me!”
“Come on, the cartoons are coming on any minute.”
“That’s not true.” Giulio looked at the television set again and burst into tears.
Pollo released him. “Here, you want to try this? It’s delicious. Only grown-ups are allowed to drink it.”
Giulio seemed slightly interested. He grabbed the can of beer with both hands and took a sip. “I don’t like it. It’s bitter.”
“Okay, then look what Uncle Pollo has for you…”
A short while later, Giulio was playing happily on the floor. He was bouncing the little pink inflatable balloons that Uncle Pollo had given him. Pollo watched him with a smile on his face. After all, it really doesn’t take much to make a kid happy. Just two or three condoms. After all, he wasn’t going to be needing them that night.
He turned around. Not a sound from the bedroom. And for that matter, Step’s probably not going to need them either, Pollo thought, laughing inwardly.
Then, since he was starting to get bored, he started making phone calls.
* * *
In the dim light of that bedroom full of toys, Step caressed Babi’s back and her shoulders. He ran his hand down her arm, and then he took that arm and brought it up to his face. He brushed his mouth over it, the length of that arm, every inch of flesh. Step delicately opened her hand, kissed her palm, and then laid it on his own naked chest, abandoning her to her own thoughts.
Babi lay immobile, suddenly frightened. Omigod, now I understand. But I’ll never be able to do it. I’m not ready.
Step continued kissing her neck tenderly, behind her ears, on her lips. All the while, his hands, more confident and relaxed, more experienced, were taking possession of her like soft waves, leaving stranded on that unknown shore a shipwrecked pleasure.
Then, all at once, dragged along by that current, she, too, finally moved. Babi gathered her courage. She slowly moved away from where she’d been lying and started caressing him too. Step hugged her close, instilling trust, reassuring her, and Babi let herself go. Her fingers lightly explored his skin. She felt his powerful abs.
Every step along this path was a plunge into the depths, a tumble into the abyss, a difficult—almost impossible—leap forward. And yet, Babi was determined to do it, and holding her breath in that darkened room, she took the leap. And so she found herself with her fingers gingerly stroking the edge of that little patch of soft curly hair, and then farther and deeper into his jeans, and then that button, the first such button for her, in every sense of the word.