“It was better than good. It was everything, Suse. It was intimacy, eye contact, feeling special, feeling like there was no one else he’d rather be with. And then…”
“And then?”
“Spooning.”
She makes a sound like she’s about to expire.
“I know!” I exclaim. “Twice last night and then again this morning before he left.”
“Girl, I’m a peanut butter ‘n jelly sandwich right now! Big and beautiful?”
“Oh yes, very. Suse, I’m telling you – he is amazing. I haven’t told you the half of how amazing he is because I’ve been-”
“On dat River de Nile?”
“Yeah.”
“Dickhead Dumbass Deathray broke you. Dreamboat’s fixing you,” she says.
“I gotta fix me, though. You know?”
“You will. I’ll help. He’ll help. Group effort.”
“I love you. I’m so sorry I let Ray get between us,” I say.
“I know. And I love you too. Let’s look forward, okay? Let’s make his name a swear word. But not an every day one. The name Ray is like the c-word … we only use that cuss when we absolutely need to.”
I cackle. “Gotcha.”
She laughs, too.
“You mean the world to me, Suse,” I tell her.
“Right back atcha babe. I gotta get back to work. Text me later. Or tomorrow. I’m totally in for tomorrow night. And I’m happy for you. So happy.”
“Perfect. And thank you.”
“Hey, you mind if I invite Brit? I want you to meet her.”
“Oh. Uh… okay,” I say.
“She’s great. You’ll love her. But hey… Violet?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re my bestest bestie. You. Okay?”
“Okay,” I say again, and I know she heard the difference between the okays. I hear it myself; I certainly feel it.
She knows I feel guilty. And jealous.
We say our goodbyes and I get a text.
Killian: Good morning, beautiful. In the middle of something but I’ll call you soon.
I decide to do a group text chat with Cammy and Tara from work to ask them if they can come tomorrow night. I tell Cammy to invite Debbie.
Cammy adds Debbie to the chat and Debbie informs that she has a date, but says she’ll come to McHop’s, though adds she’ll have to skip Numbers. And it makes me wonder if that’s because of the bad blood between her and Killian. The other girls are in and Cammy wants to bring her cousin.
I text Killian telling him how many are coming to Numbers tomorrow, mentioning we can all pay our own way instead of getting special treatment and add no rush to get back to me, that I’m still lounging.
50
Killian
That old lady, Mrs. Catherine Shear, cleaned her account out of all but seven hundred dollars. She handed nineteen thousand bucks over to the man she thought was her son “Danny”.
Raymond hadn’t left Violet’s apartment as of twelve o’clock. When I logged in to check the camera feed, he was crashed on the couch. I looked back and surveillance showed him getting in after his trip to Genesis before he drank himself into a stupor in the dark, then he opened the window and whipped the empty bottle out, hitting Wes’s car, showing he knows he’s been tailed.
This was followed by ten minutes of him pacing and bawling like a fucking kid, regretting what he just did, and then whimpering like a toddler who had his toy taken away, and then the goof passed out cold on the couch. He rolled over and puked on the rug beside himself at five o’clock in the morning before passing back out.
I put Tino on Wes last night and he had someone watching the building to make sure Ray didn’t leave and also that he didn’t fuck with Wes. Wes clocked he’s being watched and acted insulted that I’m protecting him. I told him he can go, case closed, because this afternoon, Iadanza’s getting picked up by the cops.
I’m taking care of some business at twelve thirty when I get a text from my old friend Dario. We haven’t connected properly in quite a while; he couldn’t make it to the Numbers opening, but our friendship goes way back so it shouldn’t be surprised he wants me at his wedding.
“Hey Kill. Getting married next Saturday. Really like it if you’d come. It’s a small wedding, but it’d mean a lot if you’d make the time. Invite will be couriered and should be there tomorrow.”
I reply to tell him I’m happy for him and I’d planned to be out of town, but I’ll absolutely be there. I used to be pretty jaded about the concept of marriage.
I’m finding that today I’m not feeling that way.
Funny how it goes. He was, too. Marriage sounds a lot different when it’s about spending your life with the person you feel is perfect for you.
A few minutes later, Violet texts me and tells me about the plan for Numbers. I’m sure Deb Pugliese will be one of the girls showing so I decide to reply to Dare again to say my girl has become friendly with his ex because they work in the same office building. I want him to know this before he has us at his wedding.
He phones me instead of replying by text and it’s like no time has passed. He asks me about my girl and I tell him about Violet. I tell him almost everything. The history, how I cornered Raymond Iadanza into owing me money, which he laughs about. And he gets me. He remembers Ray, though barely, and tells me he’d be torn, too about what to do about the Ray issue since Violet doesn’t want me to hurt him. Then he tells me not to worry about Violet being friends with Debbie, that nothing is going to put a cloud over his wedding day. I tell him about the speech I overhead and he does not give any fucks about his ex. He’s in love.
He doesn’t say much about his new fiancée, but the sound of his voice as he tells me he’s found what he needs and gives no fucks about Debbie says it all.
I’m happy for him.
***
Things don’t go as smoothly with my afternoon as I’d hoped, so I send a text to Violet.
I’m running a little late. I’ll still be home to make pizza for us, but I need to know if you’re up for running to the supermarket to grab whatever we don’t have in the fridge for it. If you don’t wanna hit the store, we’ll order food in instead.
She replies immediately to say she’s happy to do that. She asks me what I like on my pizza and I tell her to surprise me. I list off a few ingredients that are must-haves for my sauce and I tell her which dough and cheese to buy. The rest is up to her.
She texts an hour later.
Violet: What about dessert?
Me: Whatever you buy for dessert, I plan to eat it off your body, so keep that in mind when you choose.
Violet: So… sticky is out.
Me: It probably doesn’t matter. Plan to get you sticky either way.
My texting activities are interrupted by Tino Rossi arriving in the restaurant I’m at, so I wipe off what feels like a goofy grin that’s typically not me and write one more text to Violet.
Gotta wrap my day up. Be home as soon as I can.
Violet: Ok.
Beside her OK she put a sideways lips emoji.
I couldn’t help myself; I watched her sleep for a bit this morning on my surveillance app. And then I caught part of her telephone conversation with Susanna.