ATONEMENT (29 page)

Alfonzo sat erect, feeling
somewhat…well…like a chump!

Sal put down his phone and took a long sip of soda as Alfonzo returned to checking his messages. “Maybe, mom’s mad at you.” The boy
reasoned,
straw still in his mouth as he spoke.

“She can join the club.”

“Send her flowers.”

Alfonzo’s head remained down as he read. “You think that’ll help the old man?”

“Yep, mom likes flowers.”

Alfonzo doubted flowers were the answer but he appreciated his son’s advice. “If you think it’ll help I’ll do that.”

Sal smiled. Today he got to go to work with his dad
and eat whatever he wanted. He was a man, just like his dad. He dug into the bag for the fries and chewed happily. Being grown-up wasn’t
hard;
he couldn’t understand why
grown-ups
complained about it all the time. He decided when he got big, he’d have Georgina come work for him and have a game system in his office, eat anything he wanted and send flowers to everybody who got mad at him. Yep, then everyone would be happy!

Sal finished off the fries and started on his cheeseburger but Alfonzo had yet to touch his food; he was busy reading messages.
A text message from Domingo
.
Teresa
and he were coming out on the
fifteenth
with his mom
, today
was the fifteenth
. What was his mom coming to PR for, he wondered
, didn’t she say she wasn’t going on the trip
? Then there was a cryptic message from Giuseppe. ‘Call
cugino
, it’s urgent.’

“I’ll be back in a sec,” he said to Sal and hurried to his office, removed a
n untraceable
phone from
his
desk and made an international call.

“Yeah, what’s up
cugino
?”

“When are you
coming
?”

“
Tomorrow morning,
just finishing up here.”

“Bring a case of
the
Anejo
rums
for the bachelor party.”

Alfonzo sighed, “That’s
it
?”

“
Were you expecting disaster?”

Actually, he was. “
Adios
!
”

“
R
emember the rum
.
Ciao
.”

    
                  
         
***

Vincent remarked, “Lou said your family’s at the house.”

Alfonzo nodded, “
Yeah,
got the memo earlier.”

The car passed the security gate and Alfonzo could se
e the garage door up and Emilio’s feet sticking out from
beneath
one of the
many
cars. He hadn’t spoken much to the guy
since
the other night and asked Vincent to let him out
. “Take Sal inside for me, I
want to talk to Emilio for a sec.”

“No problem.”

He exited the car and cut across the lawn to the garage set up as a shop. He didn’t trust many people with his cars. Emilio, Domingo and a specialist in New York were the only people allowed to do work on them. Emilio could fix anything with the right tools and he made sure he got whatever he requested.

“What’s up Emilio?” He called as he neared the open door.

Emilio
rolled out on the mechanic’s creeper,
ratchet
in hand, “Hey Mister Diaz, how are you?”

“
Bueno
.
Is there a problem with the car?”
Alfonzo asked walking beside the
black
Bentley
Supersports
Coupe.

Emilio stood, “The drive train had a loose
bushing. I had to tighten it up, otherwise it’s good.”

Alfonzo leaned against the car. He noticed the young man was staying late every day in the shop instead of going home.
Dedication or a sign of trouble at home, Alfonzo didn’t know but decided to intervene. “
How’s things
going at home?”

“They’re good.”

He noticed Emilio avoided eye contact when he said it. “You know raising kids isn’t easy. Once they’re here you can’t give them back.”

Emilio scoffed, “Yeah.”

“As hard as it is, I love every minute of it.” He shuffled his feet, put his h
ands in his pockets and thoughtfully said, “You have to want it though. We can’t bring the crap from the past into it. Men have baggage just like women but we keep it bottled up and
once
things get rough
we shut down,
walk out on our kids and leave the woman to
try and fill our roles.
”

Emilio stood there wiping the ratchet clean with a cloth. “
Women walk out on their kids, too.”

And there
’s
Emilio’s baggage
. He put it at the door
.
“Yeah but it’
s not the norm. Far more sperm donors who call themselves fathers
abandon
their kids,
don’t
provide for them
and the really cowardly ones won’t
acknowledge they
even
have
any.”

Emilio’s mouth tightened.

“
W
hether
it works out with
you
and Jess is none of my business but
you
’re
hav
ing a baby and
stepping up
should be
a paternal instinct
,
anything less is
the action of
a boy
trying to fit into
a man’s shoe
s
.”
Alfonzo pushed off the car, he’d said enough. Time for Emilio to man
the fuck up
!
If he were having second thoughts about his relationship, so be it
,
but Jess was pregnant and if he didn’t want children he should
’ve worn six condoms
or kept his dick in his pants
.
It’s equivalent to shooting somebody then
claiming you
didn’t mean to kil
l them
.
D
umb-
kid
never considered the consequences.

“Go home and
take a week off, you’re working too hard.”

Alfonzo walked past Emilio and started toward the house.
Now, he had to face his
mom and
resolve personal
issues
of his own
.
Man, that conversation was sure to be a heated one
!

                              
CHAPTER E
L
EVEN

Spending d
ays
in the company of different
women was a drama filled book. Marcella, the control-freak, overbearing eldest of the bridesmaids was also the most outspoken. Her dislike for
Renalda
matched her disdain for Lucia. She made no qualms about it, taking cracks at their provocative dress, hair, anything that came to mind whenever the pair came in close proximity.
The elder women scolded
her for her
bad manners and
Marcella’s wide lips would
simply
turn into an unflattering scowl then she’d march away muttering obscenities.

Selange asked
Amelda
what prompted Marcella’s derision and the stylish woman shrugged, “Marcella is Marcella, only she knows her mind.”

‘Okay’,
Selange
thought,
Amelda
certainly was not the type to gossip. Selange
suspected there was a history
between
the women,
such dislike often involved a man,
why
else would someone go out of their way to cause such misery?

It was
Crystalia
, the less tempered one who
offered
the 4-1-1
on the other women, including
her
over a late night snack. They
’d
come to the kitchen, from different directions, each in search of
food.
Selange
craved
strawberries and
found some in the fridge.
Crystalia
decided to finish off the
left-over
chocolate mousse
from dinner
.
Selange sat
at the table
in the
kitchen
,
Crystalia
leaned nearby and they were
laughing at themselves for their
shameless
gluttony
when
Crystalia
flipped her long red hair and p
o
inted her fork to the entry, “
Tia finds us, we are kaput!” She exclaimed
with a heavy accent
.