Down to Business (Business Series) (42 page)

Instead of worrying and being jealous, I found two familiar friends to hang out with named Captain and Coke. I drank until the worry went away and then somewhere between finding some show about funny animals hilarious and feeling sick, I passed out on the sofa, cuddling Doug the teddy bear.

I woke up Sunday morning with a headache and a serious case of the lazies. I rolled over to see the clock on the wall read 10:30AM. Struggling to get my bearings, I made it to the kitchen table where I left my phone next to the half-empty bottle of Captain Morgan. I had two missed texts and a missed phone call. The phone call was from my mother, asking how I was doing, and the texts were from Vinny, one to say goodnight and he loved me, and one to say good morning and that he was on his way home.

I text him back that I missed him and couldn’t wait to see him, then I went back to bed and slept off the rest of my hang over. The next thing I knew, it was dinnertime, and Lindy ordered a pizza. I knew Vinny had to work that night so I decided to wait to see him the next morning at our mid-term.

I arrived to class ten minutes early Monday morning, so I could study my notes for a few extra minutes. Vinny was one of the last to arrive. He looked flustered, but showered. I knew he probably over slept and needed a shower to wake himself up. I figured he needed all the mental alertness he could get since he barely studied.

His scent filled my senses the moment he sat down behind me. I turned around in my seat and looked at him with a smile. “Hey.”

He looked relieved. “Hi.”

“Over-slept?”

He nodded once.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” He said looking into my eyes. “Should I spend the night tonight?”

“Yeah.” I answered with a smile.

Before I could get any information about his weekend, the test worksheets and scantrons came down the row to me. I took one and passed them along to him.

“Good luck,” I mumbled.

“You too.”

All of the studying I did seemed to pay off. I breezed through the first half of the Business 101 mid-term. When I got to the written portion it took me a little longer, but I still finished before Vinny. After I was done, I turned in my test and stepped out into the hall to wait for him.

About ten minutes passed before Vinny came out. He smiled when he saw me waiting for him. Shock trickled over me when he stepped over, took my hand his and pressed his mouth to mine.  It was our first public kiss and even though my cheeks burned, I felt overjoyed at the same time. I wrapped my arms around him, indulging in the kiss. Afterwards he brushed his hand over my hair, and whispered, “God I missed you.”

I laughed and touched his cheek rough with a five o’clock shadow. “I missed you too.”

He gave me another quick peck before he took my hand and walked me out of the building, ignoring anyone who gave us a questioning stare. I don’t think my heart stopped pounding until we reached his car and got inside.

I braced myself for another sudden make out session or more, but instead he pulled out his keys and started the car.

“Where are we going?” I asked, reaching back for my seat belt.

“Were going to make up for lost time.”

I had a feeling I knew what that meant. “Vinny we can’t, my next mid-term is soon. I need to study.”

“You’ve studied.” he said, speeding out of the parking lot. “We can be fast.”

Car horns blared as he cut off two different people coming out of the parking lot.

“Vinny!” I squealed, grabbing onto the car door and looking over at him.

He laughed. “What’s your problem, Jumpy?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing.” I said, wondering what got into him.

“I don’t have a problem, not anymore.”

“Oh?”  I asked, hesitant.

He shrugged and looked over at me. “I did it. Vivian is signing over Mazzolas to me.”

“What? She is?”

“Yeah, I was able to convince her. She said she’d do it if I’d pay her a cut of the revenue we bring in every year.”

“How much is that?”

“I tried to get her to go with ten percent but she wanted fifteen.”

My stomach clenched.  “Fifteen? How much does the restaurant make a year?”

“Depends. This last year we brought in close to a million.”

I did the math in my head and then glared over at him. “So you’re going to pay her about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars every year?”

“Yeah something like that,” he shrugged.

“That’s insane. That’s more than most people make a year! She’s robbing you.”

“She was taking half being a co-owner. It’s going to be fine.”

“That’s more than what my parents paid for Malones!”

“Look, it’s what I have to do to get it back in my name. She’s doing this behind her father’s back so we can’t fuck it up. My mother and I are meeting her and her lawyer in private next Monday at ten to sign papers.”

“It’s like you’re paying her alimony.”

“It’s what has to happen for now. I just need Mazzolas in my name and if this is what it takes to get it, I’m doing it.”

I couldn’t believe he was going to pay that bitch one-hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year for something that rightfully belonged to him. How could that be fair? I hated her more than ever.

We pulled into the apartment parking lot and he parked up front.

“I don’t really have much to make us lunch, just some sandwich stuff and—”

“Look at me.” He took my arm and pulled me towards him.

I swallowed the lump of disappointment in my throat and looked at him.

“I know you don’t think this is a good idea. But it will work out. I’m doing this so we can be happy. After she signs that paper, I will throw a god damn ‘I’m in love with Autumn’ party if it makes you happy.”

“Maybe Vivian can arrange it and forget to invite me.” I said, dryly.

“Fuck her,” he said with a smirk, “she’s not invited.”

I laughed some as he pulled me into him and kissed me, causing that familiar burn to stir deep inside.

“Stop,” I breathed as one of his hands moved beneath my shirt, “we have to eat and get back. It’s already twenty after.”

“It’s good, I’ll just have a ham sandwich with a side of Autumn.” he said, giving my breast a squeeze.

“Quit,” I laughed and pulled his hand out of my shirt. “We can have sex later. I need to save my energy.”

“I have energy drinks in my gym bag in the back seat.”

I shoved him off with another giggle and climbed out of the car.

I fed him his ham sandwich with a side of Autumn before we returned to campus for the last of our mid-terms. After they were over, we spent the rest of the evening together, making up for lost time.

Mazzolas suddenly became the last place I wanted to be, and the weekend couldn’t come fast enough. We planned to leave for our vacation that Friday night after work. It was a three-hour drive and we had our suitcases already packed in Vinny’s trunk. I should have known I would not be able to get through the night without some sort of drama. Instead of it being Vivian driving me crazy, it was everything else.

Mazzolas was packed and customers were complaining left and right. Two of the waiters called out so table service was slow and I must have looked like a great person to blame.

“It was black.”

I stared at the man who had been complaining about his over-baked lasagna, yet he still ate it, and still insisted on a refund.

“Did you have the waiter take it back?” I asked as calm as I could with the people waiting to be seated giving me the stink-eye.

“No! That idiot waiter with the ugly blond goatee said that is how it’s supposed to look! The cheese was so over-done it looked like a piece of paper! I want to speak with your manager.”

I glanced beyond the man to the annoyed looking couple behind him. I was about to seat them before he rudely intervened. “I’ll be with you in just a second.” I winced as the phone beside me rang.

“I paid thirty dollars for that plate of shit and the wine tasted cheap too!” Lasagna-man complained.

I looked around for Vivian but she wasn’t anywhere in sight. I really didn’t want to bother Vinny but it seemed I had no choice. “Just a moment.”

I picked up the phone that was ringing beside me. “Mazzolas, this is Autumn.”

“Hi. I just picked up my to go order and I got home to find that you assholes forgot my meatballs! I ordered spaghetti and
meatballs
.”

“I’m sure if you came back they could get them for you and reimburse—”

“I’m not coming back! It’s Friday night, I ain’t driving there! I want a manager!”

I frowned. “Please hold.”

I put the call on hold and looked up into the angry lasagna-man’s face. “Let me get the manager for you.”

“Yeah you do that.”

I backed away from the counter and hurried to the back where Vinny’s office was. The door was closed so I knocked.

He pulled it open a moment later and frowned at me.

“I need you. I have angry customers.”

“Ugh. Great. Vivian decided to just fuckin’ walk out right in the middle of her shift.”

“What! Why would she do that? We’re slammed.”

“Because she’s Vivian and she’s a pain in my ass.”

“Well I have some guy going nuts on me at the front because his lasagna was over cooked yet he still ate it, and then there’s a guy on the phone that said we forgot his meatballs in his take-out order.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Jesus. Can’t it be eleven yet?”

“I wish…” I said, reluctantly following him up to the counter.

I watched as he took on his managerial persona, straitening his suit jacket. He stepped up to the counter and calmly introduced himself to lasagna-man. After hearing the whole burned lasagna story, Vinny apologized for the man’s bad experience then honored him with a gift certificate for fifty dollars toward his next meal.

After thanks were exchanged, they shook hands and the man left smiling. Once that was done, I passed him the phone with angry meat-ball man and he added the man’s name to the log book and told him to inform the hostess that he has an order of meatballs on the house next time he comes in. When eleven o’ clock finally arrived, I wanted to go to bed more than go on vacation.

I contemplated telling Vinny we should wait until the morning to leave, but when I stepped into his office, he was sitting behind the computer already in jeans and a black thermal shirt. He had a paper cup brimming with black coffee in his hand and one set out for me with three packets of sugar and two creamers, just how I liked it.

“Drink up, it’s gonna be a long drive.” he said without looking up from his computer screen.

I half smiled and walked over to the desk, ripping open the sugar packets and dumping them in one by one. “You almost done?”

I knew some nights it took almost an hour for him to close up, which meant I had to stay and wait too.

“Yep. I got an early start.” He sipped his coffee.

I dumped in my creamer and stirred everything up with a plastic spoon.

“Did you find out why Vivian left?”

“She’s pissed at me because I’m going out of town and I didn’t invite her. She tried to invite herself tonight and I told her no.” He sighed and rubbed his face. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she calls in tomorrow just to fuck me over.”

I walked over to the desk beside him, moved our coffees aside, and settled down on his lap. “But it’s almost over, right?”

He slipped his arms around me and kissed my nose. “Almost. Thank God.”

I nuzzled my face into his neck and inhaled his clean scent. I suddenly couldn’t wait to get to our hotel room in Atlantic City. I pulled back and looked into his tired eyes. “Come on, it’s time to go on vacation.”

He smiled. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

He closed down his computer, locked up his office, and we made it onto the interstate by 11:30PM. It was a cool night, but we drove with the windows down anyway to keep ourselves awake.

When we finally pulled up to the valet at Seaview it was 3AM. I stepped out of the car, took a deep breath of cool sea air, and looked up at the glimmering glass resort towering over my head. It had at least twenty floors and was the fanciest hotel I had ever seen.

The valet took Vinny’s keys and two bellmen came for our luggage, towing it away on a brass bellman’s cart. Vinny took my hand and led me through the automatic sliding doors that opened into a sprawling lobby.

The interior of the hotel was sleek in silver accents and bold modern style. The floors paved in light marble tile were so clean I could see my reflection in them. We approached the sleek mahogany check in desk where one lone woman dressed in a suit waited to check us in. Since the lobby was empty, it only took a few minutes to get our room.

Our room was on the top floor where the suites were located. Once we got off the elevator and arrived before the double doors of our suite, I felt butterflies in my stomach.  I knew whatever was behind those doors was going to be amazing.

I opened the door and the first thing I saw was a table that stood front and center with two dozen red roses surrounded by candles. My purse slid off my shoulder and dropped to the ground. My lips parted as my gaze moved to the bed covered in rose petals in the shape of a heart. I brought my hands up to my lips and my eyes filled with tears. The room was as big as Lindy’s whole apartment.  Little tea lights were set perfectly all over giving the whole room a beautiful ambient glow. The farthest wall was a curved window that faced the ocean.