Fairytales (17 page)

“Did she have any money?”

“Did she have any money? Well, now, you don’t think I was gonna let a faithful servant leave without takin’ care of her, did you?”

“I don’t know what to say … she was like a mother … gave us all those years … did she say she was coming back?”

“Not exactly, but I assured her there would always be a place for her here all of her life, if she wanted to come back.”

Dominic drank his wine. “What are you going to do about—?”

“What?”

“You know damned well.”

“But on such short notice, I simply had to get someone. I really think Stella could’ve stayed until I did … but when all is said and done, a servant is just a servant… they have no loyalty.”

“Don’t say that, Mama, about Stella,” Gina Maria said, on the verge of tears.

“I’m sorry, darlin’, but after all, I was the one that went through the ordeal today and it wasn’t easy …”

“I know, Mama, but the house won’t seem the same without her.”

“We’ll get over it, baby … nothin’ is forever and the sooner you learn that, the better … there are many bitter pills to swallow in life, aren’t there, Dominic?”

He didn’t answer. Soon Willie Mae was back. Only Catherine ate the fried chicken, corn fritters, thick country gravy and the black-eyed peas while Dominic scarcely touched his, as did the children.

From the beginning to the time Dominic retired, the evening had been more than disturbing. He couldn’t quite understand why he felt so uncomfortable. Of course, Stella’s leaving had a great deal to do with it … but not altogether. Catherine’s entire behavior seemed so bizarre, her solicitude, when first he had come home, then being dressed like the queen of Rumania, the elaborate floral arrangement, the new colored maid dressed so formally … Stella used to wear a plain white cotton uniform and dinner was a happy, exciting thing with all the children around, laughing, arguing, just the sound of all their voices filled the room with buoyancy and tonight, except for Gina Maria and Tory, they were all away, one place or another. How much he had missed while they were growing up … but on the other hand, when he had been home, he enjoyed them so … but they couldn’t remain children all their lives … still he wished that somehow he could turn back the clock, taking them all to mass on Sunday, then going to his mother’s for Sunday lunch … but on the other hand, time stood still for no one and in a few years they would all be away one place or another and Catherine and he would be alone in this enormous house, just the two of them, sitting at that long vacant table … he at one end and she at the other and the prospect made him shudder … why hadn’t Stella called him to say goodbye … her leaving so suddenly left him with a feeling of deep loss … The entire situation this evening had left him reeling. When he saw the shaft of light appear through the door as Catherine entered, he shut his eyes and pretended to be asleep. Enough was enough. Tonight, he couldn’t stand the sound of her voice … or the explanations … or the small talk. Not tonight.

That
night had left him with a feeling he somehow could not dismiss, but as always Victoria gave him the relief he so badly needed. She was there. He spent more time with her than before. When he went to Washington, D.C., she arranged to be there on a case. She sacrificed her own career in order to go with him, but for her, nothing was as important as Dominic.

In September, Tory went to Harvard amid tears of good-byes and both Catherine and Dominic shed theirs for different reasons.

Then in October, Victoria had a birthday. She said to Dominic the evening before, “Well, how does it feel to be in love with an old lady? You sure you don’t want to trade me in for a new model?”

“No,” he answered, laughing, stroking her hair, “I have a mother complex.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

“It is a compliment. You’re the only other woman I know, outside of her, that has what it takes to make a man feel whole … now, for tomorrow, what do you want to do?”

“Be with you.”

“I would hope so … but where do you want to go for dinner?”

“To our favorite restaurant… DeLucci’s.”

“Alright, I’ll call for a nine o’clock reservation.”

While Victoria and Dominic were making love, in the shadows across the street stood Hank Woods. He had been there since Dominic arrived earlier that evening and then later trailed at a safe distance behind him. Hank Woods took out his black notebook and wrote: subject returned home at eleven. Then drove away … returned at seven in the morning to take up his post again down the street from the Rossi residence.

That evening, Dominic arrived at eight, only to be greeted by a more than radiant Victoria. She had never looked more exquisite than at this moment, dressed in a black velvet dinner suit with jeweled buttons and smelling of the fragrance of Joy, his favorite perfume, which only matched the dozens of red roses that filled the room and which he had sent earlier today.

“Let me look at you,” Dominic said, holding her at arms length. “You’re magnificent.”

“And you’re magnificent. Did you ever see anything so beautiful?”

“Yes, you.”

“Oh, Dominic, this is the happiest day of my life … I’m filled with something so special, I can’t explain it. There are no words.”

“We don’t need them. At a moment like this, words get in the way.”

Kissing him, she said, “You’re right, you know, darling.”

“Yes … I do know.”

For a moment they looked at each other, then Victoria said, “I had better get us a drink or we won’t go out to dinner … go sit down.” Soon she was beside him. He drank to her health and long life together, then he took a small brown paper bag out of his pocket and handed it to her. “What is this?” she laughed, “tomorrow’s lunch?”

“Yes…”

She unrolled the folded top and took out a box wrapped with silver ribbons and a seal attached that read Tiffany’s. “Dominic, I don’t want to open it … please, I have so much with you.”

“Open it for me … I’ve been so excited all day.”

When she took the box top off, inside was a diamond and emerald bracelet … she was speechless. Finally, she said, “I … I have never seen anything so magnificent.”

“Here, let me put it on.”

“And while I make a wish we stay as much in love and as happy as we are at this moment.”

At nine, while the two lovers sat in their secluded corner, Hank Woods stood phoning from a booth inside DeLucci’s, observing them. “What a lousy way to make a living,” he thought as the ringing began. I should have bought that candy store in … “Hello,” he heard on the other end.

“This is Hank Woods … the subjects are at DeLucci’s now. They arrived at nine.”

“What are they doing?”

“The waiter has just served their cocktails.”

“I see …” Catherine steadied herself: “I imagine they’ll have dinner?”

“I would guess.”

“Do you think if I got there in about an hour, that would be about right?”

“I would say so,” he answered reluctantly. “Mrs. Rossi, I have no right to say this, but the restaurant is packed, do you—”

“Listen, I haven’t paid you for any advice. You just do your job and watch.”

“Right.” As he hung up, he thought, what a fucked-up business …

“Victoria, I hadn’t mentioned it before, but I think I’m going to open an office in Paris. I’ve begun to represent a number of American interests abroad and this summer I saw a friend who encouraged me … what do you think?”

“I think it would mean a lot of traveling and a tremendous challenge. It would also take you away from your children even more.”

“Well, let me tell you something strange … I realized, suddenly, the boys are all growing up. They won’t be home in a few years anyway. Next year, Dom will be through and he’ll come into the office, and in a few years Tory will have his name on the door, then the twins, and before you know it, they’ll be a battery of Rossis, and I have a feeling Dom would love practicing abroad. Are you against it?” he asked.

“No, as a matter of fact, knowing you as I do, I think you need the excitement for your vitality … which, Mr. Rossi, I would say you have an overabundance of.”

“I take that as a compliment… I think?”

“It was meant to be.”

“Of course, I’m going to be selfish and expect you to be ready on a moment’s notice.”

“Are you really?”

“Yes … I’m a demanding Italian husband …who feels as married to you as I’ll ever be.”

“Thank you, Mr. Rossi, but if you research it out, you’ll find bigamy is an offense that could get you twenty years.”

“I know, Miss Lang, but not if it’s mental bigamy. There isn’t a court in the land that would convict me.”

“I rest my case, Mr. Rossi.” Their special waiter was standing by.

“What do you feel like having?”

“You do the ordering.”

“Alright… Louie, we’ll have scampi… tortellini … veal piccata, and the wine you know.”

“Grazie,
Dominic.”

Dominic said, “Do you know how long I’ve known Louie?”

“No, how long?”

“We were raised in North Beach together. It’s hard to believe we’ve been friends that many years … where did they go?” Dominic said, as though the sight was yesterday, so fresh and vivid. “God, those were wonderful days. We were all so poor and we didn’t even know it. Talk about food, you never smell anything like Columbus Avenue about 1920.”

Victoria smiled. “Do you know what I adore so much about you, Dominic?”

“My tremendous charm?”

“No, I’m trying to be serious. For all the achievements there’s still that little boy in you from North Beach with the enormous pride in your origins. I always see that little boy going after school to visit his
nonna.
There’s not an arrogant thing about you. I’ve never heard you drop a name or talk about the accomplishments—”

“Some people would say I’m damned ambitious—”

“It’s not true … you just have the greatest drive of anyone I know … but more important, you never forgot where you came from.”

“Wait a minute, Miss Lang … let that rumor get out and you’ve ruined my whole image.”

For a moment Victoria wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not. “Then I wish more people knew you as I do … as you really are.”

Dominic looked at her. I’m the same man I always was, but I look different to a hundred different people … strange.

“What are you thinking, Dominic?”

“That I’ll gladly settle for you seeing me the way you do … I feel as though it’s
my
birthday … Now, darling, here’s to you.”

Louie had just placed the veal piccata in front of Victoria at the very moment Catherine drove up in front of DeLucci’s. When Giuseppe, the doorman, saw her, he didn’t know whether to run inside and try and get word to Dominic that his wife was obviously hunting him down, but between the thought and the deed, Catherine was out of the car and swinging open the door inside of the restaurant. Giuseppe wasn’t the only one shocked and nervous when seeing Catherine. Adolfo, the maître d’, thought he’d faint. Oh,
Mama mia!
This was all they needed with a room full of people and a jealous wife.

“Where is he?” Catherine said, as Adolfo took her hand and tried calmly to say, “Who do you mean, my dear Mrs. Rossi…?”

“Don’t pretend to be so innocent, you know goddamned well who,” she said, abruptly pulling her hand from Adolfo’s sweating palm. She scanned the dimly lit room, trying to adjust to the light, then, suddenly, she saw Hank Woods, sitting at the bar. He pointed to the place where Victoria and Dominic were sitting. Catherine walked rapidly, weaving in and out between the tables, then she stood in front of the lovers who held in their hands the wineglasses, ready to drink to each other, but the toast was never begun as Catherine began with her tirade of obscenities. “You goddamned son of a bitch,” she screamed in the now silent, stunned room with the other diners looking and listening. “If I had a gun, I’d kill you, and you … you dirty whore, takin’ my husband away from me.” She rambled on, incoherently, as she reached for Victoria’s hair and began to pull, then she slapped her across the face, so hard the imprint of her fingers remained. It had all happened so quickly that before Dominic could stand, she threw a glass of wine in his face, tipped over the table as everything came crashing to the floor. She kicked at Dominic, scratched him, and he couldn’t control her because the wine had temporarily blinded him. The waiters tried to hold her back, but she struggled loose, kicking one in the groin, then took off her shoe and threw it at Dominic, hitting him on the forehead. In all the confusion Adolfo led a devastated Victoria out through the kitchen, hailed a taxi and helped her in. “Miss Lang, are you able to go alone?”

She didn’t hear him. Again he offered his assistance, but this time she shook her head, yes.

“Where to, lady?” the driver said.

“Clay and Jones.”

They drove off while Adolfo returned to the bedlam that was still going on inside. By now, Dominic had wiped his eyes and rallied himself. He grabbed Catherine by the arm and said, “We’re getting out of here.”

“No, I want the world to know what a bastard, a
bastardo
you are.”

He clamped his hand over her mouth and pinned her arm back, then dragged her through the kitchen as he said to Adolfo to have her car brought around to the side. Obeying Dominic’s command, Adolfo first picked up Catherine’s shoe and slipped it onto her foot as she struggled, then ran out to Giuseppe.

Once out in the street, Dominic said, “How could you do such a thing, washing our dirty linen in public, coming in like a madwoman.”

“Keep your goddamn mouth shut, I’ve known every time you slept with that slut. What do you think I am … stupid? I shouldn’t air our dirty linen in public? I’m gonna do more than that, darlin’. Everyone is gonna know what a whorin’ bitch she is. I’m gonna blacken her name and yours too, then we’ll see who’s …”

“Catherine, for God’s sake, you’ve gone crazy.”

Getting into the car behind the wheel, she answered, screaming, “By the time I get through with you, we’ll see who’s crazy.”

“Catherine, please, let me talk to you.”

“Talk
to me? I’ll see you in hell first.”