Renzo (The Ciprianos of Kellington) (9 page)

Jaslyn leaned over and
did what he asked. His moans turned to cries as he held onto her so tightly he
honestly had to stop himself before he burst. “God, I don’t want to stop, but
if we don’t I might end up taking you right here on the floor.”

“I think so, too,
because you are getting harder and harder by the minute,” Jaslyn said getting
up from his lap. They straightened themselves up before he went to turn
everything off. After rechecking everything, Renzo took her in his arms one
last time, kissing her soundly on the lips. “We will continue this, I hope,
very soon,
mia colomba
.”

She nodded.
“
Mia colomba
?
What
does that mean?”

“It’s my new name for
you. It means my dove, my delicate, lovely dove. ” He held her in his arms for
a moment, not wanting to let her go. Outside he walked her to her car where they
said their goodbyes until tomorrow.

Chapter Six

Jaslyn did something
she hadn’t done in years…she had overslept that morning. For the first time in
years, she felt giddy and overjoyed. She couldn’t believe that first kiss
between her and Renzo in the restaurant the other night. Never in her life had
she ever felt such passion in a kiss. When he had her in his arms, everything
seemed to be on the table as far as bets were concerned. She had been smiling
since she woke up, still staring up at the ceiling. So much for waiting a week,
she chuckled. When the phone rang, it was Delia calling to see why she wasn’t
in. “Hello?”

“Where are you, girl,
you’ve never been late for work. Is something wrong, are you sick?”

“No, just forgot to set
the alarm on my clock and woke up late. I’m fine. I’ll be there in about
forty-five minutes.” She sat up in bed running her fingers through her hair and
sighing.

“Well at least you’re
fine. I’ll see you when you get in,” Delia said.

“See you then. Bye.”

After getting ready for
work and grabbing a banana from her fruit bowl, Jaslyn headed for her car.
“What the fucking hell?” Before her stood a pile of trash and eggs piled high
on top of her car. Someone had written,
FUCK
YOU BITCH
in what looked like red paint across the side of her car. Her
chipper mood from earlier was now replaced with rage. Getting on the phone she
called the police and then she called Delia.

“Hey, where are you?”

“I’m still home.”

“I thought you were on
your way into work.”

“Oh, I was until I came
out and saw my car, it looks a garbage truck accidentally threw up all over
it.”

“What do you mean?”

Jaslyn could feel the
tension in her neck. She had to sit down on the step to calm down. “Just what I
said, Delia, someone trashed my car big time.”

“What! How in the hell
did that happen? Never mind. I’m on my way over to wait with you.” She hung up
the phone while Jaslyn sat there looking at her car in the driveway. One of her
neighbors was walking her dog. She knew as soon as the police arrived, the rest
of the neighborhood would be out in droves. This was not how she wanted to
start her day—waiting for the cops and having all of her neighbors staring at
her. She got up from the step and went inside to get her camera so she could
take pictures. Once she got back outside, she took pictures trying her best not
to throw up from the foul smell of the garbage that wafted through the air.
Then she realized not only was her car trashed the tires were all flat.

“That skanky bitch,”
Jaslyn said underneath her breath while the camera went click. Then her cell
phone rang again. “Hello?”

“Jaslyn is everything
all right?” asked a frantic sounding Renzo.

“Yes, I’m fine but my
car isn’t.”

“Listen, I’m on my way
over there with Delia. She came by to let me know.”

Before she could tell
him don’t, he hung up. That only made her more aggravated because she didn’t
need him coming here. Soon she could hear the police coming up the street with
their sirens blaring. They stopped in her driveway. She recognized one of the
officers from when he and his wife came into her shop.

“Wow!” It was the first
thing the officer said while slowly walking toward the car, tipping the front
of his hat up to get a better look. “Hey, Jaslyn, are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, just
wasn’t expecting this shit.” She walked around the car with the officer. They
both grimaced when they got close to it.

“Doug, take pictures of
the car while I get a report.” But before she could walk into her house, she
heard the screeching of tires coming to a halt. She saw Delia and Renzo coming
out of Delia’s car and the stunned expressions when they got a good look at her
car. The look on their faces said just enough for her to know how shocked they
were.

“Holy shit!” exclaimed
Delia. Renzo came up to her, scanning her body as if to see if maybe something
else was wrong.

“I’m fine before you
say anything. My car is the issue for now.”

“Can I ask you a
question? Is my ex-wife still in jail?” Renzo asked an officer.

“Actually no, she got
out late last night on bail. Do you think she did this?”

“Yes, I do. She and I
had words before Mr. Cipriano’s fiasco at his restaurant. Let’s all go inside,”
Jaslyn suggested. Once inside, Jaslyn, Renzo, and the cop sat on the couch
while Delia sat on the loveseat.

“What do you mean she
had words with you?”

“I was coming out of my
shop yesterday, when she bumped me into the wall. She thinks Renzo and I are
together as a couple and she told me to stay away from him. I told her I knew
what she was up to and didn’t appreciate her playing childish games. I also
told her if she got in my face again, that I would call the cops. This was our
second encounter by the way. She came into my shop pretending to look around,
but I know she was scoping me out.”

All the cop could do
was
stand
there shaking his head as he got on the
radio. Renzo was holding her hand. She looked at him with a small smile and
nodded when the officer said, “I’ve got an officer going to her house to bring
her in for questioning. I’ve never seen anything as crazy as this, and I’ve
been on the force for too many years. Do you know what you need to do to get
your car straightened out, Jaslyn?”

 
“Well, I already took some pictures of the car
for my insurance company. Lord, knows I’ve been out of it. I completely forgot
I need to call them up.

Renzo said, “I’m going
to have everything taken care of before the day is through. So that will not be
a problem. I’ll have some guys come over to clean up the mess and we’ll get it
towed.”

“Let me know where you
will tow it because we need to take more pictures of the car. I’m sorry this
happened to you, Jaslyn, I really am. We’ll get in contact with you.”

“Thank you.”

He walked out of the
room leaving Jaslyn aggravated to the point where she could almost spit. “All I
know is that if I see that bitch out on the street I will jump her right then
and there.” Jaslyn got up and went into the kitchen to try to calm down and get
something to drink.

Delia and Renzo could
only stare at her while she continued talking over and over about what had
happened. “Now you know you don’t plan on hurting Melanie, you’re just
frustrated and angry right now. Why don’t you come and sit down or we can go to
the shop,” Delia suggested.

“I don’t think I should
be going into work…at least not today.”

“Well you can’t hang
around here all day looking out at that car and staying mad as hell,” Delia
reminded her.

“Come
on,
let’s take you to the shop, Delia. Jaslyn, I know a
place where you can go that’s peaceful.” Renzo got up, took her once again by
the hand, and grabbed her purse as they all left her home.

When they got back into
town, Delia opened the shop. Whereas Renzo and Jaslyn went to his car and he
helped her in. She was annoyed by the turn of events. Never had she been so mad
in her life. It brought back sad memories of when her and her ex would argue,
how angry she would get with him. She would always end up with a migraine from
their shouting matches. It made her uneasy so she shook off the memory,
remaining quiet until Renzo said, “I’m sorry about all of this, Jaslyn. If I
knew she was going to go overboard like this I wouldn’t have…”

“You wouldn’t have
what, got involved with me?”

“No,
I wouldn’t have let her get this far. I would have put a stop to this from the
get go.” They turned up to a long driveway that led up to a beautiful home
resembling an Italian villa. They waited for someone to answer the beautiful,
iron gate. Taking hold of her waist he said, “Smile for me, Jaslyn, I can’t
stand seeing you angry like this. Just let me see you smile before I leave you
here with my mom.”

“All
right, if you don’t give me a smile, I plan on doing something I haven’t done
in a very long time.”

She was clearly puzzled,
but soon fingers were digging into her sides and she screamed. She slapped his
chest and he stopped while she collected herself, “That wasn’t funny.”

“Yes, it was.”

“No, tickling me like
that wasn’t funny at all, Renzo.”

“It was funny and you
know it,” Renzo whispered.

She snorted. “No, it
wasn’t funny so quit trying to make me smile.” Jaslyn looked at the exquisitely
intricate door with its full-bloomed roses cradled with leaves, noticing in the
middle of the door was a cursive letter ‘C’ for Cipriano. She was about to touch
the letter when she saw Gianni coming to open the gate. “Hey you guys come on
in, what’s going on?”

“Your brother is trying
to get me out of my foul mood,” Jaslyn said following him into the main house.
The aroma of fish cooking in the kitchen made her head straight toward it. She
saw Filomena sprinkling some green herbs into a pot, grabbing a spoon and
stirring it. “Hello, Mrs. Cipriano, something smells real good.”

“Hello, my dear Jaslyn.”
Filomena walked around the island giving her a hug. “Why are you here?” She
looked over at Renzo and Gianni.

“Your son thought it
would be best I came here to cool off before I went on the war path after your
ex-daughter-in-law. It seems she trashed my car and when I mean trashed
it,
I mean it makes garbage dumps jealous. Is there some
place I can make a call on my cell? I’ve got to call up my insurance company, I
forget to call them while I was at home,” Jaslyn asked.

“Sure
thing, darling.
Gianni, show her to the office so she
can have some privacy. When you’re done you can have something to eat with us.”
Watching her leave, Renzo got a hard smack upside the back of his head as she
heard his mother say, “
Stupido
,
ti
ho
detto
che
la
donna
era
nient'altro
che
guai
.”

“I know, Ma, I know. I
didn’t think she was going to do something as stupid as this. I don’t even know
how she got so much trash on the car in the first place. Hell, I don’t even
think there was a car underneath all that mess. I don’t know why she is doing
all of this.”

“Because she’s a
jealous hearted bitch, that’s why. She can’t stand to see you happy and now
that you are, she’s making both your lives hell. I feel sorry for that girl,
for what Melanie has put her through so far.” She went back to the stove and
continued stirring the Pomodoro sauce.

“Actually, I feel sorry
for Melanie. Doing all of this to try and get back at me for something I
haven’t even done to her. I honestly don’t even know what I’ve ever done to her
to make her act the way she does.” Renzo could only shake his head when he
thought about it.

“Are you staying to
eat?”

“I can’t. I have to go make
sure things are straight with her car and that the people I called to clean up
are
doing the job. I’ll come back a little bit later on to
see how things are going. But let me go and say goodbye to Jaslyn.” Giving her
a kiss on the cheek, Renzo walked down toward the office where she was making
her calls.

* * * *

“Yes, ma’am, I’ll hold
thank you,” Jaslyn said sitting back in a leather chair, rubbing between her
eyes in frustration.

“Would you like for me
to get you something for your head?” Gianni asked.

“Thanks, I would like
that.” He walked out of the office as she continued to wait for the insurance
company’s customer service rep.
Thankfully
, she didn’t
give her a hard time. All she would need to do was email her the pictures she
had taken along with the police reports. “If you give me the email address,
I’ll do that this afternoon once I get home.
Uh-huh
, was that a
d
or a
b
as in boy? All right a
b
, okay I have it, thanks so much,
ma’am. Have a great day too. Goodbye.” Hanging up the phone she released a deep
sigh while resting her head against the chair. Hearing footsteps, she saw
Gianni as well as Renzo walking in. Gianni had a glass of water. “Here you go.”
He handed her two aspirins along with the water. She got up and downed them
both.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. How’d
it go?” Gianni asked her.

“Better than I thought,
at least I didn’t get one of those operators who want to give you a hard time.
I just gave her what she needed and she told me I can email her pictures. I
just can’t believe that this is happening to me.”

“Well, I’m glad that it
was easy on you. I came to tell you I was heading back to work, I’ll be back
later on to see how you are,” Renzo said holding her hand. They walked down the
hall to the kitchen where Filomena was still cooking.

“Is everything okay, my
dear?”