I cracked up laughing. "You're hilarious," I said.
"What? I think you should look just exactly like you look right now when you see him tomorrow night."
She and I met in the middle. We reproduced the look, only a slightly scaled back version. I almost felt like the boosted up version was false advertising. My outfit was dark, dressy jean leggings with a brown sweater that hung off one shoulder exposing a muted gold tank underneath. I dressed it up with necklaces, bracelets, and a scarf, and added some boots that complimented the whole look.
Laura wore burgundy. Both of us put a lot of effort into getting ready, and the ride to his house was exciting. Dominic's brother, Paul and William (one of the guys who helped us move into our apartment) were driving to Dominic's and offered to pick us up on their way.
Maria and Big Willy would be there too, but they spent the night before to help Dominic prepare for the party. The catering was hired out, but Maria was there to help Dominic manage everything. The feast was from 3 to 7PM with the meal being served in stages between music and other random entertainment.
In addition to his employees, Dominic had roughly twenty or thirty family members every year. Maria explained to Laura that ten or twenty of them usually ended up staying out at Dominic's for the night and crashed in one of his many spare rooms. Dominic loved hosting a big group for the night and always got in the kitchen with his dad and cooked a big breakfast the next morning.
Maria called Laura in the morning to make sure we were staying the night, and Laura thanked her for the invitation and told her we'd think about it. We thought about it for the span of a split second. In fact, the only reason she told her we'd think about it instead of agreeing right away was because she didn't want to seem to eager.
Paul and William picked us up at 1:30 in the afternoon, so we could get there when the festivities started at three. Paul was driving, and William offered to let Laura sit in the front. He made it obvious that he wouldn't mind being in the back seat with me, and Laura put the kibosh on that right away, saying she preferred the back.
The ride to Dominic's went quickly, and before we knew it, we were pulling up at his estate. There was a circular driveway with beautiful landscaping, and a valet waiting to park the car when we arrived.
Paul told him to park it in Dominic's garage, and he agreed easily before offering to help with our bags. Paul told him we had it under control, and he and William took not only their own bags, but also mine and Laura's.
"We'll put these in the back of the coat closet for now, and you can get them once you figure out where you're sleeping," Paul said.
We put our coats and bags away when we came in the door, and then walked through the entryway into the main living room. It was a huge, open space decorated with comfortable, eclectic furniture in rich colors. The foyer was elevated which gave us perspective on how packed it was. There were at least fifty people already there, and I got a good visual of most of them from where we were standing.
"There are a few other rooms opened up for the party," Paul said. "I'll take you around to them so you'll know where they are. If you snoop around at all, you'll come across a lot of locked doors."
"Oh, I'm not gonna snoop," I assured him. Laura was shaking her head adamantly, saying she wouldn't either.
He smiled. "Dominic opens the house once his employees leave. I was just telling you not to be surprised if you came across a locked door."
"You just tell us where to go, Pauly, and, we'll go there," Laura said holding her arm out for him.
He smiled and took it without hesitation. "We'll show you guys around and you can decide which room you like best. You don't have to stay in one place all night, but I will tell you it's best to be in the living room when the oysters come out."
I made a face like I didn't care for oysters, and everyone laughed.
"You finally made it!" we heard Maria squeal a few seconds later. We all turned to her, and one by one she squeezed us and wished us happy Thanksgiving. I was last in line for the hug just because of where I was standing, and she stopped to regard me after she gave me one of her famous squeezes. She stared at me for a few seconds before looking at Laura with wide eyes.
"She's the most precious thing I've ever seen."
I looked at Laura, feeling nervous and on the spot, and she smiled at me.
"She's a good one," she said simply.
"We were just about to take them around the house," Paul said.
"Have you seen Dominic?" Maria asked, ignoring his comment.
"We just walked in the door," Laura said. "This place is beautiful."
"Wait till you see the rec room," she said. "He's got jugglers in there."
As the day approached, my friends in receiving gave me more and more details about past parties. They told me he hired street acts to perform every year, so I knew to expect it. But being here and seeing it in person was different than I pictured—somehow more grand.
I hadn't seen Dominic since I took his picture. I'd thought about him non-stop since then and had built up the idea of him to unreasonable proportions. I was anxious to see if he could possibly be as good as I pictured. I was so anxious to see him that I almost didn't want to see him anymore.
"Dominic's gonna want to know you're here."
"What will I want to know?" I heard his voice say from the side of me.
I should have known it was coming because I saw Paul and William catch sight of something approaching.
"You'll want to know that Lu and Miss Rae made it," Maria said.
"Guess we're chopped liver," Paul said, being the first to reach out and hug his brother.
"Compared to the lovely ladies you came in with, you're pretty much chopped liver, bro," Dominic said, hugging him back.
"I tried to make Mrs. Milano sit in the front seat on the way over here so I could get to know Rae a little bit and welcome her to New York, but she wasn’t having any part of that," William said, joking around.
"That's my girl," Dominic said, hugging Laura.
He came eye to eye with me for a few seconds before reaching in for the same casual greeting style hug he gave Laura. It was the eye contact before the hug that made my stomach turn flips. I could tell by the way he stared at me in those brief seconds that he felt some sort of attraction to me. His eyes roamed over my face with an expression that he was trying to restrain himself from saying something he shouldn't.
The hug was quick, and he regarded all of us as a group afterward. "I wish I wasn't in such a hurry, but I was just headed to talk to the girl in charge of catering,"
"I promised Lu and Rae I'd show them around anyway," Paul said.
William was standing next to me and, assuming Dominic was walking away, he stuck out an arm for me to take. I smiled gratefully and stuck my arm through his.
"Mom can show them around," Dominic said, glancing down at our linked arms with a scowl.
"We're going that way anyway," William said. "I wanna check out the jugglers."
"Actually, I need your help," Dominic said. "I think the girl with catering is gonna need a little man power."
"I'll show them around," Maria said.
"Thank you, Mom," Dominic said. He motioned for the boys to follow him as we walked off with his mom.
"I'm so glad you made it," Maria said.
"We wouldn't have missed it," Laura answered. "Rae's been hearing about this from all her friends at work. I can't believe this house. It's gorgeous."
"Dominic's sort of embarrassed about it. He's always been so humble and practical that it's hard for him to buy elaborate things like this." She smiled. "He'll tell you he got a good deal on it if you mention how beautiful it is."
"Did he?"
"He did actually—got a great price considering its size. Plus, we all begged him to do it. We told him it'd be the place we'd all come for family get-togethers."
"Did it turn out that way?"
"Definitely. We come out here for almost every holiday. He'
s got plenty of room, and we're all comfortable here."
Just as she said those words, we walked up to the open door that led to what I assumed was the rec room. There were twenty or so people spread out in small groups and I glanced around taking everything in.
There was a pair of jugglers who were getting set up in a corner of the room. They appeared to be talking to each other and warming up by tossing objects into the air and catching them. If they weren't twins, they were at least brothers—the similarities went beyond the matching outfits.
"Those are the jugglers," Maria said, noticing me notice them. "This room will be hopping in a minute once everyone arrives," she said. "It's really popular."
Chapter 10
The Thanksgiving feast was even more elaborate than I expected. It seemed like there was a surprise around every corner. There was a third, smaller room where the band set up. They played during the last two hours of the party, making that family room one of my favorite hideouts. It was loud and crowded in there, and I thoroughly enjoyed the music.
It was nearly seven o'clock, and I knew the party was almost finished, so I decided to ride out the rest of it while watching the band. Laura was talking with some of Dominic's family, so I'd been hanging out with Matt from receiving and his wife Angie.
"You better quit making sweet eyes at the lead singer," Angie said, whispering in my ear.
I smiled. "I'm not making sweet eyes. I like his voice, though. It's unique, don't you think?"
"I like it fine, but that's not what I was talking about," she said.
"What are you talking about?" I was only half-listening to her because it was loud, and there was a lot going on in the room.
"Don't look now, but someone's standing by the door watching you watch them, and he doesn't look like he's enjoying himself."
I didn't listen to her about not looking over there. I instantly glanced at the door when she said that. My heart stopped. She was right. Dominic was standing there, and he wasn't even bothering to look around the room, his eyes were one hundred percent locked on me.
A flash of nervous jitters hit me at the sight of him. I smiled, and hoped it looked natural. He motioned for me to come over there, and I got up and headed toward him with no hesitation whatsoever.
"Are you in trouble," Angie asked. She was mostly joking, and I was relieved she didn't pick up on my feelings about him. I smiled back at them with fake fear and we all laughed as I began crossing the room.
"I forgot to ask if you and Laura were planning on spending the night. I should have mentioned it earlier, but I had a lot going on."
I laughed at the understatement. "Your mom made sure we knew we were welcome," I said.
"Are you staying?"
"I think so."
He gave me a satisfied smile. "Good."
We'd sort of made our way into the hallway as we spoke so we didn’t have to yell over the music. Someone yelled his name from down the hall, and he looked up to see who it was.
It was a guy I didn't recognize who said, "You need to come talk to one of the valets. I think a set of keys might have gone missing." Dominic sighed and rolled his eyes before glancing at me.
"Go ahead," I said smiling. I gestured to the family room. "I'm gonna stay in here with Matt and Angie."
He looked slightly agitated, and I smiled internally thinking about Angie telling me not to make sweet eyes at the lead singer. I caught myself hoping that was the cause of Dominic's annoyance.
"I've got to go see to this," he said. "I just wanted to make sure you were staying."
"I think we're planning on it."
He headed toward the guy who was waiting at the end of the hall, and I went back into the room. I didn't try crossing over to Matt and Angie again since it was almost over.
That exchange took place at about 7PM, and the next few hours went by in an absolute blur. The guests who were spending the night stayed out of the way while Dominic, Willy, and Maria ushered everyone else out, and once the others were gone, we all came back out into the main room.
There were about fifteen of us spending the night, and we just sort of lounged around the main living area. Some of the faces were new, but I'd met most of them and liked them all. There wasn't a single person in the group that was hard to get along with, and I made easy conversation with everyone there.
Maria came to Laura and I to show us to the bedroom where we'd be staying. I didn't know what sleeping arrangements everyone else had, but I hoped they were as comfortable as ours. Laura and I had a small bedroom with a queen size bed and adjoining bathroom. I volunteered to sleep on a couch somewhere if someone needed the spot on the bed, but Maria assured us everyone had a place to sleep.
We all just sort of hung out together, being family, eating snacks, telling stories, watching TV, and teasing each other. It was like something you'd see in a movie where one side of the room busts out in an impromptu talent contest. That literally took place, and because I happened to be sitting on that side of the room at the time, I was forced to join.
I asked for a basketball, which took five minutes and a trip to the garage to obtain. Someone else sang a song while I was waiting, and by the time they got back, I was extremely nervous to have all eyes on me.
I had to trust my instinct. If there was one thing I knew how to do, it was spin a basketball on my finger. It was my one and only party trick, and by gosh, I was amazing at it. It was one of the only skills I ever learned from my grandpa. He was a ball spinning fool; he loved to spin basketballs on his fingertips and practiced constantly when I was a kid. I knew it was a weird skill for a granddad who was a makeshift dad to teach a girl, but it had come in handy a few times over the years.
My granddad didn't spin basketballs anymore. Now that the dementia was so bad, he couldn't –but that didn't stop me from bringing a ball to the nursing home before I left just in case.
Anyway, I spent a lot of my childhood having nothing better to do than spin balls with my granddad, and right at this moment I thanked God for that. Paul threw me the ball when he came in the room, and I caught it with a smile.
I stood and tossed it up a few times, testing the weight and feel of it. Laura had seen me do this routine, and she was grinning from ear to ear. She was grinning so profusely, I could hardly bear to look at her without laughing.
I tossed the ball into the air and landed it on my middle finger. It was already spinning when it landed because of the way I tossed it up, and as soon as I began using my other hand to swipe at it and increase momentum, the room went silent.
I heard at least one person hush the crowd as if they thought I needed to concentrate. I smiled and glanced at the group of people who were all focused on me. I pushed the spinning ball into the air, quickly hit it with my elbow, and then caught it again on my middle finger while it was still spinning.
At least five people made sounds of approval when I completed the maneuver, and I smiled at their cheers. I swiped at it a few more times to get it going again, and then repeated the process, this time hitting it twice with my elbow before catching it on my finger again.
More cheers.
Laura squealed with delight, and I smiled as I continued the act. It was a sequence I practiced nonstop as a kid, and had never lost the ability to pull it off when I needed it. I did three more tricks, each one increasing in difficulty.
Between the legs, off the head, and then for the grand finale, I bounced it off of several different body parts before catching it on my finger again. I caught the ball and tucked it under my arm as I took a bow.
Everyone yelled and clapped for me, and I plopped back onto the couch next to Laura feeling happy I had that trick up my sleeve.
William hopped into the spotlight, and after saying how hard it was to follow me, proceeded to do some crazy, double-jointed thing with his shoulder. That got a big reaction from everybody, and I was glad to fade into the background.
We stayed in there till about eleven when everybody dispersed, h
eaded to their own quarters. Dominic and I stole glances at each other during the night, but neither of us could tell what the other one was thinking, and we never had time to be alone. I planned on trying to make an impression on him that evening, but the basketball spinning would have to do since we had absolutely no time alone.
He tried to talk to me several times, but someone always interrupted us needing his attention. It was 11PM when Laura and I settled into our room. There'd been no time to try my charms on him, and once she and I had showered and settled into bed she said, "I know you didn't have much time to connect with Dominic tonight, but I really do think he likes you."
"What makes you say that?"
"I can just tell by the way he looks at you."
"I can't believe I got to spin a basketball in front of everyone." I said, laughing. "What are the chances of that?"
"With this family full of clowns, they're probably pretty good," she said.
We sat there and talked about the party for a good while. Neither of us could believe the trouble he'd gone to in order to entertain his employees, and the subject kept going back to Dominic and his generosity or how great he was.
Everyone mentioned eating a big breakfast the next morning, so I figured I had at least one more chance to let him in on how I was feeling before we left.
It was midnight, and we were just about to turn out the lights when Laura remembered she hadn't taken her meds for the night. She needed a glass of milk because if she took it with water, it was likely to give her a stomachache. I offered to go for her, but she insisted she wanted to do it. She put on a robe and slippers and tiptoed to the kitchen.
She looked at me with a wide-eyed, excited expression when she came back into the room a few minutes later.
I giggled quietly. "What?" I whispered.
"He's out there," she whispered back.
"Who?" I asked even though I knew good and well who she was talking about.
"He's sleeping out there on the couch, and he's alone!" she was so excited she could barely contain herself, and I just stared at her, feeling confused.
Another Shot: A Modern-Day Ruth and Boaz Story Page 7