“There’s nothing there, Katrina,” Liz said as she looked at the store’s senior investor.
“There’s got to be,” Trina insisted without looking up. She wore reading glasses and looked, it seemed to Liz, older than her thirty-four years. “We’ve got to make this business leaner and meaner or we’ll have no choice but to close our doors. And that’s not going to happen.”
Liz looked at Trina. Although she’d been through a horrific thing, a miscarriage, her commitment to make Champagne’s a successful clothing store was even stronger. Which only helped to stiffen Liz’s own resolve.
“Maybe it’s not in the number of clothing choices we offer,” Liz said. “Maybe it’s in the type of choices. Maybe it’s time we consider selling cheaper brands.”
But Trina was already shaking her head. “No,” she said. “I’m not turning Champagne’s into Walmart. If I do that, we’ll be out of business tomorrow. We can’t compete against bargain basement stores like that. We can compete against other high-end stores because our products are better and our prices are reasonable. Not cheap, but reasonable. I think we’re already in that sweet spot. We just have to figure out a way to lower our supply to meet our demand. Then we’ve got to increase our demand.”
“Thus the challenge,” Liz said.
“Thus the challenge,” Trina agreed.
Then Liz sighed and leaned against the counter. Trina looked at the fact that she was no longer going through the logs, but was just standing there. “What’s wrong?” she asked her.
Liz frowned, but didn’t respond.
“If you want to talk about it,” Trina added.
Then Liz sighed again. “I think he’s cheating on me.”
Trina stared at her. “Your husband?”
Liz nodded. Trina didn’t see distress on Liz’s narrow face, but fear. Fear of losing the man she loved. Fear of losing the man she depended on. Fear. Trina, for some strange reason, recognized that fear. She wouldn’t have before her miscarriage, but she recognized it now.
“Is it a suspicion,” Trina asked, “or an actual fact?”
Tears began to appear in Liz’s eyes. Trina immediately grabbed a couple Kleenex tissues out of the box and handed them to her.
“A fact,” Liz said, wiping her eyes. “I mean, I never saw him with her, but there’s the long trips and the strange numbers on his phones, and the fact that he recently purchased a second phone. And one of my girlfriends saw him with this woman. This young, beautiful woman.”
“Have you talked to him about it?” Trina asked her.
She shook her head. “No. How can I? What if he says it’s true and he doesn’t want me anymore? I can’t lose my husband! How will I take care of myself? What will I do?”
“You have this store, Liz.”
“A store that hasn’t turned a profit since we opened our doors. I can’t depend on this! I have no children with him, so child support is out. And we signed a pre-nup when we got married.”
Trina looked at her, surprised. “You did?”
“Yes! Of course.” She looked at Tree, surprised that she was surprised. “Didn’t everybody? Didn’t you?”
Trina shook her head. “No,” she said.
Liz stopped wiping her eyes. “No? What do you mean no?”
“I mean no. Reno never asked me to sign any pre-nup. He never brought it up.”
“Are you telling me that Reno Gabrini didn’t make you sign a prenuptial agreement?”
Trina nodded. “That’s what I’m telling you, yes.”
This floored Liz. To Trina’s shock, this news seemed to hit her like a body blow.
“But,” Liz continued, as if it was too unbelievable to even mention. “But what you’re saying is that if he was to drop dead tomorrow, then you would . . . then you would get everything? Even the Pa-Lar-gi-o?”
Trina smiled at the way she sounded it out. “Yes,” Trina said. “Even the Pa-Lar-gi-o.”
Liz still couldn’t wrap her brain around such news. “Why that’s . . . Why that’s, quite frankly, inexplicable.”
Trina knew exactly what she meant. She’d heard if from other friends, her wealthy ones, when they were told too. It was inexplicable to them that a highly successful man like Reno would be willing to leave all of his earthly possessions to her when their highly successful husbands made them sign pre-nups. It made no sense to them on any level. But the fact that Reno wanted a former waitress like Trina in the first place made no sense to them either, so Trina wasn’t exactly surprised by her reaction.
Then Liz had the nerve to smile. “So that’s why you do it,” she said.
Trina wondered if she should even ask her what she meant. She knew it was going to be negative. Liz hated when somebody got the upper hand on her, and she certainly had to figure, in the pre-nup department anyway, that Trina had the upper hand. “So that’s why I do what?”
“That’s why you stay with Reno, despite his unfaithfulness. When he keels over, you will collect a goldmine.”
Trina should have known that was coming next. “By your logic,” she said, “I wouldn’t have to put up with any unfaithfulness. I could divorce him and collect a goldmine now.”
“That’s right!” Liz said as if she hadn’t thought of that before. “So why don’t you, Katrina? Why don’t you just divorce the rascal and get your boatload right away?”
“Because it’s not about money, Liz, boatload or otherwise. It’s about love. I love Reno, Reno loves me, and neither one of us are unfaithful to the other one, despite these nonsensical rumors swirling around.” Then Trina played hardball too. “Which is more than I can say for you,” she added.
Liz looked at her, offended. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.
“You know what it means! You’ve cheated on your husband more times that I can count, and you haven’t tried to hide if from me or Gemma and probably nobody else for that matter. Then the first time you suspect your husband of the same thing, you’re devastated.”
“That’s because I’ve never suspected him of cheating before. Of course I’m devastated!”
Trina shook her head. As usual, Liz was too busy looking at somebody else’s faults to see her own. “Anyway,” she said, “let’s take a break. You’re starting on the third log when I think there’s places we can cut in the second one. We need to regroup.”
As they closed their books, however, the door to the store clanged, and Reno, carrying a bouquet of roses, walked in.
Trina was surprised. Liz was suspicious. “What has he done?” she asked Trina.
Trina wanted to roll her eyes. “Not a thing,” she said instead.
“Hello, Reno,” Liz said with a grand smile as he walked toward the counter. “Are those for me?”
“Only in your dreams, Liz,” Reno said with a smile of his own and Liz laughed. He was cordial with her, but they were hardly friendly. He looked at Trina. “Hey, babe,” he said, leaned over the counter, and kissed her on the lips. Then he handed her the roses.
“Thanks,” Trina said as she accepted them, and smelled them, but like most excitement in her life these days, she remained even-keeled. “What for?” she asked.
“It’s your first day back at work. I thought I’d come and get you. Take you to lunch.”
This did bring a smile to Trina’s face. She looked at her husband. “I’ll put these in water and be right with you,” she said, and headed for the break room in the back of the store.
Reno began looking around. Ever since Trina’s miscarriage, he’d noticed a hesitancy in her, a kind of nervousness. Back in the day, if he brought her roses, she would have run from behind that counter and threw her arms around him. Now everything she did was tempered, as if she was afraid to get too upbeat. As if she was afraid that just like that baby, it could all be snatched away from her.
“How’s business, Reno?” Liz asked him.
“Business is good. How’s yours?”
“Terrible,” Liz said.
Reno l
ooked at her. “Oh yeah?”
“Sales are down, moral is down. Everything is down. We were trying to figure out a way to cut our inventory just before you walked through that door. We’re in a deplorable state. But you know Katrina. She doesn’t exactly have the business acumen that you and I might have, and unfortunately it’s beginning to show. Because it’s a mystery. Why she won’t relocate inside the PaLargio and relieve us of this burden is the mystery of mysteries to me.”
Reno frowned. Did this chick really think he was going to stand up here and bash his wife? “What are you talking mystery?” he asked her loud enough that the salesladies heard him and glanced in that direction. “There’s nothing mysterious about it and you know it. She doesn’t want to relocate to my establishment because she’s not a leech. She’s not the kind of woman that relies on somebody else. When I first started in business there was nobody out there offering to give me an easy ride, and she doesn’t want one either. I motherfucking hate people like that. They rely on daddy or mommy or uncle Joe or whoever the fuck else to make it, and then love to run around talking about how they pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, why can’t everybody else. Get fucking real! My wife isn’t made like that. If she’s going to have her own business, it’s going to be her own business. On her own terms. Sink or swim, it’s on her. I love that about her. I thank God I have me a real woman like that. What mystery? What’s so mysterious about it?”
“Well,” she said. “You told me.” And although she said it with a smile, she felt under siege. She felt as if everything she knew to be good and right was under attack. What kind of spell did Katrina have over this man? No pre-nup? How could a nobody woman like Katrina not have a pre-nup at all while she, Elizabeth Mertan, a woman with breeding and background, get forced into a horrible one? It was monumentally unfair to Liz.
But Reno didn’t wait to hear her explanations about any unfairness. As soon as Trina returned, they were off. And he was glad to go.
“Wow,” he said as soon as they made it outside. It was a bright day and Trina’s bright-yellow skirt suit seemed a fitting tribute to the day. Reno’s attire was more conservative, a light-brown suit, but it was early enough in the day to still look pristine.
“Wow what?” Trina asked him as he took her by the hand and they headed across the sidewalk.
“That partner of yours,” he said. “That Liz. I can’t stand her ass.”
Trina smiled. “She takes some getting used to, that’s for sure. But she works hard. She’s harmless.”
“She’s an asshole,” Reno said and Trina laughed. Then she looked across the parking lot and saw a young mother with her young daughter walking toward them, and her walk slowed. Reno noticed her slower pace and looked at her. A distressed look was on her pretty brown face. When he looked across the parking lot too, and saw the mother and daughter, his heart sank. Trina then looked away.
“Nice day,” she said, looking at the clear blue sky.
“Yeah,” Reno said, looking at her, wondering if that miscarriage was going to change her forever. “Nice day.”
His Porsche was parked near the back of the parking lot and they made their way up to it in a purposeful gait. But after Reno opened the door and helped Trina inside, and then sat down on the driver’s side himself, he didn’t crank up. He turned his body toward her, and waited for her to return his glare.
“How does it feel to be back at work?” he asked her.
Trina tried to smile, but nodded instead. “A little overwhelming,” she said. “I’ve never been away from the store this long.”
“Physically overwhelming?”
“No, no,” she quickly pointed out. “I’m fine physically. It’s just a lot of work to do.”
“Gemma hasn’t been doing what she can do?”
“Oh, yeah. She’s been great. Liz has done her part too, believe it or not. It’s not that. I guess I was hoping things would have been farther along by now.”
Reno knew what she meant. “But what about you?” He took her hand. “Tell me how are you.”
She smiled. “I’m good.”
Reno stared at her.
“I’m getting there,” she added.
“Look at me,” he said. She looked at him. “It’s okay not to be okay. You hear me? It’s only been six weeks. I know it’s going to take time. What I’m worried about, Trina, is when you keep it inside. That’s not okay. Or when you don’t tell me what’s going on with you. That’s not okay.”
“I know Reno.”
“The sky isn’t falling, all right? It’s not the end of the world or your life as you’ve known it. We suffered a loss. And it’s okay to still feel that loss. But it’s okay to try to move on too.”
“I still feel her,” Trina said.
Reno swallowed hard. “What do you mean?”
“I still feel her.”
“Inside your stomach?”
“Yes. And when I feel her, I still think that she’s. . .”
Reno’s heart grew faint. “You still think she’s there?”
Trina nodded. “I still think she’s there. Is that nuts or what?”
“Oh, baby,” Reno said, squeezing her hand. “Of course it’s not nuts. It’s you. I’m grateful to have a wife who can feel as deeply as you can feel.”
Trina smiled. She leaned over and kissed him. She was about to move back over to her side, but he placed his arm around her. They stayed that way for a moment, with no movement nor conversation.
Then Trina said: “I know you love me, Reno.”
Reno considered her. “Oh yeah?”
“Oh yeah. You wanna know how I know?”
Reno smiled. This was going to be interesting. “How?”
“Because you haven’t tried to make love to me since it happened.”
Reno laughed. “Don’t your ass get too comfortable. I was trying to be a caring, understanding husband. But that can change any day now.”
Trina gave him that certain look. “Can it?” she asked him.
Reno’s heart began to pound. And then began to soar. “But can you?” he asked her. “I mean, do you think your body can take it?”
Trina nodded her head. “Definitely,” she said.
“Oh, man,” Reno said excitedly, and immediately cranked up his car.
“You’re suddenly in a hurry,” she said with a knowing smile. “I guess you’re hungry, though, hun?”
“Starving,” Reno said, backing out.
“So where are you taking me for lunch?”
“Home,” Reno said without hesitation.
Trina wanted to laugh. “Home? Why home? What do you plan to have for lunch at home?”
Reno didn’t hesitate. “You,” he said, and burned rubber getting away from there.
He had her naked and spread eagle on the bed within seconds of closing their bedroom door. And just as he promised, he was eating her. He was naked too, at the bottom of the bed, and his head was buried between her legs. Trina had both hands on his thick, brown hair, and was holding on as his tongue kept licking her with long, slow strokes that made her own hair tingle. It had been so long since her husband did her, so long since she felt like a sensual, desirable woman, that now it was sensational. She felt sensational. He was reaching up and squeezing her bare breasts as he licked her, and her entire body reeled with the sensations.
Reno felt as if he was going to cum in the car when Trina let him know that her body was ready for him again. He couldn’t count the nights he laid there, wanting desperately to touch her, but knowing, for emotional more so than physical reasons, that he couldn’t. Not yet. Now he could. Now he had his face between her legs and was licking her and smelling her wonderful scent and mouth-fucking her so hard that his dick felt like iron beneath him.
And Trina was loving it. Her eyes were closed and her back was arched and he was tonguing her so hard that she was having spasms of joy. She held on to his hair, and kept pulling it and screaming out whenever he hit that certain spot, and
every inch of her vagina felt as if it was on fire with passion. And then he moved up, to her stomach, and then her breasts. He stayed on her breasts, sucking one and then the other one and squeezing and licking both. He looked at his wife, as he squeezed both breasts, and tears came into his big, blue eyes. “I miss you so much,” he said, and then he sucked one breast. He looked at her again. “I love you so much.”
She smiled. “Welcome back,” she said, and he couldn’t resist it. He moved up and kissed her on the lips. And if they thought it was going to be a sweet, chaste kiss, they were dreaming.
Reno kissed her so hard, and she returned his kiss so hard, that their tongues intertwined and wouldn’t let go. She tasted so fantastic to Reno that he wrapped her entire body into his thick, muscular arms as he kissed her. Trina could barely breathe he held her so tightly, but she loved it. She’d been pampered too long. She’d been treated gingerly by Reno too long. Now she wanted it as rough as he could give it.
Reno gave it to her. He guided his fully aroused dick into her cunt and nearly passed out from the intensity of that first contact. That penis on pussy. That initial push-in that met with such lovely resistance that it caused Reno to rub his lips across her ear and groan with ecstasy. And then he broke through.
“Fuck me,” Trina begged when he broke in. The deeper he plunged, the deeper she wanted him to plunge. And he fucked her. He got into his rhythm quickly. He fucked her like the lover he was, but he finessed her like the pro he was. He wasn’t rushing this. It was like Christmas in January. Everybody else had opened their gifts and had discovered their surprises. Now it was their time. And Reno’s dick was so alive to Trina that it felt as if he was pumping her with air. Being with Reno, feeling Reno inside of her, made her feel inflated with his love.
RENO AND TRINA: GETTING BACK TO LOVE (The Mob Boss Series) Page 3