by Tiana Laveen
“So.” Her friend Rebecca sat across from her, her blond braids flowing to her waist, a beautiful contrast against her dark skin. “When are we meeting him?”
“Actually, Giovanni and I are planning an engagement party so that should be in the next few weeks. We’re going to have everyone over. His mother is helping to plan it, too. I can’t wait. No worries, I’ll definitely keep you updated. It’ll probably be here in Manhattan.”
“All right, good. I’m so excited for you!” Rebecca squealed in her customary, cute little way.
“Girl! He is fine!” Her friend Teresa cackled as she looked at one of his videos on YouTube right there at their table. “I’m surprised he’s your type though.” She raised her eyebrow in a suspicious sort of way. “He’s got ‘I’m an asshole’ written all over him… He seems cocky. That Italian swagger is the truth!”
“I know, right? He grew on me. He’s a trip, but I love him to death.” Vanessa pinched the straw ever so slightly as she sucked the alcohol through it. She got a bit of the bitter to go along with the sweet.
“All I want to know is, does he have any brothers?!” Rebecca teased, but perhaps only half teasing.
“He does, but Roberto is married. He is fine as a mothafucka, too.” They all burst out laughing. “But, he has so many damn cousins it’s not even funny. His family is huge, girl!”
“Girl, you know those Catholic Italians don’t use no damn birth control. And the guys are so damn sexual, almost as bad as the French.” Theresa sighed.
“Have you dated one before?” Vanessa questioned, her curiosity piqued.
“Yup! Sure have. Great sex, horrible conversation skills. Plus, he wasn’t serious about committing; he just wanted some black ass. Anyway, you better watch out. They’re known for having super sperm. You might be pregnant before you get down the aisle.”
“Don’t even jinx me like that!” Vanessa waved her hand about, a big smile on her face. However, the thought of an unplanned pregnancy unnerved her. There were too many things going on and she didn’t want to be slowed down.
“How does your mother like him? I know she’s a hard grader,” Teresa asked.
“You won’t believe it, but she took to him right away. She absolutely loves him. Of course, Gio laid it on thick. He knows how to perform in front of people basically, so this dude was pullin’ out chairs, saying ‘yes ma’am’, ‘no ma’am’, the works. He brought her flowers and her favorite chocolates, wine and all this shit! One thing he knows how to do is rub elbows with people to get them on his side. Anyway, they’ve spoken several times and the three of us went out to eat a couple of times, too. He’s also been over to her house once and met everybody. My mother said she needs help toning her arms and he said he’d train her. Of course, she’s all over that, what with her always trying to get in shape—been bragging to her friends that she has a celebrity trainer now and that he’s marrying her daughter. All in all, they seem to really enjoy one another, which only makes this all the better.”
“I think that’s fantastic that they’re already in a family way. I like that you two got to know each other, too, and have spent so much time together. He seems really great, Nessa.” Rebecca blinked a few times as if she was getting emotional. “I’m so happy for you. You of all people deserve it.”
Vanessa reached towards her and patted her hand.
“I agree,” Theresa added. “This has been a long time coming. It’s hard trying to find someone you can relate to on all levels. I mean, me and Andre seem like a rarity to me in this day and age. I want everyone to have a guy that’s faithful and treats them well.”
“Thank you, and yes, Andre is a good guy and I knew you two would be together forever. You two are couple goals.” Vanessa smiled. “For real though, I am truly happy with Gio, and he’s been so helpful with me trying to get my business off the ground. I didn’t even ask him; he just stepped right in. I just…” Her face warmed as she stared down into her drink for a spell. “I just love him so much… he’s good to me. Really good to me.”
“That’s all I needed to hear then.” Rebecca nodded in approval. “Now let me see this ring again!” Vanessa thrust her hand out and all her friends leaned in, admiring it.
“I can’t believe his grandmother gave him that! Girl, when you told me the story I about cried! That is so beautiful! And that diamond is huge!”
“I know!” Vanessa giggled as she admired her own hardware from various angles. “His Nonna dresses to the nines! Wait till you meet her. She had on all of this gorgeous jewelry, and Gio said I should see her dresses. Many are custom made and expensive! That old woman knows how to dress in style. She must’ve passed that on because it seems Giovanni is sometimes obsessed with what he is wearing and how it fits. You should see how long it takes him to get ready sometimes! And he uses so much gel in his hair it is amazing he doesn’t end up sticking to everything he walks past.”
Her friends burst out laughing.
“I am so serious. This man spent like forty minutes in the shower one time. He then got out, turned on his music, and meticulously trimmed his facial hair… I mean, meticulous! The hair has to be perfect! Then he poses in front of the mirror, making different facial expressions and flexing his muscles. Just silly!”
“That is hilarious!” Theresa cackled. “See? Cocky! On television though, when he was on Good Morning America, he seemed laid back and relaxed… breezy.”
“That’s all an act! This guy is high maintenance.” She smirked. “But I accept him as is… it’s just a part of who he is. And sometimes, it’s actually funny, even endearing. Anyway.” She shrugged. “I am so moved and grateful that his grandmother did that… She and I talked after he proposed.”
“That’s such a beautiful love story, Vanessa. So, let’s get down to the nitty damn gritty and discuss what we’re wearing in this wedding, okay? Don’t try to put us in some ugly ass green feathers or some shit!” Theresa barked. “We’re not havin’ it, Nessa!”
“I know that’s right!” Rebecca joined in. “I wanna wear something slinky and sexy, like—”
“Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt, ladies.” Vanessa looked up from the table and felt heat spread all over her body. There Vincent stood, wearing an Armani suit, the waves in his lowcut hair brushed to perfection and a twinkle in his hazel eyes. “It seems like you all are having a good time, and I don’t want to cut too much into your fun, but Vanessa, can I have a word with you, please?”
He pointed towards a table where one glass of white wine sat all by its lonesome.
“No. We’ve got nothing to talk about, Vince. Please leave. I’m serious.”
She tried to remain calm, though her heart was beating a mile a minute. She hated how intimidating he could be sometimes but at this moment, she was filled with rage, not fear.
“Oh, I think we do have something very important to talk about, Vanessa. Can you just humor me for five minutes?”
“Anything you want to say to me can be said in front of them.”
Both of her girlfriends nodded their heads in agreement. Rebecca shot the fucker a slow look up and down; she hated him so. She’d begged Vanessa to drop his ass months before they’d officially parted ways.
“Vince, your timing is always perfect, isn’t it?” Rebecca sneered. “Ol’ controlling, crazy ass! Say what you’ve got to say and get tha fuck outta here!”
The man glared at her friend from hooded eyes. Since she knew better, she figured he looked like he wanted to slice her open, beat the shit out of her, but to most, he would just seem agitated. But she knew that face… the face he wore when he was not getting his way, when things weren’t going as planned.
“Fine, if that’s how you want it, that’s how I’ll serve it. I aim to please. Guess what, baby?” He smiled wide. “Your boyfriend, the big bad Italian fucker you’ve been running around town with and flaunting all over social media is a certified killer.”
Vanessa burst out laughing and waved him away.
&nbs
p; “Vince, you’ve sunk to an all-time low. You must be desperate! I swear you—”
“Don’t believe me? Check for yourself!” Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out an envelope and slapped it on the table. “You think you’re dating a big star, huh?” A nasty smirk creased his face. “You think he’s a suave fitness guru, Italian luxury in human flesh, right?! This man was arrested and convicted for manslaughter!”
He leaned in close, a crooked smile on his face, his eyes full of light and hatred all at once. Her girlfriends were stone cold quiet; they appeared in fact terrified.
“Now, I hope you all have a nice evening. I sure plan to.” He stood erect, straightened his jacket, and marched away.
The three of them sat there for quite some time, not saying a word until Vanessa broke the silence.
“You know what? He’s full of shit. I’m not going to even give him the satisfaction of a reaction. His creepy ass apparently followed me over here! He is up to his same old shit! I may have to get a restraining order because—”
“Open the envelope, Nessa. At least see what’s in it,” Rebecca urged.
She picked up her drink, sucked it dry, then reached for the parcel. Carefully sliding her thumbnail underneath the flap, she removed several tri-folded papers. Inside were court docket records with her fiancé’s name, birthdate, and a former address. Her heart began to beat a mile a minute… a slow death within. With shaky hands, she kept turning the pages until one showed his mug shot. It was definitely him—he was younger, but it was the same face for sure.
“Oh my God… it… it’s true!” she cried, thrusting the papers towards her friends in sadness and disgust. Resting her forehead on her arm along the table, she could hear the shuffle of the papers as they talked amongst themselves and flipped through them.
Some days she woke up imagining she might need to pinch herself. Life was just that good. Now, it had all come crashing down…
“I’m marrying a stranger… How could he do something like this?!” She sat back up, tears streaming down her face. “How could he keep something like this from me?! Oh my God…” She dabbed her eyes with the cocktail napkin.
“Okay, Nessa, I mean…” Rebecca shrugged. “Honey, I don’t know…” she said quietly, mourning with her.
“The guy I agreed to marry, the one I thought I was going to spend my life with, killed a man in cold blood!”
Her nightmare had come true. All of her recently hatched hopes and dreams were swirling down the drain like old discarded cocktails and the waters that flowed through the River Nile…
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
When One Door Closes, Another One Opens…
“Chinky, where are ya? I’ve been calling all fuckin’ day… let me know if everything is good. Ya went out with your friends last night and I haven’t heard from ya since. Maybe you’re hung over… Anyway, my ma called and wanted to know if you’re cool with pink balloons? She’s got some sorta deal going from a party shop. Call me back as soon as you get this voicemail.” He ended the call and stared at his phone.
Where tha fuck is she? Why isn’t she answering my calls or texting me back?
This behavior was highly unusual for his adorable little vixen, even when she was upset with him about something. In those times, she’d at least tell him to fuck off and then they’d be okay a few hours later. He sat back in his living room, his mind racing. Some informercial played out on the large flat screen against the wall, while his MacBook, which he’d pushed off to the side on the black leather couch showcased his abstract watercolor design screensaver. He sat there for several minutes, twisting and wringing his hands.
Fuck this shit…
Popping up from his couch, he grabbed his keys and headed out the door…
“Stop it!” Vanessa held her knees to her chest as Giovanni pounded at her front door with both fists. For all she knew, his head was involved, too. It sounded like a mountain had come to life and was forcing itself against the wood, trying to break through and tear her apart.
How did he get through the front entrance? Perhaps someone in the building recognized him and let him in. He’d been over so many times, her neighbors often said hello to him, too.
“I know you’re in there, Nessa! I heard music playin’ and now it’s off! Open up!” He went at the door again. “You’ve got some guy in there, don’t you? Son of uh bitch! You messin’ around on me?! I will fuck that mothafucka up! Hey, asshole! Ya like my sloppy seconds? There’s nowhere to run! She’s eight floors up, son of uh bitch, so come out and fight like a man!”
“Gio, stop it! There’s no man in here!”
He was quiet for a spell…
“A woman?” He grunted. “You shoulda invited me over then. Why should you have all the fun?”
“No! No woman, either.” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to talk to you! Go away!”
“Chinky, did somethin’ bad happen last night? Just tell me! We can talk about it!”
“Gio, please! Go away! It’s for the best… we can’t do this anymore… we can’t!” She wiped another tear from her face.
“What tha fuck did I do?! Ya mad at me?” He sounded so sad, so pathetic. “Whatever it is, I’m sorry, baby… just open the door.”
“Please… please go away.”
Her heart was breaking all over again. She’d never been so devastated in all of her life. The man she loved wasn’t the man she loved at all; he was someone else, an imposter, and yet, there was no way to turn off her feelings for him at the drop of a dime. She was just as much in love with him as before Vincent ruined her life with the horrific news.
“Are you going to leave? You’ve got to, Giovanni. I don’t want you here.”
“I can’t do that. I love ya too much and you’re curvin’ me… come on, Chinky.” She could tell he was leaning against the door, perhaps now sliding down it as the shadow beneath the edge changed shapes… deepened, darkened, grew bigger like her mounting sorrow. “Tell me what’s got ya all upset at me. Whatever it is, I’ll make it right… I love you, baby…”
“There’s no making this right. There’s no coming back from this!”
“This is about Holly, isn’t it?! Baby, that was over with before you and I even hooked up! That fuckin’ tabloid tried to say that—”
“No! That’s not it! Oh, Gio… Jesus Christ! How could you?! How could you do something like that?! And then… you didn’t even tell me…” She blew her nose, feeling sick to her stomach as she thought about it all. “That’s the worst part of all!”
“Huh? Tell ya what? Nessa, what tha fuck are ya talkin’ about?”
“Jack Finch! Name ring a bell?!” She gripped her cellphone in case she needed to dial 911—in case the muscle-bound maniac tried to break her door down and do the unthinkable. Instead, she was met with immediate silence. She heard nothing for quite some time. Giovanni didn’t speak, didn’t move… didn’t scream or curse. She wasn’t even certain he was still breathing.
Had he walked away?
Warring with her emotions, fear, worry, and extreme sadness wove within her like a tangled ball of thread and stuck in her throat. Chest heaving, tears of anger and sorrow, she mustered the courage and walked slowly to the door, tiptoeing so as to not alert him of her movement in case he was still there. Pressing her hands to the door, she wished she had the superpower of seeing through objects…
“Vanessa…” he moaned, his voice full of agony. It was the most pitiful tone she’d ever heard her name being uttered with by anyone. “I love you so much, baby. You’re done with me now, aren’t cha?” His voice quaked. “It’s over, right? Ya don’t want me anymore…”
And then, she heard him sobbing. She lowered her head and rested it on the door, both hands pressed on that wood, as the sound of his pain tore her up inside. She silently cried, her stomach caving each time he wailed out.
“I… I would like to tell ya what happened with that, but I have a funny feelin’ ya won’t believe me. Hell, it might ev
en make it worse, Chinky… I can’t imagine what could be worse than right now though. I feel like, at this moment, it won’t matter what I say or do. You don’t owe me nothing but… I can tell ya that I’m sorry for not tellin’ ya. I know it was wrong. I know that.”
He drew quiet for a spell. She heard him moving around a bit, but he settled soon once again. “It… it happened a real long time ago. I just… wanted to move on with my life. It’s haunted me forever. I just wanted to put it behind me, baby. I didn’t want to think about it anymore. It fucked me up so bad, but I thought I could start fresh, give love a try again…”
“Giovanni…”
“Yes, baby?”
“Tell me why you killed that man. Why is Jack Finch dead, Gio?”
After a long pause he began…
Gio sat outside her door on the dirty carpet, wishing he could just die. Somehow, the love of his life had found out his secrets, and worst of all, he wasn’t convinced there was any coming back from this. That record had been sealed… or so he’d thought.
Now here he was, falling apart, losing his fucking mind as the woman who owned his heart slipped away. Her door remained locked, but she was on the other side, listening. At least he had that…
“I don’t know where to begin, but I’ll just do tha best I can, baby… See, a long time ago, back when I was a senior in high school and about to graduate, I met this girl. I was at a friend’s house and she was there with his sister. She and I started to date, and uh, we really liked each other. She went to a different school. So, after a while, we… we fell in love. I was wild and crazy and she was a good girl. Her mother had died when she was nine, and she and her brother were raised by her stepfather.”
He paused. This was when shit started to get hard—the part he’d avoided talking about all of these years, the part he hated most.
“Go on…” Vanessa urged from the other side of the door.