Lani

Call me crazy, but I was happy that I was vulnerable that day and let Justin take me out to dinner; I truly had fun with him and it was nice to hang around someone other than Rae or Gianni for once. I don’t know what possessed me to invite Justin home for dinner a few weeks after we first went out, but I did, and here we are, sitting at the dinner table surrounded by Daddy, Gianni, Uncle Sal, Uncle Tony, Carmine, and my Nonno (who coincidentally happened to be in the country the day I decided to bring someone other than Dom home).

“So James, what is it that you do?” I don’t know how many times I had to tell Nonno that his name wasn’t James.

“I’m an architect.”

“Nonno, his name is Justin, not James.”

“I said that Melania. Giovanni you need to get this girl a hearing aid. I think living in that big city with all those loud noises has damaged her eardrums.” None of us at the table could hold in the laughter any longer, and he had no idea why everyone was laughing which was fine by him. Senile old ass man.

“You look very familiar Justin, where’d you say you were from again?”

“Memphis, Tennessee.”

“Have we met before?” I looked over at Carmine who was being strangely talkative that night, and I say that because he usually mumbles one or two words throughout dinner only if he’s spoken to first.

“I don’t believe so, sir. Unless I’ve designed any buildings for you I don’t think we’ve met.” I wish they would stop questioning him like he was my boyfriend. The only reason why I invited him home was because both Rae and Trace were in Rhode Island for a week and I felt bad that he was going to be staying in that big ass condo of theirs alone without eating healthy because let’s face it, he’s a guy and guys have sucky ass eating habits. Yes, the Italian in me kicked in; I was always worrying about whether or not someone had good (and enough) food to eat.

The rest of dinner was pretty much the same. I should bring guests home more often because for the first time in years there was no talk of whacking people and the visuals that my uncles had to share were forgotten the moment they saw me walking in with Justin in tow. I should have known better than to think that the night was going to go smoothly when Justin and I were packing up his car with some of the stuff from my room to bring back (my dad had finally given in that one night and let me go home so Justin didn’t have to stay there) to my apartment when I saw the gate open down the driveway and heard the familiar bass of Dominic’s white Range Rover make its way up to where I was standing. Great.

“Hey Lan.” He turned down the music and poked his head out of the window. I could tell that he had people in the car with him, and I noticed the bottle blonde sitting in the passenger’s seat with a scowl on her face, aimed directly at me.

“Yeah?” I hadn’t seen him since the night that he told me he was seeing her.

“You moving without telling me babe?” I rolled my eyes at him as I saw Justin carrying a box of shit that I was bring home back into the house, apparently unnoticed by Dominic.

“Not quite Dad’s letting me go back home since he’s flying out to Italy tomorrow morning. Nonno’s been in town for the past week.” His blue eyes lit up at the mention of my grandfather.

“Shit and you didn’t tell me? How’s he been?” I could hear the people in his car make comments along the lines of they wanted to get back to his place.

“We haven’t really spoken and it looks like you’ve been busy. You should go before they get angry.” No matter how hard I tried to be the bitch I used to be with Justin I couldn’t, not after everything Dominic and I had been through.

“It’s cool. We’re on our way home from the restaurant and I wanted to stop by to see if you wanted to come over and chill for a while with us since I saw you out here alone.” Susan shot him a dirty look and turned around to talk to the people in the back seat.

“Nah, I’m cool. I’ve gotta get going back home anyways. We changed around the apartment and I wanna get it finished before Rae gets home in a few days.”

“When’d your dad get a new Beamer?”

“He didn’t.”

“Did you get a car? Damn I thought I’d never see the day. I thought you hated driving Lani…” I cut him off before he could go on.

“I didn’t get a car, and I still hate driving. It’s Justin’s car, you know Trace’s friend. He came with me to help me bring shit home since Rae and Trace are out of town and Gianni won’t drive his car in the city.” At that point Justin came out of the house with the last of the stuff I was bringing back and put it in the last vacant space left in the trunk.

“I didn’t know you guys were dating.”

“We’re not. Listen, Dom, we should get going. Thanks for the invite, maybe when I come home next weekend me and you can get together like old times.”

“Yeah, I’ll be down there on Friday, maybe we can have dinner?”

“I’d like that a lot, just give me a call.” I got into the passengers seat as Justin turned on the car and watched Dom turn around and head out of the driveway as we followed.

“I thought you were moving on?”

“So now I’m not allowed to be friends with him father?” I turned on the CD player and blasted the Kanye West song that was playing on the CD in the player.

“I didn’t say that. But you said ‘like old times’ and from what I’ve heard from Larissa old times meant movies at his house and hardcore fucking afterwards.” I was going to kill that silly little Cuban girl when she got back from vacation with her boyfriend. How dare she tell someone who has no right knowing my sexual encounters with someone I was with for 11 years? Bitch.

“It’ll be cool, don’t worry Daddy.” He smirked and me and took his left hand off of the wheel and leaned closer to his window while slouching down in his seat. God damn is it possible for someone to look sexy while their driving? I couldn’t believe my thoughts at that point. I had always noticed that he was good looking, but I had never been alone in such close proximity with him before to notice just how good looking he was. All of the attraction didn’t change the fact that he was an asshole though; he was still cocky ass Justin Harless, the hick boy living in the Big Apple, and I wasn’t impressed.

Justin

The 21(00) questions from her family had to have been the most nerve wrecking thing of my life. When that Carmine guy, I don’t even know his purpose of being there, mentioned that I looked familiar I almost shit my pants. Anyone who knows Randy Timberlake knows that when we stand next to each other I’m a dead giveaway for his son, so it wouldn’t have shocked me if they figured it out the minute I stepped foot into the huge ass house they lived in.

Other than the fact that the men in her family participate in racketeering, drug selling, and murdering (although I’m sure they have people lower on the ladder handle that type of dirty work) they were a normal family; I guess I expected her dad to be sitting at the head of the table wearing an expensive Gucci suit stroking a white cat in front of him with big ass men all around him holding guns when I first arrived so when he came into the entry way to greet us decked out in a Purple Label polo and black pants I was taken back (not that Purple Label is that much cheaper than Gucci). I mean, you can’t blame me because the Italian mafia is a lot different than the Russian or Irish mafia; how was I supposed to know that they acted like a normal family?

I have to say that walking out of the house and seeing Lani talking to Dominic got me a little heated; she was supposed to be ‘letting go’ and here she was making plans with him for when he went into the city for ‘business’. I can’t really get mad because we sure as hell weren’t an item but I had faith in her that she was going to get over him to a point where she’d date other people; during one of our civil discussions she told me that she had a hard time letting someone else in when Dominic wasn’t out yet.

Rae and Trace being gone had to have been one of the slowest, yet most eventful weeks that I had in a long time. I was busy working on a big design at work so I was constantly working late nights and then either heading over to Lani’s apartment where she wined and dined me (she claims that she couldn’t live with herself knowing that I ate fattening takeout every night, bullshit) or working until all hours of night and having the luxury of her bringing me dinner right to the office. My coworkers got a kick out of that, making comments when she’d leave like ‘damn Harless, you’ve really outdone yourself this time’ or ‘where’d you find that beautiful piece of ass at’ or even ‘when you’re done with her, hand her over to me. I need a bed that needs broken in’. Hearing the shit come out of their mouths makes it hard to believe that I say things like that about girls, well that I said things about Lani at least. I have to admit that hearing them talk about how they’d ‘hit that’ pissed me off pretty bad and made me want to knock every one of them out, when the fuck did I become so sappy and defensive about bitches that I didn’t date? Man up Harless, man the fuck up.

“How come you weren’t nervous at dinner tonight?” It was almost midnight and we had just finished putting the majority of the furniture in her apartment back in its place when we got a chance to relax and lay back in the newly brown painted living room. Have I ever mentioned that I hate the smell of fresh paint?

“What was there to be nervous about?”

“Most people are intimidated when it comes to my family. I’m surprised they were so receptive towards you, usually my uncles are assholes towards guys.”

“Well we’re just friends, so it’s not like I had to really make that big of an impression on them. They’re all cool anyway.”

“True.”

“Hey I should really get going on though. I have to start a new project tomorrow so I should try to get at least a few hours of sleep. Thanks for inviting me to dinner, call me if you need anything alright?”

“You can stay here if you want.” Pardon moi?

“What?” I stopped mid-walk when she said that and turned to look at her.

“It’s getting kinda late and you drove a lot today, I wouldn’t mind if you stayed here. It’s okay though, I know you don’t have a suit or anything here.”

“Is someone lonely?” She laughed and ran her hand through her now straight hair.

“Maybe a little; Rae’s never been gone for a prolonged period of time and it gets lonely without her loud ass here bossing me around.”

“I’ll let you in on a little secret, it’s been lonely without the garden gnome too. So I’ll stay, but only if you promise that you won’t try to do me in my sleep.” God damn I love her laugh, it’s so contagious. I guess not hearing it for a long time on account of her bitchiness makes me like it even more.

“I think I can keep that promise. Where would you like to sleep?” I didn’t think I had an option…

“The couch is fine. I just need a blanket.”

“You can sleep in Rae’s room if you want.” I couldn’t hide the face that I made.

“And soak in their sex juices? No thanks, I’d rather sleep in the bathtub.”

“I think they even bone in there…” We both laughed as she dragged me back to her room to grab a comforter and pillows for me.

“That is nasty, how do you live in this house when they’re in her room?”

“I usually leave.” I watched her bend over in her closet and grab and down comforter and couldn’t help but lay back on her bed and watch the sight in front of me. I’m a guy, what can I say.

“What is with you and making yourself comfortable in my bed?”

“Sorry this California King is the shit, and you know it.”