Page 126 of Gratification in Gluttony

“I will speak exactly how I wish,” Sal said, though he did switch to English as he pinned Jude with a withering stare. “Is there a reason you felt it necessary to bring yourfriendwith you.”

“Boyfriend,” Jude corrected demurely, holding up their twined hands. “In case this wasn’t clear enough.”

Toni snickered. “Yeah, what he said.”

“You always have to make it about you,” Bett snapped. “Flo is in there, after experiencing something life-changing, and you show up here—”

“Flo invited us here,” Toni interrupted.

“Don’t interrupt my wife.” Sal pointed a threatening finger at Toni, pale eyes flashing.

“Oh, come off it, Sal,” Kat snipped from her spot leaning against the wall.

Mins’s husband, Walli, ping-ponged his gaze between the people talking, nervously peeling the label off his water bottle. Toni’s father sat in one of the chairs, hands steepled in front of his chest as he watched everything play out in front of him, not speaking a word.

“...rubbing it in our faces. How do you think it makes us feel?” Bett was saying as Kat scoffed, “You know, for someone advocating for Flo, you sure are talking about yourself a lot, Bett. But that’s not new, is it?”

“...disrespecting this family,” Sal was saying, shaking his head like Toni was a child. “Think of what Pops has built for you. And you waltz in here, entitled, ungrateful.”

“Oh, he’sPopsnow, is he? You know, you got a little something on your nose there,” Toni said, pointing vaguely at Sal’s face as his temper heated. “A little brown smudge. Probably from the last eight years you’ve spent with your face shoved so far upmyfather’s asshole—”

“Toni,” Jude cautioned.

“Don’t you dare,” Bett said. “Sal has been there for this family, a family you abandoned—”

“Abandoned,” Toni laughed harshly. “Here we go with the abandonment. I’m so sorry, Bett, that I didn’t wanna sell my soul to corporate Hellia in exchange for a Ferrari.”

“That was a birthday gift, and you know it,” she snarled.

“Paid for with the family money,” Kat interjected.

“You waltz in here, spouting your gay agenda in front of my impressionable daughter,” Sal said.

“I’m not even gay!” Toni said. “Not that it’d be bad if I was, but I’m not. I’m fucking potsexual.”

“Pansexual,” Jude whispered.

“Thank you,” Toni acknowledged before glaring at Sal. “Pansexual. Educate yourself, you bitch.”

“Don’t call my husband a bitch,” Bett warned.

“Then maybe he should stop being a bitch,” Toni said with a shrug. “I wouldn’t call him one if he wasn’t being one.”

“Say that to my fucking face,” Sal said.

Toni leaned in, retaining unnerving eye contact as he said, “You’re being a bitch, Sal.”

“Okay, maybe the name-calling’s a bit much,” Kat said.

“You’re breaking Ma’s heart, Toni,” Bett said.

“A shame to this family,” Sal said.

And Jude said, “If anyone should be ashamed, it’s all of you! Toni is the most incredible person I’ve ever met, and you all let him walk away because he, what? Doesn’t want to take over the business? You sell makeup; it’s not that deep.”

Bett gasped dramatically, clutching her pearl necklace with one hand as the other covered her mouth.

But Jude wasn’t done. “Or is it the gay agenda you’re so afraid of? For your daughter, of course. Are you blind or something? She loves her Uncle Toni. I don’t even speak your language, but I could see that. And she didn’t give a shit that he was holding my hand.

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