Page 14 of Doc Showmance
Holding my hand like he was escorting me into a Victorian dining room, he led me into the kitchen. Joley and Marino had already claimed their seats at the round table. Joley poured red wine into glasses we’d picked up from a garage sale a few months ago. The set had the name of an opera house emblazoned across them, but they were better than plastic cups.
Marino spooned ravioli and red sauce onto each plate. He doused his pasta in a mountain of Parmesan cheese and broke off pieces of French bread to put on each plate.
I walked around to Marino. “Come here.”
I pulled him into a hug, which he fell into.
“I’m sorry you’re in this mess again.” I let go and sat down. “Tell me what happened.”
Marino pressed his lips together and wouldn’t make eye contact. His crystal-blue eyes, a stark contrast against his brown face and dark, curly hair, eventually met mine. He’d decided to start growing in some facial hair to age himself since he had stopped aging at around twenty and got tired of getting carded at clubs. His beautiful eyes got him far more female attention than he could handle. A few years back, after doing one of those genetic cheek-swab tests, he discovered he was African American, Irish, and Korean. We all did the genetics test since none of us had a clue as to our ancestry.
I came up Spanish-Irish with a hint of Native American. Weird combination in my opinion.
Marino looked at the ceiling. “There was this girl…”
“Was there tequila, too?” We were months, mere months, into us being free of paying off Marion’s gambling debt from several years ago. I’d ended up taking out a personal loan to cover that one for him.
He nodded.
“Was it in Vegas?” I asked.
He nodded again.
“The deadly trifecta. Girls, tequila, and Vegas. How much do you owe?”
He didn’t answer.
“How much?” I pushed gently.
“Thirty thousand.”
I tried not to fall out of my chair or whoosh out the “fuck me” on the tip of my tongue. That was a lot. “You said it wasall finein the text. What’s your plan to pay it off?”
“I was going to borrow some money, and I had a plan to—”
“Were you going to gamble to get it back?” I covered my face. “Damn it, Marino. I’d give you half my liver if you needed it, but I want to slap you silly for that kind of stupid. You can’t gamble to fix a gambling debt. Tell me you see the problem in that.”
“Yeah,” he muttered. “Dumb plan.”
“You’ve been straight for three years. You swore you’d never do it again. What happened?”
“There was this girl who conned me into placing a bet. We had a few drinks, and I don’t remember what happened very well.”
I pushed my chair a few feet from the table to have a bit more space. “What happened to the rule that you have one tequila and you text one of us? Or even one thought of drinking tequila and you text us?”
“I’m sorry. I thought I could handle it. I know I messed up. I’m not asking you to pay. I just… I don’t know what to do. I was conned. The girl was pimped out by this guy who just wanted me in deep so I owed him. I make a bit down at the computer store fixing things and might be able to arrange something. Maybe I can take on more hours?”
“It’s barely above minimum wage, although more hours would be great. Balancing the fact you’ll still need to pay for gas and some food, it’ll take you a decade to pay it off. Is this loan shark okay with that?”
He shook his head. “He wants his money now.”
“I can take on another job to help out,” Joley offered.
“I love the thought, but you’re overwhelmed already.” I shook my head. Joley had a heart of gold, but she struggled to balance community college classes to become a dental hygienist with a job as a receptionist at a big corporation. “I want you to focus on school.”
“I can work and do school,” Bruno offered. He was such a giver, but law school wasn’t a picnic.
“I want both you and Joley to graduate next spring so you can both get jobs that support you. Maybe enough to even get your own places, although you know you’re welcome here as long as you want.”
