Page 4 of Long Live the King
“Ah yes, your mobster boyfriend,” Deanna replies, and I immediately feel my blood heat up. It’s not quite at a boil, but it’s at that point when there’s a bunch of little bubbles and you know the boil is coming. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that myself, actually.”
“Why is that? Don’t you have your own husband to think about?” When the words come out, I immediately regret them, because I know Deanna just came out of a very tough divorce and custody battle with a doctor who used to work at Mercy. I try to recover. “I’m sorry, Deanna, I didn’t mean to say that. I just forgot.”
“Oh, is that right?” she snaps. “My ex-husband gains custody of my only son two weeks ago, and you decide to throw it in my face because I mention your mobster boyfriend?” I know I touched a nerve in Deanna, because now she’s the one with tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Deanna, I really didn’t mean to.”
“Bullshit, Alannah. If you want to date a known mafia member then go right ahead, but maybe you can show everyone else’s relationships a little respect.”
“Okay, I know you’re upset about the divorce, but please stop saying Dominic is in the mafia. That’s the kind of thing that’s fueling these rumors about me.” I try to be reasonable, but Deanna is already off the deep end. No coming back from the plunge now.
“Why should I stop? I just saw a picture of you and him together in the paper yesterday. You were coming out of River City Casino, which I’m sure he uses to hide his drug money, and you were wearing the most expensive-looking dress I’ve ever seen. I know you’re not buying dresses like that on your salary!”
“Okay, what the fuck is this, an interrogation?” I snap as I stand up. “What I do in my personal life, on my personal time, is none of your business. Dominic is a successful business man, and I’ve known him since I was eleven years old, so it’s a really bad idea to start talking crap about him. I know you’re going through a lot right now, Deanna, but don’t take it out on me.”
“You’ve got a lot of nerve with your holier than thou attitude. We see you out there in St. Louis flaunting the fact that you’re with him. You think we don’t see you acting like you’re better than us? We see it, and none of us like it,” Deanna bellows.
At this point, we’ve managed to build up a small crowd of both nurses and patients peeking out of their rooms to see what all the fuss is about.
“Flaunting? This is ridiculous,” I say, trying to calm down.
“No,you’reridiculous. When your mobster boyfriend gets caught doing whatever it is he’s doing, none of us are going to vouch for you when you go down with him.”
And there it is. The blood is finally boiling.
“I told you to stop calling him that!” I bark. “I don’t need any of you little bitches to vouch for me. You don’t know shit, so you and everybody else in this hospital who’s been whispering about me, better shut the fuck up. Or I’ll show you just how mafia-like I can really be.”
“Did you just threaten me?” Deanna says, switching gears and doing her best to look afraid now. She takes a second to look around the room before asking, “Did you just threaten all of us?”
“Are you fucking kidding?”
“That sounded like a threat to me. What about you, Jackie?” Deanna asks, and poor little naïve Jackie hops right on the bandwagon with a head nod.
“Wow. I see where this is going,” I say as I stand up. “Well I’ll beat you to it, Deanna. You can take this job and go fuck yourself. I’m sure you’ll need to fuck yourself since you no longer have a husband to do it. I quit.”
I hear Jackie gasp as I turn to grab my stuff. After a few minutes to gather my things, and a quick “I’ll call you” signal to my friend, Ally, I walk out of Mercy Hospital with my head held high. They brought the fight to me, and I had to defend myself. I had to defend Dominic. He came to my defense when I was only in the fifth grade and that bully was shoving my face into the sand, and I’ll gladly spend the rest of my life defending him.
Maybe quitting is a good thing. The shitty part of my life has been clipped off and there’s nothing left but the good part. I can always apply for another job, but there’s no replacement for what Dominic and I have. So, I don’t regret anything. Let them talk. In the end, it’s Dominic and me against the world.
He’s the kingpin, and I’m his queen.
We’re in this.
Together.
