Page 61 of Working for the Mob

“You don’t know where they live,” I interjected. “I’ll drive them home.”

“How about Art drives Lucy, and Lance drives Genevieve?” Jamie asked, his words slurred.

“No,” Genevieve said emphatically, and I immediately thanked her in my head. “Art, Jamie needs a ride home. He may not be able to make it home like this.”

“What? I’m fine,” Jamie said, and to prove his point threw up his thumb. He ruined the effect by closing his eyes.

Genevieve was right. I needed to drive Jamie home. “Let’s get you home.”

Lance’s cocky smile would haunt me until the day I die. “And I’ll drive home these fine ladies.”

At least he was driving both of them instead of just Genevieve.

“Let’s go, Jamie,” I said. I grabbed him by the arm, rougher than I meant to, and marched him out the cellar into the crisp night.

I dragged him to where I parked in the back of the café and opened the car door for him. He grabbed the car door, but paused before getting in.

“You know, boss,” he said, across the seats. “You’re kind of an idiot.”

I didn’t have the patience for this. “Is this really a conversation you want to have with your boss? Get in the car.”

“No. Now hang on. This is a conversation that I want to have with my friend,” he said, and swayed on the door. It was so cold I could see his breath. “I want to tell you something.”

“Can you just get in the car? It's freezing out.”

“I’ll get in the car after I’ve said my bit,” he said, and I waited as he leaned his head against the window. And waited …

“Jamie?”

“What? Oh, right. Okay. You need to grow a pair and ask Genevieve out. You’re stuck on her and I saw her tonight––hell, I think every guy saw her tonight, and you’re going to be lucky if she’s still available by the time you man up and ask her on a date.”

I knew he was right. Due to the fact that she finally wore clothes that matched her age, and that she finally let her hair down, a lot more men besides me would notice just how available she is.

But I couldn’t ask her out. It's not safe for anyone to be around the Necci family, and the danger doubles when you’re in a relationship with them.

“I’m not going to ask her out,” I said, flatly.

“Andthatis why you’re kind of an idiot.”

“Will you get in the car?”

Jamie looked at the door in his hands as though surprised it was there. He smiled contently and climbed into the car.

I pulled onto the main road, lined with dark storefronts, and spotted a car I hadn’t seen around town before––I didn’t expect to see another car on the road this close to midnight.

“Do you think Cissy would be annoyed if I woke her up for sex?” Jamie asked.

“I don’t think I’m the right person to talk to about that.”

“I know she’d probably get annoyed, but it's only your birthday once a year and––”

I turned onto Jamie’s house’s road and sped up. I couldn’t get out of this conversation fast enough.

“––it's not like we do it that often. You know, I’m to the point where it doesn’t even last that long…”

A pair of headlights followed us down the road, but the only people who own a car on this road are the Johnson’s, and I doubted they were up at this hour.

I parked in front of Jamie’s house, and walked around the car to help him out. The car drove past us, and turned around in a driveway down the street.

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