Page 49 of The Vow

Jovan grunted again, watching Carmelo closely.

“I’ll see them this week.” Carmelo relented. “I’ll invite them to the wedding. They’ll be there.”

Jovan’s black eyes lingered on him too long. “Make sure of it,” Jovan muttered darkly.

Carmelo gulped. Well, all things considered, he was royally fucked and no mistake about it.

Carmelo

“Papa, it’s me.”

“Who?”

Carmelo rolled his eyes. “Your son, Carmelo. I was wondering, you and Mario doing pizza night this week?”

A long sigh came from his father. “We do it every Monday, Carmelo. You are always working or busy, so we stopped inviting you-”

Carmelo knew it, he’d purposefully tried to avoid it. Monday night, the restaurant was closed to customers, but it had been a bit of a family tradition to get together and have a nice meal together. But the last few years it had descended into arguments more times than not. Mario’s family used to come, his wife Bianca, and three kids. It had been fun, the kids running around, all chatting. They’d teased Carmelo about bringing a girlfriend. A few times he had. But then he’d started fucking about at the MC, and none of those girls would be suitable for pizza night with the family. Mario’s wife had stopped coming, she’d been looking more and more miserable, the kids had become moody teenagers and it had all turned into a fractious showdown every week. So Carmelo had purposefully invented work shifts and other reasons to stay away. But now, he had to tell them about the wedding. “Yes alright,” Carmelo said impatiently. “I had to take on extra shifts, I told you, anyway… I’m coming this Monday.”

He heard his father take a breath. “We’ll roll out the red carpet.”

“Pap, there’s no need for-”

“You bringing anyone? Mario said you were dating one of Bianca’s friends-”

Carmelo sighed. Nothing was ever private in his family’s Italian community. One of the many reasons he had happily been the anonymous police sergeant at the MC.

“No, I’m not bringing anyone,” Carmelo said tersely. He hung up quickly.

This was going to be a shit show. He wanted to hope, to believe that maybe his brother wouldn’t ride his ass, that his father wouldn’t overtly show how much of an annoyance and a disappointment Carmelo was to him, to the family…

Carmelo ran a hand over his short hair. Maybe it would be a good idea to bring Lena along after all. They’d see she was a smart, savvy girl, she was…

What the fuck was he thinking?

“So um… what are you doing on Saturday the 15th of July…. any plans?” Carmelo said, aiming for a casual tone.

Mario scoffed. “You’re asking about a weekend in months’ time… I don’t know, I’ll have to check with Bianca, probably got soccer practice and then fucking swimming lessons or I don’t know what-”

“Okay, but could you be free?” Carmelo pushed.

Mario shrugged. “Probably could be, as I said, I’ll have to check with Bianca.”

Carmelo couldn’t help but take this opportunity to push a bit harder. “So you and Bianca are good? I assumed, since she wasn’t here tonight…”

Mario squared his jaw. “Assumed what? Everything’s fine. We’re fine,” Mario said, in a tone that suggested they were anything but fine.

Carmelo let it lie for now. “How about you, Pap?”

His father sighed. “I’m free, other than the restaurant I haven’t had weekend plans since the nineties, son.”

Carmelo clenched his jaw. It was now or never.

“Why, what’s going on?” Mario asked.

“Well I’m… kind of… I’d like you to come to… it’s er…”

“What the fuck is it?” Mario snapped impatiently.

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