“Are you surprised?”
“No, I’m not. Ugh… Fuck him. He is such an annoying dick.”
My frustration couldn’t be more evident.
“Why can’t he keep his mouth shut?”
“He texted your father. I mean, he did it anonymously.”
“Whatever.”
I sigh.
“He is the last thing I want to deal with right now,” I say.
“What else is going on?” she asks in a different voice. “Things good otherwise?”
“Yeah, yeah. Things are good,” I mutter.
“You don’t sound too happy.”
“It’s because of this thing with my father.”
“I was talking about how things were.”
I go silent.
“Car?”
“Yeah, yeah. Things are good,” I say absently.
“The more you say it, the less truthful you sound.”
“No. They’re fine.”
She laughs.
“Just stop it. You embarrass yourself,” she jokes.
I crack a smile.
“There is nothing wrong with my life except for this stupid news you just delivered.”
“Whatever you say.”
I can’t convince her things are all right because I can’t convince myself. Although they are.
It’s just that… I didn’t know until the last moment that Damaso would fly to New York.
He left two hours ago and didn’t say when he’d be back.
He seemed quite secretive about it.
Vito and Gianni travel with him, and no one in his entourage wants to talk to me about it.
Accompanying him was out of the question as his departure had the fingerprints of a special event all over it. That put me on high alert.
He also seemed consumed with something. And he’s been like that since we returned from Lake Tahoe last night.