A More than Awkward Evening with My Intended, Unwanted Fiance

Nick

I endure through dinner with Alessia playing footsie with me, resting her hand on my thigh, and noting quietly how adorable it is how ‘shy’ I am.

“Daddy’s not going to get mad at you. We are to be married after all…”

I’m still not going to even attempt to kiss her in front of an entire banquet hall of other guests. I’ll play along and feed the bites of lobster ravioli into her teasing, parted lips however, darting constant glances over to my future father in law seated at the head of the table to check if that’s alright.

He keeps giving those encouraging grins, so I keep up the uncomfortable flirting and compliments, because that is what you’re supposed to do when courting a woman. Though with Alessia, I hardly have to try. She’s so good at complimenting herself, she hardly needs my input. She just wants someone to sit at her side, and hold her hand… and take her to bed, once vows are spoken.

She’s already bringing up things like, “I always wanted a little girl, someone I could dress up and teach about makeup. What about you?”

“Hell, a girl’s gotta be easier to manage than a boy, ’specially if he takes after his old man,” I deflect. “You remember why me and Carm were banned from visiting you, right?” I want to keep the conversation on shared memories and silly pranks, but she shifts it right back to baby names in an instant, hand squeezing at my thigh.

She’s more forward than Nat or any other low-class broad the boys talk about as ‘loose’. I can avoid any real physical contact with her until our wedding night, but… The panic’s coming on again, sharp and suffocating. I tamp down the impulse to throw off her hand and storm right out of this dinner, breathing in deep, keeping my smile and nodding along with her every assertion.

The boss pulls me aside once dinner concludes, despite a pouting Alessia seeming reluctant to let him ‘interrupt’.

“Go visit with your friends and our many other guests. They did come here for you, darling.”

“Fine.” She sighs, dropping my hand. “But you have to come and say goodbye before you leave tonight, alright Nicky?”

“Sure, yeah. Promise.”

The boss leads me into his office and pulls a brownie-sized velvet case out of his desk drawer, snapping it open. That is the biggest fucking diamond I have ever seen. My first instinctive thought is that if I pawned it, I could pay my way straight overseas to Europe. But of course I’d be a deadman, the second it was discovered such a gift turned up in such an establishment. There is no escaping this. I just need to… keep calm.

“I gave this ring to Alessia’s mother. It was my grandmother’s before that. Been in the family for generations.” He snaps shut the case, locking eyes with my tense, waiting stare. “I never really liked you, Derosso,” he confesses, and I stifle my impulse to shrug, because talk about disrespect. “Father Sicillio vouches for you of course. He says you straightened out, after that incident with that deviant. What was his name?”

“James Carlon,” I offer, unhesitating, despite the spike of pain it causes in my chest to be speaking that name and picturing that bruised and terrified face.

“You glad he’s dead?”

“I’m glad he’s dead,” I parrot back, and that should be easy. I have spoken that line a thousand times, after the beatings and the electroshock turned all the tears over that stupid prick into bitter, cold resentment. “Glad he’s burning in hell. But if you don’t want some pussy too weak to stop himself from getting assaulted entrusted with your daughter, yeah, I get it, sir.”

“You were hardly a man at that point,” he graciously excuses, eyeing me up and down. “Here before me though… I see a man.”

I don’t react to the compliment. I guess I’m supposed to smile or something, thank him… I don’t really feel up to that.

“You did good last night.” He holds out the ring. I accept it tentatively. “You’ve become a real enforcer, made your old man proud.”

Like I care about that. I hope da’s burning in hell in a far more serious way than James, but I can’t say that either of course.

“And since my daughter won’t settle for anyone other than her ‘promised’ groom…” he chuckles, shaking his head. “Welcome to the family, son.”

He holds out his arms. I walk up and let him clap me on the back, staring blankly at the wall and trying to keep my emotions and mind completely turned off so the memories don’t well up and undo me.

“This ain’t a night off though, Nick. I got another job for you. Take Michael and Jim, if you think you need the backup. Louie’s handling another matter.”

I can’t take another job so quick, not from him. If it were Father Sicillio asking I’d have hope that it might be something actually evil in need of eradication – a new haunting or a nest of Striga meaning a building that needs to be burned down for a good reason.

The boss holds out a folded piece of paper with nothing but an address on it, and I ask him coldly, “Borrowers or troublemakers?”

“Troublemakers.”

Shit. That means no possibility of payment to smooth over the matter. It’s gotta be broken bones at the very least. “They need the fear of God put in them, sir?”

“No, Derosso. This shit-stain is a real threat to the Family. You can let the wife leave first, but don’t let her see nothing. As for the mister? Waste ’im.”

“Yes sir.”

I turn to leave, and he catches my arm. “As for Alessia… I won’t tell you when to pop the question. Take your time, just make it special. She better be fucking weeping with joy. You got it?”

“Yes sir,” I repeat, and he lets me go.

I walk out of that office with engagement ring in one pocket and fresh orders of execution tucked into the other. It’s twisted that I can’t really say which burden hangs heavier at the moment.