Weddings Are Boring

Rin sat in the ballroom of the hotel with his closest friend Marcello and couldn’t be bothered to feign laughter at the airheaded chatter of his date when she tried to tell a joke to the table. His invitation to the wedding of his cousin on his mother’s side of the family had made him realize how much bullshit his grandfather and his grandmother had had to put up with when they’d been in charge of the family.

Eighteen months. It had been eighteen months since his grandfather announced his retirement and walked away from anything having to do with running the business. He had been the old man’s right-hand man for twenty-two years before that. He could still hear the slippery old bastard when he’d walked into his fortieth birthday dinner, looked him right in the face and told him for his birthday he was giving him his seat at the family table. Then the old man had looked his son, Rin’s father, in the face and said he wasn’t smart enough to run a 7-11 let alone a billion-dollar empire so he was giving him a lump sum and he could do with it what he wanted. He then told his daughter along with Rin’s two sisters and three cousins they too would get their inheritances early, lump sums to be deposited to their accounts the next day and then after they were to be cut off from family business finances.

When the entire family had erupted with Rin sitting down in shock at what was happening, the man had laughed at them and started spouting numbers. Rin’s sister Angie had spent sixty thousand dollars on her credit card in thirty days and when Sonny had reviewed the charges most of them were for clothing and shoes with restaurant and bar tabs mixed in. His other sister Viviana had blown forty-grand in a month on exactly the same thing but also on jewelry for her boy toys including watches and cuff links. Neither had jobs to speak of and expected their grandfather to simply pay their bills each month. His aunt’s three kids were no better. His cousin Armani was smart enough to work as an enforcer for the family and occasionally got his knuckles dirty but what he racked up in gambling and credit card debt far outweighed his usefulness. His twin cousins Ariana and Ariya were as useless as Rin’s sisters, blowing through cash like a Hollywood starlet did coke.

Then his grandfather had turned his attention to his only son, Rin’s father Gian. He’d ripped into him for spending a hundred grand on a painting by an unknown artist and then expecting his father to pay it off. He had continued to list off other large purchases his father had made and then pointed out his father hadn’t done a single day of work in seven years. Seven. Gian and his wife had been traveling the world on a company credit card without remorse. When he pointed out they had barely made it to Nonna’s funeral because they’d been partying in LA with an adult film star producer, Gian had blanched as if he’d thought his father hadn’t known. There was nothing Sonny Allegretti ever missed, and his family had been stupid to think he had. They were an embarrassment and he had called every one of them out and if Rin hadn’t known better, he had done it joyously.

Rin had been stunned. He’d known his family had lived fast and loose with their grandfather’s money, but he had worked with the man for years. He had his master’s in business administration and while he knew he’d been fortunate for his grandfather to pay for his education, he’d never taken it for granted. He’d done whatever the man had asked of him no matter what. Need a delivery done at four in the morning. Done. Need to help him deal with an asshole who had tried to cheat one of Sonny’s casinos and bury him in the desert? Done. Need to move money around from one shell corporation to another. Done. Get rid of cops? Done, with a flair. But to take over the entire business at forty had been a surprise.

Sonny had put him on the spot and told him he could take the business today or he was going to sell it all to the Russians. Rin had laughed at his threat and told him there was no need. He sat at the head of the table and accepted the ring Sonny had slid onto his finger before kissing it. He had also taken the warning slap to the face from his grandfather and the whispered “don’t fuck this up” in his ear with a grin.

In accepting, Rin had alienated his father and mother, which truthfully, was not a big loss. His mother was a self-absorbed, cold bitch and his father was not much better. They had kept their distance from him, rarely calling unless they wanted cash.

His sisters though and their constant demands for more money were on his last nerve. They had blown through their money far too quickly and he knew one of his sisters had taken a large loan from a bank. His other sister was going to have to sell her condo in LA. It looked good on them.

As for the rest of his family, they remained as greedy as ever. The invitations to weddings like this, where he knew at the end of the night, he’d be presented the bill to pay, made him wonder how his grandfather hadn’t cut them all off years before. There was no wonder his grandfather had jumped ship. He himself considered it on a daily basis. If he only didn’t love the danger, the brutality, and the chaos of his life.

“How much fucking longer do we have to sit here and pretend not to be bored?” Marcello leaned sideways with a groan. “I’m about ready to shoot the chandelier down just for excitement.”

“With luck one of my mother’s sisters will try to screw the groom and we can bail,” he commented with a shake of his head. He loved his mother but her three sisters spent more time chasing men a quarter their age, regardless of the facts their husbands were still alive and kicking. Though his uncles were as nasty as their wives. At one of his other’s cousin’s weddings, the groom and the mother of the bride had been caught fucking in the coat room. He and Marcello shared a wicked grin remembering the chaos of the night.

“It will be worth it to have listened to this drivel from the best man if something like it happens again,” Marcello leaned back and gave a dry chuckle.

Rin gave him a shake of the head as they both clinked their wine glasses together. “The way the best man is going on and on about the groom, I’m waiting for him to declare his undying love and they leave the bride at the altar. There is a scandal I could get behind.” The men chuckled at the notion as Marcello held up crossed fingers for Rin’s view.

“What’s so funny?” the blonde beside him asked nosily.

He looked at her and was dismayed to realize he had forgotten her name already. Another one who would be relegated to “babe” while she blew him later. “Inside joke,” he brushed her hand off his forearm.

His father appeared suddenly behind him squatting beside him, his fingers gripping his shoulder. “Where’s dad?”

“What?” Rin looked over his shoulder at him and pried his fingers off his coat, with a raised eyebrow. “What did you say?”

“Where’s my father? Sonny? Why isn’t he here?”

“Was he invited? I don’t track his social calendar.” Rin gave his father an annoyed shake of the head. His parents had arrived from Rome two days before for the wedding and his father had spent far too many hours in his office at their biggest casino on the strip, The Pantheon, moaning about how his finances were dwindled and he wanted his father to relinquish more money since Rin had denied him outright. “When is the last time you spoke to him? Have you called him?”

“His house number is no longer in service, and I don’t have his cell number.” He looked at him directly as if what he was saying wasn’t his own fault.

He stared incredulously at his father and spoke in a hushed whisper, “are you telling me you haven’t spoke to him since he shut off his house phone? It was fifteen months ago.”

His father glared at him, “he did this. Not me. He didn’t need to pull this shit. If he wanted us to keep in touch, he wouldn’t have cut us all off.” His voice started to raise.

Rin’s tone was icy as he flicked a glance around the room making several sets of eyes look away quickly. “We are at a wedding for your wife’s niece. Go and sit your ass in a chair before I have Marcello take you and put you there. Do not bring our family drama to the public or I will deal with it, and it won’t be as kindly as Nonno did.” He cut his father to the quick and noted the man’s eyes avert to the floor in an act of submission. The man had no balls. He knew his grandfather had been correct about the man being too soft and too greedy to lead the family. He watched his father slink away and then turned back to Marcello with a shake of his head. “Stronzo,” he muttered furiously.

“That was so hot.” The girl beside him grabbed his forearm again. “Was that Italian? It was Italian you were speaking right? Say something to me in Italian. It’s so sexy.”

He lifted her hand off his arm and set it back on her lap deliberately, “do me a favor. Keep your mouth shut until I tell you to open it to slide my cock in.” The girl made wide eyes and folded her hands upon her lap. He didn’t miss the way she looked down to his crotch and the way she licked her lips. “If it doesn’t work for you, I’ll have one of my men drive you home right now.” He smirked when she shook her head vehemently and sat still in the chair.

Marcello continued the conversation in Italian quietly, “when did you last talk to the old man?”

“Two months ago. We had a conversation about why I wasn’t married yet and I reminded him he dumped a billion-dollar enterprise on my lap without warning and I’ve been a tad busy.” He looked around the room, noted his sister, and wondered when the last time Angie or Viv had called the old bastard.

“Do you even know if he’s even still alive?” Marcello asked mockingly.

“I set up his cell phone bill when he cut off the house phone. His housekeeper had called with concerns if he needed medical assistance there would be no way to call for it. I get the bill. He uses the phone. He only calls three numbers with any kind of regularity.” As he sat there thinking of it, he realized the same numbers he called were the same ones calling him. He also hadn’t heard from the housekeeper since she’d called and told him the phone had been cut off. His grandfather had been pissed the woman had tattled on him. “Fuck.”

“None of you have called him?” Marcello frowned. “Damn Rin, he’s older than the bible. Someone should check on him.”

He took his phone out and sent his accountant a message.

“What is the accountant going to find out?” Marcello gave him a strange look the way only a best friend could.

“I just want to know if he’s still using his credit card or accessing his bank accounts.”

“It’s one way to check if he’s still alive unless someone offed him and took his wallet.”

Rin gave his best friend a dirty look, “keep talking my friend and I’ll make us stay here until the very last dance is danced.”

Marcello pulled his lips back in disgust and then cursed at him with a shake of his head.