“Barely,” she said. Then she added: “Wanna talk about it?”
He didn’t immediately respond. She sat down at his feet, Indian-style, as if she was willing to wait as long as he needed her to wait. He was dressed in a bathrobe and slippers, and his legs were crossed in such a way that it partially revealed his penis. He looked like a man with too much on his mind, making him appear almost unmindful.
But eventually he talked. “I know Melita,” he said.
Trina stared at him. She hadn’t expected him to say that. “You know her?”
“Yes.”
“You know her how?”
Reno smiled a weak, joyless smile, like a man confronting too many ghosts.
“How, Reno?” Trina asked again.
Reno frowned. “We used to . . . date,” he said as he moved around in his seat.
Trina stared at him. Her heart was hammering. “You dated her?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“Are you saying, are you telling me that you and Mel, that you slept with her before?”
Reno exhaled. “That’s what I’m saying, yes.”
But Trina still couldn’t believe it. “Melita Murphy used to be your girlfriend?”
“Yes. Now she’s our son’s girlfriend, yes, Tree, that’s what I’m saying.”
Trina frowned. “Oh, Reno,” she said in an anguished, disappointed voice. Who didn’t you fuck, she wanted to add in anger. But she didn’t. There was one question she had to know the answer to.
“When did you have sex with her?” she asked him. “Has it been since you’ve been with me?”
Reno frowned. “No!” he said emphatically. “Darling, no,” he added as he took her by the arm and pulled her up and onto his lap. “You know better than that!”
“But. . .” She still couldn’t conceive of it. “How did you meet her? Was it a one-night stand or. . .?”
“It wasn’t a one-night stand. Off and on, we dated for a couple of years.”
Trina’s heart pounded. She looked at him. “A couple of years?”
Reno nodded. “Yes,” he said. He hated that it was true, but it was true.
“Was she in love with you?”
Reno’s eyes showed wariness. “That was my impression, yes.”
“Were you in love with her?”
There was a definite hesitation this time. “Yes,” he said. “I loved her.”
Trina knew she wasn’t the only woman Reno had ever loved, but it still hurt to hear it. “So what happened? You got tired and dumped her too?”
“No,” he said. “She dumped me.”
Trina couldn’t help but be surprised. For some reason she couldn’t imagine any woman dumping Reno. “She dumped you?” she asked.
“She met this guy, a wise guy. He was a made man with one of the west coast mafia families. A pretty boy Floyd. Girls fawned over him. So she ditched me and grabbed him.”
Trina was staring at him. “She broke your heart?” she asked.
Reno hated the sound of that phrase. It made him feel so weak, and so vulnerable. But it was the truth. “You can say that, yes,” he admitted.
Trina felt as if she was suddenly in turmoil. She leaned against him. She already knew he was a man with skeletons in his closet even before she agreed to marry him. But she never would have dreamed there would be so many! “Was Melita the only girl who ever dumped you?”
“She was the first and last,” Reno admitted. He wasn’t bragging. That was the truth too.
Trina stared at him. “Now she’s with your son. She dumped you, but now she wants your son. That has to hurt on some level, Reno.”
“She can’t hurt me. Believe that. What I had with her died years ago. I just don’t want her hurting Jimmy.”
“Poor Jim,” Trina said. “He seemed so in love tonight.”
“When I realize she was the girlfriend he wanted us to meet, when I saw her face tonight, I thought I was going to die where I stood. What the fuck was she playing at, I wanted to ask her. But for Jimmy’s sake I held my tongue. For his sake.”
Trina rubbed the lapel of Reno’s robe. “I guess it’s true,” she said.
He looked at her. “What’s true?”
“I didn’t marry a virgin,” she said.
Reno couldn’t help but smile, despite the pain. “That’s the understatement of the century,” he said. “I definitely have a history.”
“I only wish you didn’t have a history with that particular woman,” Trina said. “For Jimmy’s sake.”
Reno nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Me too.”
“And what about that witch?” Trina asked. “How could she sleep with Jimmy when she knew she’d been with you?”
“That’s the million dollar question. What is she up to? What’s the deal with her? That’s what I’ve got to find out.”
“So you don’t think her being with Jimmy is a coincidence?”
“Hell nall,” Reno said. “There’s nothing coincidental about it. I’ll bet the PaLargio on that.”
“But you said you were with her years ago. Are you sure she even remembers you?”
“No offense, Tree, but I fucked her. Of course she remembers me. She was pretending she didn’t know shit about me, but she remembers. She was putting on a show.”
“She put it on all right. She put on an Academy Award performance. She didn’t show any sign whatsoever. I was watching her. She didn’t give anything away.”
“Yeah,” Reno said. “She always was a cold fish.”
“Yeah, well,” Trina said, with a twinge of anger in her voice, “she heated up at some point or you wouldn’t have been with her.”
Reno didn’t respond to that. He deserved it.
“And Jimmy,” Trina said with feeling. “That poor kid! You don’t think he knows, do you? Is that what that fight was about?”
Reno nodded his head. “No,” he said. “He doesn’t know. I told him he was in over his head fooling with her, and he decided I said it because I wanted her for myself. That’s what the fight was about.”
Trina paused. She hated that Jimmy thought his father was that obsessed with beautiful women. “Are you going to tell him?” she asked.
Reno pulled Trina closer against him. “Not yet, no,” he said. “I don’t know enough yet.”
“But that’s not fair to him, Reno. He has a right to know. This could change everything for him.”
“He’ll know. I’ll tell him. But he’s not ready to hear it yet. I need to have a better idea what’s going on. You saw how he behaved tonight. He’s defensive as hell about that woman. He won’t hear a word I have to say. He’ll declare I made the whole thing up and she’ll probably call me a liar too. That’s how that bitch is.”
“She wasn’t a bitch when you were fucking her, Reno, so don’t even go there.”
Reno looked at Trina. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re bitter, that’s what it means. And I don’t like bitterness. It’s self-defeating. I’m not about to sit up here and listen to you rag on a woman you once professed to love, even though she dumped you. Because knowing your history the way I know it, Reno, you probably deserved to be dumped.”
Reno couldn’t believe how blunt and unwavering his wife could be sometimes. But that was why he respected her. She never fed into the bullshit. Not even his.
Then Trina stood up.
“Tree,” Reno said, trying to pull her back.
“No,” she said firmly, pulling away. “I’m a little angry with you right now, so just back off.”
“I wasn’t with her after I met you!”
“I know that! And I know I have no legitimate right to be angry. But it is what it is. I’m upset with you. I’ll get over it. Give me a few hours, I’ll be over it. Jimmy may not, which is the tragedy here, but I will.”
Reno wished to God he could relive his past. He wished to God he could have met Trina Hathaway years before he did, before the wreckage of his past was so wide
spread. But she was right. It is what it is.
“But it’s no coincidence Melita hooked up with our son,” Trina continued. “I agree with you there. Not that coincidences don’t happen. They do. They happen all the time. But not in your life, Reno. So yeah,” Trina said, nodding her head, “you need to check out that bitch. You need to find out what she’s up to.”
Reno nodded too. Even in her anger, he thought, she knew how to keep her wits about her. “I will, babe,” he said. “Don’t you worry about that. I will.”
Trina looked over at her child to make sure he was still resting comfortably, and then she began to leave the room.
“Where are you going?” Reno asked her.
She didn’t stop walking. “To feel sorry for myself,” she said honestly, and left the room.
NINE
She came out of the mall walking with purpose. Reno was leaned against his Porsche watching her. He didn’t take his eyes off of her. He was amazed how clearly he remembered her, every inch of her, as he watched her.
Her vehicle, a black Land Rover, was parked three cars beyond his. She had to walk pass his car to get to hers. Which was how he set it up when his people tracked her down.
She slowed her walk when she saw him standing there, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t give herself away that easily. He looked so gorgeous, she thought, in his form-fitting Canali suit, a suit that highlighted his powerful biceps. He wore shades, had his arms folded, and his legs crossed at the ankle as if those expensive Battistoni dress shoes he wore didn’t mean shit to him. But that was Reno. He was every bit the unpretentious hunk he used to be.
But if he thought she was going to roll over and play dead just because he was there to confront her, he had another thought coming.
“Mr. Gabrini, hi,” she said cheerfully as she was about to walk on by. “Nice to see you again.”
Reno, however, didn’t crack a smile. “Come here,” he said with his usual swagger.
Melita hesitated as if she had options to consider when they both knew she didn’t, and then she walked up to him. “Yes, may I help you?” she asked.
“You can begin by cutting the bullshit,” Reno said.
There was a pause, but her cheerful expression remained unchanged. “I didn’t realize I had any bullshit to cut.”
“What do you want with my son?”
Another pause. She had forgotten about Reno’s hard-charging style. “Jimmy and I have known each other---”
“What do you want with my son?” Reno asked again. “I don’t want to hear any history. I don’t want to hear any lies. What do you want with my son?”
Melita exhaled. “I like him.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I love him, whether you believe it or not.”
“I don’t believe it. What else you got?”
“Now look, Reno, you aren’t going to stand up here and dictate to me---”
“Why are you with Jimmy?”
Melita hesitated again. “I love him,” she said again.
Reno knew this was a waste of time. She wasn’t going to level with him. At least not yet. He moved up closer to her.
Melita felt his closeness. She remembered how he used to feel. Especially when he was deep inside of her. But Reno looked so filled with hatred for her that it angered her.
“I don’ know what this is about,” he said. “I don’t know that yet. But I do know you’re up to something. And you can play your games. You can have all kinds of tricks up your sleeve. But not with my son. You hear me? He’s my son! That kid you’re playing with is my boy. And if anything happens to James Maxwell Gabrini, you’ll hear from me. I promise you.”
Melita smiled, although her heart was pounding. “You promised you wouldn’t break my heart once upon a time too. You didn’t keep that promise either. So who gives a shit about your promises?”
“I give a shit. And you have some nerve, lady. You dumped me for that loser you fell in love with, and you’re talking to me about a heartbreak? Get the fuck out of my face!”
“Your son is a grown man,” Melita said, attempting to stay in control. “He can make his own choices. And he chose me.”
“Because he didn’t know a damn thing about you!”
“He didn’t know you had me, you mean? You don’t know what he knows,” she said and then smiled. “Maybe he just don’t give a damn, Reno. Maybe you’re not as everything to him as you think you are.” Then her smile left. “You think it’s your world and everybody’s just visiting, don’t you? You think everything always has to be about you. What I have with Jimmy has nothing to do with you. Nothing! We never even discussed you!” Then a flash of anger crossed her face. “You took my heart. One day, somebody’s going to take yours.”
“You won’t be taking him,” Reno shot back.
She frowned. “Just leave us alone,” she said, and then kept on walking to her car.
Reno watched her as she walked away. Fine as wine was how he used to describe her. And now the same woman that dumped him; the same woman he once worked extra hard to get wanted him to believe that Jimmy was this random kid she plucked out of the blue. She wanted him to believe that her attraction to Jimmy was as real as rain was wet. But he didn’t believe it. Not any of it. Something more was at work here. He could feel it in his bones.
The day after his encounter with Melita, Reno stood at the floor-to-ceiling window inside his thirtieth floor office and looked out at the energy of Vegas around him. This was his town. One paper dubbed him the King of Vegas once. But he wondered sometimes if he even had a clue.
The intercom buzzed and Reno walked over to his desk. His son was there to see him, his assistant said. Reno gave clearance and then walked back to the window.
The door to his office opened and Jimmy entered slowly. He walked even slower toward his father’s huge desk. “They said you wanted to see me,” he said.
Reno didn’t turn around.
Jimmy waited for him to respond, but nothing came. Which didn’t help Jimmy’s mood at all. He still had a chip on his shoulder. He still had the look of a man who didn’t want to be there. But he knew it was nothing more than his wounded pride, and he also knew he had to get over it. He was inwardly pleased his father had reached out to him. After what happened to them at that restaurant, his fear was that Reno would never want to have anything more to do with him.
He walked over to the window and stood beside his father. Then he looked at him. He wanted to apologize, but that wounded pride got in the way again. So he remained defensive. “What do you want, Pop?” he asked him.
Reno looked at Jimmy, and his heart swelled with love for his son. So much love that he feared he would get all emotional. So he looked back out of the window. “We need to talk,” he said.
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“There’s plenty to talk about.”
“Not if it’s about my woman there isn’t.”
Reno gave a kind of weary smile. “Your woman?” he asked. Then he shook his head. “Melita’s nobody’s woman, Jimmy,” he said to him pointblank, and then looked at him. “And especially not yours.”
“Why, Pop? Because she used to be yours?”
Reno’s heart dropped. He stared at his son. “Who told you that?”
“She told me that.”
Reno frowned. “And you’re still with her ass?”
“I just found out yesterday. She told me after you cornered her in that parking lot. She said she forgot ever knowing you until you reminded her in that parking lot.”
“And you believe her?”
Jimmy frowned. “I just found out yesterday,” he said. “Now it doesn’t matter. It can’t matter! I love her now.”
Reno shook his head. “A woman like that doesn’t fall in love, Jimmy.”
“Yeah, I know. A woman like Melita couldn’t possibly be in love with a man like me. They only fall for rich, tough guys like you. They could never love me. Is that how it goes?”
&nbs
p; “I’m not talking about any random woman, Jimmy Mack! I’m talking about Mel. And that woman, I’m telling you, is not the kind of woman a man falls in love with.”
“Why, Pop? Since you’re such an expert on Mel, as you call her. Tell me why?”
“She’s a user,” Reno said.
Jimmy stared at him. Then he looked out of the window. “Every girl I’ve ever had, maybe even every friend I’ve ever had, always ends up using me. Every one of them. So that’s nothing new to me. But not Lita. Melita isn’t using me. She’s different.”
“Oh, Jimmy!”
“Don’t oh, Jimmy me! She’s different! And I’m not some wild-eyed kid blindly in love, either. But she loves me. No, she doesn’t love me the way Ma loves you. Nobody will ever love me like that. But she loves me better than anybody else has, which isn’t saying a lot, but it’s saying something.”
Reno’s heart dropped through his shoe. His face was a mask of anguish. “Son, you don’t have to settle like that, what are you talking? You’re a smart, sweet, handsome young man! Women would give their right arm to have somebody like you!”
“Oh, yeah? Then where are all of these right arms? Nobody’s lifted a finger to have me! Nobody’s lifted a thumb to have a relationship with me because they wanted me. They wanted me to get close to you, oh, yeah. They’d give more than a right arm for that. But just to be with me? Get real, Pop. Nobody gives a shit about me.”
Reno was offended. “What’s that supposed to mean? Nobody gives a shit about you? So what am I? You think I don’t care? You think I don’t love you? That Tree don’t? That Dommi and Fran don’t?”
“I thought we were talking about females.”
Reno grabbed Jimmy by one arm and turned him so that they were eyeball to eyeball. “You listen to me, young man,” Reno said. “I love you with all of my heart. You hear me? Don’t you ever think I don’t love you with everything within me. Because I do. You aren’t on anybody’s begging list. You are not so starved for affection that you have to settle for users. You don’t. You have my undying love and the undying love of your family. And you have youth. You can wait until the right one comes along, Jimmy. The way I did.”
But Jimmy still couldn’t dump Melita. It wasn’t that simple. “I love my family, too, Pop. I’m not saying you guys aren’t great. You are. But. . . I love Melita now. I can’t just dump her like that. I love her.”
Reno Gabrini: A Man in Full Page 9
