ROMANCING SAL GABRINI

by Monroe, Mallory

  Gemma grinned. “If I waste this drink on this man’s beautiful sofa, you’re gonna pay the bill.”

  “I’ll skip town like I don’t know you, sister,” Sal said playfully. He really loved being with Gemma. “I’ll act like I don’t know you. They won’t find me to pay for squat.”

  “Oh, I’ll find you all right. I’m an attorney. Don’t you forget that.”

  Sal laughed. Then he thought about Tommy. “Let me go check on my brother,” he said. “You’ll be okay?”

  “Of course I’ll be okay,” Gemma said. “Go.”

  Sal chuckled as he stood up and headed upstairs. But as he approached the open door of Tommy’s bedroom at the end of the second floor corridor, he could hear Tommy seemingly talking on the phone. As he was just about to enter the bedroom, he heard the tension in Tommy’s voice. He stopped in his tracks. Tommy, uncharacteristically, was hot.

  “But what did I tell you?” Tommy could be heard saying. “Not somebody else, what did I tell you?” Then there was a pause, as if Tommy was listening to whomever was on the other line. Then he continued his tirade. “That’s bullshit Grace and you know it! That’s bullshit! But what did I say? You keep comparing apples with oranges and expect me to go along with that. You think I’m going to do that? You think I’m going to put up with this shit over and over again? You really believe that?” Then, when he practically screamed, “What the fuck is that supposed to mean!” Sal knew it was time for him to leave.

  But he couldn’t just leave his brother like this. He waited, for nearly a minute longer, when the conversation shouting match ended with Tommy slamming down the phone.

  Sal hesitated, and then walked in. “Knock knock,” he said as he entered.

  Tommy was hunched over his dressing table with his hands spread out, with palms down, on that table. Although his hair wasn’t dripping, Sal could see that it was still wet, slicked straight back, as if he’d just gotten out of the shower. And he wore a bathrobe.

  “Hey,” he said as he walked up beside him.

  Tommy didn’t bother to look up. His distress was too great. “Hey,” he said.

  “I can’t say that I didn’t hear your conversation. I would have to live in Timbuktu to not hear your conversation.”

  Tommy stood erect. “Listen, I’ve got to go and take care of some business.” He looked at his brother. Sal could see the anguish in his eyes. “Will you give my apologies to Gemma?”

  “I’ll tell her you’re a selfish sonafabitch for leaving us like this. Of course I’ll give your apologies.”

  Tommy exhaled. But Sal was still staring at him. Tommy, feeling his stare, looked at him. “What?” he asked. Now Tommy could see the anguish in Sal’s eyes. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked him.

  Sal shook his head. “We can’t get it right, can we?”

  Tommy stared at him. He didn’t ask him what he meant by that, because he knew what he meant. He just stared.

  Sal went on. “No Gabrini man has ever gotten it right when it comes to our women.”

  “Reno got it right,” Tommy said, pointing out their cousin’s successful marriage.

  “Reno’s the exception. Not the rule. You and me, we’re the rule.”

  Tommy ran his hand across his face. “Anyway, I’ve got to go,” he said as he removed his robe, revealing a perfectly tanned and chiseled body, and walked over to his underwear drawer. “I hope Gemma isn’t upset.”

  “Don’t worry about us,” Sal said as he watched his big brother. “We’ll eat.” Then Sal thought about it as his brother pulled out a pair of briefs and began to put them on. “But before we eat,” Sal added, “I think I’ll take her over to Pop’s house.”

  Tommy stopped all movement and looked at his brother.

  “I think I’ll introduce her to him.”

  Tommy frowned. “Why would you do that? That man hates your guts but you continue to call him and go and see him and let him continue to treat you like you don’t matter. All of our lives he’s treated you that way. I was his golden child, while you was the child he kicked and stomped and disowned half the time, although you look just like him. That’s why I’ll never step foot in that house ever again, just because of how he treated you alone.”

  Sal knew what he meant. That was why he and Tommy were so close to this day. Tommy would stand up, would sometimes even fight with his father, when he mistreated Sal.

  “And despite all of that you still want to take Gemma to see that asshole?”

  But Sal was adamant. “You should have took Grace to see him,” he said. “You should have introduced her to Pops so that she could have fully understood what she was getting into by hooking her wagon to yours. If you would have done that maybe now you wouldn’t be in damage control. Maybe now you wouldn’t be on the brink of losing that good girl because of the Gabrini fuck-up that we inherited from that man.”

  “What are you talking about?” Tommy asked him. “She knew what she was getting into. I introduced her to Reno.”

  “Yeah, Reno’s a fuck up, too. I’ll admit he’s got those issues too. But he’s one of the good guys in the end, Tommy. He’s loveable in the end. Pop ain’t.”

  Tommy knew exactly what his brother meant. They were two grown men approaching middle age, especially Tommy who was pushing forty hard, and they still couldn’t sustain a relationship without wrecking the whole train. But he couldn’t deal with that now. He continued to dress.

  Sal said his goodbyes and left the room. The fact that his brother was having some heavy duty issues with his lady saddened Sal. But Tommy never discussed his personal business like that. At least not with his kid brother. Maybe with Reno, since he and Tommy were best friends, but not with Sal. Which was fine by Sal. He never knew how to handle seeing his big brother in pain anyway. Hell, he couldn’t handle his own pain. How was he going to handle his brother’s?

  Besides, he thought, as he walked down the stairs, he knew Tommy too well. When he was upset, the last thing he ever wanted was company. Eventually he might seek Sal out. Not to talk, but just to be around him. But that was for Tommy to initiate. Because whatever Tommy was going through now was Tommy’s story, Tommy’s business. And he would tell that story, Sal thought as he made it back downstairs. And Tommy would tell his story when he was good and ready to tell it. And, unfortunately, it seemed to Sal, it looked as though it was going to be a doozie.

  “Let’s go, babe,” Sal said to Gemma when he made it back downstairs. Sal loved the way she didn’t ask a single question. She, instead, put her glass on the tabletop and came to him. He called out for the butler.

  “You called, sir?” Henry asked as he walked in.

  “Yeah,” Sal said. “Look out for my brother. We’re going to take a rain check on dinner this evening, but look out for my brother.”

  Henry immediately understood. He also knew, in times like these, that Tommy would prefer to be alone. “Very good, sir,” he said, and escorted them up to, and then out of the front door.

  After Sal assisted Gemma onto the passenger seat of his Ferrari, and after he got in behind the wheel, he just sat there. Thinking about, not just Tommy and Grace, but his entire family. All the men in his immediate family had relationship issues. Serious relationship issues. They never quite got it right when it came to women. Now Tommy was on the brink of losing a special lady like Grace, undoubtedly because of some crazy shit Tommy did. And he knew the source of that dysfunction. He knew it like he knew his own name.

  He looked at Gemma, who was quietly looking straight ahead as if she was savvy enough to know that Sal was in a contemplative mood and didn’t need her conversation just yet. He didn’t know where their relationship was going, but he knew it was going further than any female relationship he’d ever had. Hell, he never had an ounce of affection for those ladies that he was already having for Gemma. They were just bed mates to him. Nice little kittens to warm him at night.

  But Gemma was different. It wasn’t just a sex thing with her. He knew
that already. And he also knew, if they were going to ever move beyond the physical in a meaningful way, she needed to fully understand what she was getting into. What stock he came from. What crazy-ass stock.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked her.

  She shook her head. “Not at all,” she said.

  “Good,” Sal said. He cranked up, and decided that he was going to do it. That he was going to make a quick, impromptu visit to his old man’s house.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Gemma didn’t ask questions as Sal drove her to a side of Seattle she had never seen before. Apparently whatever his brother was going through was affecting him mightily, and she wanted him to deal with it without having the burden of answering her questions or entertaining her thoughts. He was even driving slowly, which was an amazing sight since Sal normally zoomed his Ferrari through the streets of Seattle as if he didn’t know what a speed limit meant. Even when they would stop at a red light, instead of idling it down, he would be revving it up, ready to go, as if he knew his car’s engine was pure power and he was enjoying that power. But not this time. This time, it seemed to Gemma, Sal was cautious.

  They drove to a home that sat on a tree-lined street that was more suburban than where Sal or Tommy lived. All of the houses were beautiful, old two-story homes, the kind your grandparents would live in, including the house they stopped in front of. It was a Cape Cod-styled home, with awning windows upstairs and a wraparound porch downstairs. It appeared dark and uninviting. Gemma looked at Sal.

  “This,” he said, looking across the steering wheel at the monstrosity of a home, “is my father’s house.”

  This surprised Gemma. Was he actually taking her, at this early stage in their relationship, to meet his parents?

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Tommy refuses to bring Grace here to meet him. He doesn’t think she can handle it.” He looked at Gemma. She was struck by the pain in his now cloudy blue eyes. “You know what I mean?”

  She’d only heard him mention his father once, and it wasn’t very flattering, so she felt she knew what he meant. “Yes,” she said.

  “Think you can handle it?”

  “You know him, I don’t,” Gemma replied. “What do you think? You think I can handle it?”

  “Hell no,” Sal said honestly. “And you know what’s crazy? People love him in this town. They see him as this wonderful, caring man who might someday be governor of this entire state. Outside he’s a charmer alright. Inside he’s a petty, bitter little man, and has been that way my entire life. But people who don’t know him loves him.” Gemma looked at him. He nodded. “He can do no wrong. That’s how they feel about him.”

  “Your feelings, I take it, aren’t quite so forgiving.”

  Sal chuckled, but it wasn’t a happy chuckle. “Me and Tommy,” he said, “we’re strong men. Ain’t nothing weak about us, ask any fucker around here.” Then he looked at that house again. “But that man, my father, still buckles my knees.”

  Gemma’s chest constricted when she heard strong Sal admit such a thing. And she knew right away she wasn’t only about to meet a father whom she already concluded was a control freak. He, apparently, if she listened to Sal, was much more than that. But she also knew what Sal was doing. He wanted her to understand that if she was going to get mixed up with him, with a Gabrini, she had better realize what she was getting mixed up with. It was as if he was on the cusp of going all in with her, despite his open relationship proposal, but he had to first make sure she was all in too.

  He looked at her again. “I can keep going,” he said.

  But she knew they had to walk this road. Eventually, if they were going to have any kind of a real relationship, they had to walk this road. “No,” she said, unbuckling her seatbelt. “I want to meet him.”

  Sal swallowed hard, but he got out and opened the door for her.

  They walked slowly up the arched driveway that led to the wraparound porch. A black cat ran out the shadow of the massive trees and darted across their path. Gemma slammed her body against Sal’s, terror shooting through her, but Sal put his arm around her waist and pulled her against his rock-hard body, protecting her. “It’s okay,” he said. “It was only a cat.”

  “Whoa,” she said, exhaling and smiling. “I’m not normally this antsy.”

  Sal raised his eyebrows. “You aren’t normally about to meet my father,” he said as he escorted her up the porch steps. But when he said that, Gemma felt a need to know. At first she thought it was about them and their relationship. Now, however, she was getting the feeling that it was about him.

  “Sal,” she said, and he stopped walking and looked at her. “Why am I about to meet him now?”

  Sal had to think about this. He wasn’t about to give her some pat answer. Then he looked at her. “I came from him,” he said. “I’m not an easy man. We’re not going to have an easy relationship, if we have one at all. You need to understand that.”

  Gemma stared at him. And then they walked up to the front door.

  After ringing the bell twice, the door was finally opened by a tall, beautiful blonde who couldn’t have been much older than Gemma’s twenty-nine years. She smiled grandly when she saw Sal.

  “Sal Luca!” she said excitedly.

  But Sal frowned. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked her.

  “Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Sal. Me and your dad are dating.”

  “Dating?” Sal asked. Then he shook his head. “What a crazy fuck,” Sal said under his breathe, although Gemma heard every word. “Since when have you been dating him? How did you even know him?”

  “Ever since you dumped me,” the woman said with a twinge of bitterness, it seemed to Gemma. “He called me, introduced himself, and asked if I wanted to have dinner with him. Of course I said yes. Mainly as a way to get back next to you. But now, after being with your father, I don’t even want you.” Then she smiled grandly again. “Come on in!” she said and Gemma had to pull Sal across the threshold.

  “Who is she?” Gemma asked Sal in a low tone as they entered the home.

  “That’s Rita. Some girl I used to fuck. Nobody.”

  Gemma was almost astounded by Sal’s honesty. He didn’t try to pretend it was anything other than what it was. He was going to take some getting used to, she realized.

  Inside, the home looked more modern, but it still had nothing on Sal and Tommy’s more upscale tastes. But Gemma truly didn’t care about Sal’s father’s taste in furniture. It was his taste in women, and why he would date a woman who used to date his son.

  “Benny!” Rita yelled out as they walked toward the sitting area. “Sal Luca’s here! With a guest!” Then she looked at Gemma. “You must be his newbie,” she said with a grin.

  Sal was pleased that Gemma ignored her as they took a seat on the sofa. Almost immediately, an older man entered the room. Sal stood up, so Gemma did too.

  “Hey there, son,” the older man said cheerfully as he approached them, his hand extended as he came. “Glad to see you haven’t forgotten completely about me.”

  “Hello, Pop,” Sal said as he shook his hand.

  He wasn’t at all what Gemma had expected. She expected some old stuff shirt with stuffed values who viewed anybody different from him as some newfangled fad. But instead she got an almost jovial, gorgeously tanned man, a man easy to smile and back-pat, a man with a combination of Tommy’s beauty and Sal’s brawn, with that combination making him more attractive than both of them. Which, frankly, given how handsome both Tommy and Sal were, Gemma didn’t think would be possible.

  But this man standing before her seemed to be the total package. And the charm of him. From the moment you meet him he generates the kind of charm that could chase clouds away, and with an easy going, loving demeanor about him that made Gemma wonder, for a hot second at least, if Sal was pulling her leg.

  But time was the ultimate antidote. She knew, in time, she would know exactly what she had on her hands.

  �
�And who do we have here?” his father asked even as he was still shaking Sal’s hand. “I’m Benjamin Thomas Gabrini, young lady,” he said to Gemma. “I’m Salvatore’s father.”

  Sal placed his hand on the small of her back. Gemma could detect some nervousness in him. “This is Gemma Jones,” he said. “My lady.”

  Benny was still smiling, but Gemma could now see the sneer. “Your lady?” he asked as he extended his hand and Gemma began to shake it. “How do you do, Miss Jones?”

  “I’m good, thank-you.”

  They stopped shaking hands, and he was still smiling, but Gemma saw no joy whatsoever there. He, in fact, stopped shaking her hand, but started shaking his head. “I don’t get it,” he said. “I don’t know what’s with my boys. No offense,” he said, which Gemma knew meant an offense was coming, “but all of these Italian girls running around here. All of these Italian girls. And what does my boys do? They knock them over running for the black girls. Who’s next? Mexicans? I got nothing against black girls, or Mexican girls, or anybody. But you get my point. I’m sure your father, good man I’m sure he is, would expect you to come home with a black boy. Not with this knucklehead right here. Am I right?”

  “You have a lovely home, Mr. Gabrini,” Gemma said in response.

  Rita giggled. Sal, too, was pleased with the response. That was how you do that asshole, he thought.

  But Benny just stared at her. He was thrown. “You think it’s lovely, do you?” he said with an edge in his tone.

  “Yes,” Gemma said, looking him squarely in his big, blue eyes.

  “What do you know about lovely?”

  “Pop,” Sal warned.

  “They have lovely in the ghettos now?” Benny continued. “They have lovely in the hellholes you hail from?”

  Sal wasn’t a bit surprised that his father was pouncing straight out of the gate. They barely had a chance to walk through the door and already he was pouncing. Sal was about to tell his father a thing or two, to make it clear that he and Gem would leave right now if he didn’t cut that shit out, but Gemma didn’t give him the chance.