Tounge Tied -GROUPLOVE
Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Yours for Life - Bread
1DANTE
The summer heat had settled over Boston, stifling the city and making my stressful day feel like I was walking through the garbage pail of hell.
I was in a bad mood before my phone rang, but as I looked down seeing Enzo’s name, my already trash day managed to get that much worse; if Enzo called, there was going to be more problems for me to solve.
“Did you get everything signed?” I asked in greeting, checking my watch and feeling the pinch of a headache coming on strong.
He was currently at City Hall, getting all the permits signed off so we could open the restaurant for a grand July 1st opening. The long holiday weekend would drive extra business for us. The club would end up bringing in a huge amount of money as soon as everything was signed off but, if it wasn’t done. I was risking losing a lot of money if this wasn’t completed on time.
Worse than the loss of money, would be seeing my father’s look of embarrassment as his heir tried to go straight and failed at it. I could already feel the way he looked at me, wishing that he had another son to take over the family. But he got me, Dante Luchese, New England playboy, if the magazines were to be believed.
In this case they were to be believed.
Probably another thing my father was disappointed with me about.
He was quiet for a second and I knew that the dinner I was already running late for was going to be pushed back further. Which was just what I needed, another reason for my father to be mad at me.
“I’ll be there in five minutes.” My clipped tone came out before I hung up, sweat trickling along the back of my neck as I checked the speedometer and then glanced at the clock in my dash, foot getting heavier as I headed to get the job done myself.
I should have known better than to let someone else handle this.
This was my dream to work on and the burden of making sure that every i was dotted and t was crossed fell to my shoulders.
Just something else for them to hold. .
My headache was a dull throb, lingering from the phone call yesterday with my father. He told me that there were expectations about my life that needed to be filled. Opening this club was not part of the expectations, but what he called a hobby for me. A hobby that would make clean money, give us more legitimate business than not.
Dinner with him was where I had been heading before getting sidetracked with the business of the club. This was business, after all, and not a hobby, as he had callously insinuated.
Always business.
Not that the dinner would be any different because I knew my father was up to something with this meal. He wasn’t the type to meet outside of our family home for a meal if it wasn’t for something that would benefit the Family.
The Family that he had reminded me on the call last night, I would take over sooner than later. A Family that would need an heir after me and therefore meant that he was pushing the idea of a bride on me again.
At thirty, I didn’t know why he was making a fuss about marriage. I was already handling all the legitimate businesses and preparing to take over a lot of the things my father handled that were off the books. He was having a harder time than I expected loosening his reins, but it was out of fear of me having to shoulder too much of a legacy.
He always gave me a choice, even in things like this marriage business. There was the choice to say no, but I knew that the look on his face if I said it would be too much of a disappointment.
And I couldn’t stand to disappoint them more than I already felt like I was doing.
My hand went to loosen the tie I was wearing, feeling like I needed to catch my breath as I gripped the wheel tighter. How the hell was I still influenced this much by my father at my age?
This meeting had to be a contract meeting. Either to feel out how our families would feel together, or maybe it was already done, and I just needed to fall in line with whatever my father had planned.
Marriage contracts were common.
We use them to build alliances and stop bloodshed. Sometimes they were just between old friends who drank too much sambuca and smoked too many cigars. But they were considered an honor and a privilege among many. Most of my family had been brought together with these contracts, even my own parents.
I had seen firsthand how they worked together and how they were in love, a blessing and a curse in our life.
Love was the easiest way to get distracted. Distractions caused mistakes. Mistakes meant death.
Sighing out, I pulled into the parking lot of City Hall not even wanting to look at the time because I could feel the way pressure was gripping me already. Holding me tight in the lock of anxiety I was feeling
I was going to be late meeting my soon to be wife because I had trusted Enzo to do something I should have done in the first place. My father was going to give me one of his looks that made me drink too much at 2AM, rethinking every decision in my life and wishing that there had been a spare born and not just one heir.
Sometimes the pressure felt like too much and I would drown in it.
My car door slammed as I grabbed the suit jacket, shrugging it on and pulling off the tie that felt like a noose, tossing it in the back seat. I took the steps up into the building, tugging at the door and frowning when it was locked.
Christ on a cracker.
“You can’t leave. You need to-”
“If you don’t fuck all the way off I’m going to take my heel and stab it right through your thick fucking skull.” Enzo had been cut off by a female voice and I watched them round a corner of the building in a mix of slammed doors and echoing heels on pavement.
I was thankful he was desperate. At least it showed he cared enough about this or maybe my wrath, to fight for it. Enzo was loyal, that I did trust. But the woman who was walking beside him didn’t seem to give him the time of day and that made me furious that she was giving him such a hard time.
Tied up in municipal government hierarchy was just the sort of low level annoyance I didn’t need to add to my mounting issues the club was giving to me and I was ready to let whoever this city employee was know it.
