By Sin We Fall

Chapter Sixteen

Amo

The cafe that I thought was the epitome of everything I hated with a raging passion, somehow inconceivably, became a familiar destination. When I walked in, the waiter with the bright blue hair welcomed me with recognition on her face. This was not acceptable. I turned sharply and found a seat at the back of the cafe, sitting down stiffly. From here I watched as a herd of college kids came in with tattered sandals, reeking of weed. Next a woman came in with a bicycle helmet, mind you she didn't have a bike outside. All the while an old man with a Himalayan beard kept staring at me across the cafe. I stared right back. This place was a cesspool of everything I tried to avoid in New York, and yet I kept coming back. Why? The bell on top of the door rang again, and for a second I thought it was her and that was enough for me to reinvigorate my whole purpose of being here. Instead of a petite woman, a miserable man with a sour face came in. My first thought was thank god for someone normal and then I realized this miserable man was Valerio. Misery turned to smugness when he saw me sitting at the tiny table. He walked over with a grin he could barely contain. "Well, well, well... If we don't have a closeted vegan, is this your big secret Amo? Sneaking out to get some tofurkey?" Valerio laughed proudly at his own joke, sitting down uninvited in the chair across from me. "What even is this?" he looked cautiously at the water with floating plants the waitress had set on the table for us to presumably drink. "What are you doing here Valerio? Did the whore house kick you out again?" "Phhh, Leo said he saw you walking in here and I didn't believe him for a second! And now I owe the bastard twenty dollars for your animosity to our family." Valerio shook his head while trying the water cautiously. "Valerio get the fuck out of here-" rubbing my temple I caught the swish of a teasing little pink skirt as it came through the door, the loud city noises escaping in for a second before it was closed out. Below the teasing skirt were leg warmers styled with bulky shoes. I only knew one person who would ever wear this atrocity. Margaret stood with her gym bag scanning the room. She smiled when she saw me, waving at me like I wasn't sitting five feet away from her. To add to the ridiculousness that was her outfit, she also had on a large puffer jacket. She looked like she was coming home from an Apollo mission. It was summer for god's sake. She walked over smiling, not faltering when she saw my brother. "It's nearing ninety degrees, are you expecting snow?" I asked. "Well I can't help it, it gets cold in the shadows sometimes." She somehow said it so innocently that it made me adverse to shadows. "Hello hench man number two." She smiled down at Valerio sweetly as he was fishing a raspberry out of his water glass. They weren't even glasses, they were mason jars, this annoyed me to another level as if we were in fucking Kansas not Midtown. I knew Valerio would find this comment insulting; he was not only weirdly sensitive about his style but hated any comparison to me. Even worse was an implication that he was somehow below me in rank. He frowned up at her, "hench man is a compliment to whatever you're wearing." I guess we were all snobs in this family. Margaret took a chair from a neighboring table and sat down but before she could pick up the menu a girl, younger than Margaret, came over nervously. My hand twitches over my gun holster for some reason. "I'm sorry... are you Margaret Alassandra?" she obviously already knew the answer but was twisting the paper she held in her hand nervously. "Could you autograph this?" she reached out the paper and I could now see that it was a folded brochure with a ballet dancer on the front. Margaret looked a little flustered but got up reassuring the girl that she would gladly sign her brochure. I couldn't hear the rest of their conversation as they went to a corner table with two other girls so she could sign it, but Margaret was blushing at whatever the girl was saying. I smiled at the scene, how ironic it was that the girl who hated the stage light was a star. It was nice to see her so out of her element with praise. "So does Dad know about this? You're cheating on your wives with a ballet dancer?" Valerio sounded ecstatic of any drama going on that didn't involve him. I hadn't told Valerio about the contract with the outfit going through yet. I hadn't told anyone that fact except those who had worked on the proceedings. The news would come out next week. Valerio would be pissed I hadn't told him sooner and think it would be a twisted power move on my part. The truth was I simply couldn't handle his mood swings at the moment with so much in the air so I opted to not tell him, content with dealing with his sour mood later. But I knew he would be relieved that I would be the one taking the bullet instead of him, the marriage bullet that was. He was the last person who needed to get married, I was the second last. The girls left Margaret alone and she came back happy but flushed. "Sorry, that really never happens but they're having the IBA in New York this year and there are just a lot of ballet enthusiasts in the city." "You don't have to explain yourself, you're an amazing dancer and deserve all the praise." Valerio and Margaret were quiet, I looked up from the menu that I wasn't reading. Margaret was smiling boisterously, "wow, that was actually nice." "Am I not usually nice?" "Never." Valerio and Margaret said at the same time. "So we have a celebrity in our midst? I would have worn my nice black top if I'd known," Valerio teases."I'm sure that wouldn't have made much of a difference."