STOLEN SMILE [ GXG ]

CATERINA

" Murders came with smiles , shooting people was no big deal for us Goodfellas "

- Henry Hill

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BILLIE HOLIDAY PLAYED SOFTLY FROM the old pool radio. Condensation dripped down crystal glasses, and silverware glinted in the bright sunlight. It was a hot July afternoon, but the steady breeze was the perfect interlude.

Lights wound around the wooden slats of the patio cover, and my mamma's rose bushes were flourishing. The chairs were soft and the food was good, but it could only be so comfortable having lunch with a bunch of strangers. However, the seventies ad sitting across from me didn't seem to share the same opinion.

"Anyway, the cop let me go and he didn't even take my coke-" "Grace." The word was a low warning from Jennifer's spot at the table.

She rolled her eyes and took a deep drink of wine, but she spoke no more.

I wondered why Jennifer had chastised her and what their relationship was. Siblings? They did appear to find each other annoying, but I was sure I'd heard somewhere that Jennifer was an only child. Grace's senior citizen of a husband sitting next to her hadn't said a word, except for some oddly-timed chuckling. I was beginning to think he was hard of hearing.

Grace was my polar opposite. Where I was quiet, she spoke with abandon and laughed loudly. Where I was demure, well she'd stuck her gum to her cloth napkin before eating her pasta without twirling it around the fork. I was a little jealous of her carefree approach to life.

Trevor sat on her other side. He leaned back in his chair with his jacket unbuttoned looking bored, but I knew him better than that. I'd seen that smug way he scratched the scruff on his jaw like he was angry and amused at the same time. And that never meant anything good. He was handsome, but if I wasn't his sister I wouldn't touch him with a ten-foot pole. His recklessness was dangerous for anyone involved, especially himself. He caught my uneasy look and shot me a wink.

Low chatter and the scraping of silverware filled the yard, but beneath that lay a tense air that wouldn't dissipate, an uncomfortable vibe the breeze wouldn't take with it. Everyone seemed to be easily chatting amongst themselves, so maybe it was just me. I brushed it off.

Grace didn't stay quiet for long, though she no longer spoke
about 8-balls of coke. She changed the subject to horse racing. That was an acceptable conversation many joined in on. It wasn't like this was a drug-free zone-in fact, many people came through this house on a daily basis with drugs on them-but out in the open, it was Cosa Nostra etiquette to pretend we were the classic example of a white-picket-fence family. Even if our homes were surrounded by an iron gate and security instead.

I was happy to see that  Audrey had shown up instead of boarding a plane to Cuba. She sat next to her fiancé and Papà at the other end of table.

Maybe I was a coward, but I was glad I didn't have to sit near Jennifer. I was the perfect hostess and had a polite response for anything as inappropriate as the comments could sometimes be when people were drinking-but with her, words were at a loss for me. I felt tongue-tied around her, tilted off my point of gravity, and truthfully just hot, as though a blush permanently warmed my skin.

It might be unpleasant speaking to her, but it was too easy to look in her direction. If not for her size, she could easily fit Audrey's
pretty-girl preferences when she had a sober expression on her face. She was tan, her hair was almost black, and I couldn't help but notice that her biceps were defined through her shirt. My future sister-in- law was even more beautiful beneath bright sun. It was unfortunate her personality didn't match.