I joined my brother's outside in order to escape the other baby shower games. The men were outside smoking cigars and Andrei wanted to smoke one. "You should be inside with the women" Dmitriy, my eldest brother, tried to send me away.
"And you should be in 1854, but you're not," I shrugged.
I felt him grab my elbow kinda hard and it was a silent warning to behave myself. I huffed and walked off, heading towards the side yard where there were hardly any people.
"Overwhelmed?" I eventually heard a voice ask me from behind. I jolted at the intrusion and whirled around. Enzo was in dark slacks and a navy button down. He's since lost the jacket and shoved up his sleeves.
"Listen, I want you to meet somebody" he told me. I looked around to see if anyone was with him, but I could still spot the guys in the distance chatting and shit talking.
"Who?" I asked when I saw no one else. Enzo looked hesitant for a second and he was starting to weird me out. "I'm not sure if you know or not..." he trailed off trying to read me. "Know what?" I crossed my arms.
"About my daughter" I heard him say. My eyes almost bulged right out of my head.
"You have a kid?!" I wasn't graceful about it. Enzo rubbed the back of his neck before shrugging, "Yeah. She's 5." Then it all clicked. Anthony's niece. This is her. Damn me straight to Hell. How am I in this mess?
I held up a finger telling him to hold on a second and stomped across the lawn to my brothers. The group was still talking amongst each other but I tugged on the backs of both their shirts to gain their attention.
"Did you know Enzo had a kid?" I asked them in a tone of voice that wasn't very happy. I was scowling and I wasn't gonna hide it either. Fuck these people. Dmitriy and Andrei looked at each other. Andrei was the one to speak up first. "Yeah, we knew," he admitted. I gaped at him.
"You didn't want that Alessandro dude because he was having a kid, but you're fine with this guy having a kid?!" I spat at them in Russian. Dmitriy grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the group since the guys started paying attention. My other brother followed.
"Watch your fucking tone" Dmitriy snapped at me. I took a step closer to him. "Or what?" I challenged him in a way I usually don't. Andrei was the one to step forward and lean into my ear.
"Or I'll embarrass you, drag you outta here, and lock you away until the wedding day" he threatened me. I grit my teeth and shifted to glare at him.
I hate when they sandwich me this way. I felt rage bubbling up inside me. I wanted to flip out. I wanted to be an asshole and embarrass them, but I didn't.
Enzo ended up walking over and both my brother's gave me the eyes warning me to behave. "Hey, I didn't know that you didn't know. I'm not looking to make you step mother or nothing. I just thought you should meet" he told me and them both.
"Yeah, I think it's a good idea. She'll be your wife soon enough. She'll be what you need her to be" Dmitriy assured him. I wanted to stomp on his foot. I envisioned it. Stomping on his foot, hopefully breaking a toe, and then kneeing Andrei in the balls so he could topple over as I walk away. That'd be great.
Since I couldn't do any of that I decided it best to step away from my brother's anyway. I wanted to steal the guns from their backs and shoot them with it. So I agreed to meeting the kid.
"She's a good kid," Enzo assured me. "It's nothing against the kid. This is all just...a lot" I felt like an asshole scowling at his 5 year old, so I made sure to point that out. "Her name's Daisy" he informed me as we walked inside.
I could see Alessandro and Giana seated side by side opening gifts. His cousin Dom was on the sidelines watching with some other man. Mia was tucked into Dom's side. He held her close. Must be nice to date someone who likes you and you like back. I'm marrying a stranger.
We walked away from the crowded area and went into a quieter room. "I think it's better not to have too much going on all at once. I'll bring her over. She's with my mom" he told me before exiting the room. It looked like some type of study I was standing in. Two glass doors could be shut to break up the space.
I looked around at my surroundings but stayed put. I don't wanna come off as snooping. That's probably frowned upon in a mobsters house.
Suddenly I heard the quick footsteps of a running child. I heard Enzo telling her to slow down, but she ran into the room just the same. This tiny little thing looked all Italian from head to toe. All the features. And she had eyes like her father's that caramel honey type color.
She's actually damn cute with chubby rosy cheeks. She stopped just in front of me in her little ruby red party dress, and looked up.
"Daisy, this is daddy's friend I was telling you about" he finally entered the room just after her. Daisy's big eyes looked me up and down, and I wasn't sure if she was about to run away crying or what. Instead she cracked a cute smile.
"Hi," she said simply. "Hello" I waved back.
I wasn't around many kids growing up. When my mom left my dad she also left a lot of family behind. It was her only choice and that meant I didn't have a 'family' growing up. Just me and mom, and the friends we collected moving all over the country every few years.
When Enzo knelt down on one knee to be at her level I figured I should do the same. The little girl looked me over again, as did Enzo. "Her name is Lexi," he told her. "Wexi," she repeated. I wanted to laugh at the way she said it.
"Close enough" Enzo chuckled, looking at me. I shrugged and looked back at the kid.
"It's nice to meet you" I held out a hand to shake her little one. She let me. "My auntie's having a baby" she decided to announce to me. "I know. I saw" I tried for a kid friendly voice without being annoying.
I just didn't want to be dry with the kid. I'm not an animal.
"Do you have a baby?" She asked me. I almost snorted in the kid's face. "I do not," I addressed that quickly. Enzo looked at me as he stood from his knelt position. "She's been obsessed with the topic of baby's recently. Since finding out about my sister" he explained. I just nodded and stood up too.
The little girl took her dad's hand in hers. Cute and all that, but I'm not made to be a step mother. One day, sure, but I'm 20 years old. I want nothing less than a kid right now.
"Are you coming over?" She asked me after a second. I'm glad she spoke because an awkward lull came between us adults. "Not today, beautiful" Enzo answered his daughter before I could. She nodded and promptly left the room.
"Well, that's Daisy," he chuckled. I was momentarily stuck. What do I say? How do I handle this?
"Look, I know you're young. We'll figure shit out one day at a time, huh?" Enzo nudged me trying to lighten the mood. I pressed a forced smile and nodded okay. When we walked out of the room together we walked right into Anthony coming down the stairs from the second floor.
"Bathroom had a line" he thumbed over to a different area downstairs where I presume the bathroom is. All three of us kind of sussed each other out for a second. Anthony was studying us and it made me squirm.
"I just met your niece," I told him. I could see behind his eyes he was thinking about the first day we met. That's what he called her. But maybe Enzo doesn't. He called Giana an aunt, but he didn't call Anthony an uncle.
I quickly corrected myself. "Or...sorry, I keep forgetting you aren't brothers."
Anthony continued looking at me and I wished I knew what he was thinking. "He calls her his niece anyway. You were right" Enzo let me know.
"A lot of new information to learn. I doubt it's easy" Anthony finally spoke. He made it down the stairs and was now standing in front of us. We stood casually side by side. "Yeah, I'm lost in translation over here" I made a joke. He chuckled. Enzo just stood there.
Anthony and I quickly looked away from each other and back at our common point. Enzo.
"See you outside" Anthony said to his cousin before dismissing himself from the room. We walked back into the general area and I was quickly summoned by my father, which meant I could leave Enzo's side. My father had a drink in his hand and looked bored as all hell.
"We're leaving," he informed me. Fantastic. One thing we agree on. Leaving.
There were too many people around so I gave a general wave goodbye outside, then the living room, but was caught up by Mia telling me to hold on. She left Dom's side and clasped hands with me.
"This was such a surprise, but it's actually a relief not to have to hide this part of my life with someone. It was great working with you and Sammi. Let's hang out soon" she told me.
"Sure" was all I said. When I saw my father at the archway into the other room I excused myself and the only other person I had to say bye to was Mr. Rizzo. Then we were off the hook.
As soon as we got into the car my father and brother's were talking shit about everyone. In their eyes if you aren't Russian you aren't shit. "If you don't like them, why did you wanna marry me off to them?" I asked from the back seat. They stopped talking and looked at me.
"You've said enough today, don't you think?" Dmitriy warned me, then told my father about my outburst about Daisy. He twisted around to really look at me.
"You embarrass me and I'll smack you good" Vitaly warned me venomously. I grit my teeth and looked out the window for the rest of the drive. Screw them.
At the very end of the drive I spoke up once to request the driver drop me off at my apartment. My brothers scowled, but my father intervened. "Go ahead, go. Pout outta my sight. Boris is going with you" he spat at me.
In my lap I secretly gave him the finger because I knew he couldn't see it. Childish, but I gotta get my kicks somewhere. I can't do much so a subtle fuck you is better than nothing.
In the words of Scarface,
Fuck you, fuck you, Boris you're cool, and fuck you. I'm out!