My Sundays were starting to get good, and by that I mean, they were starting to be less and less busy. I had developed a little routine for myself.
I would wake up, take Bandit for a walk (my mafia men were watching, but I pretended that they weren't), then I'd make myself breakfast, and do whatever else I had to do to keep myself busy until evening came. That's when it got really good to me.
All the good tv was on at night, just when Angelo got back to the apartment after a long day of doing...criminal stuff. I'd sit on the couch, usually with Bandit sprawled out in my lap, until Angelo was ready to settle down and watch tv with me.
This next part brings me to where we are right now though.
Still on the couch with Bandit to the side, and now a fast asleep Angelo, taking up the entire length of the couch.
My show was almost over, but I didn't want to wake Angelo up by moving out from underneath him, so as soon as it ended, I flipped through the channels in search of something else. Since it was nearing midnight though, almost nothing was on but the eleven o'clock news.
So I adulted. Kind of like I've had to do for the past couple of months now. Who knew bringing a small life into the world was such a pain in the side? It shouldn't be so difficult.
And if you didn't get the sarcasm in that, well, shame on you.
I was in my first trimester, almost second now though, and I've already been to more doctors appointments than I've ever been to in my whole life. I shouldn't have had to go so often, but I found out I had anemia, so I had to go a lot more than I originally signed up for.
Baby criceto or criceta was still thriving though.
I didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. I was supposed to find out a couple days ago, but Angelo just had to cancel and that appointment hasn't been rescheduled yet.
I wasn't even sure if I wanted to know because then I'd have the rest of the pregnancy to worry...if it was a boy.
The mafia Family was kind of like a monarchy. The next boss was usually the next male in the immediate family of the current boss. If I had a son, he would without a doubt in the world have to take over Angelo's spot as soon as he saw fit. And I didn't want that.
Having a girl would just be so much easier, so that's what I hoped for.
Angelo groaned and tiredly put his arm over his eyes to block the dim light of the living room out, "Turn the television down...please."
I looked around for the remote and quickly found it under a sleeping Bandit's paw. I loved that dog, incase you couldn't tell. I wasn't ever really a big fan of dogs after Sienna got a puppy on her fifth (?) birthday. Her name was Coco Chanel, and she was the most annoying/angry little dog in the world.
My dad used to call me Coco Chanel because he claimed I was a drama queen, so my grandma, being the witch that she is, decided to take something I was perfectly ok with, and ruin it by getting Sienna a terrible little dog.
Bandit was great though because he was a minimalist and he didn't annoy the living hell out of me. He also came in handy a little bit because as he got older, he went through "guard dog training". He was still pretty much a puppy, but he was one badass puppy, and he was only going to get better.
I got the remote and tried to turn it down, but ended up getting drawn into what was on the news.
And that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
"Angelo!" I yelled just before turning the tv way up.
"Silver Enterprises CEO and millionaire Austin Cruise, launches nationwide manhunt for eighteen year old daughter, Chloe," the man on the news said.
I gave Angelo a weird look as he struggled to wake up.
"An inside source says that the estranged teen was forced out of the family home and taken hostage by what some believe to be the notorious Rossi mafia family, based in Manhattan."
Well, I wasn't there long.
"The Cruise family is asking for your help. If you've seen Chloe, please call 911."
"Interessante," Angelo mumbled, "We'll worry about this tomorrow, criceta, but for now," he held his arms out, "Amami. Love me."
"It's kind of hard to think about anything other than this. I'm sorry," I said before crawling into his open arms. "Right when I think things are going great, another obstacle gets in my way."
"Shhh, just don't think about it right now. We'll do that tomorrow."
"But-"
"Sh!"
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I went into the mafia house with Angelo the next morning. My endless "nagging" really got on his nerves yesterday and he was up all night making phone calls to countless people. I didn't understand a single word being said though because he refused to speak a lick of English.
I walked into Angelo's office right behind him and sat down in the chair that I knew he was going to take. He gave me a defeated look and remained standing as he emptied his coat pocket onto the desk.
"So, are you going to tell me your plan now? You know, the one you said not to worry about? Well I'm worrying about it."
"Relax, amore mia, I think you'll actually like this one."
The way he said that made me feel like I was going to hate this more than life itself, "Can you just tell me please?"
He sighed, "Fine. Only because I like you...a little too much," his arms slid around me and pulled me into a standing position just long enough for him to reclaim his chair. I fell into his lap shortly after. "You may have seen it laying around here somewhere, maybe in the bathroom or maybe even in the living room, but our small family of mafiosi have a...newsletter-"
I interrupted him mid sentence, "Ok, and? What's so important about that?"
"If you'd let me finish for once, maybe you'd know," he paused just to give me an unsatisfied look, "I'll have a photographer snap a picture of you with this," he grabbed my hand with my wedding ring, "And this," with his free hand he gently touched the bump. "Then, someone will write a magnifico little story about your life these past couple of months, not giving too much away of course. And once all else is complete, someone in the outside world will mysteriously stumble upon this document and see that you are not in the wrong hands."
I gave him a crazy look.
"Just kidding. I can tell a good story though, can I not, criceta? I have something else in mind."
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Hey everyone,
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What's Angelo planning?
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