Chapter 28 – Gino
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Gino
Ihand Renzo a cigarette as he idly watches the projected scene across the rooftop bar. He leans forward expectantly and I light him up.
“You must be depressed.”
He grunts. Renzo hasn’t smoked since our last day in Italy.
“I’m fine.”
“So this has nothing to do with Geralynn moving out?”
“I said I’m fine.”
My brother’s efforts to sound threatening if I bring up this apparently forbidden topic does nothing to deter me. If he wants to ask me for advice about Geralynn, I expect him to be ready to hear advice he might not like.
“Setting her free didn’t bring her back to you?”
“Your advice got me a blowjob. Thanks.”
Renzo can’t possibly blame me for his inability to convince a woman he’s anything more than a cranky asshole with a list of vices half a mile long.
“I can’t fix your problems overnight.”
“You’re such a dick,” Renzo says, shaking his head as he ashes the cigarette over the edge of the bar. “And this negroni is trash.”
“Don’t say that. You know who made it, right?”
“Are you banging another bar skank?”
“No. Not yet.”
“You’re such an asshole.”
“You’re single, right? I’ll warm her up for you and you can take your mind off things.”
“Not in the mood.”
Renzo stares idly over the horizon at a skyline that really isn’t much to look at except for a strange few minutes at sunset, which is a long way off in the dead of summer.
“What kind of Italian man isn’t in the mood to fuck?” I press him, mostly because Renzo deserves me being a dick to him once in a while. Also because I’m tired of listening to him get all fucked up over Geralynn without doing a fucking thing to win her over.
It’s obvious to anyone with a brain that Renzo has a deep fixation with her, probably because he can’t figure out why he’s so attracted to a woman he convinced himself stands for everything other than what he represents.
Our shared insights about each other as twins often lead to frustration.
I have to give him shit to keep from letting that frustration fuck with me.
“You take her if you need to fuck that bad.”
“I don’t need to. I have plenty of women on my roster if I need to fuck.”
Technically a couple of these women have me blocked and think I’m the world’s biggest asshole, but it isn’t that hard to find women who want to fuck a 6’5” Italian guy with blue eyes and a dick built like a Stanley thermos.
“So you’re done with the lotion and anime tits?” Renzo smirks at finally getting an edge over me by bringing up one of my more embarrassing memories from our childhood. He’s such a fucking asshole.
“That was once.”
Renzo’s smirk turns into a smile. He laughs and taps his cigarette on the railing again. “You jerked it to a cartoon, Gino.”
“Learn how to respect a locked door, you fucking asshole.”
“I’m never gonna let that go,” Renzo says, laughing louder. I know it takes seeing me in pain to make him laugh, but I let it slide because at least it’s better than him sulking over Geralynn.
“Fine. I don’t care. Maybe I’ll hit up Geralynn tonight now that she’s done with you.”
My brother’s mood shifts in an instant. The drink flowing through him doesn’t do much to stop him from getting pissed the fuck off over a pretty harmless joke.
“If you go near Geralynn, I’ll split your dick down the middle and fuck the hole with a sawed-off shotgun.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to tell her that you love her?”
His tone darkens considerably now that I’m broaching a sensitive subject like the woman he should have tried being nice to years ago.
“I tried that, you fucking baboon.”
“What, she didn’t care?”
Renzo tosses the cigarette over the edge of the balcony and shoves his empty glass across the table.
“That’s it, we’re done here.”
“Don’t be so sensitive,” I say to him, reminding him that if we can’t act tough, both of us are cooked.
“Did you invite me out to push my goddamn buttons?” Renzo asks me, smoothing his hair and looking at his seat like he doesn’t really want to leave, but he definitely wants me to shut the fuck up. I’ve never seen him this twisted up in knots over a woman.
“Geez, Renzo. You are such a prick. Have you ever considered that your unpredictable moods scare the crap out of her?”
“My moods aren’t unpredictable.”
“You’re a goddamn psycho.”
He pauses, reconsidering blowing this up further considering he needs me if he ever wants a chance at understanding the woman he loves. Renzo might share my physical characteristics but emotionally, we couldn’t differ more.
“It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t care. If you’re not going to drop it, I’m going home.”
He’s better off with her than without her. Nicki went about it in the most fucked up way and I think getting them drunk and alone in a room together would have been enough but… I’ll do the hard work of unraveling the complicated mess my sister got them both into.
“Sit your ass down and have a beer.”
Renzo shakes his head and I smile because he mutters, “Fuck…” And sits back in his seat again. No more escape, just plotting. What we do best. Spending all the time I have with Peter has given me an opportunity to learn how to think smarter.
“We need to do something diabolical to get your girl back.”
Renzo seems genuinely confused. “Like what?”
When he gestures for another cigarette, I hand it over. This is just like our schemes back in Italy – sitting on a balcony, smoking and drinking, plotting how we were going to take over the world. This is a lot easier than that, right?
“How did you get her to fall for you in the first place?” I ask him.
“She didn’t fall for me,” Renzo says with a scowl. “That’s the point.”
“She just climbed into your bed for one last fuck then?”
My brother contemplates my question for a moment, but he can’t seem to decide what to think or what to say.
“I don’t know how to undo the way Nicki brought us together. She thinks I’m there for her out of obligation but… I’m there because I love her.”
“Is that what she wants then? Proof?”
“How much more proof does she need? I… Never mind.”
Knowing my brother, he did something fucked up like shoving a banana up her ass while dribbling papaya juice over her pussy lips and licking them clean to prove to her that he had feelings for her.
“If it’s more than sex, she wants to see that you’re there for more than sex.”
“I don’t understand. We spent every minute together.”
“Except after the contract ended.”
Renzo scowls. He hates feelings of any kind and this emotional state reduces his control over both himself and the situation. For a man like my brother, control is everything, but it’s also utterly absent in the field of romance.
“I love her for far more than the sex. She knows that.”
“Then keep showing her. Show her after the baby comes. Show her even if she never returns your feelings.”
Renzo raises an eyebrow. “Eventually, I’ll snap and tie her to the bed.”
“Don’t.”
Renzo shrugs. “I’m not that patient.”
“If you love her, you’ll find a way to wait.”
“Shut the fuck up, Oprah.”
“More like Dr. Phil, since you’re a fucking psycho.”
“Whatever.”
“Are you going to take my advice?” I ask my brother as we tilt the mugs of beer to our lips at the same time. He smiles, but he doesn’t answer.