One | Massimo
One
Massimo
FIVE YEARS LATER.. .
Boston's most popular men's club was closed for the evening, but this came as no surprise to virtually any resident of the city.
La Tana, which was Italian for 'the lair', was owned by Potenziana Marchetti, and tomorrow was her grandson Cesare's wedding. Tonight's private function could only be Cesare's bachelor party, but as for what exactly was taking place within La Tana's luxuriously masculine premises...
That was why members of the paparazzi had been hanging outside the club since morning. The only invited guests seemed to be Cesare's brothers...plus a Michelin-starred chef who had flown from Tokyo and headed straight to La Tana from the airport.
The night wore on, and those still waiting outside the club began feeling restless. Any and every attempt to bribe employees into taking photos was completely rejected, and with the club's security armed to the teeth, no one had been foolish or desperate enough to even think of sneaking in.
"Something wonderfully fucked-up must be happening inside," one of the reporters muttered suspiciously, and the others nodded in agreement.
"What do you think it could be?"
The question, albeit absently tossed out by one of the photographers, unexpectedly led to a round of betting.
I'm thinking some of those girls we saw entering the club weren't really employees but strippers in disguise.
Nah, Cesare Marchetti always plays it smart. I'm going to bet they've got strippers performing online, and everything's anonymous.
You all have no fucking imagination. Dude's a billionaire, so strippers are too fucking basic. I'd bet a thousand bucks they're holding a virginity auction inside, and winner gets to do the girl in front of everyone.
The conjectures became increasingly outrageous from that point on, but what no one would ever correctly guess was how all of them were completely wrong.
Rather than being the wildly debauched party that everyone assumed it would be, Cesare's last night was simply a chance for the bridegroom and his half-brothers to talk and catch up, and instead of booze and drugs, the four ruggedly handsome men were seated around a teppanyaki table and enjoying the highest grade of wagyu that money could buy.
But as for the most eccentric thing that was currently taking place within the heavily guarded walls of La Tana...
"Just get everything off your chest, fratello... "
A faint grimace touched Massimo's features at Cesare's blunt invitation for him to bare his soul. Tomorrow would be his very first time playing best man at someone's wedding, just like tonight was his first time hosting a bachelor party on his brother's behalf. But be that as it may, even Massimo knew it was not normal at all for the best man - instead of the bridegroom - to get cold fucking feet the night before the wedding.
What the hell was wrong with him?
"There is no one else you can talk to but us," Giancarlo reminded him in his usual mild tone of pragmatism. "It is not as if you can simply book a session with a shrink and tell them things. We are famiglia, after all."
While their eldest brother made a fairly good point, Massimo was still reluctant to speak of his complicated relationship with Ynez. But since one of the most important rules in their famiglia was to never keep secrets from each other, no matter how inconsequential or, in this case, uncomfortable—-
"Ynez has been pressuring me to marry her for some time now."
Cesare frowned. "Do you not wish to marry her?"
"Will you still have chosen to marry Penelope right away," Massimo challenged, "if not for the arrangement between our famiglie ?"
His soon-to-be-married brother looked at him oddly. " Certo ." Of course.
That the groom-to-be answered him so swiftly and without hesitation had Massimo in disbelief. "Davvero?" Seriously? He turned to Giancarlo, asking, "And you and Sarica?"
"I would've married her long ago if she were willing," their eldest brother affirmed with a shrug.
"Well, fuck."
Ezio was content to keep quiet, being the only one who had neither a girlfriend nor an arranged bride to disturb his perfectly organized life. He knew his turn to marry for famiglia would eventually come, but it would not be for any time soon, hopefully. Women were just too much trouble, and it was simply easier all around to only bed those who were openly after his money.
"What do you have against marriage, Mas?" Giancarlo asked finally.
"Nothing."
"Then it is Ynez you have a problem with?" Cesare's tone was skeptical. "I still remember how you were five years ago when she was still your mystery girl."
"I remember those days, too," Ezio felt obliged to add. "You described her as if she were the girl of your dreams—-"
"I never said she isn't that anymore."
Cesare exchanged looks with his other brothers. The stiffness of Massimo's tone made their brother sound as if he was feeling guilty and unable to accept the truth, rather than feeling offended on his girlfriend's behalf.
Giancarlo looked at his younger brother more closely. "If it is neither marriage nor Ynez that is keeping you from proposing to her, then what exactly is the problem? You cannot be worried about Nonna, surely? She has made it clear that she will not force us to marry another woman if we have already found someone before she's picked a bride."
" Nonna has nothing to do with my feelings about marriage. It's something else." Massimo's jaw clenched as he tried to find the words that would not paint his lover in a bad light. "It is as if Ynez has... changed , and the girl I met the first time was a complete illusion."
"How you two met was not typical," Giancarlo reminded him. "Might it be possible that you've unfairly placed Ynez on a pedestal because of it?"
Even though Massimo could see the sense in his brother's words, his guts told him that was not the problem entirely between him and Ynez.
While the two of them had dated on and off for years, it had never felt completely right between them, the way it had...the first time they had met. But because Ynez was also everything he wanted in a woman (and in Massimo's case, this simply meant Ynez was everything his gold-digging mother was not), he had convinced himself that it would be entirely unrealistic to ask for more.
"Do you think it is possible that something might have happened—-some life-changing incident," Ezio suggested, "and that could have caused her to change?"
Fuck.
Only one thing came to mind as soon as he heard his older brother's words. Ynez's childhood, like his, was no walk in the park. Not only had her father died early, also like his, but Ynez had a traumatic incident when she was still in high school...and Massimo could see why such an incident might cause Ynez to act like a completely different person at times.
CESARE AND PENELOPE'S wedding the next day was both a joyous and bittersweet occasion for Massimo to witness. As he and Cesare were of the same age but born to different mothers, the two of them had been pitted constantly against each other, and they had not been the best of friends growing up.
Adulthood, however, had changed all of that. The two of them had become thick as thieves, and no one knew better than Massimo how incredible it was for Cesare to end up falling in love with his arranged bride.
It was after over an hour of dancing that one of the family-owned choppers came to pick up the newlyweds, and since the bride and groom were no longer with them, Massimo was also ready to call it a night.
But just as he was about to get to his feet, La Strega came over to the table he shared with his brothers, and the look on her still-lovely face had Massimo knowing right away something was up.
"May we speak in private, Massimo?"
A request from his grandmother was never truly a request, and Massimo obligingly walked the older woman to one of the private balconies circling the ballroom.
"Why do I have a feeling this isn't going to be good?" he asked her teasingly.
"Because you take after me," she answered archly.
"Conscienceless?"
"Intuitive."
A crooked smile touched Massimo's lips as he stepped back from his grandmother. "Since it is not your style to waste time on flattering any of your grandsons—-what you're about to command me to do must be something incredibly important."
Since Potenziana saw no point beating around the bush, she simply met her grandson's gaze and said her piece.
"I have found a bride for you."
A muscle started ticking in Massimo's jaw. He had known this day would come sooner or later, but wasn't this a little too soon?
"Her parents and I expect both of you to be married in a fortnight."
"Am I allowed to know who she is before our wedding?"
"You already know her," La Strega answered with a shrug. "Ynez—-"
Massimo blinked. Seriously?
"She has an older sister, sì? Ysabel—-"
Massimo stared at his grandmother in disbelief. "Are you fucking—-"
"Language, per favore!"
"You can't be serious!"
"I am, very."
"Isn't this a little too much, even for you, Nonna? "
"Are you saying you will not obey me on this?"
A moment passed...and then Massimo was inclining his head in mocking assent. "Certo che no, Nonna." Of course not. "It will be as you wish, as always."
"If it means anything—-Ynez will get over losing you." But Potenziana could not say the same for Ysabel...if this marriage did not work out.
Massimo politely excused himself soon after, but the older woman stayed on the balcony, needing to be alone with her thoughts.
The two sisters were as different as day and night, and truth be told...
Buon Dio, I have indeed turned into a meddling old woman.
She would never have chosen the older girl for Massimo...if she had not accidentally found out about Ysabel's feelings for him.
Now it is your turn, bambina.
Potenziana could only hope Ysabel would succeed in stealing her grandson's heart...or it was the girl's own heart that Massimo would end up breaking instead.