20. Luca
20
LUCA
E very part of me is shaking, terrified of the pit I’ve just dug myself into and praying that it won’t end up as my grave after this. Dominic stands beside me equally as frozen, still searching for some kind of an answer to my question.
“Dom?” I ask him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“Tell me what?” Sofia asks, growing even more concerned and impatient.
“Yeah, okay…” Dominic murmurs as he prepares himself to explain.
I can’t believe we thought we would be able to keep this a secret. With how much our secrecy and plans have been falling apart recently, it’s a miracle we lasted this long. Angelo held our affair over our heads, and it almost ruined everything. I think it’s best that we come out on our own terms and not anybody else's.
“Mom,” Dominic begins with a heavy sigh. “Luca and I, we’re kind of dating…”
He grabs hold of my hand and squeezes it tightly, scrunching up his face as he starts to already flinch against what’s to come next.
“That’s right. We’ve been seeing each other in secret, but it’s about time we tell the truth,” I confess to Sofia.
“I see,” she says, taking everything in with an almost unsettling level of composure. “So you’re the one that let my son go through all of this?”
“No, Mom,” Dominic interjects. “It’s not like that.”
“But it is,” I blurt out. “I put him through dangerous situations countless times, and I’m sorry.”
“Look at what’s happened to him. Do you think sorry can make up for that?” Sofia demands.
“And look at what’s happened to him!” Dominic roars as he shoves me toward her. “ He’s been through just as much as me being wrapped up in all of this, if not more.” Dominic steps forward, guiding me alongside him so that we’re both closer to his mother. “Sure, he’s got me into some bad situations, but he’s gotten me out of even more.” He chuckles slightly to himself. “I’ve lost count of all the times Luca’s come charging into the most dangerous of situations just so that he can drag me back out of them.”
Sofia’s hardened exterior starts to crack, the sharp shell beginning to expose the caring motherly figure that I’m more used to waiting beneath it.
“I don’t care if you don’t approve of us being together and you end up doing whatever you can to stop us,” Dominic snarls. “But don’t you dare act like he doesn’t care about me for even a second.”
Dominic pants out short heavy breaths, still fighting to settle the brewing anger inside of him. I gently squeeze his hand, reminding him that I’m right here beside him. I feel the rapid pulsing of his hammering heartbeat against my fingertips, its rhythm slowly starting to slow down .
“I do care about your son, Mrs. Rossi,” I assure her. “I care about him a lot.”
“Good,” she finally speaks again. “Because I care about him a whole lot more, and I promise you that it won’t end well for you if you end up hurting him.”
“I’m willing to accept that risk,” I reply nervously.
“Come here,” she says. “Both of you.”
Letting her cold front fade away, she embraces both of us in a warm hug and holds us tightly against her, ignoring all of our pained groans and attempts to pull away sooner than she wanted.
Looking down at her in the embrace, I have to say that I underestimated Sofia, like many others have done before me. Just because she likes to project this warm, caring figure most of the time, it doesn’t mean that she can’t get serious and downright intimidating when she has to. I suppose that’s what makes her such a good parent. She’s like a mother bear: warm and soft when she needs to be, but prepared to tear someone to shreds at any moment if they endanger her young. It’s certainly better than my father, a man more akin to a bird pushing its child from a tree branch and expecting it to fly all on its own. Well, he pushed me from the highest branch long ago, and after hitting the hard ground over and over, I’m ready to fly now.
“Alright,” she says while eventually letting us go. “Of course I support you two. I haven’t seen you passionate like this in quite some time.” Sofia smiles and gently pats Dominic’s shoulder. “But I can’t tell you that everyone will be the same. You’re both in a tough world now, and you’ll both need to be ready for it.”
“We know, Mom,” Dominic assures her.
“Anyway, we have each other to get through it,” I say with a smile overtaking my face.
Sofia smiles back at me and gives us both a slight nod of approval before making her way toward the room off to the side where Gianni went off to before.
“Mom,” Dominic calls after her. “Can you not tell Gianni about this yet? I’m going to tell him, but I don’t think now is the best time.”
“Of course,” she responds simply, walking away and disappearing through the door .
Dominic sighs like it’s the first breath he’s taken since his family got home. “Well, that went better than I expected.
“Your mom’s nice,” I tell him, my voice cracking slightly.
“What’s wrong?” Dominic asks, his face showing all of his worry.
I bite my lip, hating the bitter taste of the words about to come out of my mouth. “My dad…I don’t know if he’ll be as easy to convince as her,” I mutter.
“Luca, don’t worry,” Dominic tries to assure me. “We don’t have to tell him until you’re ready.”
“I think we have to tell him soon,” I admit. “We can’t let him find out on his own. We need to be there to explain everything.”
“Alright. When do you want to do this?”
I take my time to think. I know that we should probably get this over and done with as soon as possible, but the idea of doing it terrifies me. We are both still recovering from everything so far. Could confessing to my dad be the final thing that makes us collapse?
However, if the Grecos get to him first to get one final spite-fueled hit back at us, they can not only expose Dominic and me, but he won’t know about their betrayal and could take it out on him without him being prepared.
“Can we go over there now?” I ask him. “I’m still worried about the Grecos. He doesn’t know what happened with them last night, and I can’t be sure that they won’t go after him for revenge.”
“Alright. We’ll go now,” he agrees. “I’ll ask my brother for his keys.”
Standing beside him, I wait for him to go ask, expecting him to chase them into the side room and talk to him there, but I am quickly reminded of the ways of the Rossis.
“Hey, Gianni!” he yells into the next room. “I need your car!”
His brother crashes through the door and leans against the frame. “Why?” he groans. “Where are you taking your boyfriend?”
“Did Mom tell you?” Dominic demands.
His brother laughs. “No, you just talk loud when you’re being dramatic.”
“Just shut up and give me your keys.”
The way that they talk and argue is almost childish, sounding like little kids fighting in some meaningless sibling squabble. They have tried so hard to appear more mature in the past, wanting to make sure people like my dad or Antonio Greco took them seriously, but when it’s just them being brothers, it’s like they’re still children. I have to admit it’s endearing. Growing up, I didn’t have any siblings or close friends my age, and so I never had this kind of dynamic with anyone.
“Fine. Just don’t scratch my car or I’ll call the Grecos on you,” he says, halfway between a joke and an honest threat.
Tossing his keys over, Gianni already walks away from the whole situation and leaves us to it. Dominic rolls his eyes and shakes his head to himself, clearly hating having to put up with his brother, but still doing so anyway.
My family would never.
“Come on.” Dominic ushers me toward the door. “Before you change your mind.”
Dominic drives us both through Montcove, taking the streets at a far more calm and relaxed pace than I’ve gotten accustomed to over these last few days. Every time I’ve had to go anywhere recently, it has been a race against time, speeding dangerously around street corners and weaving between the other cars on the road to get to whatever emergency had arisen.
Today, we can take things slow, though, actually enjoy the drive and the quiet scenario of the city. Usually, this place seems so hectic, so to just be able to sit back in the passenger seat and let Dominic take control is a nice change of pace.
The passenger window is cracked open slightly, letting the cool breeze blow through it and on my face, soothing the warm aches of my bruises. I take long, deep breaths of the wind into my lungs and hold it in there to settle my stomach.
“You okay?” Dom asks me, glancing across to me briefly.
I take a few moments to answer. “Everything has been a lot recently. It’s just nice to have a moment to take it all in.”
“I get that,” he says slowly, taking a deep breath. “I can’t wait for this all to be over, so then we can just enjoy things for a while. ”
“Yeah…” Dominic looks over to me again. “What was that?”
“What was what?” “Luca, I thought we’ve been through enough to not hide things from each other anymore.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” I relent. “It’s just something your brother said.”
“Just ignore him. He’s an idiot,” he tries to assure me. “What even was it that he said?”
I wring my hands in my lap, already regretting getting into this conversation.
“Luca?” “It’s just, he called me your boyfriend…”
I know it’s a stupid thing to bring up, considering everything else we’ve been dealing with recently. Some dumb label that Dominic’s brother put on us as a joke means literally nothing. But Dom said it himself that we’ve been through enough together. This last week alone has felt like a trial through fire. Both of us have put our lives on the line to just try and keep the other safe. We’ve risked everything with our families to have a chance at staying together for just a little bit longer. Is it wrong for me to want to know what the hell that makes us ?
“Oh, wow…” Dominic says. “I mean, we just told your family about us, and now we’re already on the way to let my dad in on the secret,” I elaborate. “Shouldn’t we have some kind of idea what exactly we are?”
Dominic nods awkwardly, drumming his fingers against the wheel. “Alright…what do you think we are?” he asks with a slight falter in his voice.
Despite being the one to ask the question, I don’t really seem to have an answer. “I mean, we have only been doing…whatever it is we’ve been doing for a few days now, but don’t you think we’ve been through too much together to keep things casual?”
“It has been a real trial-by-fire kind of deal, hasn’t it?” He chuckles slightly.
That’s also not an answer. Neither one of us seems to want to be the one to put a label on our relationship. Neither me nor Dominic is willing to take the risk of being too forward and scaring the other away.
“And it’s not like we can go to my father and tell him that I’ve risked the safety and security of my entire family for some casual fling, can I?”
Dominic shoots a short puff of air through his nose as he bobs his head back and smiles. “Right, so you don’t think we’re casual then?” he asks me with his proud smile.
I have to hand it to him; he did get me there. He managed to duck away from having to answer my question and force me to answer it for myself.
“Fine,” I let up. “I really like you. Hell, I love you, Dom; I really do,” I confess. I know we’ve already passed that milestone and admitted our feelings to each other, but that was in the heat of passion. And after we both said it, we both kind of pulled away from talking about it anymore. “So maybe I wouldn’t mind us having a label.”
“Alright, so maybe I wouldn’t mind it either,” he admits. “And maybe I don’t exactly disagree with what my brother said.”
He blushes slightly as he tries to not look me in the eyes and uses the road ahead as an excuse to divert his attention.
“So, is that what we are then?” I ask him hesitantly.
“What?” he replies, playing dumb on purpose.
“You know,” I insist .
He tries his best to hide his cocky smile, keeping this bit going just to mess with me. “Why don’t you remind me?”
I roll my eyes and bite the bullet. I might as well get used to Dominic’s attempt at jokes. “Dominic Rossi, would you like to be my boyfriend?”
“Hmmm, I’m not too sure,” he replies with a failed attempt at holding back his laughter.
“Hilarious.” I groan, rolling my eyes and thumping him on the leg with my fist. “I’m being serious!”
“Okay, fine. I’m sorry.”
“That’s exactly what you want to hear, isn’t it?” I tell him sarcastically. “Okay fine,” I repeat.
“Oh, so now you’re making me look like an idiot.” He laughs.
I crack a small smile and side eye him from the passenger seat. “I don’t think that’s my fault, if I’m being honest.”
“Is this what dating you is going to be like?” he asks with an exaggerated sigh.
“So, we are dating then?” I blurt out, finally having won this weird back-and-forth game .
Dominic groans heavily, hanging his head down toward the steering wheel as he continues driving forward. “Don’t make me regret this,” he grumbles beneath my blanket of raucous laughter filling the entire car.