27. Antonio
It’s five in the morning, and Antonio is thinking about all the boxes he could fill with all the items women have “accidentally” left at his previous apartments and loft over the years. The lipstick, purses, the pantyhose, contact lenses, the eyelashes—even a retainer.
But he never keeps those things; he gets rid of them one way or another, whether it’s reuniting them with their owners, or tossing them out.
Not this bracelet, though. Antonio took it off himself because Alex didn’t want to chip her obscenely priced nails. He remembers the way she giggled as his fingertips brushed her wrist, making him tickle her again just to hear her laugh. He remembers looking at the matching pieces on her ears and right hand, wondering if it was a gift from herself, her parents, or someone else.
She’d remembered to take everything but the bracelet and that red underwear Antonio found a day later (he obviously wasn’t concerned with where they landed then).
So now he’s the one hoping she’ll call to ask about them. Or maybe just show up to get them, and he can…well, that’s the where the train of thought ends.
“I like you too much” wasn’t the best choice of words, in hindsight. They seemed safe at the time, capturing his sentiment and his struggle. A part of Antonio always thought if they let this thing between them run its course, it’d fizzle out like any other. But it turned into a wildfire.
Their argument doused most of the flame, leaving them to walk around and try to avoid the embers.
They haven’t talked since Antonio went to Tech Me Out twelve days ago, when he ran into him. This TJ went from being a name in Alex’s phone, to a face in her store, and who knows what else, now. Antonio didn’t get that kind of vibe from him, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t there.
TJ doesn’t look like anybody he’d hire or associate with in general. He looks like he’s never gotten as much as a parking ticket. Like he checks on the meter an hour before time runs out. That’s probably a good thing, for Alex.
Antonio sets her bracelet on his coffee table and lies on the couch. He closes his eyes and tries to think of nothing. Not Alex, not TJ, not even work. That doesn’t pan out, so he tries counting to one thousand, losing count of how many times he loses count.
And then it’s eight-thirty. Not nearly time to be at the club, but there’s no way he’s finding sleep. He feels woozy, like he’s coming off back to back shots of whiskey.
He showers and changes, and while he’s making coffee, his phone flashes.
FRANKIE: UN.KUL TT KAWL ME IT ME YURI IMPORTANT
Antonio laughs as he imagines his niece’s texting process. He has a few questions, but he does as requested.
Yuri answers after two rings. “See, I told you Daddy, I told you!”
Told him what, who knows. “What’s up, kid?” Antonio asks.
“So, um, uh, today is the—wait.” There’s a thud, like she’s set the phone down. Then there’s some muffled talking. Then it’s quiet. “Today is the fun-razer,” she over-enunciates, “for our last field trip.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Ya. So you gotta come. I’ll make Daddy send you the flyer, bye!”
A conversation on par for the course with her. Nothing keeps Yuri’s attention for long. Since she doesn’t ask for much, looks like Antonio will be attending this “fun-razer”.
He receives the text advertising the event: a family-friendly afternoon with all kinds of games and activities, vendors, and caterers, like Frankie’s culinary team. It starts in two hours, so Antonio feels like getting there in three and a half is reasonable.
Three hours and eleven minutes, to be precise.
He arrives at a pretty nice-looking building. It’s clean, and free of graffiti. It has rental bikes lined against the wall by the entrance, and balloons and a bubble machine floating over the attendees as they walk inside. Giant arrows are everywhere, supporting the self-guided open house, and Antonio heads to the gym where almost everything is situated.
He looks around for a bit, and just as he readies to send a text that he can’t find anyone, Yuri bounces up to him.
“Are your parents in here?”
She pulls a taffy from her mouth. “Yeah. We all saw you. But Daddy shrugged and Mommy just went like this.” Yuri waves her hand dismissively. “They didn’t think you would come. But I told ‘em you would. This way!”
Antonio follows his niece past a ton of tables over to Frankie’s. She shoos him over the rest of the way before abandoning him, leaving the brothers to an awkward silence. That’s saying something, considering they’re in a room full of noise.
“I was looking for you guys everywhere.”
Frankie rolls his eyes and finally breaks his silence. “You knucklehead. We watched you. You literally stood in the corner of the room and turned your head from left to right. Once.”
“It’s still looking.”
“Tch.”
“What are you mad for?”
“What do you think I’m mad for?” Frankie crosses his arms and walks over to an empty area under a basketball hoop. Antonio joins him. “I’ve been calling you for over a week now. I guess I should at least be glad to know you’ll always show up for the kids.”
“I’m…sorry.”
Frankie’s brow flicks up, then he nods, slowly. “What actually happened?”
Antonio leans against the wall. “Too much. I still can’t even… There was Chelsea. Then Komarov. And that dumb-ass security guard.”
“What security guard?”
Antonio is surprised Frankie hasn’t heard about it all by now, whether from Yuna, or the gossip circuit. He quickly runs through the chain of events.
“Damn.”
“Yeah. Still. She… We had a great time after the Ball. She’s in my kitchen the next morning. She’s cooking me breakfast. And then,” —he whistles and makes the sound of a bomb exploding— “it just hits me.”
“What?”
“Everything. And Komarov’s shady-ass dig didn’t help.”
Frankie puts his hands in his pockets. “What do you think he could have said?”
“No idea.”
That was the problem. Komarov could have said anything. His currency of preference is information, and he spends it however he pleases. So, if he wanted to plant further doubt in Alex’s head by mentioning one of Antonio’s transgressions, he would have had plenty to choose from.
Komarov could start with when Antonio was fourteen, when some cop accused him of stealing a little kid’s bike. Antonio had nothing to do with it, but he didn’t like the way the cop talked to him, so he stole his car, lights flashing and all, and crashed it into a fire hydrant.
Komarov might know about when Antonio was seventeen, when a classmate tried to jump him because he was jealous of the money Antonio was making selling drugs on school grounds. Even in an ambush, Antonio had the advantage, repaying him with an orbital fracture and a broken arm.
A few years after that, fresh into his role as Pinnacle’s assistant manager, Antonio sent an underwriter into cardiac arrest. His loan terms weren’t acceptable, and Antonio insisted he reconsider. He didn’t even touch the man, but his threats to his job and family apparently intimidated him so much that his heart couldn’t take it. The paramedics didn’t arrive in time to save him.
On paper, Donny and Nathan may have made all that go away, but it still happened. That’s why it’s not just the Komarovs of the world Antonio wants to protect Alex from. It’s him, too.
“Tony…”
Antonio shrugs. “Is she coming?”
“No,” Yuna says, approaching with a cone of ice cream. “…Sorry.” She looks genuinely apologetic.
“It’s for the best.”
“Bullshit,” she mumbles.
“Excuse me?”
“Both of you are miserable right now and it’s so stupid.” Yuna’s left hand tightens into a ball. “I barely had a chance to know Donny, but he always, always had this…thing about him.” She rubs her elbow. “It’s what I thought being in a room with a serial killer would be like. I don’t get that with you. And I would never let you around my kids if I felt you were a danger to them. And how can you want to be around them if you’re so sure you’re this walking tornado?”
“That’s different. And I don’t really want to keep talking about it.”
“Oh well, knucklehead. Maybe don’t fall off the face of the Earth for two weeks again,” Frankie scolds.
“You can make it up to all of us by making it up to Al,” Yuna says. “I don’t know how you top a car, though.”
“Trip to Fiji?” Frankie asks, and Antonio immediately tunes out of the conversation, staring at an orange, foil balloon sinking to the floor.
Alex will be fine without him.