Chapter 12 Lasting Friendships
Lasting Friendships
I stand outside Leanne’s door and knock.
Rudy and Chesty wait down the hall, leaning like the bikers they are. Both of them wear leather jackets, dark jeans, and black shirts. Doesn’t help their case much. Not to mention them being the two biggest guys on the Crew, mass and muscle wise.
“You’ve never looked more mobster ‘til now,” I comment.
“We’re lovable,” Chesty retorts.
The rest of the morning was, well, quiet enough.
I stayed in Leo’s office with him. We were both shaken.
Not just that we thought Isaac could betray us, but the fact we went there in the first place.
Paranoia was already running deep, and this just pushed it deeper.
A phone call from Renato didn’t help either.
Owen kept giving me worried glances as Leo argued in Italian with his uncle.
I could only catch a few words here and there.
The door finally opens with Leanne standing in lounge pants and a knit sweater. I give her a faint smile. “Hey.”
“Hey, can we…” she glances down the hall towards the other two, “…they just gonna hover?”
“Probably. He’s still here?” She nods. “I want to talk to him, before anyone else, not about you two, other things.”
“He told me,” she sighs, opening the door more. A grimace comes over me. Leanne grabs my arm gently, leading me inside. “Come on, you two do have a lot to talk about. As for the other two, do you want…I don’t know coffee? Beer?”
“It’s 9am,” I say. She shrugs.
“We’re good,” Chesty answers. “Wait here for ya, sister.” Rudy grunts in agreement.
Leanne hums as she closes the door. I step into her one-bedroom apartment, the living room bigger than my old one with a nice window view showing another apartment complex.
Her kitchen takes up one side, whilst her bedroom and bathroom are on the other.
She repainted once her landlord gave the okay, making it a sage green with white trim, matching her dark floorboards.
Her place always gave a sense of peace, not to mention all the plants she keeps.
I turn to face her, both of us giving a look of longing. Not even a second later, we crash into each other, hugging tightly.
“It’s been forever,” I whisper her usual line.
“Only two weeks.” Longest fucking two weeks ever.
We tighten our hold, standing silently. Finally, we pull away, both of us sniffling a little.
“He’s still sleeping. Up late. Talk first? I’ve got juice.” I follow her into the kitchen, glimpsing at her closed bedroom door.
I sit at her small table, while she grabs orange juice and glasses, and then sits with me. We’re quiet as she pours two glasses. “Long couple weeks,” she murmurs.
“You’ve no idea,” I mutter.
“We weren’t planning on sleeping together, by the way. It just…”
I shake my head. “Honestly, I don’t care, meaning… I won’t interfere. Kind of rooting for you two anyways.”
“Really?”
I shrug. “You’re flirting was obvious and obnoxious.”
A snort of laughter is shared between us as I look up at my longtime friend. She smiles, relaxing into her seat more.
“He’s a good guy,” I say softly.
“That brings up the question…” she leans onto the table, “…you thought he double-crossed you?”
Seeing Leanne, it’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, I groan and lean over her table, lightly tapping my head against the wood. “Past two weeks have made us all paranoid, more than usual. Not knowing where he went or how made it worse, right into well…”
“Tony Montoya territory.”
I snort at her movie reference, placing my elbows on the table and she does the same.
“Well, you weren’t the only ones,” she says. “He wanted to talk things out, not with mobsters or guys. He was confused and frustrated, and then it led to finding other ways of working through feelings. After you called, we may have had another talk and then…”
I gape at her slightly. “Y’all are putting the burn in slow burn.”
She winks saucily, and I giggle at her.
I glance at her bedroom, waiting for the inevitable interaction with Isaac, except another inevitable conversation starts.
“He told me…everything.” I go still, not daring to look at my best friend as my stomach drops. “It wasn’t his intention to, I think, but with him not feeling like he could go to anyone else he told me. Said I was only person he thought would be honest about you. And what’s happened.”
“What’d he tell you?”
“You’re a better hacker than both of us thought. Some stuff in college now makes sense like certain assignments.” I gape at her, and she grins. “Kidding. Doubt you did illegal stuff back then.” She looks down at her glass. “You’ve been married since November.”
My hands go to my lap, wringing them as I try to stop their shaking.
Not sure if I should be mad at Isaac for telling her or grateful he did it for me.
A whirlwind of emotions tear through; shame, guilt, and worry, but also relief.
I’ve no clue what to say. What am I supposed to tell my best friend that I lied to her about being secretly married for months?
Sorry didn’t seem like enough. Or the fact I wasn’t even the one who told her.
“He asked how I forgave you when I found out you’d been undercover,” Leanne continues. “How I forgave Leo when you disappeared. He wasn’t expecting learning how angry I was with Leo.” Anxiety crawls over my skin. “That I didn’t trust him or thought he’d be good enough for you.”
I remain quiet, heart pounding in my ears.
Leanne’s hands reach across the table, gesturing for mine. I bring my trembling ones up, and she takes them with a gentle squeeze.
“The night of our first dinner, when I saw Leo be there for you, care for you…I forgave him. He was literally on his knees for you, not caring who saw and I realized how much I may never know what pain you still go through.”
I look up, meeting her soft brown gaze.
“And I forgave you with hope and love. When I recognized that I’ll never know what it’s like being in your shoes.
As you’ve learned you’ll never know certain things with me.
” I squeeze her hands, and she squeezes back.
“Forgiveness didn’t come quickly, and I’m gonna be mad for a bit you didn’t tell me about being married, but I know you, hun.
My best friend puts the whole world on her shoulders, even if it means she hates it, she’ll lie to protect who she loves. ”
“I did hate it,” I whisper. “Everything I’ve hid from you. From Trix. Nan. I hate the secrets, but I…I…”
“Surviving a dangerous game.”
“Yeah.” I gulp back tears. “I’m sorry, it’s not enough, but I am sorry.”
“You didn’t do it to hurt me, it’s okay. I doubt it was an easy decision.”
“To marry Leo? No. To keep it secret? Yes. Silver lining is not having to mail out wedding invitations.”
“Hope you know we’re still going to have a bachelorette party or something. At least give me the thrill of being your maid of honor in that sense.”
“Maid of honor?” I smirk. Leanne crosses her arms with a serious expression. I sputter a watery laugh. “Okay, yes you would be.”
“Thank you.”
I sip some of my juice, putting the glass down with a heavy exhale. “Did he take the advice then?”
“I think so, especially after I brought up how I deal with different grade levels.” I raise a brow.
“Every grade is different in how you handle the kids. You cannot use the same tactics on kindergarteners as you do with middle-schoolers or high-schoolers. I’ve dealt with teachers who’ve tried when they’ve switched grades.
Then you get that 1st grade teacher telling a middle-school teacher what to do, but you can’t make a 6-year-old write an essay about why stealing is wrong nor taking a 12th grader’s favorite toy away when they misbehave. ”
“Well, I’m dealing with kindergarteners then,” I mutter, and she gives a confused look. “Most of those I deal with behave when you take their favorite toys aka their balls.”
Leanne sputters a laugh. I shrug unabashedly.
“Anyways, it’s helped me,” she says after her laughter fades.
“You have to do things I won’t understand to handle situations.
It’s the fucking mafia, Autumn. If I’m surprised that you had to lie, take balls, or whatever…
I’m going to need a reality check. I may not like it, but it’s not going to change anything.
I mean, school system isn’t all sunshine either, we both saw what Trix had to go through, even then it was a mafia boss who gave her the money she needed. ”
She huffs, slumping back in her chair, and adds, “All that to say, the world sucks.”
“It does suck.”
She grabs her glass, swirling the contents as I flick my gaze to the very quiet bedroom.
“I don’t know what it’s like being married to a mafia boss…
don,” Leanne says quietly, staring at her juice.
“What it must feel like when he’s gone. Being chased out of your home.
How hard it might be to make decisions to not…
die. Even with what you and Isaac have told me, I can’t imagine it.
Like to even have to consider marrying in secret is mind-boggling enough.
So, I’ll continue to hope you know how to handle those kindergarteners.
Forgive you, even when I’m still angry, and to trust you. ”
“And I trust you, even if at times it seems I don’t. It’s not you, it’s me.”
She scoffs. “Or just paranoia?”
“Yeah, like Sixth Sense level.” She grimaces, and I chuckle. “I’m trying my best, even if it means assuming my British bodyguard pulled a Reservoir Dogs on me, and I was White, he was Orange.”
She gives me an exasperated look, putting her glass down.
“What?”
“How do you do that?” She asks.
“It’s a classic.” She snorts. “Could reference a Bond movie, then I can call you a Bond girl.”
Leanne covers her face, blushing into her hands. Suddenly, she gasps and flails her hands at me to come closer. As I do, she whispers, “The things he did—”
“No!” I screech, covering my ears. “Don’t wanna know!”
“Oh, come on! You’ve listened before!”