MEET YOU AGAIN, MY MAFIA

THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

FIORELLA BIANCHI

I open the door to let my best friend Violeta inside my apartment before I lead her to the lounge. Massimo is still not feeling well, so I let him sleep on the couch. I am so worried about him because he hardly eats. It’s been a few days, and he still has not returned to school. My boss is even getting fed up with my absence from work. She has given me two more days to return to work, or I might as well say goodbye to my job. At this point, I cannot afford to lose my job; not when I still want to buy my dream home.

“Fiorella, I came to see how the little one is doing. Not seeing you at the meeting got me worried,” Violeta says, sitting on the same couch that Massimo is sleeping on, and then she brushes his hair, carefully not waking him up.

“I would really like to tell you that he is getting better, but he is not. He is still refusing to eat, and he tells me that something hurts in his stomach. I think I might take him to the doctor once again,”

“What about work? How long will your leave be?” My stomach turns when I think about my job.

“I might lose my job, my friend. Fiona has given me two days to return, but with my son like this, I guess I would have to sacrifice my job for him without having to think about it. At least my rent here is paid upfront, so I will survive a few months here, looking for another job maybe… I don’t know,” I shrug, heading to the kitchen to get us red wine and wine glasses before I get back to the lounge. Dry red wine has to be my favorite drink, but I do not like how horny it makes me. Apparently, I am not the only one who gets the same feeling from drinking wine.

“Don’t be silly; I am even disappointed in you for not thinking about me. I am here and I can watch over him while you are at work, if that is fine with you,”

“Are you sure, Violeta? I mean, I honestly did think about it, but I did not want to burden you with my problems,” I open the bottle of wine and half fill both glasses.

“What nonsense are you telling me? My Godson can never be a burden to me, love. In fact, you are going to work tomorrow, and I will be here before you leave for work tomorrow morning,”

“I mean, as long as you are happy with it.”

Violeta has been my best friend and sister to me for four years. I mean, I do have other friends, but she is the one that I am closest to. She has been so warm to me from the day I met her at the hospital when we were both in the labor ward, but unfortunately for her, she lost her baby due to heart failure, and she has not been trying for another baby ever since. To be honest, I was sceptical about her and did not want her close to me because I was afraid she was going to steal my baby then; I mean, what kind of hospital would put a woman who just gave birth to a healthy baby and a woman who had just lost her baby in the same room?

While everyone visited her at the hospital, she noticed that no one had come for me and I was all alone, so she asked about my family. "They got involved in a car accident and burned down with the car". I told her they were dead because they are all dead to me now. She made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. She took me to her parents’ house and let me stay there with them just so I didn’t go through motherhood for the first time alone, plus, my son brought Violeta the healing she needed.

She and her family were there for me until my son turned a year old. I have never been so grateful to have them as my new family, and now my son believes Violeta’s parents are also my parents, and Violeta and I are sisters.

“So, tell me about the meeting. Did you meet our new landlord?” I ask, taking a sip of my wine.

“Oh, yes. I was coming to that. If I definitely hadn’t married, I would definitely have chowed him right on the spot. Gosh, sis! That man is a whole snack. I wish you could have seen him. He is like an alpha male,”

I laugh, shaking my head. Violeta is married to an armoured guard, and they are reaching their third anniversary soon. He works quite a dangerous job if you ask me. He has survived three bullets in a cash-in-transit attack when they had to deliver money to a bank. Even so, he still returned to work as an armoured guard.

“You don’t say. What was the meeting about anyway?”

“Well, remember the letter said changes, right? There will be forms we have to fill up, but they will explain more about the forms on Tuesday in our next meeting regarding the raised questions and people’s thoughts about our stay here,”

“I see. I am not sure if I will be able to make it, but I will see,”

“Don’t worry, I got you. Anyway, Signora, when are you finding yourself a man? You can’t be alone forever;”

“Oh, honey I already have a man and he is sleeping right next to you,”

“No, this can’t go on anymore. Once our son gets better, I am going to give you a makeover and send you on a date with Carlos’s friend, Marcus. You know that he likes you – you just need to open up your heart now,”

I sigh in sadness. I have not moved on from my past. I still think about Benjamin a lot and sometimes wonder if we will ever meet again. He was my only love and my first time in so many things. I met him in high school. He was three grades higher than me, but even so, we had a strong bond. I even have a memory box filled with our memories together, like pictures, things we brought for each other, and love letters. I feel like my heart is locked with him forever; he died with my heart, which is why I am using his last name. His name was Benjamin Massimo Bianchi, and I was supposed to have gotten married to him, but God had different plans for both of us. Moving on is not yet on my list, and besides, I cannot imagine bringing another man into my son's life. It will always be just me and him.

“When I am ready, I will.”

***

A few days later, I had just knocked off from work and I am driving my 2005 Opel Corsa and it is making a crazy sound which causes me to stop on the side of the road to take a look at it. This is a second-hand car, and it is what I could afford. When I came to Italy, my father already had money saved in my bank account that I could only get access to when I turn twenty-one. It was thirty-five thousand Euros, but because of my stay in another country, I could not afford to buy expensive things because I had to pay taxes, renew my visas, pay for my place, and think about my unborn baby. Living in a foreign country is a hell of EXPENSIVE. At some point, I thought I was going to commit suicide because I was already going through so much until I met Violeta.

I open the bonnet, only to be taken aback that I know nothing about being a mechanic. I don’t even know what I am looking at. I sigh, going back to the car to get my phone. I dial Violeta’s number and then call her. She answers after a few rings, and I can hear my son singing in the background. He is getting so much better and that makes me so happy.

“Hey, love. Are you on your way?” She asks.

“Hey, uhm… something came up so I will be a little late. Can you stay with Massimo for a little longer?”

“Of course, but I have to go back to my apartment and start cooking for my husband. You know I am a housewife, so you’ll get Massimo there, right?”

“Thank you so much. See you later and please tell him that I love him so much.”

I walk back to the bonnet and sigh, not knowing what to do. While I am in my thoughts, a car stops next to mine, coming from an opposite direction. Wait, this is not just any car, but a Porsche Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid. Great! Whoever f**k that is, surely knows how to make a person feel so small. It is an insult to me! Why did he choose to even park next to my car when he could have parked anywhere but here?

The driver gets out of his car and walks around to open the back door. It must be an important person, but it still does not make it right to park his car next to mine.

A 6-foot-tall man got out of the car. Green eyes, dark brown neck-length silky hair, a nicely trimmed beard and moustache, and an epic jawline. He looks like one hell of a bad boy. He has a very fit body; I can just tell through the slim fit solid grey suit and a white shirt with the top button left unbuttoned. Before he gets close to me, his cologne introduces itself to me first. Makes me wonder if the driver was not feeling suffocated in the car.

“Ciao signora. Hai bisogno di aiuto con la tua auto?” (Hello, lady. Do you need help with your car?) The man asks.

I opened my mouth agape but quickly recovered from my shock. His voice ignited something in me that I never thought I would ever feel again.

“Uhm, pardon?” I ask, not because I did not hear a word he said. I heard everything, but I just did not understand.

“You speak no Italian, signora?” He asks, raising his eyebrows.

“No, signore,”

“I see. I was asking if you needed help with your car,”

Looking at the time as it is getting late, and he seems to be the only person who wants to help me right now; I nod my head, looking down.

“Yes, please. I have been hearing the strangest sounds while driving and I am not sure what the problem could be. Do you mind taking a look?” I ask.

“Not at all,” He takes off his fitting suit jacket, handing it over to his driver before he rolls up his sleeves, exposing his thick hairy arms with veins on the show.

He starts looking for any fault in my car and then looks at me.

“The radiator clamps on the hose are loose, which caused the leak. Do you perhaps have an insulating tape?”

“I think I do, hold on,” I rush to the car to get it in the glove compartment and returned to give it to him.

“I just screwed the radiator clamps a little tight. The tape is just to patch the little holes in the hose. Just make sure that you take the car to a mechanic or let your insurance take care of it because this might happen again if the hose does not get replaced with a new one. It looks quite old,” OH, THANKS FOR REMINDING ME, BASTARD! I inwardly roll my eyes.

He closes the bonnet and asks me to start the engine. Surprisingly, the sounds are gone. I get my bag and I take out my wet wipes and my sealed bottle of Grapetiser and get back to him.

“I don’t have anything more to thank you with, but I hope you are thirsty. Oh, and the wipes are for your greasy hands. Thank you so much for all the trouble, signore,” I stretch my hands, giving him the wipes and the Grapetiser. Grapetiser used to be Benjamin's favourite, but I now buy it as a remembrance.

He stares at the Grapetiser for a while as if something was bothering him, but he then smiled, taking the things.

“You don’t have to thank me; I was only helping,” He politely returned the things.

“Signore, please. It can only make me feel better if you accept this. Not everyone who drives a luxurious car like yours would stop to help someone like me who drives an Opel Corsa 2005,”

He chuckles, shaking his head before he takes the wipes and the drink.

“Good night,” I said.

“What about the wipes?” He asked.

“You can keep them!”