Daring Delfina's Heart

It Was Good?

“Ew, are you saying the s*x was good?” Ernestina gagged exaggeratedly. “You said he took pride in everything he did, and it included f*****g. He was gross. How did you even know which eye to look into when you were getting it on? And seriously, could he even get it up and make you orgasm?”

If the question had come from anyone else, about anyone else, she probably would have laughed but instead she leaned over the table and looked the woman in the eyes.

“Sometimes a woman does what she has to do to survive Ernestina but you in your perfect little pampered life wouldn’t know a hard time if it smacked you in the face with a bat. Ercole Muraro could f**k like a stallion straight out of a porn which would make my god-fearing mother’s toes curl. The only time he was ever tender to me in three years was during the pillow talk after he’d finally come hours later. He loved to make me lay on his sweaty chest and play with my hair while he told me tales about his life. s*x and the moments after were the only time he wasn’t belittling or mocking me. There were times he took me so much for so long I could barely get out of bed the next day, but I knew if I stayed in the bed, he’d get back in it. I hated him with every fibre of my being but what he could do with his c**k should be taught to every teenage boy from here to the Sun and back.”

The woman gasped and Eusebio was horrified.

“You actually liked it?” Ruggero was aghast.

“The d**k yes. The man, nope. My body responded. My heart, my head, my soul,” she paused after the last word, “well, let’s say none of them were in sync with my body and he knew it and he got off on it. He really should have written a book because what he could do,” she gave a long whistle. “As I said, he was a prideful man and he knew I hated him, but he made sure I craved him and it gave him pride and perverse pleasure to know, as ugly as he was inside and out, he was good at everything he engaged in.” She looked Olympia dead in the eyes, “there’s nothing in this world worth doing if you’re not going to put in a hundred percent every time.”

“My meal might come back up,” Perla whispered.

“So,” she stood upright from where she’d been leaning into the table, “Dessert or are you going to get the hell out of my family’s restaurant?”

“He loved me,” Olympia whispered.

“He couldn’t love himself let alone anyone else,” Delfina corrected grimly.

“Why are you being so hateful?” Ruggero asked seriously, his dark eyes staring at her as his fists furled on the table.

“Mr. Rapallino,” she was condescending now, and she knew it, “you came into my family’s restaurant with the intention of making me uncomfortable, to humiliate me for being back where I belong instead of in a mansion and to mock me for being a server in a restaurant. You wanted information from me, and you thought by making me upset and things awkward, I’d tell you whatever you wanted to know to get you to leave. What you didn’t count on, was I lived the past three years with the most brutally honest, meanest prick on the planet. His idea of a good time at home when he didn’t have me bent over a piece of furniture was laughing at how much more inferior my brain was to his. He would routinely take me places which made me feel small and insignificant and would rejoice if I dared to shed a tear from my humiliation. You can’t intimidate me. I already lived with the devil’s minion. There isn’t anything the five of you can do he hasn’t done already.”

Her mother appeared out of nowhere and shooting an apologetic look to Matty who was quickly packing up to leave, “Delfina, your conversation is a little loud and many of the patrons have heard you. Perhaps you can let Lourdes finish up here and you can take a little break.” She gripped her hand and whispered, “you really offended him!”

Delfina looked around the room and shrugged, “sure. If you think I’m embarrassed though Mom, I’m not. This is nothing. I’ve had far worse done to me in far more public places.” She looked over her shoulder, “by them actually.”

“This isn’t good for the baby, Dellie,” her mother hissed at her as she dragged her away. “Matty can’t have kids of his own you know.” She shot the man a glance as he waited by the counter as if itching to leave. “You and he could raise your baby together! I brought him here for you and you’re ruining it!”

“Baby?” Ernestino heard the word. “You’re pregnant?”

“Absolutely not! Is this how you intend to get my father’s money. You gold digging b***h!” Olympia yelled her voice across the room.

Delfina wrenched her arm away from her mother, “now you’ve done it. Mom. I’ve been trying. I love you and I would do anything for you, and you know it. You need to stop interfering! Just stop.” She reached under the front counter, grabbed her purse and stormed out of the restaurant.

The problem with living less than five minutes walk from the restaurant her parents owned was by the time she reached the front door she was still pissed off. She noted Nek working on his car in the driveway and marched up to him and swung her bag at his back.

“This is all your fault.”

“What is? What did I do now?” a cigarette hung loose from his lips as he wiped his hands on a greasy rag.

“If you hadn’t stolen Dad’s paperwork, made yourself co-owner of the restaurant with full signing authority and then mortgaged the f**k out of it only to lose it all to Ercole Muraro I wouldn’t be in this mess. I hate you.”

“I don’t blame you for hating me. I hate me too.” He gave her a sad smile as he drew on his cigarette. “What happened?”

“Ercole’s family showed up at the diner to try to get information from me. Legally none of us can say why I married the prick, but I can talk all I want about how horrible he was and the truths I learned. So, I let them have it and Mom came out and in front of them, commented about the fact I’m pregnant because she wants me to marry and raise my baby with some impotent man from church! I wish she would get it through her head I’m not going through with it. Ugh.”

“What did you say to them that made your mother come out from the kitchen? She’d rather lick her kitchen floors clean than face a customer.”

Her mother was horribly shy, and she knew her cousin wasn’t wrong, and she looked away color staining her cheeks, “I might have told Ercole’s daughter and children how good of a f**k he was, and I think Lourdes went back. Then the guy from her church complained about my language. I think she hoped he’d be open to me, but I ruined it when I went on and on about how my body really liked Ercole’s d**k despite the fact he was a miserable bastard.”

Her cousin’s mouth opened and closed multiple times before his entire face broke into a smile and then he erupted with laughter, his cigarette falling to the ground as he roared. In seconds she was joining in, and they were holding each other up as the hilarity of the situation rolled over them.

“Oh my god, he was so old and ugly. His daughter must have near died to know you let him f**k you and you liked it.”

“His grandchildren almost puked up mom’s lasagne.”

Nek wiped tears off his face as he bent to retrieve his smoke off the ground, “I don’t remember the last time I laughed that hard.”

“Me either.” She leaned against the car and watched as he tinkered. “I hated him so much, but I swear to god I craved his touch. He was old and mean and I hated him. I mean really hated him but what he could do sexually is embarrassing. I can’t understand why.”

“Do you know how many girls have hate-f****d me?” Nek laughed. “Trust me. It’s more common than you think.”

“I can’t have this baby, Nek. If I do, Mom is going to want to raise it. I don’t want to.” Tears threatened.

“Then let’s go.” He put the hood of the car down with a clang. “Look. I f****d up your life. I did it with gusto. It took having five men beat me and your father into the ground and breaking your mother’s wrists for me to see how far I’d fallen. I’ll never be the kid I was before and I’m good with it. But” he gave a sad shake of his head, “knowing I ruined your life and made it so you can never be the same carefree, sweet loving angel you were before all this s**t? It’s eating me alive. From now until the end of time, little cousin, I’m your ride or die. Whatever you want. Whatever you need. I’ve got your back. If you want this thing out of your belly, then lets go get it done. We can find a hotel to stay in for a few days and I’ll stay with you the entire time.”

She looked at him curiously, “you’ve done this before.”

“Highschool. It sucked. Put me into a tailspin I didn’t think I’d ever get out of but I’m proud I stuck by her while she did what she needed to do. I’ll be with you too.”

Things were starting to make sense in her head, “I’m sorry you went through this.”

“Thanks. What I want you to know, Defina, is, no matter what you decide, I’m here.”

She nodded as she considered where they were. A small town, a ninety-minute commute from New York City didn’t haves much in terms of clinics. “We’ll need to go to the city, and I don’t have enough money for a hotel.”

“I do,” Nex shrugged. “Let’s go find a hotel for the night. Not five star or anything but we’ll find something. You can book an online appointment for tomorrow and we’ll stay a few days while you recover. Your mom can’t get in your head if it’s already done.”

She stared at her cousin as he opened the passenger side of his car door. “Let’s go.”

It was time to get rid of the past so she could see her future.