Chapter Sixteen
“Wait, you want me to have dinner with who?”
It’s been weird trying to explain this to my mother, but since I have to leave soon for dinner at Vince’s (and I assume Mateo is expecting a response), it has to be done.
“It’s Vince’s cousin. He’s Vince’s guardian, I guess. Vince doesn’t live with his parents.”
“Who raises him?” she asks, frowning.
That’s a good question, actually. Though, thinking back over the wine and the lack of weirdness about him having his girlfriend sleep over in his bed, it doesn’t seem like they treat him like a kid.
Shaking my head slightly, I say, “Anyway, can you go or not? He wanted me to invite you, and I’ll have to let him know tonight so he can make arrangements.”
“That place is expensive,” she tells me, clearly wondering if I’ve lost my mind.
“He’s paying. They have money.”
“Well, yeah,” she says, since that much is obvious. “Gee, I don’t know, Mia. Is this safe? I always heard that family was bad news.”
Safe was too strong a word to use, considering I’d spent much of the night before lying in bed, remembering how it felt to have Mateo’s gun resting on my forehead. Instead of that, I say, “It’s safe. It’s fine. You’ll like him.”
I expected her to agree, and she doesn’t disappoint. She did have plans with Brax, but the prospect of dolling up to go entertain a mob boss at a restaurant she can’t afford is more excitement than she can resist. Once she agrees, I tell her I need to borrow a dress for dinner tonight, and go to raid her closet.
As soon as I get out of the shower, however, Mom is outside the door, practically bouncing with excitement.
Tucking my towel, I frown at her. “What is wrong with you?”
“I don’t think you need to borrow a dress,” she says, sing-song.
“What?”
Flashing me an exuberant grin, she takes off down the hall. I follow, warily. On the couch, there’s a Nordstrom shopping bag and two garment bags draped across the back. A note is tied around the handle of the bags, a rich, creamy business card with gold edges. In bold black, it says simply:
“Open it, open it,” my mom says, more excited than I am.
I roll my eyes at her, but I can’t stifle a smile myself. It’s not often I get presents, and I have a good feeling about these ones. Peeking inside, I find two shoe boxes. I pull out the one on top, labeled Jimmy Choo. My mom is already losing her shit, and I haven’t even taken the lid off to see what they look like.
“Do you know how much those cost?” she demands.
They’re beautiful—a burgundy-purple suede pair of heels.
My mom grabs them, inspecting them like they might be fake. I move on to the second box, but I don’t need to read the name to know what kind they are—the bold red soles of the shiny black pointy toe pumps tells me right away they’re Louboutins. They’re also instantly my favorite, with a fancy criss-cross strap on the front
“I’m wearing these,” I tell her.
“Tonight or tomorrow?”
“Both. To school. To buy groceries. When I die. Forever. I’m never going to take them off.”
Grinning, she takes them and admires them with a series of little gasps as she rotates them, admiring them from every angle.
There’s a dress in each garment bag, one a short, dark blue sequined dress I’ll have to pour myself into, the other a nude fit and flare dress with black lace overlay and a plunging neckline.
“He done good,” my mom announces solemnly.
“Oh yeah,” I say, nodding in agreement.
“You’ve only been dating a month, right? I think he spent more on you right here than Brax’s spent on me ever. Marry this boy.”
I roll my eyes at her, but I can’t hold back a smile, holding up my very own pretty dress.
---
For some reason, instead of sending Vince, they send a town car to pick me up. I can only imagine it’s to impress my mom, and boy, does it work. She stands on the front porch with her eyes popping out of her head, practically salivating as I climb into the backseat in my pretty new dress and sky-high Louboutins.
I allow myself to get excited on the drive over, and by the time I get there, I feel like Cinderella at the ball. The driver even opens my door for me.
Adrian answers the door, Elise trailing behind him. “I was coming!”
Smiling at her affectionately, he says, “You do enough.”
She smiles warmly, lightly touching his arm before she turns to head back to whatever she was doing.
“She’s pretty,” I remark, none too innocently.
For some reason, I don’t expect him to remain soft, and say, “Yeah, she is.” Missing a beat, he asks, “Looking for Vince?”
“I am.” On impulse, because I feel like he’s more human right now, I do a little twirl and point to my shoes. “Like my new outfit?”
“Very pretty,” he says gruffly, with an obligatory nod.
I beam and follow him, but I slow down when he heads for the study.
“Is he with Mateo? I should probably wait.”
“Nah, come on in. We’re not doing anything important.”
There are more of them tonight—Mateo perched on the edge of his desk with a glass of amber liquid, Alec from the night before in one of the arm chairs around the area rug, a third guy I haven’t met—but clearly a Morelli, by the look of him—pouring himself a drink from a crystal decanter. Vince is in an arm chair across from Alec, and without more than a moment’s hesitation, I run over and hop in his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck and showering his face with a bunch of little kisses.
The guy I don’t recognize laughs, saying, “Vince’s girlfriend, I presume?”
“That’s her,” Mateo confirms, voice laced with amusement.
Vince grins at me as I finally pull back, shifting the drink I didn’t notice in his hand. Thankfully he didn’t spill any of it on me. “Not that I’m complaining, but what’s that for?”
“You’re the best,” I tell him, simply. “You deserve a million face kisses.”
“For?”
Eyes widening, I lean back and indicate my whole body. “The dresses. And the shoes—oh my God, I’m going to marry these shoes. Thank you so much.”
He hasn’t stopped smiling, but it’s certainly dimmed, and there’s a crease of confusion in his brow. “What are you talking about? What dress? This dress?”
My enthusiasm stops short. The room has gone quiet. Adrian passes behind Vince and I glance at him, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. I glance at the next man I can see, the newcomer, clearly in the dark, but paying attention as the scene unfolds. Then I look at Mateo, and he’s the only one still amused.
Stomach sinking, my smile finally falls.
Raising his glass in my direction, Mateo winks. “You’re welcome.”
The silent tension in the room grows, and I slowly look back at Vince, pasting on a more apologetic smile. “I guess I should’ve asked,” I murmur quietly.
Shaking his head very slightly, he says, “Natural to assume the person you’re sleeping with is the one buying you gifts.”
Instead of having the decency to feel bad for Vince’s discomfort, Mateo tells me, “I’ll take an I.O.U. on the million face kisses, by the way. Seems like we’d be late to dinner otherwise.”
He doesn’t shove me off his lap, like he probably wants to, but Vince does throw back the rest of the liquid in his glass.
I wish I didn’t feel trapped in his lap now. Getting up feels like a rebuff, but sitting here while this awkwardness lingers is pure torture.
Adrian takes Vince’s glass and refills it, bringing it right back.
“Good man,” Vince says, putting a good dent in that one, too.
Another tense minute passes before I give up. Leaning in to give him one last kiss on the cheek, I say, “I’m gonna go see if they need help in the kitchen.”
“The maids have it under control,” Mateo says.
“Then I’m going to pee,” I reply, promptly.
“Bathroom’s broken.”
“Then I’m going to drown myself in the pool.”
Smirking, Mateo says, “Have Elise grab you a towel.”
---
Vince is in a pissy mood for the first part of the night, and he’s a little drunk for the second half. I’m still tense through dinner because of it, while Mateo seems quite content. The newcomer’s name is Joey, and apparently he is another of Mateo’s brothers. Elise comes around, but Mateo ignores her tonight, so Adrian doesn’t join Vince in being pissy.
I feel like I’m going to need a notepad in order to keep track of the politics in this family.
Francesca makes things worse, innocently remarking, “I like your dress, Mia.”
“Yeah, it’s great,” says drunk Vince.
Mateo just grins, taking a sip of his wine.
It’s not like I ever doubted he was an asshole, but… yeah. The worst part is, it was a nice thing to do, buying me the dresses, but now that I’ve inadvertently humiliated Vince in front of half his family, I can’t even bring myself to thank Mateo. He couldn’t have known I would make such a spectacle, but he did know Vince said he would buy me new dresses when it came up the night before.
I’m a little embarrassed I didn’t know my own boyfriend’s handwriting from Mateo’s though. He’s never written me anything, and I’ve never even peeked at his notes in class. Mateo could have also signed his name to the card so I knew who they were from, so it’s hard to imagine there wasn’t a certain calculated edge there.
I won’t let him trick me so easily again.
---
Mateo sends another car to drive me and my mom to the restaurant in the city.
Brax is watching the kids for the first time, and I imagine them all bro-ing out on the couch, watching football and drinking beers. Mom assured me she whipped up some mac and cheese for dinner before she left, so there was no chance the kids would starve.
“This is so exciting,” she tells me, conspiratorially, once we get to the restaurant. It’s a nice evening, so we didn’t bring coats, but there is a bite to the wind. Since we didn’t drive though, we’re dropped off right by the door.
All the way here, she’s drilled me. What are they like? Do they seem like a crime family? How rich are they, anyway?
I don’t know how to describe the strange culture of the Morelli family, so she has to yank even brief responses out of me.
Vince and Mateo are already waiting when we get there. Since I wore the other dress already, I’m in the sequined minidress. It’s sexier than I realized at first sight, and it makes my legs appear to go on for days.
I’m still wearing the Louboutins; I don’t care if they caused trouble, nothing can come between our love.
“Oh, wow,” she murmurs, when she spots them at the table. “That is a handsome man.”
I know she’s talking about Mateo, since she already knew what Vince looked like. I don’t burst her bubble, telling her that he’s also a dick.
“Hi!” she says, approaching the table with way too much excitement. She’s already embarrassing me, and we haven’t even sat down yet.
Mateo stands, offering her a warm smile and shaking her hand as he introduces himself. Vince offers me a tepid smile, his gaze lingering on my dress a little too long. I can’t tell if he’s thinking I look good in it, or thinking about where it came from.
I don’t roll my eyes as Mateo pulls out my mom’s chair for her, but considering she’s already as smitten as a school girl, it’s difficult.
Turns out I didn’t have to spend all that time wracking my brain, trying to figure out what any of us would talk about at this dinner, because Mateo carries us completely. It feels like he and my mom are on a date, with Vince and me awkwardly chaperoning.
Once she’s drained her second martini—and he’s already ordered her a third—Mateo offers my mother the dessert menu and steeples his hands on the table.
“Shelly, I’m so glad we could get together tonight. It’s been a real pleasure meeting you.”
“I know! It has been. You’re nothing like I imagined. I’m so glad we came, too,” she gushes, mooning at him.
“There is one more thing I’d like to discuss with you, though. I wanted to wait until you had a pretty good feel for me, but I think you’re pretty comfortable with me,” he says, with a coaxing, in-joke smile.
My mother laughs, delighted. “Oh yes, I’d say so.”
“That’s good,” he says, finally glancing over at me. “The main reason I wanted us to get together here tonight is because I have a wonderful opportunity for Mia, but I wanted to run it by you first, make sure you’re on board.”
“Oh?” Attempting a more serious tone to match his, she leans on the table. “Okay, I’m all ears.”
“I mentioned my daughter, Isabella?” To illustrate, he has his phone at the ready, and a couple swipes later he’s showing off her picture like an adoring father.
“Oh, she’s just so darling,” my mom says, clutching her heart like she just may die from the cuteness.
“She is,” he says warmly.
I make a note that I’ve still never seen him with said daughter. I’m not convinced she even exists.
“My problem is, she needs a nanny. She has a nanny during the day, when everyone’s in school, but I need someone for the evenings. I need someone live-in. I want Mia.”
Understandably shocked, she says, “You want Mia… to be a live-in nanny?”
“Yes. I pay well, and since I’ll take care of her room and board, I’m sure Mia could send some of it home for you. You’re a single mom, I’m sure it would be nice to have the load lightened a bit.” Reaching into his jacket pocket, he extracts a thick white envelope. He places it on the table and slides it across to my mom.
Her eyes widen and she cracks it open, inhaling and exhaling slowly when she sees it’s thick with cash.
“Think of it as a sign-on bonus,” Mateo tells her.
I’m glad my mom is distracted with the money, because I think that’s the only reason she hasn’t noticed my jaw hanging open. Not only has Mateo not asked me about being a nanny to this child I’m not convinced exists, but he actually wants me to live at his house? Full-time?
“Mia will have her own room, of course. Really it’s like a little apartment, just with more supervision. She’ll stay in my sister’s wing.”
“Wing?” my mom echoes, lost.
Flashing one of his charming smiles, Mateo tells her, “We have a very large home.”
“Wow,” she says, frowning as she visibly tries to process. “So she would… live with you? For how long?”
“As long as she wants to work for me. Until she goes off to college? If she goes to a local school, she can stay; we’ll work her schedule around the other nanny.”
“Where’s your daughter’s mother?” she asks, confused.
His lips press firmly together and he leans back in his seat, distraught. “Unfortunately… she abandoned us, a couple of years ago.”
Hand to her heart once more, my mother laments, “Oh, how terrible.”
He nods, accepting her sympathy. “Mia’s very good with her, so I think it’ll be good for Isabella to have her around. And Mia’s nearly finished with high school anyway, so she probably would’ve moved out soon—I believe she mentioned you might be moving in with… Brax?”
Still haven’t met Isabella. Never once mentioned Brax.
Less enthused at the prospect while sitting across from a wealthy single father, she says, “Oh, yeah, well, maybe. I don’t know, we’ll see.” She looks at the envelope again like it’s dessert. It’s gotta be killing her not to count it and see how much is there.
“Well… I think… if it’s okay with Mia, we could probably try that out. I’ll have to pay a sitter to take her place, so I think it would definitely be a good idea for her to send half her pay home,” she says, glancing over at me. “But yeah. I mean, it sounds like a great job. We were talking about her trying to find something to help out—this wasn’t what I had in mind, exactly, but when opportunity knocks…”
Mateo’s grin isn’t even victorious. He knew he’d win, because he came armed with money and bullshit.
And just like that, I’m for all intents and purposes sold to the Morelli family.