42.

Vincent Giovanni

I don’t know who convinced me to sign up for this, oh right my Juliet.

“Vincent where are you with that milk?” she yells from the lounge.

I groan, “I’m coming, I’m just warming it up,”

It’s only been four hours and AJ has become restless, he misses his parents, and he keeps saying I want mommy, I want daddy and Julie and I was running out of ideas.

I check the milk temperature and it’s warm I head into the lounge, I give her the bottle and she gives it to him and he finally calms down.

“I guess he was hungry,” I mumble.

Julie rolls her eyes at me, “I told you.”

I turn on the TV and get into Netflix, AJ perks his head up and says Peppa Pig, I want to scream.

“No, I am not watching that,”

“Vincent,”

“No, I hate that fucking pig, she’s so annoying, with stupid brother George, always crying for no damn reason.”

Juliet rolls her eyes and I glare at her; she’ll get what’s coming to her later.

“Vincent, if you don’t cooperate with me, I will beat ya sorry ass, you better goddamn Peppa Pig on that damn tv, or else.”

On second thought, a few episodes never hurt anybody, right?

I put on an episode of Peppa Pig and AJ smiles, with his bottle still in his mouth.

“Let me go fix up dinner,” I say and stand up and walk to the kitchen.

I walk in to find Sarah standing in front of the sink, drinking water, she’s barely dressed, short nightdress, with small breasts pressing against the thin fabric.

I clear my throat and she jumps.

“I am sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” I say.

She blushes, “It’s okay, I thought you weren’t here,”

“It’s okay,” I reply and walk to the fridge.

Her presence makes me uneasy, after what I was told, I don’t think I can trust her, but what reason would she have for breaking my trust and risking her own life while betraying our mafia? I feel someone behind me, and I turn and come face-to-face with Sarah.

“What are you doing?”

She smiles at me, “I just maybe you and I could rekindle what we had.”

I push her back, “Not happening, my woman is here, and I don’t need you anymore,”

She chuckles, “You don’t mean that Vincey, you and I both know that you two won’t last.”

“Then you must be stupid,”

She gasps, “How dare you call me stupid?”

“I’m only stating facts, Sarah,”

“That ugly hag, has you acting like a prick, this is not Vincent I know,” she whimpers.

This is why you don’t fuck the help.

“Sarah gets out of my sight before you embarrass yourself,” I say as I take out the ingredients for a salad.

“I’m going to tell her,” she says boldly.

Shit.

“Tell me what?” Julie says as she walks into the kitchen.

Fuck, I thought this only happened in movies.

“That your boyfriend and I had an affair,” Sarah says with a smirk.

I don’t say anything, I wait for Julie to respond, her face is emotionless like she’s processing the information in her head trying to figure out what to do with it, she then does the unexpected, and she laughs.

“Wow, you must be one dumb bitch to think that I give a shit,”

Sarah scowls.

“Boo, get your nappy-headed, no ass, no breast-having ass outta here, you know damn well that I don’t care about his past because if I did, I wouldn’t be here and if you for a second think that you meant something to him, then you mad stupid, you were just his temporary plaything while I was away but I’m here now, so you better get my man and thus dumb fantasy out of your head, or I will put a bullet in your head, understood?”

Sarah is on the brink of tears, “Yes,”

“Yes, who bitch?”

Sarah whimpers, “Yes Donna,”

“Good, now get out of my fucking kitchen,”

Sarah looks at me and then scurries out of the kitchen crying.

I think it’s safe to say that I’m terrified of Julie.

“And you?”

I gulp as she turns to face me, “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

“I know, I know, and we’ll talk about it, just not when the baby is here,” I stammer.

She gives me a once over and nods, “Fine, gets dinner ready I’m starving and make sure AJ’s carrot sticks and fish fingers are warmed up too.”

I nod, “Yes Donna, I mean Julie.”

She turns around and walks out of the kitchen.

I swear she gets scarier by the day.

I turn back and do as I’m told, I prepare the salad and warm up AJ’s food, I bring it out into the lounge, and we all sit and eat, while we watch Peppa Pig, once AJ is fed, he’s on the couch, about to fall asleep, so is Julie, I get up and pick AJ up and he looks at me with his sleepy eyes and smiles.

“Thank you, daddy Vincey,” and he kisses my cheek and places his head on my shoulder, my heart swells and kisses the side of his head. This kid is not half bad, he’s sweet and just so adorable, holding him just gives me a feeling that I never thought a child would bring out of me, baby fever.

Dammit.

I go upstairs and lay him down on my side of the bed, I brush the curls off his face and kiss his forehead.

“Good night,”

I go back downstairs and pick up my donna from the couch.

“Vincent,” she mumbles in her sleep.

“It’s okay mi amore, I’m taking you to bed,” I say as I rub her back.

She mumbles something but I don’t quite catch it.

I place her down on the bed and kiss her forehead too.

“I love you, mi amore,”

I pull the blanket over both of them, and I sit on the couch in the corner of the room; and watch as they sleep peacefully.

Is this what love feels like? Wanting more out of life? For years I’ve denied the thought of love, ever since Carmen, she was the only woman I ever wanted a life with until what happened, happened, I never forgave myself until recently, I had to if I wanted to be with Julie, I had to forgive myself. Now that I have, I want more of it, more love, more happiness, more, just more of this warm feeling inside me.

But happiness doesn’t last that long, now does it?