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Post by Pietro Antonucchi on Jun 20, 2015 19:31:49 GMT -5
Not possible. Simply not possible. Except for the fact that it had happened, and right here. The dream he'd thought could never come true had become, quite suddenly, a reality. The torment of being in a classroom with her no longer felt like doom; now it was a sweet secret, a promise of a future that he'd desired for a year. Everything he'd pictured, imagined, pretended ... all of it would be true someday. The torment was finally bearable, because it would eventually end.
Pietro shook himself out of his thoughts, forced himself away from the secluded side of the building where he'd kissed Serafina so recently. After all, he couldn't lose too much time to the daydreams. He was on important business. He had a letter for Uncle Enzo, one of his regular updates on how the Antonucchis and the O'Briens were perceived and discussed by people at the Academy. Interestingly enough, the murmurs had been growing in intensity. Students and professors alike seemed to talk about mob activity more fervently, some romanticizing it, and others making conjectures that were sometimes unsettlingly accurate.
He entered the Red Velvet Room. It was still early enough that there weren't many people in attendance; these were the times of day when he usually made his deliveries to his cousin, Vivian. Pietro liked her, though her outspoken nature made him worry for her. She didn't listen to him, though, when he suggested that some of her ways were less ladylike than they could have been. It was important to watch out for her; she might find herself in trouble one day.
He approached the bar, nodding at various acquaintances and family associates but not stopping to talk. Pietro ordered a glass of whiskey, then stood looking about, waiting for Vivian to appear beside him.
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Post by Vivian D'Amore on Jun 21, 2015 11:51:31 GMT -5
The evening was young, still too pure for many to slip away and be welcomed to the delicious chaos of the Red Velvet Room. Most waited for the sun to go down before coming, somewhat afraid to act without shadows to hide them. Perhaps, even, it was just the nightlife people craved, so they found themselves waiting until after dark to join the fun. Sure a few people littered the area, but all family. A new face appeared.
Pietro made his way to the bar after the two made eye contact. Vivian smirked, remembering the last time she had seen her cousin. It had been just the other night, actually, when she broke away from the crowd to freshen up the red on her lips. He had a pretty girl with him, their embrace friendly. She thought nothing much of the sight, the romantic kiss she witnessed them sharing only gave her ammunition to poke fun at him. That moment Pietro shared with the girl wasn't something she intended to ruin, therefore she decided to wait until their next encounter to give him a hard time.
Vivian had already started drinking, but that's not much of a surprise. Nothing too heavy, of course, nothing to even impair her judgement, just a sip here or there. Maybe it made her a bit more open, less considerate. She had already known her cousin's intention for coming, he had news.
Opposed to following him up to the bar, she waited from him to sit down. She liked to do things on her own time, even if it just meant a minute difference. Vivian approaching the bar, her shoes clicking as she went. After gathering the bottom of her dress, Vivian sat on the stool next to Pietro, "Gonna offer a dame a drink?" She jested, bumping his shoulder lightly with hers. She would wait until after getting what he had for her to deliver to discuss his affair.
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Post by Pietro Antonucchi on Jun 21, 2015 18:06:42 GMT -5
There she was. Pietro was used to the way she popped seemingly out of nowhere. The woman made a great messenger for exactly that reason; her utter stealth was nigh unbelievable. He smiled at his cousin, slung an arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "Of course! What will you have?" Pietro pulled out his pack of cigarettes, offered one to Vivian, and then lit one for himself. These conversations were always fun. His cousin had an irreverence to her that made the stories she told endlessly interesting.
"So, dear cousin, I do have a letter for you, but I would also like to hear at least one story. What is the most absurd thing you have witnessed here lately? Can it possibly beat the man in the bear costume? That was a funny one." As he spoke, he reached into his jacket pocket for the letter, folded and sealed and ready for delivery to Uncle Enzo.
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Post by Vivian D'Amore on Jun 21, 2015 19:43:04 GMT -5
In order to return the greeting in the form of an awkward hug, Vivian leaned her shoulders closer to Pietro. "Surprise me," she insisted, plucking a cigarette from the carton and indicating for him to light the stick while the fire still burned from lighting his.
Automatically, Vivian held her hand out for the letter once he mentioned it. However, she quickly brought her fingers in towards her palms once he concluded the requirements to be done prior to completing the job. Of course she rolled her eyes, yet she knew this was the exact time to mention the other night. To adjust herself for storytelling, she crossed her legs, the fringe of the skirt tickling at her thigh.
She made a lowkey gesture for Pietro to come closely, the story not one she wanted others to hear. That should've been his first clue to know it was more of a personal tale opposed to a humorous misfortune of strangers. "Alright now, so the other night I went to freshen up my face in the lady's room. On my way back to the party, I saw this real keen couple, both spifflicated by each other, love drunk. Anywho," Vivian started, her voice low and sweet like molasses, "the two were necking, I mean really, deeply lost in this kiss."
There was a pause, a short breath to let Pietro get caught up and to give more emphasis. She bit her tongue to hid the chuckle threatening to escape. She had him right where she wanted him, unsure but completely entranced by her words. "But here's the kicker, the man was older and with authority, while doll was as fresh as a daisy, just twice as pretty." Vivian finished and returned to her original posture, slowly waiting for the light bulb to light over her cousin's head.
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Post by Pietro Antonucchi on Jun 24, 2015 0:55:13 GMT -5
Pietro nodded and gestured to the bartender. "A Southside for the lady, please, and some water for both of us." He smiled fondly at Vivian as he lit her cigarette, then offered but teasingly withdrew the letter. She was used to this; it was the standard requirement. Pietro loved the way Vivian told stories. She seemed to have a real knack for using her mellifluous voice to draw people in, and her clever wit to keep them interested.
He took the cue to lean in, excited to hear a secret. But as the story set in, it seemed to strike him square in the chest. It had not even been a week, and he'd already been seen? In that simple but unforgettable conversation with Serafina, sitting at the bar, looking at each other in a way that students and their professors usually did not?
Pietro's face went white as he stared at his cousin. What was he to do? Deny, or simply ask for her discretion? He couldn't get caught; it would be disastrous. There would be trouble, punishments, and he might be separated forever from his love.
He cleared his throat. "That ... that sounds ... intriguing. Perhaps scandalous. But, ah ... are you certain you truly saw ... that?" What had happened to his skillful lying? Anything relating to the family business, and Pietro was inscrutable. He could lie like a professional. He could torture a man without flinching, for God's sake! And now, in this moment, thinking of Serafina and fearing her loss, he could barely string a sentence together. It was absurd! He took a sip of his whiskey and sucked down a deep drag of his cigarette.
This conversation was clearly going to go places he had not been prepared for.
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Post by Vivian D'Amore on Jun 24, 2015 13:53:09 GMT -5
“Thanks, darlin’,” Vivian took a drag on the stick, exhaling the smoke. Due to her love for dramatics, she used the fading cloud to kickstart her tale. After spilling what she needed to, she had her drink and the two waters delivered. She winked at the bartender, sipped on her drink, and peaked at Pietro from the corners of her eyes.
The slight squirm her cousin attempted to conceal, as well as the obvious panic in his voice, was almost too much for Vivian to bite back a laugh. She knew the action well enough, she tried it herself back in the days of her Camden Academy career. She knew what he was thinking, too. He wasn’t sure if she knew, or if it was a completely different couple. Sure, he knew, but he was just afraid to be sure he knew.
Swirling the ice around in the glass, Vivian took another drag off of the cigarette. Her words clung onto the fleeing smoke, “Are you saying I’m lying?” She teased him.
Finishing off the drink, only two gulps were left, she set the glass back down on its original ring of condensation. She uncrossed her legs to recross them, placing the one that was the platform now on top of the other. “Hey now! Don’t act like a wet-blanket, that gives me the heebie-jeebies.”
In flicking away the ashes, she knocked out the cherry. “Damn,” Vivian muttered, leaning towards Pietro again with the cigarette in her mouth, waiting for him to offer her a light. She spoke around the object in a hushed tone and with a lifted eyebrow, “It’s nobody’s beeswax, I won’t tell a soul.” She winked at him and, raising her voice a bit, “well, you gonna light it?”
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Post by Pietro Antonucchi on Jun 25, 2015 17:08:48 GMT -5
What was he supposed to say? Of course, there was the truth - I love her - but, damn it, his family already considered him the "soft one"! It didn't matter how many strategies he produced, how many tortured men or dead bodies. They would always consider him malleable, too full of feelings and principles and bookish sensitivity. Pathetic, wasn't he? Lovestruck like a schoolboy.
He finished off his whiskey, taking almost too large a gulp, hissing as it burned its way down to his stomach. He needed another. God, he needed the whole bottle!
"Two things that I know about you, dear cousin," he finally replied, "you do not lie, and you can keep a secret. I must trust to your discretion, and to your love for me. Please, Vivian ... " Oh, he was going to get maudlin, wasn't he?
He was gazing at his hands when she scolded him for being a "wet blanket," and Pietro mustered a chuckle. Usually River was the only one to call him that. "All right, all right, no heebie-jeebies. I apologize, I just ... well, it has been an eventful week for me. My mind ... I am torn and ... scattered." Another long drag from his cigarette, and then Vivian knocked the cherry out of hers. Pietro fumbled for his lighter, hands shaking with foolish nerves, and lifted it to re-light her smoke.
"I, ah ... well, do you have any stories that won't strike mortal terror in my heart?"
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Post by Vivian D'Amore on Jun 25, 2015 21:42:01 GMT -5
Sorry; Vivian almost apologized. That, in such a setting, wasn’t her style. Even without having to display the tough guy act, she didn’t support asking for forgiveness for her honesty. After all, she wasn’t sorry for telling him the truth. The truth is the only thing one shouldn’t have to apologize for. It wasn’t out of malice, maybe there was a slight intention to see Pietro’s cheeks burn red from more than just the liquor.
As she watched the hurry in which he tossed back his drink, Vivian laughed. With a playfully questioning, raised eyebrow, she leaned back a bit in her seat and asked “trying to compete with me? That won’t be too hot on your liver.”
She nodded along with his plead for her to keep her trap shut. At the end of his heartfelt speech, Vivian winked at him as if to say sure thing, darling!
In chewing on the inside of her cheek, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes. The gesture wasn’t from an annoyed source, instead it came from the fact that another similar trait the duo shared was expressed; dramatics.
Puffing on the freshly reimaged cigarette, Vivian lingered close to her cousin. She blew the smoke from the corner of her mouth in order to avoid exhaling in Pietro’s face. To say thanks, she gently brushed her lips against his cheek. She whispered, then, “you know how I just adore a scandalous love story.”
Sitting with decent posture, she nodded slowly to the question do you have any stories that won't strike mortal terror in my heart? She continued to puff the stick, exhaling poorly shaped Os. Waiting until the circular clouds disappeared, Vivian took a finally, hearty drag off the cigarette before extinguishing the short stump. “I always have stories.”
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Post by Pietro Antonucchi on Jun 26, 2015 17:08:22 GMT -5
Attracting the bartender with a nod, Pietro chuckled sardonically. "I only try to compete with you when it's wildly necessary. Another round for us both, please." His cigarette was finished, but this stress was a chain-smoking sort of stress. After all, he'd already made a fool of himself; why not get messy drunk and stagger home singing foolish love songs?
The light kiss on his cheek was a comfort. It seemed to seal a promise of secrecy. In reality, Pietro knew that he could trust his cousin with anything. After all, didn't he hand her letters every week filled with information for Uncle Enzo? But even though his rational mind could calmly accept that she knew his secret, his over-active emotions were running wild, filling his head with images of disaster. Public disgrace, the loss of Serafina, the loss of his uncle's respect ...
Thank God for Vivian's discretion.
"Well, I would ordinarily point you in River's direction for scandal, but I'm afraid 'love' has never had much to do with his dalliances. Call me the night's entertainment. Tips appreciated, of course." A pathetic attempt at a joke, but an attempt nonetheless. Pietro recalled the letter and held it out to Vivian - after all, she'd completed her end of the deal. She'd given him a story, all right.
"Now, how about a story I can pass off as my own? I like to pretend that I live a humorous and multi-faceted life."
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Post by Vivian D'Amore on Jun 28, 2015 15:12:46 GMT -5
Vivian bit her tongue, knowing better to harvest her jokes instead of pushing her luck using them all tonight. It was obvious that a million things were running through her cousin’s head. She observed him, trying to get into his head. She flashed the bartender a smile as he set down the drinks.
Comfort. Pietro truly needed it. Her small expression of affection would have to be enough. Too much attention to the topic in public was dangerous to reputation. She wasn’t sure if that exact thought was selfish or selfless, but it didn’t matter, the hushness of it all was beneficial to everyone at this point in time.
“Love, my dear cousin,” Vivian began, stirring her drink with her nail, “is as scandalous as it gets.” She paused to sip, “and don’t be poking fun at the poor guy, he’s just lost. Trying to find himself and whatnot.” She wasn’t sure how true that statement was, but she’d always defend a family member.
In eyeing the envelop, she licked her lips and watched Pietro’s wrist carefully to verify his deliverance of the letter. She collected the note and, while twirling it around in her grasp, shrugged.
“I got so many stories, darlin’,” Vivian started her tale, which had taken place only a few nights back. “What had happened was a fight. This small guy got all heated because this gorgeous man had looked his date up and down. He got up to protect his masculinity. The problem was the real looker of a man boxes frequently and is pretty damn good at the sport...” The tale continued and, as Vivian told it, she acted out the swinging. She was able to deliver it well without laughing, something she’d be proud to admit.
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