I feel like I’m taking more than I’m giving and it’s not what I’m used to. I feel like I want to show my appreciation more.
At the start of the week, he was really stressed about his security worries but then told me he knew it was down to the girl he fired for stealing.
And this probably helped me fall a little more, because that’s the girl from the night he first took me to Genesis and the fact that she’s causing drama because he fired her means he only fired her, didn’t hurt her like I first worried about. This is much more preferable to what I thought… wondering if he ‘disappeared’ her.
He said she hooked up with a drug dealer and he’s a) trying to screw him over in the name of revenge for firing her and b) trying to take an opportunity to profit from that.
It made a huge wave of relief crest over me and honestly, made me feel even better about my relationship with him.
I said as much to Killian when he questioned why I looked relieved about the fact that someone was trying to fuck him over.
“No, no, don’t get me wrong,” I’d said, “It’s awful you’ve dealt with this but… I have to admit, I wondered what happened to her.”
“Explain,” he requested.
“I didn’t really know much about you then. I only knew what you-know-who had suggested… that you made people who crossed you pay. The fact that you fired her and let her off with a warning says good things to me about you.”
He threw his head back, laughed, and then pulled me close, whispering against my lips. “Did you think I made her sleep with the fishes for pulling a couple fifties out of my till?”
I rolled my eyes. “Never know nowadays. There’s plenty of that type of crime here where we live.”
“True enough,” he shrugged.
“How are you dealing with these guys?” I asked. “A sting with the cops?”
“It’s probably better I don’t bog you down with the details,” he replied.
That made me bristle. I found myself fretting about the fact that he wasn’t talking about involving the cops. I’d had a bit of a relief with the way things had happened with Ray and Mrs. Shear – the police being involved. It had me thinking maybe he wasn’t that dark businessman straddling the line between the law-abiding world and the criminal underworld like Ray suggested, but the comments he made about how his guys would be dealing with the drug dealer had me concerned.
I’m beginning to think Killian deals with criminals in a different way than he deals with the law abiders like Mrs. Shear.
Maybe it was better to leave that stuff in the column of not needing to know. For now.
As for Ray, I haven’t heard a thing about him since finding out he was arrested.
I asked Killian on Wednesday night if there was any news and he shrugged it off.
“You’ll let me know if you hear anything, right?”
“Of course,” he said and then kissed me and changed the subject.
But the look in his eyes at the mention of Ray’s name chilled me.
Obviously, Ray is a sore spot, would’ve been in general, but after the double-sided coin conversation – there was a different chill coming off Killian whenever his name came up. I was thinking it’d be a good idea to do my best to just not bring it up. For my sake as well as Killian’s.
***
We’re seated at a table at the wedding reception with two couples Killian knows. Bianca and Nino, as well as Luciana and Ed. Luciana is the youngest sister of the groom and Killian tells me that her husband Ed runs the restaurant that used to be the pizza joint he worked at as a teenager. It’s now a fine dining establishment and Ed jokes that Killian can still come make pies, that they still use the old recipe.
And then it turns to teasing as Killian tells Ed that I like pineapple on pizza. Ed tells me we should come by for dinner and he’ll make me a dessert pizza, which is where the pineapple really belongs.
Killian introduces Nino as a business associate and I ask, “Oh, what business are you in?”
The big, burly guy leans in, looking me straight in the eye before deadpanning, “I’m in waste management.”
His wife slaps his arm and rolls her eyes. “Get me another drink, Tony Soprano.” He laughed heartily and kissed her, then winks at me. “Need a refill, too?”
***
After the bride and groom’s first dance to the old seventies’ song Make Me Do Anything You Want, the DJ announces the next song is for all couples. Who You Love by John Mayer and Katy Perry.
Killian grabs my hand and leads me to the dancefloor. Our first dance ever. He’s light on his feet and the way he holds me feels amazing as we move to the song.