At the same time Angelo slid his chair back with a loud screech across the marble. “Get the fuck out! No!”
“What the fuck?” Nova shook his head and agreed with Angelo, “No. She wants you to come on her face or she won’t fuck you? You’re making that shit up.”
“My hand to God.” Tino raised his hand. “On Ma’s grave.”
Nova hit his shoulder the second the words left Tino’s mouth.
Romeo practically jumped over the kitchen counter to smack the back of his head. “You don’t swear on Ma for something like that!”
Tino leaped out of the chair and dodged a genuine hit from Romeo. Except Nova was helping him and grabbed Tino’s sleeve. Tino had to kick Nova’s thigh to break free. By some miracle he managed to get away from both of them, cleared the table, and ran into the living room, laughing his ass off.
When he took to the couch, Romeo shouted, “Valentino! No!”
He jumped up onto the edge of it so that he was towering over all of them. “Dare me!” he told Angelo, who was the only one not totally disgusted with him.
“No!” Nova shouted before Angelo could dare him. “You’re gonna bust your ass. Don’t you fucking dare him, Angelo!”
“Go for it!” Angelo shouted.
So Tino did it, a full front tuck off the edge of the couch. He should’ve busted his ass in such a small area, but life had taught him how to land on his feet even when it should be impossible.
Both his brothers shouted as he did it, and stood there pissed when Angelo came up and gave Tino a high five after he threw up his hands in triumph.
Then Angelo asked, “Did you do it? On her face?”
Tino pulled back and looked at his cousin. “Of course I did it.”
Romeo just crossed himself rather than say anything.
“If it’s her thing, who am I to begrudge her,” Tino went on as his phone beeped in his pocket. He pulled it out, seeing that it was a message from Carlo, who borrowed neighborhood teenagers’ phones to text since he was old-school and hated cells. “Gotta go, kids. It’s been fun.”
“It’s eight in the morning,” Romeo said in disbelief. “You’re getting booty calls before noon?”
“There’s no wrong time for a booty call.” Tino grabbed Romeo’s face and tugged him down to kiss his forehead. “Ti voglio bene.” Then he reached out and hit Nova’s shoulder. “I gotta go down and grab my helmet from your place.”
“I’ll walk you,” Nova said.
“What about breakfast?” Romeo asked.
“I’ll take it with me and eat it on the way down.”
Tino ended up holding a plate in the elevator, swallowing his breakfast whole in a way Romeo would definitely bitch about, as Nova stood silently beside him.
Tino was still eating as they walked down the hallway to Nova’s apartment, when his brother asked, “Was it true?”
Tino frowned at him. “Was what true?”
“The story?”
“That I met a girl at La Bomba? No. I was with Bri and Carina at La Bomba. I don’t pick up women when I’m working.” Tino took a bite of his bacon but then glanced back at Nova, who was standing there staring at him instead of opening the door. “What?”
“You tell it like it’s true,” Nova whispered. “You just lie like it’s easier than telling the truth.”
Tino held up his hand, because what did Nova expect from him? “You lie too, motherfucker.”
“Not like you.” Nova opened the door, clearly still miserable. “I’m not a different person for everyone. I’m still me. I just don’t tell them everything.”
Tino took a mental note not to knock Nova out again if it made him this sulky and introspective. Not exactly how he wanted to go out on a job. He was superstitious. It’d be his luck to get iced the one time he was fighting with Nova and leave his brother miserable for eternity.
“It was half-true, if that makes you feel better,” Tino said as he walked in. He went to the kitchen and stood there, quickly finishing his breakfast. “All of it’s half-true, Casanova. They’re not all lies.”
Nova shrugged. “What half?”
Tino smirked and looked up at him. “The coming-on-her-face part. That was true. I did know a chick who was into it. Didn’t even want sex. Oral. Nothing. All she wanted was that. I’ve done a lotta weird shit, but that was easily top ten.”
“When—” Nova shrugged again, obviously uncomfortable, because they didn’t talk about the past much. “With the Brambinos. For them.”
Tino nodded. “Yeah.”
“This woman paid you for that?”
“Well, she didn’t pay me. She paid someone.”
“It wasn’t—” Nova started, still looking uncomfortable. “Was it—” Nova looked away and nearly choked when he said, “It wasn’t Mary?”
“Are you fucking kidding?” Tino laughed. “Mary would lose her mind if someone came on her face. In her hair? She’s a freak about her hair. Madonn’, just talking about it makes my stomach hurt. No. No one is coming on Mary’s face. Not even Frankie. She’d cut it off in his sleep.”
Nova was silent for a moment before he said, “You never talk about what happened with Mary.”