Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
“Sorry I’m acting like this,” he said softly.
“There’s no reason to apologize. And if you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to. You can go to the hotel instead, and I’ll meet you there in a couple of hours.”
“No, I want to. I’m just nervous.” After another moment or two, he let go of me and said, “Okay. Let’s do this.”
I picked up our bags and took his hand, and as we walked to the front door, he asked, “Who else am I going to meet today?”
“Dante’s husband Charlie and Nana’s husband Ollie will probably be here. Beyond that, I’m really not sure.”
To my surprise, Bunny answered the door. He smiled at me and exclaimed, “Hey, Sal! Good to see you, dude.” He turned to Armando and checked him out as he said, “You’re a cutie. I get why Sal shot me down when I came to see him in L.A.”
Arie looked confused, so I explained, “He brought me a delivery from my cousin a few weeks ago. We met for all of thirty seconds in the lobby of my building.”
“You made a big impression, though,” Bunny said with a grin, as he held the door for us and we stepped over the threshold.
I stuck our bags off to the side and tried to make some introductions. “This is my boyfriend, Armando. Arie, this is Bunny.” I turned to our unexpected host and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t remember your real name.”
“It’s Bowen, but I prefer Bunny.”
“Do you work for Dante? I thought you were a courier.”
He looked proud as he said, “Dante hired me to be his and Nana’s assistant.”
We all turned toward the deep voice that said, “That was shortly after I caught him trying to break into my car.” Dante had appeared in the kitchen doorway. He looked amused as he added, “He had no idea what he was doing.”
I asked incredulously, “He tried to steal your car, so you hired him?”
“We all did stupid shit in our twenties,” Dante said with a shrug. “I had my family to help me get it together. Now Bowen does, too.”
“For the record, all I wanted was to take that sweet Porsche on a joy ride,” Bunny said earnestly. “I had every intention of putting it right back where I found it.” For some reason, I believed him.
Dante crossed the large foyer, and after he and Armando shook hands and introduced themselves, my cousin grabbed me in a backslapping hug. “Great to see you, Sal.”
“Great to see you, too.”
“Come on in. Nana whipped up a huge batch of bloody Marys and did a lot of taste-testing along the way, which might explain why she burned the hell out of the stuff she was making for brunch. Never fear, though. Charlie and Ollie are on their way to pick up a deli platter and some baked goods, so we won’t go hungry.”
As we followed him to the kitchen, I asked, “Who else will be joining us?”
“My brother Vincent and his husband, but they’re running late because they had to pick up Josh and Darwin. The boys were working on some kind of film project, but their car broke down in the Outer Mission.”
My great aunt was as colorful as ever in her rainbow-striped T-shirt and hot pink velour track suit. She greeted me with a hug, and when I introduced her to my boyfriend, she beamed at me and said, “So, you like dick after all!”
I had no idea what to say to that. Before I could think of a reply, she crushed Armando in an embrace and exclaimed, “Look at you, you’re adorable!”
Arie murmured, “Thank you, ma’am.”
“Call me Nana,” she said, when she finally let go of him. “I hope you like bloody Marys. I’ve got all kinds of things here to doll ‘em up a bit. Most people go with a piece of celery, but they’re not using their imagination.” With that, she plunked a multi-layered skewer into her glass. It was studded with gherkins, marinated mushroom caps, and miniature balls of fresh mozzarella, arranged in a way that made me wonder if I had an exceptionally dirty mind.
While Dante poured some drinks, Nana said, “Tell me about you, Armando. I want to know everything.”
He glanced at me and mumbled, “I, um…”
To help him out, I said, “Arie owns an amazing midcentury diner. The food is out of this world.”
Nana clapped her hands and exclaimed, “That’s fantastic! I owned a restaurant back in the day. I even had my own cooking show on cable television. I’ll tell you my favorite recipes if you tell me yours.”
She and Arie launched into an animated discussion about food, and I took a seat at the kitchen island and grinned. This was off to a good start.
About half an hour later, we were on our third round of drinks when the doorbell rang. Bunny leapt up and announced, “I’ll get it,” as he hurried out of the kitchen.