𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗞 𝗔𝗦 𝗪𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥 ⚔︎

9

benny pushed his glasses further up his nose. "so, giovanni, if you just put those numbers into the calculator..."

giovanni looked at the figures written on the paper beside him before pressing the buttons. "like this?"

"yes, exactly like that," benny said, staring at the tiny screen. "then you should get your amount of profit from that original sum, multiplied by two."

giovanni entered the numbers again. "okay... that would be... thirty thousand dollars."

benny raised his brows. "impressive," he said. "you're a fast learner, aren't you, red?"

giovanni shrugged, a coy smile on his face. "perhaps."

ever since the meeting at eddie's house, benny had been teaching giovanni in accounting. it had been on the man's mind for quite a few days now, and he thought that he would make a great partner when it came to money-handling and taking care of financial problems within the business. the young man had proved himself to be rather intelligent when it came to mathematics — his wit was quick and he came to conclusions way faster than benny ever did.

but, giovanni was finding it hard to focus. he couldn't stop thinking about jesse, and that night at the babylon. he still couldn't believe what he had seen: he tried to tell himself that it was all in his imagination, that he was making it all up. he was direly struggling to accept the fact that he saw jesse kissing a man. it had shocked him to his core. giovanni had so many questions — he never told eddie about it, or even chantelle, for that matter. it would just cause more problems between the father and son, which is something he knew the two of them did not need at this moment in time. things were already so tense between them.

benny and giovanni were currently at benny's two-story dutch colonial home in bayside, queens. they were sat at the dining table in benny's kitchen; documents, plastic files, rolls of money, paper pads, pencils, and a calculator all sprawled upon the glass surface.

a knock sounded from the doorway. giovanni turned around and eva, benny's wife, was standing there. she gave him a smile.

eva ricci was a small, pretty, slender jewish woman. she was 50 years old, just like her husband. her mousy, curly brown hair was streaked with elegant strands of silver and she had greyish blue eyes. she was a nice looking woman, who presented herself smartly at all times, even on a lazy sunday around the house — there was nothing particularly special about her, but not in a bad way. she was much alike to the rest of the ordinary, suburban new york housewives.

"would you boys like anything to eat or drink?" eva said, coming into the kitchen.

"oh, how kind," benny said, "i'll just have a coffee. d'you want anything, giovanni?"

giovanni put his hand up. "no thank you, mrs ricci. i'm okay."

eva put the kettle on the stove for her husband. "alright."

benny gazed at his wife with a twinkle of affection in his brown eyes. "amazing, isn't she?"

giovanni nodded absentmindedly. "yes, sir."

"i'll tell you, red, you oughta get yourself a girl one of these days," benny said, flipping through some more documents. "i had my first kid when i was your age."

giovanni's cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "yes, yes, i know... but i'd like to settle in and focus on my work before i go out and start... falling in love."

the other man grinned. "sounds like a plan. speaking of work..." he slid one of the documents he was holding over to giovanni and gave it a tap. "...see if you can figure this one out for yourself."