𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗞 𝗔𝗦 𝗪𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥 ⚔︎

11

and so, eddie informed only his most trustworthy men of giovanni's departure. he told them in sparing details, keeping it short and sweet, not giving away too much. all were disappointed by the news — sal and mike had been caught off guard by it, shocked at his sudden change in attitude, while benny was actually rather upset.

since he could no longer safely stay at his apartment, as per eddie's permission giovanni had moved in with sal for a few days while he waited for his application to a military academy in minneapolis to be approved. it was bound to come back any day now, as he had sent it off just two hours after his meeting with eddie at the hotel — he had wasted no time in getting on the go.

staying at sal's house meant that giovanni got to spend more time with the guys before he was due to leave. he even paid a few visits to chantelle at her house in plandome, just a twenty minute drive away, where they went on long walks in the woods with the dogs.

as for he and jesse, they avoided each other like the plague. jesse was barely home in the first place — knowing that giovanni was in kings point, he surfed from couch to couch; from tracy's to andre's, tommy's to eric's and then to jude's, even to latoya's — he only ever showed his face to wash his laundry and then he was right on his way again, avoiding the other man at all costs. they hadn't seen or spoken to each other for almost a month, which of course, eddie had noticed with great haste.

they had went right back to square one. they were exactly as they had been last spring — they were strangers again.

three days later, in the late hours of the afternoon, giovanni was in the guest room of sal's brooklyn townhouse, repacking all of his things into his suitcase and rucksacks. he felt as though he had been on the move constantly, travelling around like a gypsy, never with a set base or plan in mind — from manhattan to moscow, berezenki, pisa, portoferraio, and back to new york again; going to-and-fro from eddie's house in queens and moving all of his stuff into sal's place in brooklyn — he couldn't help but to feel slightly lost amongst it all. everything was becoming a little too much.

he packed up all of his movable belongings into the suitcase and the rucksacks that were sprawled open on top of the bed: shirts, trousers, socks, shoes, books, his toothbrush, and copious rolls of money all went in, firmly compressed. as he shoved in the last remaining knick-knacks and zipped up the pockets, a bittersweet feeling enveloped him — although he was glad to be getting away from his hectic life in the city and starting anew in another state, he was saddened to be leaving all of his friends behind.

"hey, kid."

he turned to see sal, standing in the doorway with a faint smile on his face. his hair was greased in his signature slick-back, and he was dressed in a dark emerald green suit, a white shirt, with a silky pale blue patterned tie around his neck — giovanni could recall this being the suit that he had worn when they had met for the first time.

giovanni dipped his head in greeting. "hey."

"all packed for tomorrow, huh?" sal said, coming further into the room. he stood beside giovanni and gazed down at the luggage before them.

"yes, i'm afraid so."

sal scoffed gently. "what d'ya mean, 'afraid so?' it'll be good for to you get outta new york for a little while. get some of that fresh country air into your lungs."

giovanni nodded with a smile. "m-hm."

"speaking of," he said. "i need your help at the royale. we've got some orders to sort out."