STOLEN SMILE

CATERINA

"I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel."

-E.B. White

†******†

MY HEAD FELT LIGHT AS my second beer settled into a warm puddle in my stomach.

I was only tipsy and had already exchanged alcohol for water. I never drank too much in public; it loosened my tongue, to the point I feared what I would say or do. What if I told everyone what I was thinking? The Sweet Abelli and alcohol didn't mix. I wasn't ready to jump headfirst into the world as myself, didn't know if I'd ever be. When you're groomed and praised for being a certain way your entire childhood, sometimes there's no escape.

Audrey didn't share the same opinions on the matter. She was drunk, very much so. Thankfully, she was usually quiet while intoxicated, and appeared to only be eating much more and with less decorum than she did sober.

More family had shown up and filled most of the restaurant. Melgren sat with Melgren and Abelli's with Abelli's. Though, Audrey sat next to Jennifer and her uncles and their wives. I knew her mamma had passed when she was a teen, and her papà had been killed when the Zanetti's shot up one of her nightclubs. Unsurprisingly, it was because Jennifer's father had cheated them on a business deal.

It was strange not having Audrey at our table, but I guessed she was going to be a Melgren in less than two weeks. A discomfort tightened in my throat.

I sat next to Trevor, who seemed to be in good spirits. He had a bandage on his right hand, though, and kept asking me to get his drinks for him, to pass this or that, and to cut his steak. He always asked with too much enthusiasm, as if he liked his new condition. I was feeling for Jenny, cheater or not.

My parents, Nonna, Dominic, and Bradley also sat with us. The men kept the conversation monotonous with talk about work-Papà owned many different establishments, from strip clubs to laundromats, though the latter was probably a cover-up for the packaging and distribution of drugs-or about their bets on men in their illegal fights.

Grace ran the conversation in the room, making Abelli's converse with Melgren and vice versa. She looked like Barbie today. Thin-strapped pink dress, high ponytail, and light pink makeup. She was charismatic, independent, and now that I believed she'd slept with Jennifer, I watched her more than I should have. I was fascinated with the idea that she knew what it was like to sleep with her. Though, the more I thought about it, a foreign feeling—a wave of something unpleasant—slithered through my veins.

Envy.

That's what it was.

I wasn't only attracted to the woman, I was jealous of the women she'd been with.

I groaned out loud.

All eyes at our round table came my way, forks of dessert halfway to their lips.

"Indigestion?" Nonna questioned.

"Yeah," I responded without thinking, and pushed my chair back. "I'm going to use the restroom."

I didn't even realize what I had said until I was walking away from the table and heard my brother and cousins' soft laughter behind my back. Men.

I had the bathroom door open three inches when I heard my name between the sound of the running faucet and toilet flushing.

"Look, all I'm saying is that she's known to be this Sweet Abelli, but really it's only because she gets sweet with a lot of men."