The Gentleman's Club

Chapter Three: Jimmy Choo

Everything designer, it's designer things
All this fuckin money bring the finer things
—Jimmy Choo, Fetty Wap

I think it's safe to say May is in love. She can't get enough of Barry. The entire ride back she gushed about him. Barry this and Barry that, how handsome he is, how smart he is, how gorgeous their children would be.

Lola just rolled her eyes good-naturedly as we drove through the still packed streets of New York with the windows down. It was two in the morning and still New York was awake. It truly was the city that never slept.

"So, Phire," Lola began, a smirk gracing its way onto her pretty face, her vibrant red hair snaking around her face gracefully as the warm July air tossed it this way and that. "I saw you talking to Giovanni DeLuca."

May gasped and I heard her slap her hand over her mouth.

"You mean the Giovanni DeLuca?" May gasped.

I was in shock. I had heard of Giovanni DeLuca. Who hadn't? His family had immigrated to from Sicily to America in nineteen-thirteen. Here, his great-grandfather started a company managing airplanes. Of course, at the time, everyone told Giovanni's great-grandfather it was a waste of time. In those days, who could have foreseen a flying machine that actually worked?

But, Giovanni's great-grandfather's investment paid off and before he knew it, everyone was clamoring to ride on an airplane. It was literally a gold mine. To this very day, all the big airplane companies have the DeLuca name to thank. It's why the DeLuca family gets twenty-five percent of every airplane company in America.

Giovanni DeLuca was twenty-six years old, in the prime of his life. I heard some stories about him. He was a wild party boy who slept with every woman who threw themselves at him. And then, the accident happened. He was riding with his mother, father, and his seven-year-old brother when they had a head-on collision with a drunk driver. Giovanni's father and brother survived the crash unscathed. Only a few cuts and bruises and a few broken bones. Giovanni's mother died and Giovanni himself went blind.

After the death of Giovanni's mother, people said his father shattered and left the company. Since Giovanni's grandfather was considered too old to run the company and his brother was too young, a then twenty-one-year-old Giovanni was forced to step up and take his place as the head of the billion-dollar company.

I wanted to facepalm myself. How had I not pieced together I was talking to Giovanni DeLuca and his grandfather, Stefan DeLuca.

"It wasn't anything major," I finally said, shaking my head. "His grandfather just offered me a job, that's all."

"A job?" May and Lola chorused, both of them listening extra close.

"Yeah. They're going to Italy and his grandfather wants someone to be there for Giovanni when he can't."

"They're offering you a trip to Italy?" Lola's voice was heavy with awe and disbelief.

"And they're offering for you to be around Giovanni DeLuca," May interjected dreamily. "You're so lucky."

"I didn't say yes," I told them.

"What?" they said together.

Lola turned to look at me incredulously and May leaned forward to give me the same look Lola was giving me.

"I'm not sure if I should take this job." I shrugged.

"Sapphire Jenkins, are you fucking crazy?" Lola shrieked.

"Clearly, she is," May grumbled.

"They're offering you a trip to Italy, which they'll probably pay for. And they'll probably pay you through the nose for being there with Giovanni. Why would you not take the job?"