I Bought His Love, Then He Became the Don novel · Chapter 51 of 76
Chapter 51: The Cutting Table
"Damiano."
He didn't turn around.
"It's ink," he said. "I got ink on it."
"You draw in pencil."
I reached past him and turned off the tap.
He stood there with the brush in one hand and his wet right hand hanging over the sink.
The skin on the side of it was red from scrubbing.
"Tell me what I promised him," I said.
"You promised to listen to an old man. Dons do it every week."
"Then why are you scrubbing your hand off?"
He put the brush down on the windowsill.
He dried his hand on the dish towel, one finger at a time, the way he had the first night I found him here.
Then he kissed my forehead.
"Go to bed, Lucia. Maddie's up in three hours."
He went up the stairs.
I stood in the kitchen with the dish towel.
In college I'd let a girl in a hallway tell me what he was, and I'd never asked him.
I'd asked him now. He'd kissed my forehead.
On Monday I asked the man from the waiting room.
He drove me to the shop every morning now, which I hated and he knew I hated.
"Augusto Bellanca has an old grievance with somebody," I said. "What is it?"
He kept his eyes on the road for a whole block.
"Donna, I'd have to guess."
"Then guess."
"At that table a guess gets a man hurt." He pulled up at the curb. "Ask the one who knows."
"Who knows?"
He got out and opened my door.
He didn't answer, and I understood he already had.
Saturday the captains came to the shop.
My rule. If they wanted me on a Saturday, they came to me.
The first time, three weeks ago, they'd stood on the sidewalk until the pants lady told them to come in or go home.
Now they came in.
Five old men in good suits sat in a row on the bench by the front window, among the mothers of brides, holding garment bags.
One of them held a cathedral veil across his knees so it wouldn't touch the floor.
The pants lady had handed it to him. He didn't dare give it back.
The captain with the pinky ring held a toddler's sippy cup and looked like he wanted to die.
Between fittings, they came to the fitting room door one at a time and spoke low.
A nephew wanted to open a bar on Halsted.
"If he doesn't water the drinks," I said, through a mouthful of pins.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–32 of I Bought His Love, Then He Became the Don are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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