My shoes make a soft click sound on the tiles as I walk a few paces behind Laura. She stops on front of a door. "she's in here ma'am"   "Thanks" I mumbled before opening the door.   Inside the room a woman is sitting on one of the L shaped couches.   "Lola?" she asks.   "Hello" I greeted.   "I am Gianna. you're very pretty, for once the rumors are actually correct" she complements me. We hugged kissing each other’s cheek.   "Thank you, Gianna" i say with a laugh, I sit, taking off my glasses and placing it neatly in its case then back in my purse.   "I've being wanting to visit but my husband thought I should give you more time to settle in."    "It's fine. You're married?" I ask.   She nods smiling softly. "How long?" "Two years in about a month"

***          I walk absent minded through the hallways, my thoughts still lingering on my discussions with Gianna.  she left a while ago mentioning something about the babysitter and needing to return home.       My afternoon with her was very enlightening I can't believe i knew absolutely nothing about Niko, my husband. 

I'm laying upside-down on the couch.The television is playing softly, I stopped paying attention to it a while ago.A face appears in my line of sight. "What are you. . .?" Michael trails off. "You know what? Don't answer that. I'll just sit over here. You act like I'm not here. Just keep doing whatever it is that you're doing" I rock my legs that are dangling off the back of the couch back and forth. I can see Michael tapping away on his phone, his fingers flying over the screen quickly. A moment passes as Michael releases a long sigh. "Alright I'll bite. What's wrong now?" "I don't know. I don't feel very well" I rub my eyes tiredly. "Are you sick? Should I call a doctor?" he asks managing to sound concerned. "No don't bother. I just haven't been sleeping well." I replied. It's being three days since Niko left. No, I don't miss him, not exactly, I mean he’s never around. It just feels different. Two days after Niko left, I woke up overly hyped very early, m

“When does the meat go in? I’m not done with it yet” I ask Laura who is staring a delicious smelling pasta sauce by the cooker. “Take all the time you need. At the rate you’re going it should be a couple hours” she says with a laugh pointing the wooden spoon in her hand at me. It took a while but I was able to get the girls to start speaking to me like an actual human being. The ‘yes madam Salvatore , no madam Salvatore ’ was just too much. I’m eighteen for God’s sake. And they were always so careful when speaking with me, it was like they were choosing their words and trying their hardest not to offend me. But after spending so much time in this kitchen and hanging out with them. I’d like to think we were becoming fast friends. Especially Maria Lousia. I think it's easier with her because helping out in the kitchen isn’t exactly her job. She’s here for the protection that her capo can provide. And this place is protected. It's like a fortitude I swear. She’s such

I’m seated legs crossed Indian style on the floor of my living room.  “So, how does the game work?” I ask Maria Louisa.     “So, first we arrange the cards covered like so” she says as she takes the deck of red cards from my outstretched hand and starts placing them on the table one at a time beside each other, when she reaches one end of the glass table, she begins to line the beneath the first one, I nod my head. When she’s done the entire surface of the table is nearly covered with cards.