He turned back to Tony and in Italian, in the hope that there might be someone in the parking lot who didn’t understand every word, he said, “You're fighting in public like a fish monger, what the hell are you thinking?”
Great, just what Tony needed the reason for the rift between himself and his fiancée stepping in to settle the fight. “She's been lying to me and like a fool I believed her.”
The Bellini family yelled when they were angry and it didn’t take long for the voices to escalate. “So why are you mad, that Liza had sex with me or that she lied about it?”
Tony gave a little growl. “I am mad that Liza lied. Hell, I’ve fucked all of your exes.”
Ben glared at him and lowered his voice as he said, “All of my exes, are you crazy?”
Tony shrugged. “It started in high school; I wanted to prove I measured up to the big man on campus. And relax, I never went near Lane.”
Ben shook his head. He couldn’t believe this whole conversation. If he thought for even a minute that there was any chance Tony had tried to make a move on Lane, he’d snap his brother in half. Nevertheless, they’d started to attract a crowd, and certainly speaking in Italian wasn’t keeping things private from some of them. “We’re drawing a crowd, let’s take this inside.”
Ben turned and walked into the restaurant and headed straight to their father’s office.
Dante Bellini was standing at his office door and motioned for his sons to come in. He closed the door, looked at each of his sons, and shook his head.
“What? Now my sons raise their voices in the parking lot like fish mongers?”
Ben was embarrassed. Hadn’t he just said the same thing to Tony about the scene he and Liza were causing only moments before?
“Now, this seems like a conversation the two of you need to have in private, so I’ll leave you here. However, I’ll be back in ten minutes. It was easier when you were little boys; you’d put on the boxing gloves and work it out in the basement.”
Dante opened the door to leave and then said, “I’m going to the Board Room to smooth things over with the bambinas. Ten minutes and you…” he nodded toward Ben, “…had better join me there.”
Chapter 3
Lane had taken Liza to the Ladies’ room so she could regain some composure and touch-up her makeup.
Lane left Liza in the lounge and went into the rest room. She used the facilities, and washed her hands and then joined Liza in the lounge. Liza was sitting in front of the mirror re-applying makeup around her eyes. She looked into the mirror at Lane’s reflection. “I’m sorry you had to hear that.”
Lane sat in one of the chairs behind Liza and gave a half-hearted smile, “I’d like to say it’s no big deal…” Her voice faded a bit before she continued, “Look I know you had a relationship with Ben, and I know you’re with Tony now. I don’t think any of us needs to dredge up what happened. What was it? More than four years ago. I told Ben a long time ago that I knew he wasn’t a monk before we got together, that I don’t need a blanket confession about anything, but that I expect the truth about anything that comes up. It sounded to me like that was why Tony’s so upset. So, I’m curious why did you lie to Tony about it?”
Liza turned to face Lane. “Honestly?”
Lane gave a half smile and nodded, “I think that’s best.”
There was so much to the story, certainly a lot more than she wanted to share with Lane Parker Bellini. Liza took a breath and in a wistful voice, she started to tell the part of the story that was fit to tell a virtual stranger, as the scene from that night played in her head. “I’d been seeing Tony for a few weeks. Most of our dates had happened during the day, you know I’d meet him for lunch somewhere, since he was at the restaurant most evenings. It was on a Monday and we were having a rare nighttime date. He’d come over to my house and cooked a romantic dinner with candles and a lot of wine. It was after dinner and we were probably on our third bottle of wine. We were sitting on my sofa talking and kissing.” Liza looked at Lane and heaved a sigh before she continued. “It didn’t take long for things to start getting heavy, clearly heading toward the bedroom when he asked me bluntly, ‘Did you fuck my brother?’”
The scene played in her head in more detail and she indulged in it for a few minutes. Tony had been kissing his way from the right side of her neck, across her clavicle, toward the left side of her neck. Her dress was black and zipped at a diagonal across the front. He had pulled her zipper down and while his left hand was caressing her back, the thumb on his right hand was delving beneath the underwire of her bra and making its way sensually toward her nipple. His kisses had worked across to the left side of her neck. She had pulled his polo shirt out of his pants and was running her hands across his abs and up his chest. He whispered her name, “Liza?” She moaned and whispered, “What?” Thinking he was asking if he could go on. But, to her shock, he’d whispered the question, “Did you fuck my brother?”
She looked at Lane and continued the story, the real scene still paying in her head. “I was afraid that if I said yes, that he’d walk out, and I was becoming quite attached to him, so I said no.” Liza hadn’t answered him right away, she didn’t know why he was asking, she didn’t want him to stop what he was doing, and so she moaned the lie, “No.” She stopped again, wishing she had a bottle of water to drink. “It didn’t seem important at the time, we had only been seeing each other for a few weeks then, but after he proposed two weeks ago, it began to eat at me, and I thought I should tell him the truth. Today I finally worked up the courage, and what you heard outside was the aftermath.”
Lane shook her head. She understood that Liza had been seeing Tony, off and on, now for several years. In addition, she knew that they had gotten quite serious over the last few weeks. She still didn’t understand why Liza had kept the secret so long. She reached out and took Liza’s hand. “I don’t have any advice, not really, just that if you love each other, things will work out. Tell Tony what you’ve told me.” Lane stood. “Come on; let’s see where the guys are. I’m guessing they’ve moved to Papa’s office.”
Liza nodded, sure, that was easy for Lane to say, “Tell Tony.” But the reason she had always said no when Tony proposed was that until he’d taken her to Thanksgiving at Ben and Lane’s last month, she thought she was his little buried secret, something he tapped on the side but was too ashamed to introduce to his family. She got up and followed Lane. They walked to the office and Lane rapped twice on the door.
Ben opened the door and kissed his wife. Lane looked at Tony as she said, “Ben, come on, these two have some things to talk about.” She rubbed her baby bump, and said, “And the baby and I are about to starve.”
Tony looked, across the room, at Lane. He was clearly embarrassed as he said, “Lane, I apologize for what you overheard.”
She smiled at Tony. “You guys just work things out. We’ll see you later, okay?” She tugged on Ben’s hand and the two of them walked to the Board Room.
Once at their table, Ben brought her hand to his lips. “I’m sorry you witnessed all of that.”
Lane smiled and touched his cheek. “Remember what I told you before you proposed? I don’t need to know what happened with Liza or with anyone else unless it impacts my life, right here, right now. Nothing’s changed; and this doesn’t qualify. It’s ancient history as far as I’m concerned and Tony needs to get there too. Please, let’s not talk about this.”
Ben leaned over and kissed her. “I love you.”