The Promise(60)

We were in his truck on our way to Giuseppe’s when something occurred to me.

“Do you know where my car is?”

“What?”

I turned to look at him. “I left my car in front of Daniel Hart’s house.”

“Yeah, right. Manny went to get it.”

I stared at him. “What?”

“Man,” Ben stated. “Police gave us your purse at the hospital, told us where your car was and that it was okay to move it. Gave Man your keys, he took it to your pad. It’s parked in the spot with your apartment number on it in the parking garage.”

That was nice.

“Said you need a tune up,” Ben continued. “Sweet ride, babe, 280Z with a T-top. But you gotta take care of it.” He made a turn and finished on a mutter, “I’ll get it in my garage, get under the hood.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I told him, turning to face forward. “Got a guy who specializes. With things crazy because of the new job and the move, I haven’t gotten it to him. I was gonna do that before I went to Indy.”

“I’ll do it,” Benny said.

“He specializes, Ben,” I replied.

“Know my way around a Z, Frankie.”

I shut my mouth because I knew he did. Not because he’d owned one, but because he’d had a girlfriend once who owned one.

This brought me to remember something I forgot that I’d always thought was sweet about Benny, actually about all the Bianchis. When he’d had her, he’d taken care of that car for her. Vinnie had done the same for me. You had a Bianchi man, mechanics and oil change shops were a memory.

I also remembered more.

I remembered that she’d lasted longer than any of the other women Benny was with, over two years. It was when I was with Vinnie so I knew her. Her name was Connie. She was very beautiful and very sweet. The whole family was hoping it would go somewhere, including me.

It didn’t and Vinnie, as Benny told it true, had a big mouth, so I knew why it didn’t.

She was too sweet. A pushover.

“My brother’s a man who needs a challenge, babe,” Vinnie had said. “A woman’s gotta stir his blood in more ways than one. You dig?”

At the time, I didn’t dig. I’d liked Connie and I’d thought Benny was crazy for letting her go.

I knew now Connie would come right there when Benny demanded it. And I knew now that might be okay, for a while. Then it would bore him stupid.

These thoughts made me feel warm and weird at the same time.

I didn’t know if it was right, if it would make me feel less weird or more, or make Benny feel weird at all, but I still asked, “How is Connie?”

“Married to Tommy Lasco. Two kids, another on the way. They moved to Calumet City three years ago,” he stated indifferently.

As he was talking, my eyes got big and I turned to him again. “Tommy Lasco?”

“Yep.”

“Oh my God,” I breathed.

“Yep,” Benny agreed.

Tommy Lasco was a bully in school who turned into an asshole out of it. He was good-looking, not as good-looking as any of the Bianchis, including Manny. Vinnie and Benny were strikingly handsome in a way that caught your attention and did not let go. Manny was hot and had it going on, but he was not quite that.

But being an asshole always made a man less attractive.

I turned my head and told the windshield, “I don’t like that for her.”

“She’s happy.”

Again, I looked at him. “You’re sure?”

I saw his shoulders shrug. “They fit. Makes no sense to me, but he loves her. Treats her like gold. He’s a massive dick to everybody else, no exception, but thinks the world of her, their kids. Somehow, she saw her way past the dick he was to the guy he could be with her, and somehow, he found his way not to be a dick to her.”

At least that was something.

I looked back to the road, murmuring, “How did I not hear of this?”

“They live quiet. She likes it like that. He gives it to her.”

Another shocker about Tommy Lasco. He was the kind of asshole who liked to spread his asshole-ness around, loud and proud.

“That’s nice,” I remarked.

“Yep,” Benny agreed.

I rubbed my lips together, thinking about it, then I went for it. “Does that make you feel weird? You guys were together for a while.”

“Nope,” Benny replied immediately. “Glad she’s happy. She wasn’t for me. I burned her bad and that sucked. Didn’t like doin’ it to her ’cause she was sweet, but she wasn’t for me. Sayin’ that, she found what she needed in the end and nothin’ to feel about that but happy for her that she got what she needed.”