A Sin For A Sin

I stagger into my apartment, holding my breath. My jeans have a hole in the knee, I have garbage in my hair, and I don't smell all that pretty. At least my heart rate has come down. Dom looks over at me and his smile falls.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"I was working. A lady opened her door, dumped a bag of garbage on me and then stuck her dog on me. I got away with my life."

"What kind of dog?"

"Big, mean, fast." I bend over at the waist and suck in a few breaths.

"I'm in pitiful shape."

"If you keep this job, you might get in shape." he says. I hold up my middle finger and he laughs. I stand up and do some shoulder rolls.

"Will you do my favor?" I ask.

"What?"

"When I get in the shower, put these clothes in a garbage bag and throw them away."

"Yeah, I can do that."

I stumble into my bedroom and strip out of my dirty clothes and leave them on the floor for Dom to pick up, then hop in the shower. When I get out, I feel much better and my dirty clothes are gone. Dom also opened my bedroom window to air out the smell. I get dressed in clean jeans and a red tee shirt with a big picture of Snoopy on the front. I scrunch my hair with mousse and let it air dry and do my make-up. I slip my feet into a pair of black flip flops and when I come back out into the living room, I feel like a new person. I sit down in the chair across from the couch where Dom is sitting. He regards me with his eyes, not saying anything. My cell phone rings in my purse. I get up and answer it, seeing John's name on the caller ID.

"Hello?"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm at my apartment."

"With Dom?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to the Tune-In for lunch. Want to join me?" he asks.

"Is this a date?"

"No, it's lunch."

"OK, then I'll be there." I hang up and find Dom looking at me.

"Who was that?" he asks.

"None of your business."

"Was it John."

"Not having this conversation."

"Fine, just listen to me then. Be careful with him, because the last thing I need to worry about is my sister carrying John Kristaldi's kid." I roll my eyes and grab my purse.

"Bye, Dominic." I yell as I walk out the door.

The Tune-In is a tiny diner that has been in Lawrence for as long as I can remember. It's in a brick strip of buildings, sandwiched between a used book store and a convenience store. I park on the street and get out. On the corner, smoking a cigarette, is a kid I recognize.

"Hey, Sam." I call. He sees me and stomps out the cigarette. I walk over to him.

"What's up? Why aren't you in school?" I ask.

"I only had a half-day." he says, obviously lying.

"Really? Only a half-day? On a Tuesday?" he looks down at his feet.

"You know, I've known you and your mom for a long time. I want you to take care of yourself."

"I am."

"By skipping school to stand on a street corner? You can be so much more, Sam. Why don't you go back to school. I bet it would make your mom really happy." I tell him.

"OK."

"Good. I'll see you around."

"Yeah, see ya, Izzy." he turns and walks away. I watch his back for a minute and then walk into the diner. John is slouched in the very last booth in the back with his back to the wall. His eyes are hard and vigilant, moving over the diner slowly, seeing everything. When his sights fall on me, his eyes soften a little, but he doesn't smile. I sit down across from him, setting my purse down beside me.

"Who was the kid outside?" he asks.

"Sam Faccio. I'm friends with his mom, Renee. She's a nurse, works all the time."

"He looks like a punk." I smile.

"From one punk to another."

"I can spot them a mile away."

"He's a good kid. I'm hoping he can steer clear of the road you and Dom took." he raises his eyebrows and snorts.

"I take it he doesn't have a dad." he says, looking out the front window.

"No. Skipped out years ago. Sam was pretty young." I regard him carefully as I say it. It's common knowledge that John's father left his wife and kids when John was very young and I don't know how he feels about it these days. He doesn't say anything and a waitress comes by and takes our order. John orders a burger and fries, I order a turkey club sandwich and fries.

"How's Dom?" he asks.

"Driving me crazy."

"Cops getting any closer to figuring out what happened?"

"I have no idea." We sit in silence for a minute.

"Dom said that I shouldn't trust you."

"Whys that?"

"He said you're doing things you shouldn't be doing?"

"What do you think?" he asks.

"I don't know, you don't tell me things like that."

"I think Dom needs to mind his own business, rather than try to involve me in bullshit."

"He's trying to protect me, but I think his ways of going about it are fucked up. I'm an adult, I'm going to do what I want."

"You know I'm no saint. If you can deal with that, than Dom will just have to deal." he says, shrugging.

I hear the bell above the diner door ring and high heels clicking on the floor and then stop right in front of our booth.

"Oh my God, so it's true? You guys are dating?" I look up. It's Darcy Rombola. She lived next door to me my whole life and our mothers always tried to force us to be friends. I couldn't stand Darcy though, and she's been a pain in my ass my whole life. I force a smile at her.

"Hi, Darcy."

"Why didn't you tell me you two were dating? It's so exciting!" she says in a loud voice. As if everyone in the place wasn't already staring at John and I already.

"Well, we're not really." I say. John is looking at me with a small smirk on his face, giving me a look as if to say, "You're on your own, babe." I glare at him.

"It's so romantic, having lunch together. You know, that's how you make relationships work." Darcy goes on.

"Yeah." I say, quietly.

"Oh! I have to run, I just saw your car outside and I had to say hi. We should do lunch sometime. That would be a blast! OK, gotta run!" she tromps off like a whirlwind and I fall back into my seat. John takes a sip of his drink and smirks.

"You handled that very well." he says.

"You didn't exactly help me."

"I thought you had it under control."

"Now everyone will think we're dating." we stare at each other for a minute.

"Are we dating?" I ask.

"I wouldn't call it dating."

"What would you call it?" he thinks for a moment.

"We're exclusively having casual sex." he says, finally.

"Exclusively?"

"Yeah, meaning we're not seeing other people."

"So, you're not seeing other women?"

"No.... Are you seeing other guys?"

"No." Our food comes and we take a minute to situate our food before continuing the conversation.

"What would you do if I was seeing another guy?" I ask. He looks up at me.

"I'd put him in the hospital. Then I'd take you home with me and show you all the ways I'm better than him." the way he says it makes me believe it.

"What would you do if I was with another woman?" he asks. I lift my chin a fraction of an inch.

"Nothing."

"Liar. You'd kick her ass."

"You think pretty highly of yourself."

"I can back it up." I know that for a fact.

"How am I ever going to explain this to my mother?"

"Don't."

"Your mother doesn't ask you questions about your personal life?"

"All the time. I just don't answer." he says.

"My mother is convinced that I'm never going to get married and have kids and settle down and I'm starting to believe her."

"Settling is overrated."

"You're settled."

"In ways. I have a kid and I love my kid. I have a job and a house. A secure life doesn't necessarily mean settled. I still can go on adventures across the country, get shot, and have wild sex with a hot chick whenever I want." I roll my eyes.

We finish our meal, he pays the tab and I follow him outside. We stand on the street, watching cars drive by.

"I've gotta get back to work." he says.

"Yeah, I've got shit to do, too." he grabs me and kisses me, passionately. I grasp onto his shirt as his tongue enters my mouth. We break apart finally and I realize we're standing on a public street. I grin and swat at his chest.

"Does your mother know that you're trying to seduce innocent women on the street?" I ask. He gives me a rare full on smile and I almost fall down.

"My mama knows I'm no angel. And you're no better." he gives me a wave and then hops in his truck. I quickly get in my car and pull away from the curb. I barely get into traffic, when my cell phone rings. I look at the screen. My mother. I send her call to voice mail and then turn up Metallica on the radio and do a little headbanging. I think I'm going to take the rest of the day off from work and go to the mall and do a little lingerie shopping and I need a new pair of jeans.