Each friend represents a world in us, a world of possibility not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

~Anais Nin~

                                                                                      Romano.

There she was, silently sleeping beside me. Sunlight sneaked through the window, slipping down her glossy hair spread out over the pillow, long eyelashes resting still on her lower eyelids. She must be exhausted, so I let her sleep. She needed the rest. We had arrived a few minutes before 5 am. As I watched her sleep, I remembered every word she'd told me, the way we made love twice in the jet, and once more before we both fell asleep.  

I was beginning to think I might never get enough of her. It was a scary thought. To be one of those one-woman men, like Raphael, yet even as terrifying as that thought was, I knew I would probably only want her.

She turned her face from me, sighing while she burrowed deeper into the bed. I smiled at how adorable she looked, leaning over to kiss her gently on the forehead before leaving the bed.

I wanted to go for a run before she woke up. We had two weeks to spend together. I was so excited, so happy that she was in my life. I didn't hear the voices until I was in the living room.

Bruno was seated on my dining table, eating my food, drinking my coffee without prior notice. He wasn't alone, either; father Jose stood by the window enjoying the scenery of my house or whatever the hell got his attention.

"What the hell are you two doing in my house?" I bellowed angrily, thinking of the plans I had with Mia were about to be postponed because some adults could not read the room.

"Wow! You really can smile." Bruno exclaimed, faking a surprised look while taking a bit from a scone. "Sophie's are better than these," he said, waving the scone in my direction. I wanted to tell him to stop eating it, but he was right, Sophie's were divine.

"You still haven't answered me, what are you doing here? Did you follow me?"

"There is a way you've been looking at me lately like you would like to kill me and feed my remains to vultures," he smirked at me, enjoying my misery. Father Jose had turned, watching us bicker just like we did when we were young delinquents determined to break both man-made and Godly laws as long as it suited us. We still did it, but now we were old enough, had enough money and power to use the same to our advantage.

"Before you kill us, we are innocent." Bruno using the word innocent to describe himself, was laughable.

"Raphael told us to join him because, apparently, he owed you one."

"Raphael is here?" I asked, sitting opposite Bruno, pouring myself a cup of coffee. "Yes he is, he just stepped out to take a call."

"You look good, caro." Father Jose said, looking in my face. I felt like he was looking for something specific, searching without a clue on where in particular, it was on my face.

"You're happy, no?" I wasn't sure what to say to that. I wasn't aware of how the status of happiness felt like, but whenever I was with Mia or thought of her, I felt a strange sense of contentment.

"I'm not sure how to answer that," I answered honestly, uncomfortable with the question. I wondered if part of me refused to acknowledge it because it called for a reflection of my feelings.

I remembered Mia whispering to me last night, "I will trade you a story for a story"

"What do you mean?" I had asked, pretending not to know what she meant.

"I will trade my life stories for yours." I had smiled at her, trying to dismiss the request by saying I had nothing exciting or interesting to tell her. But we both knew I was lying and trying to brush it off had hurt her feelings. She did not say it, but I saw it in your face.

"I will wait for you," her whisper as seductive as her hands on me.

Father Jose did not prod; he let me get away with the elusive answer. He was nothing if not patient. Just when I thought I had got away with it, Raphael walked in with his hands in his pocket, a superior smirk on his face. " I thought I could pay you for dropping by unannounced the same way you did to me with Sophie three years ago." How can mafia don be as petty as this? I narrowed my eyes at Bruno, "Didn't we drop by together?" I asked him; he nodded guiltily. "I didn't know his plan until we were on air." he defended, averting his eyes to his breakfast plate, which still had every morsel available that morning. He was lying, I, of course. "I can't believe you can lie in front of a priest," Raphael said in a mocking tone causing all of us to erupt in laughter.

I guess I was happy. I thought.

"Did he just laugh?" Bruno asked, pointing his finger at me.

"He really did laugh. Raphael added, "After all the smirks and mock laugher we've gotten over the years? This is what makes you burst out in laughter?"

"I'm hurt, heartbroken, to be precise." Bruno had his hand across his chest for emphasis. "For more than a decade, the best we got was a chuckle."

"Stop exaggerating; your food is getting cold." He sniggered at me, picking up his plate of food and headed to the kitchen.

"Father Jose insisted on seeing the woman you're sinning with, so we picked him up."He indeed was paying me back for what we did to him three years ago."'I'm not sinning with her." He ignored the anger in my voice as he stood up. I knew he was going for whiskey before I saw it."

"You're not joined in holy matrimony, which makes it a sin."

"Since when did you become this religious?"

"I'm just pointing out the obvious."

"How convenient for you."

He shrugged, handing father Jose a glass of whiskey, still smirking with that annoying way of his.

"When do I meet your young lady."

"Oh, you're not, old man. The last time you insisted on meeting one, she ended up leaving.

"You're not getting within an inch of mine," I swore, grabbing the bottle of whiskey from Raph's clutches. I shouldn't have sworn; I shouldn't have said shit because Mia came down right at that moment, looking flushed and out of her depth. She was embarrassed; I could tell which was interesting because she was used to having eyes on her. Looking at her shyly look at me for direction, I realized I wanted to know everything there was to know about her even though the cost of it would be revealing each of my secrets in the process.

Good friends are allowed to be petty. Right?