Mimi hollered just as her mother pulled and crushed her into her arms.
“You are finally home!” Her mother celebrated, the both of them jumping up and up just before her father came into view and she broke out of her mother’s arms to go embrace her father.
“Daddy!”
“My beautiful daughter!” The man opened his arms and Mimi ran into it, embracing the man tightly. No offense to her mother, but she missed her father so much and she relished his affection knowing that he would be disappointed in her soon.
“Victor!”
Mimi’s eyes popped open at once when she heard her mother and she pulled out of her father’s arms.
“Hi Hannah,” Victor flashed his goofy smile at her.
“Oh come here, you silly boy!” Hannah embraced him, patting his shoulder, “I’ve missed seeing you around when you’re not sneaking into my daughter’s room.”
.....
A shocked silence saturated the place while Victor and Mimi’s jaws nearly dropped to the ground. They turned to Hannah shapely with wide eyes. How did she...? No, no, the proper question should be, she knew all this while?
Victor and Mimi tried to explain at the same time,
“Oh please,” Hannah chortled, flipping her hair dramatically, “Before I was your mother, I was a young woman too.” She knew all of her adventures.
Mimi pressed her lips together and turned to Victor for answers, not that he had any to offer. He means this wasn’t part of the plan. Hannah dropped the bomb on them.
Hannah moved to her husband and placed her head on his shoulder as the man stood straighter, puffing out his chest with pride. His gaze connected with Victor’s, clearing his throat expectantly.
Victor was jostled into action as he stepped forward, hurriedly introducing himself, “I’m Victor Luciano, sir...” He looked at Mimi, “And your daughter’s boyfriend.” He thrust out his hand for a handshake.
But the man looked him up and down in an assessing way before finally enveloping his palm firmly.
Ouch, he had a strong grip, Victor noted.
“Call me, Roger,” The man said.
“Yep, Roger that.” Victor joked, only to see his expression change and he gulped fearfully. Perhaps, he shouldn’t have said that. Some people do not take jokes lightly, right?
What has he done?
Victor slowly looked to Mimi for help but she shook her head, he was on his own.
To their shock, Mimi’s father suddenly burst into loud laughter, patting Victor on his shoulder hard while lost in happiness and Victor tried to keep up cheerfully albeit nervously. He thought Daniel was scary, but it seems there are different versions of scary.
“Aye, this lad is a funny one.” Roger was delighted. He pointed to Mimi, “You did a good job by catching this one, he’s a fine wine and better than the previous flies hovering around you,”
“They are called ex-boyfriends, father, not flies.” Mimi sighed.
“Alright, no more nit-picking,” Hannah interfered, “I made a lot of food and they are to be eaten by humans, not the damn flies,”
“And yet you always tell me to mind my language,” Mimi pointed out the impartiality.
“Get married and you can make your own rules,” Hannah was smug as she led them into the dining room.
“Don’t worry, mother, I’m pregnant. So marriage is a given,” Mimi said of course in her mind. She would break the news to her family after they’d eaten. That way, her mother wouldn’t be able to chase her with a full stomach.
The men were the first to settle down as Mimi helped her mother dish out the food and settled down when they were done.
“Before we eat, can someone say grace? Anyone?” Hannah looked at him, “Victor?”
“Sure,” He smiled.
The whole family held hands as Victor began, “Bless this food to our bodies, Lord, and let us hold you in our hearts. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.”
“Amen!” They chorused.
Done, they picked their utensils and dug into their food just as Hannah began with her interrogation,
“I didn’t know you were religious?”
“Table manners, Mom.” Mimi reminded her. To be precise, she was trying to save Victor from her intense questioning.
“We have a guest, it’s right that we keep him entertained,” of course, her father was quick to defend his wife.
With Mimi’s complaint overruled, Hannah turned her whole attention to her future son-in-law. If only she knew that “future” was kind of around the corner.
Seeing her inquisitive look, Victor knew that the woman wanted an answer to her question.
“Oh, I’m catholic. Although, I’ve been backsliding lately, having not gone to church for a while. And yes, that can be rectified,” if that’s the condition for marrying your daughter, he added in his mind. He would do anything her parents wanted just to marry their daughter.
“Oh, I’m sure, Mimi wouldn’t mind accompanying you to the church this Sunday?” Hannah said.
Mimi turned to her, “I do?”
Her mother gave her an impassive expression.
“Of course, I do.”
Mimi wanted to tell her mother not to try so hard in shipping her with Victor, it was already sailing strongly and a new one would be sailing on board nine months later. Not to mention the ship would wreck once they hear of it.
“So what do you do for a living Victor?” Roger asked him.
Mimi and Victor’s eyes met across the table, tensed, however, he assured her he could take care of it. He is a man and it was his responsibility to take care of situations like this one.
“Honestly, I do a bit of everything, sir.” He answered.
“Care to elaborate,” Roger had his full attention on him this time. If it wasn’t for the fact his wife had told him a bit about Victor, he would have thought he was jobless.
Victor scratched the side of his face, how was he going to put this? Well, he had to give the man something.
So he said,
“I’m not trying to boast or anything, but my family is a bit well off [ A known crime family]. My cousin is the CEO
[Mafia Don] and I am his advisor [Consigliere]. It’s my job to sniff out potential businesses [partners], secure properties [weapons], and follow it up
[Services delivered]. ” He gave them a censored version of his occupation.