Page 56 of Fall Into You
Matt ignores him, picking up a clean kitchen towel, wrapping it around my hand. “I need you to put pressure on this, okay? I don’t think you need stitches, though.”
Mom gasps at the sight of blood on my hand and runs toward me, asking what happened, but I don’t reply—I’m too focused on what’s about to go down.
“Matt.” Vinny’s voice is no longer angry. It’s cold, calm. “This is the last time I’m going to ask you. What the fuck is going on here?”
Matt sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. “This isn’t how we wanted you to find out, obviously. We were going to tell you over dinner tonight.”
Oh no.
Something turns in my stomach, the pain in my hand long forgotten, overpowered by this huge sense of danger headed our way, like a semi about to T-bone us.
“Tell mewhatover dinner?” He narrows his eyes at us, but he knows. I don’t know why he’s stalling, though. He’s giving us an out, a chance to not tell him, to end things.
Matt shakes his head and shrugs. “I love her, man,” he says as if he can’t help it. “I tried not to, but I really fucking love her.”
It’s the first time he’s said it out loud, and I’m torn between wanting to kiss him, to say it back, and to stand right in front of Matt to protect him before my brother punches him in the face again.
There is a collective charged pause where no one in the kitchen says anything. My mother continues to help put pressure on my wound while she stares at both the men, and Danielle looks like she wants to stay and make sure this doesn’t turn into a fight but needs to go back and make sure her children are safe. My mom whispers to Danielle that it might be best if she goes to take care of her kids, and I agree. The last thing we want is for the twins to run in and see their father in the middle of a physical altercation—which I assume at this point is a big possibility.
Finally, Vinny breaks the silence. “You fuck my sister?” he asks, and Matt winces, then straightens and looks him in the eye.
“It’s not like that, man. I told you. I love her. It’s not about just sex with us.”
Fuck, Matt. You shouldn’t have said “just.” Now you’ve definitely admitted to us having sex—something Vinny could have happily lived in denial of.
“Yeah, right. I’m supposed to believe that. I’m supposed to believe you didn’t just fuck my sister and put her in the same category as your other conquests.” Gone is Vinny’s calm voice. Now it’s raised in warning.
“What other conquests?!” Matt raises his hands in frustration. “That was fucking med school, Vinny. I was a fucking kid going through a really fucked-up time. I don’t get why you think I’m this horrible person who just wants to screw women over. I love and respect your sister very much. This isn’t a fling or something casual to us.” He takes a deep breath. “This is real.” He says it with such strength and determination that I melt.
I love him so much.
“I’m not this awful villain you seem to think that I am.”
“Oh, yeah, asshole?” Vinny challenges.
I pull my hand from my mother’s so I can walk over to Matt, but I stop in my tracks as I see Vinny’s fist fly across and hit Matt’s jaw with surprising force. A wave of coldness washes over my body, and I’m shaking in fear.
“Oh my God!” I hear myself scream. My mother is yelling expletives in Italian at her son, but again, he ignores us.
Matt’s body is propelled against the kitchen counter once more, and I throw myself at Vinny’s back, doing my best to pull him off my boyfriend. He comes away easily, seemingly done with hurting his (now former?) best friend.
“If you’re such a stand-up fucking guy…” he says as Matt looks off into space, confused from the blow he received in the face. My mom tries to pull Vinny farther away from Matt, but he shakes her off. “Then why did you go against my wishes when I specifically asked you to stay away from her? Or why did you lie to me for this long? No, you’re absolutely right, Matt. You’re actually a great guy.”
That one hits me close to home in the chest because it’smyfault we didn’t speak up sooner, and it’smy faultwe didn’t come clean. Matt wanted to tell him. He was tired of lying. It was tearing him up inside.I’mthe one that made everyone lie to my brother, and it definitely did not end up well.
I help Matt straighten as much as he can considering the back pain he must be feeling right now. He brings his hand to his mouth and pulls it away with blood. I start crying again.
“I want you to get the fuck out of my house,” Vinny says with a hard edge to his voice. “I want to you to leave, and I don’t ever want to see you again.”
“You don’t get to—” I start to say but am cut off by my mother.
“Elisabetta,” she says in a calm and collected voice. “I think it would be best for everyone if Matt leaves right now.”
“What?” I turn to look at her, confused. Wasn’t she the one who thought it would be a good idea for us to get together? Why is she kicking him out?
Matt looks down at the floor and nods a couple of times before looking at me. I start to protest, but he shakes his head and tells me that my mother is right, that he should go. He pulls my injured hand to him and carefully unwraps the kitchen towel. “This looks better. It looks like the bleeding has stopped almost completely—you don’t need stitches.” He takes a deep breath. “Just make sure you take a look at it,” he says to Vinny, looking like he wants to say more but holds back.Idon’t know what to say or how to feel. Do I offer to go with him back to the city? I feel like I should stay here and do damage control, speak to Vinny, give him a piece of my mind. I also need to be here as back-up for Danielle, because if my brother finds out that his wife knew all along, it’ll be a shit storm.
“Thank you for hosting me, Catterina. I really enjoyed my time here, right up until a few moments ago.” He leans down to kiss her on the cheek but seems to remember last minute that he has blood on his lips and pulls back.
