Page 14 of Bought By the Mafia

“Same here,” Gio replied, taking her hand. It didn’t sound like he was pleased at all, but Kara seemed not to notice. She continued talking. “My teddy bear is around here somewhere as well.” Her gaze darted around the gallery. “There he is.” Kara waved over a thin man with white hair peppered with black streaks, who immediately came over to us. She pulled him close and said, “Ted, look who I found.” The man, who seemed half drunk, already glanced at me without recognition, then at Gio, and his eyes brightened. “Ah, Giovanni Morelli!” he extended his hand towards him. “Didn’t know art was your thing.” Gio shook his hand and replied, “I’m here to support a friend. Kevin, the owner.”

“I didn’t know you and Morelli were friends. I could’ve gotten a good bargain on our last real estate deal,” Ted said.

Meanwhile, Kara rolled her eyes and gently nudged Ted in the ribs. “I didn’t mean him. I meant his wife, Simona?” Ted’s face was blank. “You know, my friend? The one I told about…” When nothing registered on Ted’s face, she gave up and said, “You know what, never mind.” She turned her attention to me instead. “So, Sim. What do you think?”

The topics had moved so fast in such a short time; I was unsure what she was talking about. Seeing my expression, she turned my body to the art on the wall. “I saw you looking at the Sad mouse piece.”

“Uh…” I looked down at the name below the works. Kara Sullivan, it read. Oh, god. The horrible photographs were hers. I didn’t notice at first glance that this was heres. I knew her as Kara Brown. Sullivan was probably her husband’s surname. I looked at Ted and Kara. Ted must be the benefactor Gio was talking about. I scrambled for something that was truthful, but not hurtful. I couldn’t come with any. “Are they yours?” I asked. Kara nodded with the giddiness of an excited child.

“My wife has quite the talent, doesn’t she?”

Gio choked on his drink. I could tell he wanted to burst out laughing.

“You never told me you were into photography before,” I said.

“I didn’t know I had in me. I mean, you inspired me with your whole ‘I want to leave all this partying thing and start my store’ spiel. You said the day you left our apartment.” Kara turned to Gio. “Did you know she was the biggest club hopper in town? She could get you into any club. I don’t know how she did it, had all the men in the palm of her hand. I mean, she could party hard when she wanted to and then one day she stopped.” My cheeks were reddening, and I couldn’t stop Kara from talking. “She wanted to try something different, she said.”

“And I went for it,” I said before she could embarrass me further.

“You must have your fashion line or something. How is it going?”

I couldn’t lie. I was sure Gio would call me out. And when I glanced at him, he did not look like an ally. He was enjoying me squirming. “I got of that before I even started. Turns out I’m not as good a designer as I thought I was.” It was the truth. After my partying stint, I applied to fashion houses, and they practically laughed my designs out of the room. That was when I went to Judy’s magazine and worked as a stylist. At least that I could do.

Kara’s face fell. “Oh. I would have thought you’d be like Donatella by now.” She quickly moved on by talking about herself. “Anyway, one day, I started taking fewer pictures of myself and more of other things and posting it on social media. People like it. And then Teddy Bear bought me like a film camera and I just went on from there.”

“Art comes naturally to some, I guess,” Ted said.

“That’s true,” Gio said. “You either have it or you don’t.” Ted and Kara did not detect his sarcastic tone, but I did. He didn’t need to have it spelled out for him to get that I was rejected from fashion design.

“Does that mean you like it?” Kara said, clasping her hands under her chin.

“Simona was the one who was interested. Weren’t you Sim?”

I glared at him. “It stopped me in my tracks,” I said to Kara. What else could I say without sounding jealous?

“Do you want to buy it?” Kara asked.

“Uh… what?”

“It’s not even that expensive since I’m a new artist and all. None of my works are above five thousand.” Five thousand! How did any of this shit get anywhere near the five thousand range?

“I don’t think—” I was thinking of a way to wiggle out of buying gently, but she railroaded me. “This will cost two thousand. What do you think?” Fuck. How was I going to get out of this? It’s not like I had that much money to spend on a shitty photograph. Technically I did, but I wasn’t going to spend it on a shitty photograph made by my not so friendly friend from years past. “Kara, I don’t think—”

Gio cut into my stumbling apology. “It would look great in your new store,” Gio said. I had to avoid stomping on his foot. The store was still at the ideas stage, barely concrete, but the thought of this ugly ass ‘artwork’ going in it coiled my stomach. I scrambled to think of something to counter Gio without shitting on Kara, but my hesitation and, “Uh…” only made Kara’s eyes widen positively. “I guess,” I said.

Kara leaped with excitement. “My first sale! I can’t believe it! I’ll be right back. I need to put your name down and look for that sold thingy.” She sped off and Ted followed her, after thanking me again.

When they were safely out of earshot, Gio started laughing. “You seem to be enjoying this,” I said.

“I just love seeing your gold digger friend fleecing money out of you. It feels like karma.”

Of course, he thought so. He was enjoying my humiliation. Part of me couldn’t help but wonder if he brought me here, knowing Kara would be here, and that we knew each other from before. The gallery no longer held the same excitement as before. The room felt too full of people, too stuffy and the wine too warm. I downed the rest of the champagne and handed the empty glass to a passing waiter. “Now that my spanking is complete, can we leave now?”

“Not yet.”

“You have another humiliation scene set up?”

“Not everything is about you,” Gio scoffed.

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