“You love me? That’s what you think? That’s bullshit. Okay? So everyone is engaged in their little fantasies. But I thought you and I were friends. How am I going to be able to continue to drive to work with you knowing you’re looking at me like that?” She drew her legs into the car, turned, sat back in the seat and slammed the car door shut. The echo reverberated off of the concrete pilings of the overpass.
Freddy sat back in the driver’s seat and shut the door. “It’s not like that.”
“What is it like?”
“It’s the end. So I wanted to say what I really felt. That’s all. I want to spend my life with you. I…”
“Enough. Okay? I’m tired. Just. Enough.”
He rested his hands on the wheel and sat in silence. Finally he turned to her again. “Did I ever tell you about when Finn was a kid?”
“What?”
“When I was in High School. Finn came down to the Clerk’s office one day. He was just a kid, and everyone was too busy to watch him. So my dad took him.”
“No, you never told me that.”
“I was really angry at my father. He had a girlfriend. Donna. She was one of the clerks. I gave my dad the cold shoulder; for my mom – I thought. But I was just jealous. I quit anything that made my dad proud of me. I quit hockey. I threw away my scholarship. Which is ironic because my mom left anyway. Finn was really upset when my dad died.”
“What weird thing?”
“When Finn was a kid he didn’t talk.”
“No surprise there. Even now he doesn’t talk.”
“No, I mean he didn’t talk. For like years he wouldn’t say anything. My dad spent hours with him – telling him stories, anything to get him to say something. I was jealous. It was like he wanted another son. And then, here’s this kid no one wants, someone who hasn’t heard all his crazy stories about pirates and smugglers. And then one day Finn disappeared. He was missing for like two days.”
“Where was he?”
“They found him in a subbasement at County Hall.”
“Freddy, I have four gigs tomorrow night. Are you going to be able to drive or do I have to call Patty and get one of her goons to drive me?”
“You still don’t get it do you Charlene? It’s over. I’m quitting. Debbie already quit her job. We put the house on the market and we’re not waiting around to see if it sells. Understand?”
“Oh come on. They can’t be that pissed over a few bags of pot and some recreational stuff.”
“What don’t you understand? Frank Jr. is on to us. I think one of the gigs we did was friends of his. He asked Bean if he knew who drove for you. Bean said he didn’t know. He called me instead.”
“Frank Jr. is an idiot. He’s so busy staring at my chest half the time, I’m not even sure he knows who he’s talking to.”
“It’s not Frank Jr.. He just does what his father tells him. I don’t want to scare you. No that’s wrong. I think you should be scared. Big Frank Messina is no joke.”
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