No Ordinary Love (40 page)

“You are not a priest,” Tony said. “You cannot give me a blessing.”

“I’m telling you,” Angelo said, “that I’m okay with you . . . staying with Trina.”

Is this complete acceptance or is it more of a truce?
Trina thought.
I have to hug Aika. She had to convince Angelo to do this.

“So, um, you can stay in San Francisco as long as you want to,” Angelo said.

“I can live here with Trina,” Tony said.

“If she lets you, yes,” Angelo said.

“He has to stay,” Trina said. “I will cry if you leave, Tony.”

“I will not leave,” Tony said.

Aika stood behind Angelo and put her hands on his shoulders. “The Castle,” she whispered.

“And,” Angelo said, “we’ll be putting the Castle solely in your name so you and Trina could live there if you wanted to.”

“Where will you live?” Tony asked.

“Aika and I will find our own place,” Angelo said.

“No,” Tony said. “I want you to have the Castle.”

“Your money built it,” Angelo said.

“But you built it for me, Angelo,” Tony said. “I am giving it to you and Aika. I will need my piano first. And Silver. I do not need my rhythm machine. I am a rhythm machine now. And I will need all my notes and notebooks. And my map books.”

“Of course,” Angelo said hoarsely. “Right. All of that.”

“If there is Hires Root Beer in the refrigerator,” Tony said, “you can have it.”

Angelo cleared his throat. “Yeah, we’ll work all that out. And we’ll also work out the next batch of songs you want to sell to Naomi. She really wants the ‘Trina’ song.”

“It is only for Trina,” Tony said. “Naomi can have other songs.”

Angelo nodded. “I’ll tell her.”

“Tony, do you understand what Angelo is doing?” Aika asked.

“Yes,” Tony said. “He is letting me be my own man.”

“He is also giving you absolute freedom to go anywhere and do anything from now on,” Aika said. “He won’t be flying in an airplane to check up on you. He won’t be telling you what to do and what not to do. You are going to make all your own decisions from now on. You won’t even have to check in with him or call him to tell him where you are.”

“I will still call him,” Tony said. “He is my brother. I like talking to him.”

Trina’s eyes filled with tears. “I’ll make sure you do.”

Angelo stood and wiped his eyes. “We’re going back to Brooklyn tomorrow, Tony. And I’m . . . I’m going to miss you, man.”

“I will miss you, too,” Tony said. “You can call me anytime you want to.”

“You know I will,” Angelo whispered. He swallowed hard. “You make sure you answer your phone when I call, okay?”

“I will not turn off the ringer,” Tony said. He stood and extended his hand.

Angelo took his hand, pulled him fiercely to himself, and hugged him. “You’re the best thing I ever did.”

Tears streamed from Trina’s and Aika’s eyes.

Tony stood back from Angelo’s embrace. “You are crying.”

Angelo nodded.

“You are not happy,” Tony said.

“Yes and no,” Angelo said. “I’m sad to say good-bye, but I know you’re in the best possible hands.”

That sounded like acceptance,
Trina thought.
Thank you, Angelo.

“You can visit us any time you like,” Tony said.

Aika stepped between Angelo and Tony, hugging him. “We will, Tony.” She kissed his cheek. “Breakfast won’t be the same without you.”

Tony kissed Aika’s cheek. “Wake up Angelo. He likes
Sports Center,
too.”

Aika pulled Trina to her feet and hugged her. “You are an amazing woman.” She put her lips to Trina’s ear. “And you can keep my underwear,” she whispered.

Trina nodded. “Thank you.” She looked at Angelo. “Thank you, Angelo.”

Angelo nodded. “Take good care of him, okay?”

Trina stepped up to Angelo and hugged him. “I can’t take care of him as well as you have, but I’m going to try. When he’s not taking care of me.” She kissed his cheek.

“That sounds fair,” Angelo said. He took Aika’s hand. “We, um, we better be going. We have an early flight.”

“Good-bye, Angelo,” Tony said. “Good-bye, Aika.” He opened the door, and Angelo and Aika left. He closed the door. “I will miss them. I will miss them very much.”

Trina took his hand and pulled him to the window. “So will I. We’ll visit them often, okay?”

“Okay.”

A taxi pulled up, Angelo opened the back door, and Aika got in.

Tony waved from the window.

Angelo waved.

“Good-bye, Angelo,” Tony said. “I will miss you.”

39

T
ony sat unmoving on the couch, the television off, his eyes blinking rapidly.

Trina massaged his shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“I do not know,” Tony said. “I am happy and I am not happy.”

“How are you happy?” Trina asked.

“I am here with you,” Tony said. “I will be here with you tomorrow, too. I will not worry that Angelo is taking me back to Brooklyn.”

“You’ll be here the day after that, too.” She moved around the couch arm and sat in his lap. “And how are you unhappy?”

“Angelo and Aika will not be here tomorrow,” Tony said. He sighed.

She held his face in her hands. “But that means we can sleep in without anyone knocking on that door and making us rush to get dressed.”

“Yes,” Tony said.

“And I can . . .”
Oh God, I hope I’m enough for this man.
“And I can . . . take care of you.”

“I will take care of you,” Tony said. He looked directly into her eyes. “I see you.”

Trina stared back. “I see you seeing me.”

“I am not scaring you with my eyes,” Tony said. “I am not looking away.”

“I know,” Trina said.

“I am not looking away, Trina,” Tony said. “I think it is love. I think love is looking someone in the eye and not scaring them.”

Trina nodded. “That’s a great definition of love.”
Maybe the best one I’ve ever heard.
“Are you scared about being on your own?”

“I am not on my own,” Tony said. “I am with you.” He kissed her lips briefly. “I would like to make a snowflake child with you now.”

“One for each knee,” Trina said.

“Yes,” Tony said. “But we will have to get a bigger house for hide-and-seek.”

“It would be too easy to find our children here,” Trina said.

“We would hear their laughter, and we would find them,” Tony said.

“Isn’t that the point?” Trina asked.

“Yes,” Tony said. “That is the point. I will have to have my piano shipped to San Francisco. I would also like to go to the mountains. I have never been to the mountains. I would like to go to the beach here. I have been to Fire Island. It is nice. I want to learn how to surf at the beach here.”

“We can go to the beach,” Trina said, “when you take me to Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards. It’s only a few weeks away.”

“I have never been to the Grammy Awards,” Tony said. “Angelo would not let me go.”

“You can go now,” Trina said. “You’re your own man, right?”

“Yes,” Tony said. “We are going to the Grammy Awards.”

“So I can see you get your awards,” Trina said.

“I have only one nomination this year,” Tony said. “I will not win.”

“How do you know?” Trina asked.

“You were not in the song,” Tony said.

He fills my heart with so many wonderful words!
“You say the nicest things.”

“I like to say nice things to you,” Tony said. “You smile when I say nice things.”

“I have never smiled more,” Trina said. She sighed. “But I might not be smiling too much on Monday, Tony. I might be losing my job.”

“You will not lose your job,” Tony said. “I will go with you to make sure.”

Trina rubbed his arms. “You’re not allowed in the meeting.”

“I do not have to be at the meeting to make sure,” Tony said.

“I appreciate your confidence, but I
did
lie, and I’m sure I’ll be suspended for a while and not have enough money to pay some bills this month.”

“I will pay them for you,” Tony said. “I will also get you a new rain jacket.”

He is so practical!
“I want you to know I love you for you, okay?”

“I know you love me for me,” Tony said. “You see how I am, and that is all I have to be.”

“Right,” Trina said. “I’m not a gold digger, am I?”

“You are gold,” Tony said.

“I don’t care how much money you have,” Trina said, “as long as I have you to cuddle with and hold all night.”

Tony blinked. “I do not know how much money I have. I must find out. Angelo will tell me.” He dug his cell phone from his pocket and hit the number one. “Angelo, it is Tony. How are you? . . . I am okay. I need to know how much money I have . . . Okay. Thank you. Bye.” Tony turned off his phone. “Angelo says I have around fifty million dollars.”

Trina tried not to react, but she failed, her entire body shaking. “Fifty . . . million.”

“Yes,” Tony said. “Will that be enough for us to get a house?”

Trina nodded quickly.
Fifty . . . million. That’s over . . .
six hundred
years of my salary.

“Good,” Tony said. “I want a big house with lots of hiding places for our children.”

Trina tried to catch her breath. “I have to have a much bigger kitchen.”

“I want lots of windows,” Tony said. “We can watch the weather together without a television.”

“Sure,” Trina said. “You’ll want a music room, too, right?”

“Every room in our house will have music in it,” Tony said. “I want to look for a house now.”

“It’s two o’clock in the morning, Tony,” Trina said.

“That is what the Internet is for, Trina,” Tony said.

Oh yeah!
Trina hopped off Tony’s lap, got her netbook, and returned to the couch. While it booted up, she asked, “How much do you want to spend on a house?”

“I do not know,” Tony said. “I have never bought a house.”

Me neither.
She surfed to realtor.com and toyed with the first slider. “Um, could we spend . . .” Her fingers grew moist. “A million?”

“I do not know,” Tony said. “Let us find the house first.”

House first, cost second. This is how house-hunting should be done.
Then Trina did something she had never done on any Web site
ever
—she hit the
HIGHEST
TO
LOWEST
button.

Wow. Thirty million.
She clicked on the 12,000-square-foot neomodern monstrosity. “What about this one?”

“No,” Tony said. “I do not like the shape. It looks more like a turtle than a house.”

She clicked back and saw a massive brick house on Franklin Street in Pacific Heights—
only a mile away from here!
—for ten million. “What about this one?”

“That is the one,” Tony said.

“It’s, um, it’s ten million dollars, Tony,” Trina said. “Do we really need something this big?”

“Yes,” Tony said, clicking on the house. “It was built in 1900,” he said. “That means it survived the 1906 earthquake. It is close to the cable cars.”

Ten thousand square feet, twenty-five times the size of this little apartment. Eight bedrooms, four and a half baths!

“It has four stories,” Tony said. “And a library for my map books.”

Six fireplaces, a state-of-the-art chef’s kitchen opening to a spacious deck.
“It even has a guest kitchen and an apartment with a separate entrance, Tony.”

“For when Aika and Angelo visit,” Tony said. “It has an elevator, too. I like elevators.”

“Walking distance to Whole Foods, restaurants, and Lafayette Park,” Trina said. “It sounds perfect, Tony, but it costs ten million dollars.”

“I want to look at the slide show,” Tony said.

They watched forty-six pictures go by.

Oh, this is a magnificent house! Look at the high ceilings! The crown molding! The pocket doors! A huge sit-down shower! Oh, and the views from the top floor are inspiring!

“Do you like it, Trina?”

Oh yes!
“I love it, but it’s—”

“I will buy it for you,” Tony interrupted.

“But we don’t need ten thousand square feet, Tony,” Trina said.

“You said you loved it,” Tony said. “I like it. We will buy it.”

“Are you sure?” Trina asked.

Tony nodded. “I watched your eyes while we looked at the pictures. They were happy. They were a child’s eyes. I want to give you this house.”

Trina hugged him. “I want you to give me this
home.
” She kissed him. “We can call the Realtor Monday to see if it’s still on the market.”

“Yes.” Tony settled back into the couch. “And we will move in on Tuesday.”

“Um, let’s see how Monday goes first,” Trina said. “It takes time to close on a house.”
Or so I’ve heard.

“If I pay ten million dollars,” Tony said, “they will give me the house on Monday.”

“I don’t know about that,” Trina said. “And I wouldn’t offer them the asking price anyway.”

Tony pointed at the screen. “This is the price of the house.”

“That’s the starting point for negotiations,” Trina said.
As if I know anything about this.
“We’ll put in a lower bid and see what happens.”

“A lower bid,” Tony said.

“Yes,” Trina said. “Something less than ten million dollars. Say we offer nine million, and they drop it to nine million eight, then we offer them nine million two—”

“We will offer fifty cents,” Tony interrupted.

Trina laughed. “For a ten-million-dollar house?”

“If they come down fifty cents, and we go up fifty cents,” Tony said, “we will meet in the middle at five million.”

I can’t fault his logic, but . . .
“We might offer, say, eight million in order to get nine.”

“I like my way better,” Tony said.

So do I, but no one is going to part with a 10,000-square-foot house in pristine condition in Pacific Heights for five million dollars.
“Let’s fill out this interest form and try to set up a tour for Monday. That way we won’t have to call them at all, okay?”

“Okay.”