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I turned away the sunshine that was coming through my window; I quickly gave up trying to get back to sleep. Once last night's events came back to me, it was all I could think about. I changed out of my pajamas and into a pair of black jeans and a sweater, I would normally not even bother but I was trying to delay leaving my bedroom. I wasn't sure if Kevin would be up or still asleep, I was nervous to see him.

I finally worked up the courage to leave. It was ridiculous to stay captive in my own room, I mean it was my apartment not his. I cracked open the door and peered outside into the living room, which was empty. I checked the rest of the apartment. No sign of Kevin.

It had never occurred to me that he would just leave before I even got up, Kevin could sleep past three in the afternoon if you let him. So the fact that he left before I had gotten up meant that he was royally pissed off at me.

"Jane? You up yet?" Sophie called; I heard the door slam shut behind her.

I smelt her before I saw her, the smell of bacon, eggs and toast wafted through the apartment. A small smile appeared on my face. "In here."

"I brought you some comfort food," She held up a brown paper bag that I recognized from the Diner. I shot her a how-did-you-know look. "I heard the fight last night."

I helped her set out the food, and then we ate on the couch in silence. Throughout breakfast I felt Sophie's gaze on my face, but I did nothing to return her stare. I instead chose to look out the living room window at the apartment that was across the street.

"Jane, what happened?" Sophie finally asked. We were long since done with our breakfast, but we still sat on the couch.

"We had a fight." I said simply. I wasn't sure where I and Kevin stood.

"No shit Jane." Sophie said with a look that said 'Now tell me the truth'.

"Mom found out about me and Kevin. Like everything, about me getting attacked and all the crap."

"Shit."

"That doesn't even cover it. She wants me and Kevin to go over for dinner tonight." I explained with a slight sigh. My mother, she had been complicating my life for twenty-one years.

"That's why you and Kevin had a fight?" She asked me.

"Yes and no." I told her, Sophie's face told me I better not leave the story ending like that. "I sort of told him about the dinner in front of Ms. D and Sean. Which wouldn't have been so bad, but Ms. Donnelly forced Kevin into going. As you know Kevin wasn't too happy about it. Now I'm just not sure if he's more mad about the actually dinner with our parents or about me telling him about it in front of his whole family.

And I know Kevin's not going to want to go tonight, I mean why he would? Mom is worse than Ms. Donnelly." Sophie nodded in agreement, where Ms. Donnelly was direct in her dislike for you, my mom lured you into a false sense of security then jabbed you with insults masked as compliments.

"What makes you think he won't go?" Sophie asked me.

"Soph, we're in the middle of a fight, I'm pretty sure the last thing he wants to do is have dinner with my parents. Hell, it's the last thing I want to do."

"Jane, you need to have some faith in the male species. They might screw up, but they will surprise you every once and a while."

"That has to be the wisest thing you have ever said." I told her with slight admiration in my voice.

She shrugged, "Read it on the subway a couple of weeks ago."

"I'm still impressed that you remembered it." I told her honestly.

"Jane, table three had been waiting for their food for fifteen minutes. Can you give me one reason not to fire you right now?" Jake said breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Because I'm family." I told him, "Plus dad would kill you if you ever fired his 'little angel'." I told him with a smirk.

"Shut up and get back to work." He told me. I had been working since eleven and it was four now, I had one more hour to go. Then I had dinner with my parents at seven to look forward to.

I walked back out to the front of the restaurant and started serving my tables, giving the less than satisfied couple at table three their dinner. I gave them my best smile and promised them a round of drinks free on the house. They then told me they didn't drink, tough crowd.

"Hey miss, you think we could get a table?" Someone grabbed my arm, almost making me spill my tray of drinks.

I turned ready to snap when I saw it was Nicky Cottero's right hand man with Nicky standing close behind him. This was twice they had visited me at work; I hoped it wasn't becoming a habit.

"You'll have to wait your turn just like everybody else." I told him with a small smile.

"I'm sure you can make an exception, just this once." He said to me with a smirk. I nodded and turned to talk to the Becky as she was hosting tonight.

"Yo Becks," I called over to here passing through the crowd.

"Yo, it is absolutely crazy busy right now and it's not even the dinner rush yet." Becky groaned as more people walked in through the door.

"I was wondering if you could squeeze these two guys in somewhere." I asked her hopefully.

"Are they cute?" She asked me.

"I guess you could call them that." I pointed them out in the little crowd that was gathered in the front of the restaurant.

"Oh they are cute, table for two coming right up." She found me a little spot in the back of the restaurant; it was perfect and also the only real place available for them.

"How is everything?" I asked Nicky as I placed down their food.

"It was excellent, would've been better if you had an Italian in the kitchen." Nicky said.

"How do you know we don't?" I asked him with crossed arms.

"I know an Irishmen's cooking when I taste it." He said folding up his napkin.

"He's actually Scottish," I told him with a smile. Although it had been a pain serving Nicky and his buddy on one side of the restaurant, while my real costumers were on the other side, but they didn't complain about anything. In fact he was one of my more patient costumers during my shift, which made me nervous.

"Why don't you sit down." Nicky said pointing at the chair beside him. This felt strangely familiar and I didn't like it.

I knew better than to try and make excuses. This time I just sat down. "What do you want Nicky?"

"Always so direct Jane, I just want to talk." Nicky said shaking his head at me.

"Talk about what?" I asked him cautiously.

"I have a proposition for you family," That took me off guard, Nicky laughed at my surprised expression. "I've noticed that this little place is quite popular."

I nodded but didn't say anything, I had a feeling about where this conversation was heading,

"The only down side this this place is that it's on the wrong part of town. I don't like entering the Irish part of town, I like keeping things Italian."

"Get to the Point Nicky, I have costumers to serve."

"Relax, all good things take time. As I said I like keeping things Italian, but unfortunately some people do not share the same opinion." He paused for dramatic effect, "So an Irish run restaurant on the Italian side of town would be quite popular, no?"

I nodded, "And you want my family to open up this restaurant?"

"With a small fee of course," He said.

"Well I personally have no say in this. Jake runs the restaurant, he makes all the decisions." I told Nicky truthfully.

"I know. But it wouldn't hurt if you just pointed him in the right direction now would it?" Nicky asked me. I didn't respond. "Now, why don't you go get your brother so we can properly discuss this business venture?"

I left the table and hunted down Jake behind the bar. Once I told him Nicky was here he tensed up and walked over to their table and sat down.

I kept my eyes on them the entire time they talked, all the while trying to serve the various tables in my section. I watched as they stood up and my brother shook hands with not just Nicky's guard but Nicky Cottero himself.

Once Nicky left I raced across the restaurant to where Jake was sitting down. "What did you say?" I asked sitting down across from him.

"I told him, it wouldn't work out. Huey helped us start this restaurant years back, we could never betray that." Which really translated into- Dokey would burn down our restaurant as soon as he found out we had become partners with the Italians.

"And Nicky just accepted this?" I asked with disbelief.

"He told me I was going to change my mind that soon a lot of things are going to change. Do you know what he meant?" Jake asked me.

"No clue." I told him staring at the door Nicky had just walked out of. "What are you going to do?"

"Talk to Dokey I guess, it's the only thing I can do at this point. That and pray that the Italians forget about whatever this is." He said he touched my shoulder, I moved my gaze from the door and back to my brother's face. "Change with these people is never a good thing."

My brothers' words kept on bouncing around in my head for the rest of my shift. I couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was coming.