Chapter 14: Revelations

Gia's Pov

He was right, and there was nothing I could do about it. I didn't mean to play games with Taylor; I just didn't want to get hurt, but what good did that do, I only ended up hurting Taylor. I had to get back to work; it was hard with all the distractions. Lucky for me I didn't see Taylor around anywhere; he probably left after our little blow up in the restroom. The sad part in all of this is knowing that I blew it, I couldn't even bring myself to tell him what I was feeling. A part of me is afraid to open those emotional flood gates, because once they're open, it's no stopping them.

So here I am, back in my office. I could lie and say I'm working, but truthfully I'm finding the solitaire game on my computer more interesting. Suddenly my door creaked open, I quickly exited the screen. When I looked up Adrian was standing there in front of me.

She sat down on the edge of my desk with the cheesiest grin on her face. "Hey, so I'm about to get out of here."

"Oh yeah, and where are you going?" I asked

"Matty and I are going to get something to eat." She responded nonchalantly, like it was nothing.

"At one a.m., are you sure dinner is the only thing on the menu?" I was now eying her suspiciously.

"For now, yes." Adrian tilted her head to the side looking at me strangely. "Is everything okay?" she asked.

I put on a forced smile, I didn't want to get into my drama and ruin her night. "Everything's fine; go have fun, and don't do anything I wouldn't do."

She smiled and walked to the door. "You forget what I walked in on this morning." Just as she was about to open the door, she stopped and turned to face me. "Don't wait until it's too late, you might miss your chance." she said before leaving.

I started thinking, Adrian was right. I already spent too much time procrastinating about the what if's, with Taylor and I. The ball was in my court and I had to make a move. I had to find Taylor. So I grabbed his jacket and headed for the door. When I stepped out into the hall, I heard noises coming from Matty and Taylor's office. I knew Matty was gone, and I thought Taylor did too. I knocked on the door, but there was no response.

I knocked once more, "Hello, is anybody in there?" Still no response, just as I was about to walk away the door opened, and out walked Taylor. "Hey, I thought you left." I offered a small smile, but he wasn't falling for that.

"What do you want?" he asked. There was that harsh tone again. I was hoping that he would have cooled off a bit, but that was wishful thinking. "I don't have time for this Gia." He said as he was about to go back inside his office.

Taylor was about to walk away again, my heart was beating so fast, I thought for sure that he could hear it. I had to say something and fast. "Taylor wait… every time I look at you I get little butterflies in my stomach, I can't go an hour without thinking about you, and as much as you piss me off and get on my nerves couldn't stand not having you around. I do have feelings for you, I don't know what to call them yet, but they are there. You wanted to know how I feel about you, well there it is in a nutshell."

Now Taylor was the frozen one, I could tell he was stunned by my revelation, I watched as his mouth open and closed again. He didn't know what to say, hell I didn't know what I wanted to hear. His lips parted once more and this time words came out. "Wow… Gia I-"

I cut him off with a kiss. I wanted to do that all night and from the way he kissed me back, so did he. His hands laid flat on the small of my back pulling me closer into him as my arms wrap around his neck. His lips were so warm and inviting, I could have spent the rest of my night drowning in him, but this wasn't the place for that. I broke the kiss and took a step back. "I'm sorry, you can talk now."

Taylor smiled, it was the first one I've seen all night, "I forgot what I was gonna say."

Just as tension eased up and things were going back to normal between us, the door to his office opened once again. This time a woman walked out. "Taylor, I'm ready to go." Vanessa had her head down, smoothing out her skirt, when she looked up she locked eyes with me. "Who are you?" she asked in a not so polite way.

I looked back and forth between Taylor and Vanessa. I recalled seeing her hair up earlier, now it was down and all over the place. Her clothes were wrinkled and her makeup was smudged. If I hadn't been all wrapped in Taylor, I would have noticed his appearance as well, he had lipstick all over his neck and the collar of his shirt, and not to mention, "your fly's undone Taylor." I pointed out to him.

He looked down and zipped it quickly, "Gia, I can explain."

"No need, I believe this is yours." I threw his jacket at him and he caught it. "You two have a nice night." I turned away from them and quickly made my way down the hall.

"Gia wait." I heard Taylor's voice behind me, but I kept on moving. When I reached the stairs I felt his hand touch mine. He grabbed me, forcing me to turn around and face him. "How the fuck was I suppose to know that you were gonna tell me all of that. I wouldn't have… "

"You wouldn't have what?" I shouted at him. "You wouldn't have fucked her in your office after telling me how much you care about me, and how much you want to be with me? Those feeling sure went away fast."

"Don't use this as an excuse, I meant everything I said to you." His hand left my arm and reached up to caress my face, his lips touched mine once again and I instantly wanted to fall for anything he was saying. At that moment he could have told me the sky was purple and I would've believed him, but my wall was slowly starting to rebuild. My pride was hurt, and I was reminded how quickly a man can hurt you once your feeling are exposed.

I pulled away from him, "I can't do this with you Taylor, I have to go." I started down the stairs and I still feel him behind me.

"Hold on, I'll come with you." said Taylor.

"Taylor, I said I'm ready to go." Vanessa whined when she finally caught up to him.

I stopped in my tracks when I heard her voice and turned to face him, "No, that's okay, I see you have your hands full." I went down the stairs to the first floor; I needed to talk to Marcy. I found her talking to Chris over by the bar. "Hey Marcy, I need you to count the till for me tonight, I'll make it up to you I promise."

"Sure… no problem." she replied.

"Is everything okay?" Chris asked. I guess he noticed I was in a hurry to leave.

I was about to answer him, but when I looked up, I saw Taylor coming towards me. I had to get out of there. "I just have to go Chris, thanks Marcy." I cut through the crowd and went out the back door, I didn't want to use the front, but I didn't want to cross paths with Taylor.

I started walking, when I remembered I drove tonight. I couldn't get to my car fast enough. The embarrassment I felt was off the charts. I poured my heart out and felt like it got stomped on. I just wanted to go home, lie under my covers and hide from the rest of the world. When I pulled up in front of my place, I noticed my inside lights were on. I just shrugged it off thinking it was Adrian.

I walked up the steps and through the vestibule heading straight for my apartment. I put the key in my door and turned the lock. When I opened it, I found a surprise, it wasn't Adrian at all. "What the hell are you doing here?" I asked the man sitting on my couch.

Sonny Moretti rose from the couch and walked over to me, "Now is that anyway to speak to your father?"

"I wouldn't know. What are you doing here?" I walked pass him and into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water.

"I came to see how you're doing. I was worried about you." I heard his voice call to me from the other room.

When I went back into the living room, I saw him staring at a photo of my mother like he was in some sort of a trance. I spoke, bringing him out of it. "Well as you can see I'm fine, so why don't you go run back to your family. Speaking of which, I met your daughter. Did mom know you had other children?" I asked condescendingly.

When he heard me mention my mother, he sat the picture back down. "Vanessa's not mine, she's my step daughter."

"I think that makes it worst. I mean I was content knowing that you were there for at least one of your children, but knowing that you could be a father to a child that's not even your own, well that kind of pisses me off."

"Why didn't you tell you were moving here? I would have made arrangements for you."

"You mean arrangements to hide me. We wouldn't want people to know that I'm your daughter now would we?"

"Watch your mouth; I'm still your father." He said in a warning manner that you hear on most parents when chastising their children.

Anyone would have been scared shitless. To the world he was Santino Moretti, a dangerous crime boss, but to me, he was broken promises and forgotten memories. "Oh please! Don't come in here trying to throw around titles, especially not that one, it doesn't mean shit to me. You left me and mom high and dry and you never looked back."

"You don't think I regretted that decision?" He asked in a shout. "Well I did, and I still do. I loved your mother more than anything and I made sure neither of you want for nothing."

"I wanted a father, not your money. I wanted you to put me up on your shoulders at baseball games, take me bike riding and scare my dates when they show up at the front door. You know, all the shit normal dads do!"

"I'm sorry kiddo, but I'm not a normal dad." said Sonny, and he was right, there was no arguing with him about that. He watched me steadily and smiled. "You look like your mother when you're angry."

I looked back at him, my anger was slowly fading. I guess yelling does help sometimes. "I may look like her, but to hear her tell it I act like you."

Sonny laughed, "I don't know if that's a good thing, but I'll take it." Out of the blue, his eyes started to squint while looking at me. "What is that," he asked?

"What is what?" I glanced down checking myself to see what he was talking about.

"This!" He stepped towards me tilting my head aside to expose my neck. "Who have you been foolin' around with?" He asked with a glowering expression.

A hickey… great, just what I needed another reminder of Taylor. I couldn't stand here and tell him what transpired last night; that was completely out of the question. I had to make up something in a hurry. "Oh that… I burned myself with the curling iron."

His lips tightened and his jaw set as he got little lines across his forehead. I didn't know he could turn red so fast. "Don't lie to me. Is it one of the guys at the club?" he asked. Before I could answer, he did it for me. "It's Scarpa's kid isn't it; I'll break his fuckin neck."

I almost laughed seeing him act like a semi normal father, except I knew that he was dead serious. "What? No! I'm not seeing Chris."

Sonny calmed down a bit, "So you are seeing someone?" he asked.

"You know it's nice to see that you're taking some interest in my life, but I really don't feel comfortable discussing my love life with you."

He shook his head from side to side wagging his finger in the air. "I don't like this, not one bit."

"Well, that comes with the territory daddy dearest." I sat down for the first time, and took off my shoes.

A car pulled up outside. It was dark out so the headlights flashed inside my apartment. Sonny went over to the window and peeked through the curtains, he turned to me. "I got to get goin, you call me if you need anything." He walked to the door and stopped when his hand reached the knob. He took an envelope out of his suit jacket pocket and tossed it on a nearby table.

I didn't have to look in it to know what was inside. I picked up the envelope and tried to hand it back to him, but he wouldn't take it. "I do have a job; I don't need your money."

Sonny looked at the envelope, then back at me and smiled. "Humor me." He kissed my forehead and left.

After Sonny left, I locked the door. When I went over to my window I saw him walking down the front steps. There was a man standing outside of a Cadillac waiting to open his door for him. He climbed inside and the man walked around to the driver side of the car. Moments later they drove off, and just like that, he was gone again.