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“And Janice won’t even get up off her ass half the time. Why’s it gotta be me doing this shit? Like I don’t got enough on my plate already.”
Silvio looked irritated as he shuffled through documents. Tony had been complaining for ages. And he did this every day.
“Pussy Malanga this, Pussy Malanga that. I’m fuckin’ sick of hearing it.”
Silvio was sick of hearing this. He put the papers down and turned to look at him. “You want my truthful advice here, Ton?”
He looked confused by his tone but nodded.
“Cut him off,” he said bluntly. “After what he done to you, he ain’t your responsibility no more.”
“I can’t just cut him off, he’s my uncle. He’s sick with the dementia.”
“You got two sisters he didn’t try to get whacked, let them deal with him.”
“He can’t be relying on Janice for this shit, she’s a lazy cunt, and Barb, she don’t even live round here.”
“Either you cut him off or you accept that you gotta put up with this shit. The way you’re going now with all your complaining, you’re liable to cause more trouble than it’s worth. You just gotta suck it up and deal with it.” He realized his tone had been too harsh. “Respectfully…”
“Respectfully?” Tony leaned forward in his seat. “Respectfully, Sil, I don’t remember asking–”
Paulie walked in. “Guess what I just heard?”
“What?”
“Dick Barone croaked,” he sounded happy to be the first one to know.
“Shit.” Silvio shook his head glumly.
“Jesus Christ, he wasn’t even ten years older than me.”
“How’d you find out?”
“Little Paulie told me, he was down the construction site when they heard.”
“When who heard what?” Christopher came into the room too, followed by Murmur.
Tony gave Murmur a funny look because he didn’t know who the fuck he was and why he was here. He still resented Christopher for the Adriana situation, anything he did recently was pissing him off.
“Dick Barone.” Silvio rolled his shoulders. “He’s gone.”
“Gone where?”
“Dead,” Tony was curt.
“Shit! That Lou Gehrig’s disease?”
“No, he got hit by a truck,” Tony said sarcastically. “What do you think?”
“Shit…” Christopher nodded thoughtfully, then began to smirk. “You ever think what a coincidence it is that Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig’s disease?”
Everyone except for Tony laughed. He just glared at him.
“You know his father was an alcoholic?” Murmur brought the mood down.
Tony’s glare moved to him now. “Can I get a minute?” He beckoned Christopher over.
He came over. “What?”
“Explain to me who the fuck this guy is and why you felt the need to bring him back here?” he whispered.
“He’s one of my guys, Murmur. He’s doing good on that whole credit card thing I got going.”
“Well good for him.” He smiled snidely. “But you didn’t answer my last part there.”
“He’s my AA sponsor.”
Tony looked around the room sarcastically. “You see any alcohol back here?”
He’d been avoiding looking at Tony’s desk since he’d walked in. “Ton, you got a bottle of whiskey right–”
“And you think I’m gonna let you drink it?”
“No, but they got a whole bar out–”
“So he can wait out there, keep guard case the booze runs up on you.”
They looked at each other and both had resentment in their eyes. Christopher nodded and went over to Murmur to tell him to leave.
“And you seen Vito lately?” Paulie continued the conversation that had been going on in the meantime. “That fat fuck looks like he caught a tapeworm.”
“He’s on the, uh, Atkins or something,” Silvio said absentmindedly as he went back to the paperwork. “Intermittent fasting, whatever you call it.”
“Yeah, he’s getting all thin now, right?” Christopher came back to the discussion. “Maybe he got the 90lb mole took off his ass.”
Again, everyone except Tony laughed.
“You think that’s funny?”
They stopped laughing. Silvio and Paulie felt incredibly awkward being in the middle of this.
“You think that’s an appropriate joke after everything what went down there?”
“Sorry, T… I was just tryna–”
“Don’t you got a meeting you should be getting to with your little friend out there?”
He ground his teeth to hold back anger.
“You gonna keep him waiting?”
“No, Ton,” he said flatly. “I’m not gonna keep him waiting.” He left to actually go to a meeting because all Tony had done was make him want to drink.
The room sat in awkward silence for a few moments.
“You think you were maybe a little harsh there, Ton?” Silvio hesitantly asked. “The kid was just tryna lighten the mood.” He’d been very amused by both jokes.
“It ain’t like Johnny was round to hear it,” Paulie’s comment was met by a glare from Tony because he knew it was him to tell Johnny originally.
“It don’t matter who’s here to hear it, it’s fuckin’ disrespectful! A man died today and he’s out here cracking jokes?”
“Actually, Ton, it was yesterday he died.”
Tony glared at Paulie even more.
“Or so I heard…” He shrugged apologetically.
“It’s not even just the joke,” his complaining switched from Junior to Christopher. “I’m sick of him and this AA shit. He’s gotta get followed round by his fuckin’ sponsor now? He really so fuckin’ pathetic he can’t control himself without him there to stop him?”
“If it keeps him sober…” Silvio shrugged.
“I’m sick of him sober. I liked him better before!”
“Aren’t you the one who wanted him this way?” Silvio reminded him.
“I didn’t know then how fuckin’ irritating he was gonna be. Anyway, I sent him there for the scag, how was I supposed to know he’s an alcoholic? I didn’t sign up for this shit!”
“Ton, I think you got some rose tinted glasses on here…” Silvio wanted him to shut up again. “Chrissy was always irritating. He irritated you every day.”
“It’s a different kinda irritating! Least he could joke around back then, now all he does is speak in fuckin’ AA mantras.”
“He was joking round just now, that’s why you got mad at him in the first place.”
“You gonna pick apart everything I say today?”
Paulie wanted to break up the tension. “For what it’s worth, Ton, I thought the Lou Gehrig bit was funny…”
Silvio started chuckling again.
Tony shook his head angrily, looking disgusted with both of them. He walked out the room and slammed the door behind him.
“Fuckin’ miserab lately.” Paulie flicked his hand.
“I wish his Uncle Junior would do us all a favor and join Dick Barone.”