ATONEMENT (4 page)

Shanda seconded that, “Whoop, whoop!”

They were laughing at the memories
, b
est friends w
ith
more than fun
times
but trag
ic ones as well.
Shanda was there when
Selange
discovered her mother and Al
’s bodies.
Then the killer mistook Shanda for Selange, killed her boyfriend Jay and held her captive until she escaped. Shanda was there…when her marriage took a curve…smack talking
Shanda was always around. S
elange smirked, Shanda was an irritating bitch but the girl was a true friend.

“
Anyway,
I’m jealous, everyone’s marri
ed or getting married
and
I’m
thirty
with
no kids, not even a proposal.”

“When it’s meant to happen, it will.”

“Well, let’s see. May
be I’ll snag a
divorcee and become part of the next wedding go-round.”

“You’re nuts!”

“Seriously, it sounds fun. Rich, good-looking Italian men with those full kissable lips and thick accents.
I like the
Sicilians;
they’re dark, from the southern tip
and
oo
o
hh
h
-la-la
so fine
!”

“
Ugh, Shanda you’re always in heat. Anyway, w
hat happened to whats-his-name
you were dating
recently
?”

“Who?”

“Oh
,
forget it
!
”
The woman
went through guys like purses. Selange only hoped she’d find one worth keeping. “You’re sick.”

“
I know…I know. I’m getting sick
trying to find the perfect
dick
,
nothing quick, I ‘
aint
no trick!
”

Shanda’s vulgar free-style didn’
t
faze
her.
She’d heard cruder
remarks
from her best
friend;
instead
Selange
looked over at her husband
. His
long
muscular
legs pursued
Sal who
’d taken
possession of the
soccer
ball
.
Allie
lagged
far behind
, scurrying
to keep pace. She smiled, they were so cute together. “
Is that your latest rap from
My Man
Gave
Me
Clap?”

“
Oh
,
bitch
! I guess it’s easy to poke fun at me
when you’ve
lucked out. It’s not every day a street hustler from our ‘hood makes good, well unless he’s a rapper but shit
their minds are still in the ‘hood –but you go ahead miss snob ‘cause if I had your man I’d be his cushion all day and night, whenever, wherever
.
Hey, do y
ou still
got
t
hat
fine
bodyguard, Nico
?
Oooh
,
now h
e’s
lickable
and then
the
brother, um yum
-yum
,
twins.
I’
ll
fuck
any
one of th
ose guys,
scratch
it,
I’
d
do
a
ménage á trois
just for the fun of it.
Owww
!”
Shanda bobbed her head and shoulders to invisible music, completely unaware her
statement wiped the smile from Selange’s face
.

Selange
touched the rim of her oversized sun hat
as
Nico’s face appeared.
The
clarity of the
i
mage brought her upright.
“I’ll talk to you later,
going
to join the
fun.”

“Hold-up, why are you cutting out, we haven’t talked
in a while
?”

“We’ll talk later.
I
promise. Love, kisses -bye
.
”
She
hastily
shut the laptop. Shanda was very
astute;
she’d comment on S
elange’s
guilt-stricken expression
and ask a million questions about it until she uncovered the truth
. Lingering
might
cause her to divulge
answers
.
Selange wasn’t good at hiding her emotions, she’d gotten better at
it
lately,
but t
he truth
is she existed in a
hue of grey. Should I tell Alfonzo, should I not? Keeping quiet was harder than she imagined.
Guilt
traveled
with her every day
, a friend-enemy, waiting to tell her secrets
and steal her man away
.

She sighed, e
versince her infidelity she tried to keep
busy, delving into charity
work
with renewed
vigor
and
be
ing
super-attentive to her family
.
She
fought like hell to forget
about th
e
night
and morning with Nico but he was in her blood –and damn she couldn’t get
him out
.
It was October,
nearly
t
hree
months
later and it
hadn’t gotten easier
. N
othing
worked and Shanda’s remark only worsened
the guilt
. She carried the dark
truth
every day and could not rid her mind of it. Each time she saw her reflection in a mirror, she saw the shame of it staring back
, mainly because she liked it. Sex with Nico felt
sinfully
good!

She rose and jogged behind Allie, catching her as she stumbled on the grass. Sal kicked the ball to his father and Alfonzo stopped it with his foot, it rolled up his leg to his knee and he thrust it
in
the air
then
slap
ped the ball
with his forehead. The ball careened past Sal, straight to the net and Allie clapped.

“Hey,
it’s almost
dinner
time. Are you
guy’s
h
ungry
, yet
?”

Sal came running. His athletic legs pronounced for a boy his age. He was a miniature version of his father, through and through. He stopped in front of his little sister and got on his knee to talk to her, “Sis, you’re supposed to clap for me
, not dad,
remember?”

She clapped and Selange smiled, “You
were
good, Sal. You gave
daddy
a run for his money.”

Alfonzo jogged over, “Next time
, i
f you want to beat me
son
,
you need to
earn it!” He
said
,
flashing
his
handsome
smile
. Then they
began play boxing
.

Selange moved Allie out of the way as they threw air jabs
at one another and laughed when Sal got in a low blow
and s
he grimaced
feeling her husband’s pain
.

Alfonzo bellowed,
“Damn, you and your mom fight dirty!”
  Then
he
wrestled
Sal
to the grass and
the boy
giggled non-stop as his dad rained fake punches
down on
his stomach, “Take that
…
and that
…
and that!”

Their
horse-play concluded
as soon as
Anita yelled, “Hey, cut it out and come eat!”

Alfonzo
and Sal
scrambled up. Sal was getting tall, his head reached
past
his father’s abdomen. Soon he’d be
at
his chest, eventually
t
he
y
’d stand eye-to-eye. This was the Giacanti gene. All the men
in his family were six feet
or
more, Sal would be no exception.

Selange’s
smile
faded and
her eyes look
ed
past
Alfonzo
. He
turned
in the direction of her gaze
to see what caused her sudden mood change
and saw
Vincent marching toward them.