Tony“You’re supposed to stop the Q-Tip when you feel resistance, jackass,” I say into the phone. “When I say Tuesday, I mean fucking Tuesday, not next Thursday.”“Sorry, Mr. Bellini,” the importer on the other end of the line mutters. “I guess I heard you wrong. But I can’t—”“Can’t,” I repeat. “Last guy who used the word ‘can’t’ with me didn’t live long enough to regret it. So, my cars? On Tuesday?”“Tuesday, Mr. Bellini,” he says.I hang up and stretch. We gotta get a new space. I’ve been working on this basement underneath Lou’s Deli for the past two fucking years, and it still looks like a deli basement. Sure, the meat hooks give it a certain menacing energy, but the smell of cold cuts takes that right out. And I can hear Lou’s kid’s punk music through the part directly under their house sometimes, no matter how much soundproofing I put up. I shut my laptop.It’s seven, so I should be getting home. Federica—Freddie, she says—will be waiting for me to start dinner. Honest to God,
Last Updated : 2024-10-16 Read more