The family finished opening presents, then they turned to watch Faith. Gina’s Yorkie tilted his head to the side. Faith looked down at her hands. Leo had asked her to wait. So she waited.
“Where’s Leo?” Gina asked as if just noticing the host had gone missing.
The kids had been in such a hurry, ripping through paper and tossing clothing into a pile to cope with later, then going straight for the toys and electronics. The good stuff. It was hard to keep track of the location of all the adults in that bedlam.
“Caprice wanted to talk to him.” Even as Faith said it, she felt like the biggest fool in the world. She looked like a philanderer’s stupid girlfriend, too oblivious to know what her man was doing. From the looks of pity around the room, including ones who’d wanted her dead the night before, she knew they were thinking the same thing.
But Leo wasn’t her man, and he had every right to sleep with whoever he wanted. Still, the idea of it being Caprice scared her. Caprice would move in and then where would Faith go? Caprice would insist on Faith’s removal from the property. It wasn’t losing a nice house and being without a job now, it was losing her life-something she’d been reminded she still hoped to keep.
Would Leo sacrifice her life on the altar of his libido? He’d already been about to let Angelo kill her that morning. And he’d made a point of how much he’d sacrificed, so it was fresh on his mind.
Gina’s mouth turned down in disapproval. Leo’s mother disliked Caprice as much as Faith did, if that were possible. The woman’s eyes held a wisdom and knowledge that were probably the natural side effect of being a member of the Raspallo family for far too long.
Leo returned disheveled-confirming Faith’s suspicions. It wasn’t that his shirt was untucked or his hair unkempt. His hair looked fine, and his clothing was the way it was supposed to be, save for a few barely noticeable crinkles in the fabric. It was something in his facial expression and manner that made him seem disheveled and wild. He’d either just had sex or buried a body. Since it was Caprice, Faith hoped for the latter.
“What’s going on with Caprice?” Gina said, suspicion in her eyes. “Really, Ma? You know how I feel about her.”
“How do you feel about my cousin?” Vinny asked, rising from his chair near the kids.
All adult eyes turned to him. The kids were too busy with their iPods and smart phones and fighting over whose video game equipment was getting hooked into the TV in this room and who would have to relocate, to care about the grown-up conversation happening feet away. When you had a new video game console, adult conversations were algebraic equations.
“I feel like we aren’t right for each other. Also, in case you forget, I am engaged.” Leo made a sweeping motion toward Faith to underscore his point, which made her feel more on display and humiliated by what was obvious to everyone. “Caprice has decided to leave. I’ve called her a cab and set her up in a hotel so she has some place to stay.”
“Why would she decide that? Why would she want to be by herself for the holidays!?” Vinny asked, his eyes narrowing.
“Don’t make a fuss. She’s embarrassed and doesn’t want to stay. She didn’t expect me to be serious about Faith.”
“She can’t be alone on Christmas day,” Gina said, twisting her hands in her lap.
A few minutes later, Caprice rolled her large suitcase past the family room. The whole family, minus the kids, got up and followed her into the hallway, all protesting loudly about her leaving.
Faith was sure the majority of them hated Caprice, and yet everyone was trying to wrap up food for her, insisting she just stay or at least stay to open her presents, but Caprice refused.
“I’m going, and there’s nothing any of you can say to stop me,” Caprice said, her face flaming.
Gina seemed relieved, though she continued to protest the departure. By this point Caprice’s gifts had been put into bags, and she’d been loaded down with Tupperware filled with Christmas Eve leftovers-enough food to last her a week if she got caught out in a snowstorm.
Faith felt oddly uncomfortable with Caprice leaving. Maybe nothing had happened between her and Leo. If it had, why would she be leaving like this?
When the cab arrived and took Caprice away, Faith and Leo drifted back into the family room to open their abandoned presents.
When he’d been gone with Caprice, she’d stared at the pile with her name on it, unable to believe anybody had gotten her anything or that Leo had gotten her so many things. She’d reminded herself he was keeping up appearances and doing what the family would expect him to do if he were engaged.
Gifts from other members of the family included an imported Italian leather journal, a nice fountain pen with her full name engraved in a classy script: Miss Faith Jacobson, sweaters, a few wool scarves, and boots. Someone had spoken with Leo to get her sizes. Aside from midnight Mass the previous night, she hadn’t been allowed out of the house. She wasn’t sure any of that would change, but she thanked everyone and tried to look happy.
Then came the Leo gifts. There was some jewelry in Tiffany blue boxes, wrapped with white satin ribbons, as well as a couple of sexy- though still classy-dresses. Where did he expect her to wear these? Was he going to take her out? Was this for show? She looked up with a question in her eyes, but he turned away and went back to opening his things.
“Hey, Angelo, this is nice, thank you,” Leo said, holding up a clearly expensive black leather jacket.
“It fell off a truck,” his brother retorted, the sarcasm thick in his voice.
Uncle Sal punched Angelo in the arm.
“Owww. What?”
Uncle Sal shook his head.
When Faith got through all her gifts, she turned to Leo and kissed him. It was awkward at first because she’d never initiated anything intimate with him before, even as part of the ruse.
After an initial shocked tension, Leo relaxed under her kiss, his fingers threading through her hair. She couldn’t tell if he was acting or if he wanted her, but soon the family started making kissy and oooooh noises. Mostly the kids who had been distracted from their video game. All human beings under the age of fourteen had a special mental alarm that went off whenever someone was making out in their vicinity.
Faith broke the kiss and looked down, unable to bring herself to look into his eyes to see what might be there. Desire. Pity. Indifference.
“I got you one other thing.”
“You already got me too much,” she whispered, too aware of all the eyes on them.
“Just wait a second.”
He left the room and returned a few minutes later with a big, wrapped box that had large holes in it and was making sounds. First thumps, as whatever it was ran and slammed itself into the side, then scratching noises, and plaintive, irritated mewls. Somebody wasn’t happy about their accommodations.
That made two of them.
“You got me a kitten?”
He grinned. “Damn, the surprise is spoiled. Open it. You don’t know what color or what kind, yet.”
Faith wasn’t sure what it was about the kitten that undid her when nothing else did. The rest could be part of keeping the lie going, but getting her another pet was personal and considerate, a gift no one in the family would expect. It was him making an effort to co-exist with her or maybe something deeper.
She tore through the wrapping and lifted the lid to find a white Persian ball of fluff staring up at her with too-innocent blue eyes. The kitten squeaked.
“Oh my gosh. It’s so cute!”
“So you like her?”
“I love her! Thank you!”
Leo looked taken aback by the sheer joy, and it occurred to her, he’d never seen her truly happy before now.
***
Later that evening, as Leo savored his coffee and cannoli, his mind flashed to the dungeon. He’d wanted to take more time, make more welts. He’d wanted to make his willing victim stay displayed for him while he sipped a glass of wine and admired the marks he’d left. He wanted to enjoy it at his leisure, with the gag firmly in her mouth so she wouldn’t speak and destroy the moment. He wanted to pretend it was Faith. Why couldn’t he have Caprice’s masochism and Faith’s sweet spirit combined into one woman?
By now it was clear Faith was submissive, but she wasn’t kinky. Caprice was kinky, but she wasn’t submissive. The universe was playing a cruel joke on him.
After dinner, the family retired to the game room, where there was a larger flat screen, as well as a poker table and a pool table, and a couple of free-standing arcade games: Pac Man and Donkey Kong-the only two Leo had ever gotten into. Yes, he was that old school.
The kids fought over the TV and who got to hook up their video game equipment, which game they would play, and who got to play. One faction: the girls, claimed that the boys had gotten to hook up their game system in the family room that morning, and so it was their turn. The boys claimed this was a bigger screen and they had a racing game that would look awesome on such a large screen and the girls had a stupid game that would play fine on any stupid screen.
Leo stepped in the middle. “How about we watch a Christmas movie, something you all can enjoy?” He wasn’t keen on hearing either group yell at the screen all evening.
“No, that’s lame,” Michael said. “Can we go swim? We brought our suits.”