Mafia

Not so innocent

"Do you want me to kick his ass?" That did it. Those eight words - spoken in that utterly serious tone by Letty - was enough to push me over the edge and into a fit of maniacal laughter. I was laughing so hard my stomach ached, tears started pooling in my eyes and I clamped both arms around my stomach as I fell over in my bed, my entire body shaking with the force of my laughter. 

Letty was tough as nails, she wasn't scared of anything, so I knew perfectly well she meant it too, which only made me laugh that much harder. Compared to Luca, Letty was a tiny little thing, he could probably lift her with one arm without so much as breaking a sweat, but it would have been an amusing sight for sure. 

When my laugh finally died down maybe five minutes later, I used the back of my hand to wipe away the tears that had spilled down my cheek and sucked in a deep breath before pushing back up into a sitting position on my bed. Letty didn't look amused at all where she was sitting in my windowledge, her arms braced on her knees as she leaned forward and a deep scowl directed at me. I knew she didn't see the absurdity of what she was suggesting, and I loved her so much for having my back like she did, but the last thing I wanted was for anyone else in my family to get involved in the mess that was my new life. 

"I love you so much for offering, but I can handle Luca." Letty snorted and turned her head to glance out the window, the sun was on the way down and we could hear my family and some of the neighbors down in the courtyard, working together to clean up after my total failure of a graduation party. Every single member of my family had tried to flag me down and question me about what had happened with Luca after he dropped me off back home, but I'd ignored them all and went straight up to my room, needing some time to think it all through. 

Letty of course, had outsmarted them all and was waiting for me in my room when I got up, and considering she was the only one who might be able to look at the entire situation objectively I'd told her everything. Starting with my past history with Luca, ending with his ultimatium, because I wasn't going to kid myself into believing it was anything else. One of the things that had made me fall in love with him to begin with, was how determined and confident he'd always been, and he was crazy smart too, he wouldn't be where he was today if he wasn't. 

"He doesn't seem to think so," of course she was right, Luca thought he'd won already, and maybe he had, but the battle hadn't even really started yet and I wasn't the same Ana I'd been three years ago anymore. He didn't know me anymore, he knew the girl I'd been, the one who had looked at him and seen a happily-ever-after, but I knew now that things were never that clear-cut or simple. Everything in life was about hard work and ambition, if you wanted something you'd have to fight for it tooth and nail, and the truth was I was kind of excited to see how our personalities would pit against each other this time around. 

"Well, that's his mistake isn't it? I'm not saying it's going to be easy, Letty. At the end of this I'm probably going to end up with a broken heart and bruised ego, but the difference between then and now is that this time I know exactly what game he's playing at. I'm capable of seeing past my feelings for him, and look at everything that's at stake here." Letty didn't look convinced, and I didn't blame her, but she didn't know Luca like I did, she didn't know what made him tick the way I did and while Luca might be under the impression that he had me exactly where he wanted me, I was going to prove to him exactly how wrong he was in that assessment. 

"Hey, it's your life, chica, just know that if you ever need anything I got your back." Getting off the bed I walked over to wrap my arms around her neck, her arms wrapping around me a second later, and it was nice to know that I wasn't alone in all of this. Luca could try to control me as much as he wanted, but my friends and family he'd never be able to take away from me. 

"You know what I could use right now?" Pulling back I made my way over to my closet and grabbed three different hangers with mostly unused party dresses and held them up in front of me with a big grin, "A drink or ten," Letty shook her head in amusement before she came over to join me, inspecting my dresses before she took the hanger with the emerald green, low-cut open back dress that I'd bought on a whim a couple of months ago and still hadn't used. 

"Sounds like a plan, just us girls?" breathing a sigh of relief I put the other two dresses back in the closet and grabbed the green one from her hand, carrying it over to the bed and laying it down before wrenching my sundress over my head. 

"God yes," the last thing I needed right now was for my cousins to decide to tag along, like some overprotective bulldogs I neither needed nor wanted at the moment, and just have a plain normal girls night where we got drunk and danced or ass off and then try not to puke in the cab on the ride home. 

"I'll go home and change into something a little less... innocent, and come back here in about an hour, that work for you?" I wondered what exactly "a little less innocent" was in Letty's eyes, but I'd find out soon enough, nodding my agreement I watched her disappear out of my room and down the stairs before grabbing the dress, a fresh set of sexy lingerie just cause I felt like it, and headed for the bathroom.