Stevie set my drink in front of me and I took a gulp, looked around again and saw the expectant faces. There was nothing for it. I took a deep breath and started from the beginning. Two drinks later, I was done.

I told them the whole shebang, leaving nothing out. Not my weight; not my Dad; not my sisters and mother; not my years-long crush on Luke; not him punching out the boys who called me Fatty, Fatty Four-Eyes; not him sitting next to me on the stoop after my Dad left; not our embrace at his Dad’s funeral; not my promise and breaking it with my non-return of Luke’s calls; not Rick, Dave and Noah; not Dom; not Sandra Whoever-She-Was; not Luke cuffing me to him and his bed – not a thing.

Everyone stared at me when I was done.

“Oowee, these boys don’t play games,” Shirleen announced, sitting back and fanning herself with her hand.

“Holy crap,” Indy mumbled.

“He even makes Lee’s pursuit look old-fashioned and Lee used cuffs on you too,” Ally said, moving her stare to Indy.

“What ‘cha gonna do now, Sugar?” Daisy asked.

“Yeah, are you going to Luke’s place tonight or your own?” Roxie put in.

I looked at Roxie. “My place,” I said without hesitation.

Everyone drew in breaths.

“Oh Lordy,” Stevie whispered.

“Here we go again,” Jet said.

“No, really, it isn’t like that,” I told them.

“It’s always like that,” Daisy told me.

“What I don’t get,” Shirleen said to the table, “is why you women don’t just give in? It ain’t like these boys aren’t fine. Are they fine?” she asked Tod and Stevie.

“They’re fine,” Stevie confirmed.

“They are so fine,” Tod threw in with a little jazz hand wave to emphasize his point.

“I mean, I get me a chance at a taste o’ Luke Stark, I’d take a bite outta that boy faster ‘n Jiminy Cricket,” Shirleen said.

“You called it, Sugar,” Daisy giggled and it sounded like tinkling bells.

“Men suck,” I declared, not having much fight in me after four cranberry juice and vodkas and zero dinner.

“Maybe so, but Luke Stark pushed me against the wall and told me he was gonna f**k me, I’d say, ‘When and what you want me to wear?’ And I would not care if he did pull a slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am. I’d just take my orgasm and go. You hear what I’m sayin’ to you?” Shirleen asked.

I heard what she was saying. I heard it loud and clear.

“Did you not hear me when I told you Noah stole five thousand, three hundred and twenty-five dollars from me?” I asked back.

“I was you, I’d tell Luke Stark about them five thousand some odd dollars. He’d find this Noah whose-ee-whatsit and nail his ass to the wall,” May told me.

“That’s right,” Shirleen agreed.

“Okay, then Dave, Rick, Dom,” I went on. “Men are all ass**les,” I looked at Tod and Stevie. “Present company excepted, of course.”

“Of course,” Stevie mumbled.

Tod just smiled.

“Hank’s not an ass**le,” Roxie muttered.

“I’m glad for you, it sounds like he isn’t and that’s cool,” I emphasized my comment by reaching out and squeezing Roxie’s hand. Then I sat back and declared, “But for me, I’ll take my rabbit vibrator, thank you. It works every time.”

“No vibrator is better than Eddie,” Jet whispered to a grinning Jules. “Trust me, I know.”

“Just this morning, Lee had me singing the Hallelujah Chorus, twice,” Indy didn’t whisper. “I haven’t touched a vibrator in ten months.”

“I didn’t even bring my vibrator from Chicago. I tossed it in a dumpster,” Roxie threw down. “And I do not miss it.”

“Why are we talking about vibrators?” Stevie asked May. She started shaking with laughter.

“I’ve vowed fidelity to my vibrators,” I told them. “I’m not going to get talked down to, stolen from, cheated on, walked all over or walked out on. Not like Sissy, not like myself and not like my Mom. No way. No f**king way.”

There was a lot of grinning, some shaking of heads and at least one roll of the eyes.

Oh well. There was no convincing this crowd. But I knew if I could shed seventy-five pounds and go from a Fatty, Fatty Four-Eyes to someone Lucas Stark would call a knockout, I could and would remain faithful to my vibrators.

On that thought, I got up. “I’m getting a drink. Who needs a drink?”

“We all need drinks, girlie,” Tod said.

“My shout, I’ll find a waitress,” I announced and then weaved my unsteady way through the crowd to the bar.

I didn’t make it.

Five steps away from the bar two big, beefy guys came up on either side of me, both with a hand at my elbow but only one leaned in and said, “You know Dominic Vincetti?”

Uh-oh.

This doesn’t look good, Bad Ava told me.

Eek! Good Ava screeched.

Shit.

That’s when I was kidnapped.

* * * * *

They weren’t good kidnappers.

I knew this because I got away.

They pulled me out of the bar and behind the back to the alley parking area and shoved me in the backseat of the car. They weren’t rough, they weren’t gentle, but they were in a hurry. They didn’t take my purse and they didn’t ask any questions outside of the first one which, incidentally, I didn’t answer but they took me anyway.

What they did say was that if I didn’t go with them, they would blow my head off. It didn’t occur to me that it was unlikely that they would blow my head off in a crowded bar. The only thing that occurred to me was that I liked my head where it was.

Therefore, I went with them.

They were huge guys, both dark, both Italian looking, both wearing ill-fitting suits and, on one of them, I could see his shoulder holster and the butt of a gun (thus, me going with them).

I sat in the back of the car wishing I had had dinner. Firstly, because I was hungry. Secondly, because I was now a lot more drunk than I normally would have been if I had only had four cranberry juice and vodkas. Thirdly, because if I was going to die, I wished I had had a last meal that consisted of more than noodles and veggies.

We drove down Broadway toward Englewood and I wondered when the gang was going to notice I was gone. They’d probably call Luke and Luke would probably get pissed, at me.