Baby Come Back(25)
“What the f*ck? Are you serious? Do you mean to tell me that I got screwed out of my Saturday shift?”
“Looks like it, Nick. What did you expect? You’ve called off work twice this week. Manny is definitely not happy with you at the moment.”
I was caught off guard when Nick suddenly raised his arm and backhanded me across the cheek twice. The force of it had knocked me back against the kitchen counter where our dishes in the drainer went crashing into the sink.
“Don’t you f*cking talk to me in that tone, Gina! Do you understand me?”
He had my face pulled up opposite his; his fingers dug into my skin as he squeezed my cheeks. I had been frightened by the fury that I saw in his eyes. All I could do was nod. He had finally let me go, shoving me away from him.
“Go clean your face up,” he had snarled. He had turned away from me. I had watched as he grabbed my pay envelope and helped himself to some cash. I had then fled to the bathroom. I remembered how my lip had bled, along with my nose. I had been in total shock at Nick’s outburst.
I had not emerged from the bathroom for a good half hour or more. When I had, most of my cash was gone. Nick was sitting on the couch, snorting a line of coke off of the coffee table. He had looked up and smiled at me; his mood had been transformed by the potent, white powder.
“Hey baby,” he had crooned to me, “Come here.” I hadn’t wanted to get near him; but after what he had done to me, I had been afraid not to do as he instructed.
I had approached him cautiously.
“Want to do a line, Gina?” he had asked, handing me the skinny straw.
“I don’t think so, Nick,” I had replied.
“Suit yourself, babe; more for me.”
He had snorted another line and then pulled me down on the couch next to him.
“Hey baby; I’m sorry things got a little rough earlier. I was just pissed, you know? They are really f*cking with me at work. You get that, don’t you?”
“Nick,” I had pleaded, “I love you. I don’t want anything to happen to you, baby. Coke is not how to deal with the stress.”
“You’re right, baby. I know what the best thing is for my stress.”
He had reclined back on the coach, pulling me on top of him. His lips crushed mine; his hand was behind my head pushing my face into his. My lip was still bruised and tender from when he had backhanded me.
“Nick, please. We need to talk.”
“We’ll talk later, Gina. Right now, we’re going to f*ck.”
He had pulled my jeans down past my hips, trapping my legs in the waistband. I had felt his hand underneath my pelvis, unzipping the fly on his jeans to allow his erect penis to spring free.
He raised me up and freed one of my legs from my jeans so that he could spread my legs apart. He guided me down onto his swollen cock. I wasn’t the least bit wet for him at this point. It had hurt when he had then thrust himself the rest of the way into me. I had cried out in pain.
“You love that don’t you, baby?” he had asked. Nick was usually pretty rough in the sack, but not being allowed to get lubricated made it worse than usual. “This is how it should be; you and me f*cking like this; not arguing about nonsense. Don’t make me have to punish you again, Gina. You need to watch your mouth with me.”
He had continued to pump in and out of me with no thought or care that he was tearing me up inside. The cocaine had seemed to make him last and last. I had prayed to God to let him come; mercifully, he finally did. I remembered I had to soak in a warm tub of water for several hours afterwards. My face had bruises and my private parts were swollen from his relentless pounding and my lack of lubrication. My next shift at the casino had not come early enough to suit me.
My thoughts were interrupted when my mother hollered up that Pete, Amie and Ethan had arrived. I ran my fingers through my hair and went downstairs to join them.
CHAPTER 14
I had brought a plain, black sheath dress with a black lace shawl to wear to the wake. I put thigh high hose on with my plain black 3-inch pumps. Thankfully, Pete and Amie had boxed up all of the food Mom had made and driven it over to the Camerucci’s to drop off. I had stayed back at the house offering to watch Ethan.
He was down for a nap at the moment. I watched him sleeping in his portable crib, thinking how sweet and innocent he looked. His thumb was in his mouth. He was very content. I knew Pete and Amie were good parents. I also knew that Angie and Leo Camerucci had been good parents to Nicholas as well. That was why I had never told anyone in my family about what had happened that year I lived with Nick in Atlantic City. I knew it would have torn the friendship apart. I somehow felt that I had to accept part of the blame. I had continually managed to piss Nick off; I had learned fairly quickly what his hot buttons were, but I had continued to push them. He had pointed that out to me on many occasions.
I thought back to the time after he had first hit me. I realized that the drugs were playing a major part in how he had been behaving. I was not about to tuck my tail between my legs and run back home to Hoboken. Nick was the man that I loved. I would be with him through thick and thin. I had to keep trying if we were going to make the relationship work.
About a month and a half after our first blow-up, Nick had promised me that he would wean himself off of the coke. I knew that he had to in large part because he had been given a couple of disciplinary write-ups at the casino. One more strike and Nick was going to be fired. I had watched from a distance and it did seem as if Nick was cutting back. We had more cash than usual; his moods had become more depressed than manic. I had figured that was all part of getting clean. He had gained some of the weight he had lost back which was also a fairly good indicator for me that he was keeping his promise.