“As much as I would like to take your money, Sal, I’m with Nick on this one. It’s a tough biz and quite frankly, we’d have to have a real big account to start our own agency. By the way, these meatballs are amazing!”
“Thanks.” Sal lifted his glass toward Jerry. “I stole the recipe
from Fazio down at the restaurant.”
“How’s he doing?” Nick asked. He wiped some red sauce from
the corner of his mouth.
“Great. Little Lizzie is gonna be a freshman this year. She’s a
fantastic kid.”
“Good family.” Nick nodded.
“So, besides the asshole boss down at the office, how’s work going?”
“Well, I think Jerry has the hots for Bella, the new secretary.” “Is that so?” Sal looked across the table at Jerry. “Is she the one
Nick says has all the tattoos?” “Six.”
“Six?” asked Nick.
“Where are they?” Sal asked.
“Where are they?” Nick sputtered. “What kind of question—” “Says a lot about a person, where their tattoos are,” said Sal. “There’s one on her right boob.”
Nick picked up his wine, shaking his head at his friend. “I don’t believe this.”
“I’m thinking about getting one,” Jerry said.
“You? Remember all the stuff you used to say about tattoos? What about those seedy parlors, the waste of money, and the stuff you can never forget? The permanent mark on your life?”
“That’s before I met the tattoo queen.” Jerry smiled and raised
his glass to meet Nick's.
“Well, I think it’s great,” said Sal. He laughed at the disgust on his son’s face as Nick put his glass back on the table. “Good luck with her. You deserve her. And what happened to you today?" he asked in Nick’s direction.
“Either of you ever heard of a nurse named Doris Powers at St.
Theresa’s?” he asked, looking up from his plate.
“Sure,” said Jerry. “She’s a head nurse. Works with Dr. Wall. Wait, maybe she works for Shelly White. Been there forever. Big black woman. Real nice.”