Caroselli's Baby Chase

“I was never given a choice,” his dad was saying, to which his uncle Tony answered, “You gave that up when you left her.”

Whatever that meant, his dad’s face flushed deep red and he gave his brother a firm, two-handed shove that sent him stumbling backward several feet into the conference room door.

Rob had seen his dad and uncles argue, and at times it could get heated, but he had never seen them come to blows. Uncle Tony was stocky and muscular, but Demitrio, Rob’s dad, was taller, younger and trained by the military to fight. That apparently wasn’t going to stop Uncle Tony because he looked as if he were about to lunge.

From behind him, Rob heard his cousin Tony yell, “What the hell is going on?” and turned to see Nick and him running down the hall toward the older men. Rob followed them.

Both older men, red-faced and out of breath, jaws and fists clenched, stopped and turned to him.

“What the hell, Dad?” Tony said. “What is with the two of you lately?”

Demitrio turned to Tony Sr. “Why don’t you tell him, Tony.”

“I’d like to know, too,” Rob said. The last time Uncle Tony had been to their house, Rob showed up to find his mom in tears. He wanted to know why.

“Boys, this is between me and my brother,” Tony Sr. said. “There’s no need to be concerned—”

“Dad!” Tony said. “You were two seconds from beating the crap out of each other.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time I beat the crap out of him,” Demitrio said, glaring at his brother.

“When you were kids maybe,” Rob said, “but you’re in your sixties. You could have a heart attack.”

“Did I miss the fun?”

Rob turned to see Leo, Nick’s dad, walking toward them.

“They’re fighting,” Tony said, as if he still couldn’t believe it. “Physically fighting.”

“It’s nothing to worry about, boys,” Leo said, laughing heartily. “You wouldn’t believe how many times I had to get between these two when we were kids. It’s that middle-child curse, I guess.” He stepped strategically between his brothers and gave each of them a slap on the back. “Come on, gentlemen, let’s go in my office and settle this.” He turned to Rob and his cousins. “You boys can head on out. I’ve got this.”

Reluctantly the three cousins walked to the elevator.

“So what do you think that was about?” Tony asked him.

“I don’t know,” Rob said. “But it’s been building for a while now. Things have been tense for a couple of months.”

“Don’t forget, Tony’s mom was arguing with your dad at Thanksgiving,” Nick told Rob. Sarah, Tony’s mom, used to date Rob’s dad before he joined the army. The fact that Tony Sr. married her shortly after he left had been a minor source of friction among the three of them over the years. Certainly, it was nothing they would come to blows over now, unless the dynamics of those relationships had changed… .

“Tony, you don’t think that your mom and my dad…”

“Honestly, Rob, I don’t know what to think anymore. But things have seemed off with my parents, as well. I went to a New Year’s party with them and they seemed…I don’t know, out of sync, if that makes sense. They’re typically very physically affectionate with each other, and I barely saw them touch.”

“Maybe my dad can help them figure it out,” Nick said.

“Is your dad still sleeping with your mom?” Rob asked him.

Nick made a face. “Yeah. It’s bad enough knowing about it, but to actually see them…you know…” He shuddered involuntarily. “Talk about scarring a person for life.”

“That’ll teach you to barge into your mom’s house without knocking,” Tony told him.

“I think it’s pretty cool that after being divorced for so long, they reconnected,” Rob said.

“They do seem happy,” Tony told Nick. “Maybe I shouldn’t mention this, but they were at the New Year’s party, too. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other, and they disappeared long before the ball dropped.”

“Regardless,” Nick said, “I’ll never get how two people who despised each other, and had a messy and uncivilized divorce that scarred all three of their children, could suddenly change their minds and hop in the sack.”

“I’m sure that if they’d had a choice, they would have preferred to be happy the first time around,” Tony said.

Nick shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. So long as I don’t have to see my dad’s bare ass again, they can be ‘happy’ all they want.”

“So, breakfast?” Tony said.

They said goodbye to Sheila as they passed the reception desk, then rode the elevator down to the lobby. Dennis, the security guard, nodded as they walked past.

“Who are you betting on in the playoffs?” Nick asked him, walking backward to the door.

“Steelers-Lions,” Dennis said. “And the Lions will take it.”

“No way! The Lions haven’t won a championship since what, the fifties?”

“Fifty-seven,” Dennis said. “But this is the year.”

Nick laughed. “Dream on. I say Steelers-Chargers, and the Steelers will take the championship.”

Dennis grinned and shook his head. “Keep dreaming, boss.”

Nick laughed as they walked out the door into the bitter wind. Parking was a bitch downtown, so they pulled up their collars and walked the three blocks to the restaurant. The pavement was slick, so it was slow-going, and by the time they got to the diner it was already filling up with the lunch crowd. Every seat was taken and there was a line of people ahead of them.

“Feel like waiting?” Tony asked.

Rob shrugged. “Could be a while.”

“I say we wait,” Nick said. “It’s too damn cold to go back out there.”

“Hey, Caroselli!” someone called. Rob followed the voice, cursing under his breath when he realized whom it belonged to.

Four

“Is that Carrie?” Nick asked.

“That’s her,” Rob said. She sat alone in a booth near the back, and she was waving them over. She was still wearing the ugly suit, but she’d lost the shapeless jacket. She’d let her hair down so it fell in soft waves over the shoulder of a rose-colored shirt made of some sort of stretchy nylon that clung to her curves.

Tony’s mouth dropped open. “Holy hell. No wonder you picked her up. Look at her.”

“Yeah,” Nick said. “Her body is…wow.”

Yes, it was, and as much as he didn’t want to, Rob couldn’t help but look. Just as he couldn’t help it the other night either. In her clothes she was smokin’ hot, but out of them she was a goddess. A work of art.