Simply Complex

By Shotzette

Rated R

Laverne winced as the fingernail on her right forefinger snapped like kindling against the smooth metal side of the napkin holder.  “Shit!” she muttered, and then looked up, as an apology formed on her lips.  The empty booths and tables didn’t bother to judge her.  Cowboy Bill’s was as empty as her calendar on a Saturday night…  No, nothing is as empty as that.

“Hey,” a familiar voice said behind her, as if on cue.

“Carmine!” She squeaked, and instantly disliked the frightened high-pitched tone in her voice.  “What are you trying to do, give me a heart attach on top of everything else?”

His face flushed slightly, but he held her gaze.  “I just didn’t like the way we left things last night.”

Laverne snorted.  “What’s not to like?  We were watching “Bonanza” and out of the blue you told me that you were moving to New York next week.”

“There’s more to it than that, and you know it, Laverne.”

She shook her head briskly, and then turned away before he could see her rapidly reddening eyes.  “How?”

“You looked real upset, almost like you were going to cry.  Why?” 

Laverne turned her attention back to the napkin holder, and shoved the wadded napkins in angrily as she forced her voice to be light.  “Cry?  Give me a break…”

“No, you pretty much threw me out on my keister” Carmine walked around the table until he was facing her, and sat down.

“I was tired, Carmine.  It was late.”

He blinked in surprise.  “Nine-thirty on a Saturday night is late to you?  Since when?”

“Since-since…  I’ve been working pretty hard,” she floundered.  “I’m on my feet at Ajax all day, and at Cowboy Bills most nights and weekends since Edna left…”

His hand reached out and grabbed hers, as if fully demanding her attention and her truthfulness. “Yeah, I’m here too, Laverne—working the same hours you do.”

“Yeah, but that’s all you do,” Laverne said, beyond caring if her words would hurt him, “Let’s face it, the singing telegram job isn’t exactly the most demanding job, is it?”  Just leave now and get it over with!

His hand dropped hers like a red-hot coal.  “You don’t have to be mean about it.  C’mon, what’s really bugging you?”  Carmine’s dark eyes stared deeply into hers, intense but with a disquieting inscrutability.

Laverne slammed the aluminum napkin holder loudly onto the battered Formica tabletop in exasperation.  “I’ll tell you what’s bugging me, Carmine.  If you haven’t looked around lately,” she said as she gestured around the empty restaurant, “you and I are the pretty much the only people working here.  Yeah, this is going be very hard on my Pop.  You’re like a son to him and he’s relied on you to help him out here a lot, and he’s going to miss you like crazy.”

“I know that, Laverne.  That’s why I’ve put this move off for so long.”

“So you’ve always wanted to run?”  The truth hurts, DeFazio.  He never really wanted to stay here after Shirley left.  All he’s been doing has been treading water. The bitter knot in her stomach threatened to explode into tears.

“It ain’t running, it’s following a dream.  Can’t you understand that?”

“What makes you think New York will be any different for you than Hollywood, Carmine?”  She shot back at him.   He blinked in shock and she knew she’d hit a nerve. 

“Do you think that the day you set foot in Manhattan, that roles on Broadway are going to drop at your feet.”?

“No!  I know that I’m going to have to work my tail off there, too!”

Laverne snorted in derision.  “What work your tail off?  When have you gone on any auditions here that Squiggy didn’t line up for you?”

“I got that gig at the Comedy Jungle on my own!”

“Yeah, and that was a huge success, wasn’t it?  Go ahead, twist the knife a little more   Let’s face it, Carmine.  Squiggy has gotten you a lot of opportunities for work—you just haven’t been good enough to land the job.”  Laverne sucked in her breath as she watched him flinch almost painfully in response to her words.

Carmine’s normally animated face was like that of a statue.  He regarded her through black ice eyes for a long moment before saying, “I don’t know why I came here.  I must have been crazy thinking that I could talk to you like a human being.  See you around, Laverne…”

As he turned to walk away from her, Laverne knew in her heart that it was his final good bye to her.  It would have been if only those two creeps holding guns weren’t standing between Carmine and the door.

The taller of the two creeps spoke up in a strained voice damaged by rough circumstances and nicotine.  “Maybe you just want to back up there, Bub.  Sam,” he said, as he jerked his chin towards the other creep, “Lock the door.”

Laverne’s jaw dropped in surprise.  “Hey what is this…?”

The large man looked back from his compatriot and stared at her.  If she had thought Carmine’s eyes were cold a few seconds ago, this guy had the eyes of a long dead corpse.  “Shut up; open the cash drawer!”

“There isn’t…” Laverne began.

“He said, shut up!”  The smaller creep advanced on Laverne menacingly, as his red-rimmed eyes seemed to flicker back and forth of their own accord.

Carmine stepped forward.  “Leave her alone”

“You want to be a hero, Bub?”  The bigger man said as he aimed his gun at Carmine’s rib cage and stepped forward.

Laverne paled as the peril of her situation hit her.  “Its’ okay, Carmine.  I’ll open the drawer”, she said hastily, as she began to hit the register keys with her suddenly trembling fingers.

The larger creep sneered before saying, “Your girlfriend is a smart cookie, Bub.  You might want to listen to her.”

“She ain’t my girlfriend-- I ain’t his girlfriend,” they simultaneously snapped back.

“Wanna be my girlfriend?’ the little creep leered as his eyes seemed to bore a hole through the L on Laverne’s blouse.

“Hey…hey...” Carmine puffed his chest out and stepped towards the little creep, apparently oblivious to the gun barrel poking him in the chest.

“What the hell?  The big creep had pried open the cash drawer of the register, and thrown it angrily to the linoleum.  “There’s only $17.50 in here!  What gives?  Is the rest in the safe?”

“There ain’t nothing in the safe!“ Laverne said.

“Don’t lie to me sweetie,” the larger creep said through clenched teeth.

Carmine looked at her with nervous fear in his eyes.  “Yeah, don’t lie to him, Laverne”

“It ain’t a lie!” Laverne sputtered, as her jumbled words fell out of her mouth more quickly than she could have ever imagined.  “My Pop is gong through a divorce-- his new lawyer, he had to get a new on because his old one wouldn’t return his calls, wanted cash up front-- did I mention that his wife left him for a jockey?”

“Shut up!”  Joe’s shout echoed hollowly in the empty restaurant as Laverne was reminded how far the building was set back from the street—and how alone she and Carmine were.

“Joe, we gotta get more than $17.50!”  Sam’s gestures became more manic and his eyes darted back and forth from the faces of his two hostages more quickly than they had moments ago.

Joe spared his partner an irritated glance before turning back to Carmine.  “You, empty your wallet.”  After Carmine had thrown his wallet on the table with an angry glare, Joe turned to Laverne and said, “Where’s your purse?” 

Laverne reached behind the counter and offered him her red and black handbag with a trembling hand. 

“Gimme that, he hollered as he ripped the chain from her neck.”

“Hey!”  Laverne’s fingers went instinctively to her stinging neck and took a step towards him.

“The ring too.” 

“No!”  Laverne clenched her left hand in a fist and took a step back.

“Laverne, give him the damn ring,” Carmine growled from behind her.

Laverne shook her head.  “You don’t want this, it ain’t a diamond or anything expensive.”

“The ring.  Now!”  Though Joe’s expression hadn’t change, his voice had lowered and now sounded even more animal like.

Suddenly, a strong hand gripped Laverne’s upper arm painfully, and she whirled around in surprise.  “Carmine!”

Carmine glared at her as he yanked the ring off of her finger roughly and through it on the ground at Joe’s feet.  “Give him the stupid ring.”

Joe leaned down to pick up the ring, but his eyes never left Carmine’s face and the barrel of his gun never left it’s target.  He picked up the ring and squinted at it before snorting and shoving into the pocket of his grimy jeans and shaking his head.  “Maybe ten bucks at a pawnshop if we’re lucky.  Anymore cash around here?” He asked Laverne.

“No!”

Joe smirked at her vehemence.  “I really don’t believe you.  Move,” he said as he gestured towards the kitchen.

Laverne gulped as she turned around and walked to the back of Cowboy Bills, praying that she would see a knife within reach, an open back door, anything…

“Hold it!”  Joe said as they stopped in front of the storeroom.  “In there.  Now,” he said pointedly at Carmine when he seemed to hesitate.

Laverne’s lower lip trembled as she walked through the doorway.  This is it, it’s over.  The sound of the door locking behind her filled her with a momentary relief.  They were still alive.  So far…

“Sonova—“ Carmine muttered as he dashed to the door.  “Damn it, this opens the other way, I can’t kick it open.”

“Like we’d get far with the two of them having guns.”

“Fine. We’ll be stuck in here until Hell freezes over.  That will make up for me giving him your ring.”

Laverne glared back at him.  “That ring meant a lot to me.”

Carmine rolled his eyes.  “I know; it was your father’s.  He won’t mind as long as you’re okay.”

“It wasn’t his, it was my mothers,” Laverne explained, her words clipped and biting.  “It belonged to her father.  It’s all she had left of him, and it was all that I had left of her.”

Carmine looked back at her, his expression softer.  “I didn’t know.  I…”

Pity.  Even better.  “Just shut up.”

Carmine’s eyes narrowed.  “I can’t do nothing right today, can I?” he all but spat at her.

“Would you just shut up?  This isn’t about you, Carmine.  If you haven’t noticed, we’re locked in a freezer while two nut jobs are,” Laverne was distracted from her tirade by a crashing noise in the restaurant, “tearing apart Cowboy Bill’s.”

Immediately, Carmine was standing toe to toe with her.  “I have noticed, Laverne, especially the way the creepy little guy was eyeing you.  That’s why I gave the little jerk your ring.  Did you see his eyes?” Carmine asked.  “He’s strung out and out of his mind, which makes him even more dangerous.”

“Oh, this is a dangerous situation?”  The sarcasm dripped from her lips bitterly, stoking her anger instead of purging it.  “Gee Carmine, I guess the whole armed hold up thing just went right past me.  Neither one of those guys looks anything near what I would call  normal.  I just hope they’re both gone by the time my Pop gets back…”

“Me too.  When do you expect Frank to get back?”

Laverne shrugged and then sat down listlessly on a pile of potato sacks.  “I don’t know.  How long does it take to get a divorce?”

“I have no idea,” Carmine said wearily as he sat down uncomfortably close beside her.

His nearness brought back the pain of the previous night and Laverne’s back involuntarily stiffened.  “Good point, you’d have to be able to commit before you could figure that one out.”

“What is with you?”

“I’m just saying that leaving comes pretty easy to some people.” She said as she stood up and began to pace restlessly.

In a flash he was on his feet and right in her face.  “Who are you talking about, Laverne?” he asked.  “It sure as hell ain’t me!  I’m the guy who dated a girl for over twelve years and moved across the country to be with her.”

“Shut up.”

His eyes took on a dark gleam.  “Are you talking about Shirley, the person who left you with just a note?”

Laverne’s cheeks flushed and she felt her flesh burn from her neck to her cheeks.  “I said, shut up!”

Carmine took another step towards her.  “Maybe you’re talking about Edna?  Or is it Lenny since he re-enlisted?’ He counted off the names on his finger one by one.  “Or maybe it goes all the way back to—“

Laverne’s right hand shot out as if of it’s own accord and slapped his face.  The sound of the blow was like a cracking whip in the tiny storeroom.

Laverne’s jaw dropped in shock; her fear of the two men upstairs was suddenly eclipsed by the reddening welt on Carmine’s cheek.  “Carmine, I’m sorry,” she said, but her voice came out a croaking whisper.

He held up his hand to stop her, and the gesture had a finality that frightened Laverne more than she would have believed possible moments before.  “Don’t talk to me.”

“But…”

“I said don’t!” 

She looked around the cluttered storeroom.  Was this place going to be where they would find her body?  The thought should have terrified her, but she was numb.  There were more noises from upstairs and more angry voices, but they were as insignificant and as far away as the gnats that had bothered her at the Shotz company picnic five years earlier.  Despite the stuffiness of the locked storeroom, she suddenly felt cold, freezing actually.  When she looked down at her hands, she saw that they were trembling.  Her vision blurred suddenly and as she blinked to clear it, she realized that her eyes were filled with tears.

“Quit crying…” Carmine’s voice from behind her was gruff.

She opened her mouth to deny she was crying, to say that she wasn’t scared at all and tell him to go to Hell.  The truth came out instead.  “I can’t help it.  God, I’m so scared…”

She hadn’t realized that she’d been waiting for his touch until his arms encircled her from behind, breaking down her last defense.  She turned in his arms and buried her face into his shoulder as the tears overtook her.  “I’m sorry, Carmine.”

“I know.  Don’t worry about it.”

She raised her face from his neck and shook her head violently, they’re next moments would be uncertain and she wasn’t ready to risk a misunderstanding.  “Not just for the slap.  I’m sorry for throwing you out last night and being so mean to you today.”

Carmine favored her with a sad smile.  “I knew that you wouldn’t take the news well.  I just didn’t know how bad you’d take it.  I know it’s hard when friends leave, Laverne, but…”

“There’s more to it than that.”

Carmine blinked.  “Huh?”

“More,” she said, in an attempt to clarify her feelings.  “Carmine, do you realize that we’ve spent every Saturday night together for the last three months?”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she sniffled, realizing that she probably looked a mess, but to intent on him to even wipe her running eyes and nose on her sleeve.  “It’s probably been one of the longest relationships I’ve been in.”

Carmine shook his head and replied, “It ain’t that kind of a relationship, Laverne.”

Laverne wondered if she was fooling herself when she heard a tinge of regret in his voice and took the chance.  “I mean, I know that we haven’t been dating but…”

He released her from his arms and took a step back.  “No.  I can’t do it.”

Her heart sank.  “Do what?”

“Be in a relationship again where I don’t know where I stand.  Are we friends, Laverne?  Are we more?”  His last question was asked in a quiet voice that was far distant from his usual strong tenor.

Too much, you always ask them to give too much.  “We’re friends, but,” she began, mentally adjusting the fan as always.

“But what?”

“Never mind,” she replied as she unsuccessfully tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice.  She was looking at her last hour of life, and it was going to be an awkward one.  Great.

Carmine seemed to steel himself as he stepped toward her.  “It’s too late for that Laverne.”  The look in his eyes belied his firm words.

She looked at him, and was surprised to see a yearning in his eyes.  Was she the only one who thought that there was more going on between the two of them?  Ages old memories of her kissing Carmine surfaced; hormones, pettiness, jealousy and one upmanship usually explained them away.  Usually.

“Carmine,” she breathed.

His eyes locked with hers fixing her where she stood as his mouth descended on hers.  The passionate spark between them lit, not surprising her at all.  The mutual desperation behind it was a different story.

Time seemed to stop, the only sound Laverne could hear was the beating of her heart.  Carmine pulled her close to him, so close that she could feel every muscle in his torso as his mouth conquered her.  Desperately, she clung to him, pressing herself harder against him, trying to feel safety from his strong embrace.    The minute stubble on his cheek scratched her face lightly as he shifted his position and began to kiss her neck passionately.  Laverne moaned low in her throat her head lolled back, lost in the sensation of his embrace and his touch.

Laverne’s hands came alive and gripped Carmine’s shoulder blades roughly as she felt his palms graze her hip as the traveled down to the smooth flesh of her thigh.  She groaned allowed at the heat of his hands as her exploring fingers breached the gap between the hem of his t-shirt and the top of his jeans.  Carmine growled in response and cupped her buttocks as he pressed her back into the wall of the storeroom.  Desperately she rubbed against him, feeling his strength, gasping as she felt him begin to unbutton the bottom buttons on her blouse.

And ugly laugh from the doorway caused them to break apart.

Sam leered at them, gun in hand as his wet eyes seemed to burn through Laverne..  “Nice, he said,” as he looked her up and down like a piece of meat.  “I can take it from here, friend.”

“You son of a—” Carmine never finished his sentence.  Faster than Laverne could have believed possible, he lunged at Sam, his low stance and quick moves apparently taking the other man by surprise.  Carmine gripped Sam’s wrist and Laverne saw the gun shake precariously between the two men as they struggled.  Carmine looked coldly detached while the smaller man fought him back with an almost manic rage. 

Instinctively she reached out and grabbed the back of Sam’s shirt, yanking and twisting with all of her might.  Sam spun around towards her in the tiny storeroom and swung wildly, the hand holding the gun striking her painfully in the jaw.  As she fell, Laverne was dimly aware of blackness surrounding her, demanding her surrender. 

Even the sound of a shot ringing out didn’t prevent her from giving in to the darkness.

**************************

She awoke to the smell of Lysol as she tried to open her eyes.  The bright fluorescent lights made her regret her action as she winced and instinctively tried to curl herself up into a ball.

“Laverne?”

The familiar voice was all the encouragement that she needed to brave the ugly brightness again.  Cautiously she cracked open one eye.

Carmine stood over her, looking more haggard and worried than she’d ever seen him.  “It’s over.”

 “Are you okay?” she asked, blinking in surprise at the hoarseness of her voice.

Carmine tired face burst into the dimple-cheeked smile she knew so well—the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen, she suddenly realized.  “I think I should be asking you that question”

Suddenly, she sat bolt upright and grabbed his hand as she tried to focus on him and ignore the agonizing pain in her head and the sudden nausea.  “The gun…”

“Went off,” he concluded, as he gently pushed her back down on the hospital bed..  “Cowboy Bill’s storeroom is missing a nice hunk of drywall.”

Laverne’s lip quivered and she felt tears well up in here eyes as what could have happened flashed in front of her.  “I thought he…”

“No. I thought he had shot you.”

Laverne’s fingers flew the left side of her face and met swollen and stretched flesh.

Carmine shook his head reassuringly.  “It’s just a concussion and a bad bruise.  He didn’t break your jaw or nothing.”

“Really?”  Her words slurred; the turgid and numb flesh felt nothing like her own face.

“Yeah,” Carmine said with a rueful grin.  “Leave it to me to get pushed around by the only crook in the world who can’t punch as hard a Shirley.”

Laverne felt her lips twitch up in a smile, or what passed for a smile in her current condition.  “Those guys…”

“Are in jail.  While I was pounding the hell out of the little guy, his coward of a buddy took off.  The cops caught him a few blocks away.”

Laverne looked down at Carmines’ hands and was surprised to see his knuckles swollen and bandaged. 

Before she could ask he said, “I never realized how much boxing gloves protect hands and faces in the ring.”  He looked down at his paws and grimaced, “they only started to really hurt a couple hours ago.  I’m going through aspirin like crazy.

“A couple hours??  How long have I been out?”

Carmine looked toward the window, and squinted.  “Since yesterday afternoon.”

“You’ve been with me the whole time?”

“Me and your pop.  Except when I had to talk to the cops.”

“You missed your bus to New York.”

His face fell.  “I think I postponed it.”

“I see.”  She shrank back against the mattress trying to stay under control and wondering how Audrey Hepburn or Shirley Feeney would handle a situation like this.

“Laverne, I don’t know what exactly we got here,” Carmine said as he picked nervously at the pilings on the light blue blanket that covered her, “Do you?”

She looked away tried to shrug, but the pain in her neck wouldn’t let her.  Audrey or Shirley would have had a better response, she thought to herself.

“I meant what I said earlier.  I don’t want to be in another relationship where I don’t know where I stand.”

“I know you don’t,” Laverne replied truthfully.

“But, I think we owe it to ourselves to see what we got, don’t you?”

“Carmine, I never wanted you to leave, for a lot of reasons, but I can’t be the one to hold you back.”

“You won’t.  Maybe I haven’t really given Hollywood a fair shake.  You were right, I need to push myself more, get myself out there.”

“But what…” She began, and then realized that she really didn’t want to hear the answer.

“What if it doesn’t work?”  Carmine shrugged, but the seriousness in his eyes made it more than a casual gesture.  “It might not, and we both have been around the block enough to know that.  But, New York ain’t going no where.  Let me give California another six months.  Maybe then I’ll be able to see what I’m going to and where I am more clearly.”

“Six months, eh?” This time, she did smile a bit as the numbness began to wear off of her face.

“I think we’ll both know by then what we are to each other,” He reached out and took her hand, holding it in the two of his protectively, “and we can go on from there.”

She nodded.  “So, I have a boyfriend,” she said in her most come hither voice, knowing full well that her current condition was negating any seductive mood.

Once again he surprised her as he leaned forward and laid his head on the pillow next to hers and gently pushed her overgrown bangs out of her eyes, “I have a girlfriend.”

“What should we do?”  She asked, knowing it was a loaded question in their current positions.

“Well, we’ve done a lot of the hanging out thing,” he replied as he looked at her with a tiny bit of  a leer that curled her toes, “and I’m pretty sure the nurse would kick me out if I started to do what I’d really like to do with you.  Maybe, when you feel up to it, we can actually go out on a date.”

“A date.  We’ve never been out on a real date; have we?”

“Nope.  Maybe it’s about damn time we tried it,” he said as his sentence ended in a stifled yawn.

Laverne grinned and snuggled closer to him as her eyelids began to lose their battle with gravity.  Carmine’s rhythmically heavy breathing told her that he was also losing his battle with sleep.  Turning slightly, she nestled her head in the crook of his shoulder and laid her arm across his chest.  Her last coherent thought before nodding off was how easy and natural the gesture was.

FIN