Major Changes Gains & Losses

"With your permission I'd like to file the complaint in court, preparing the lawsuit against the Justice Department."

"Thanks, you got lucky kid I appreciate it; but my people are better suited from here." Nicholas passed his daughter and Brian, making his way to the dining room."

"Your dad's a piece of work." Brian whispered.

"Sorry you had to save me again, Bri," she said tiptoeing up giving him a short kiss.

"I'd walk through hell for you, with not a single regret."

Nicholas was stunned walking into the dining room, filled with his business family and blood family, to see the infamous Derrick Walker, in his dining room, singing apologies like he was some sort of elf.

"Nicholas I'm sorry, for any undue stress I may have caused." Walker said preparing to exit.

"You fucking better, you merda!" Someone yelled out followed by, "Idiota", "figlio di puttana."

"Ey, calm down everybody the man has apologized." Nicholas said trying to project calm.

"I don't care; this dumb fuck, ruined Ma's day," Nicholas jnr. argued.

"Nick, that's your father, your goanna listen him," rebuffed one of the many guests in the room.

Walker walked out, but his pride couldn't be sobered. He whispered to Nicholas using his tallest pose. "This was just the first time, your lawsuit is shit just like you and this barbarian clan you call a family."

"Get out and off my property, now!" Nicholas said yelling at Walker.

Walker passed Brian and Andrea kissing in the hall and gave him a sly smile. Once again he couldn't help himself.

"You're a smart kid, I'm not afraid to admit it you found more holes in that warrant than I knew were in that piece of crap. I respect you so I'll give you one warning. Get away fast or you'll burn with the lot of them. Not even the tightest pussy is worth that."

"Excuse me?" Brian said bearing down on Walker, Nichols. Jnr walking by blocked the angered Brian.

"Calm down Brian." Andrea said a sentiment quickly echoed by her brother, both of them now restraining the tall Brian.

"You're going to regret that!" Brian stated angrily.

"Oh, I'm scared."

"I shouldn't, but my new watch should frighten you a bit, it was gift from a tech startup that couldn't afford to pay me at first but once they started turning a profit they not only paid me but gave me this gadget."

"Nice watch, so what? Asked Walker looking at the bulbous time piece, his enquiries were answered when he started hearing his voice playing back.

Walker's eyes widened to the point of popping out, he felt shooting pain running throughout his entire body.

"Eighty Million," shot Brian. Walker trudged his feet fighting the urge of his ready, clenched fists.

"That's illegal; I didn't consent," Walker said in his defense.

"One party consent state," Brian countered with a smile

Walker simply turned away mumbling under his breath. "Outside the cavalry had long gone. The plumbing decoy van was still there with a smirking Eric and a somber looking agent Davis."

Walker approached the two with a grunt.

"Johnnie Cochran eh?" Laughed Eric. That was the last straw. Walker snapped, recoiling back, slamming it into Eric's jaw."

Davis had to restrain Walker.

Walker found his calm, saying, "Hey Eric I'm sorry, it's just been a tough day."

Even with the knockout punch Eric was still laughing. Even when the van was well enough away from the estate Eric was still giggling away.

Then Walker herd his phone ring, it was the Section Chief's direct number. It was never good when your boss'es bosse's called you after you just messed up.

It was Christmas, Agent Walker decided to simply ignore the call.

-----

Back in the dining room, all seemed to continue as though the FBI hadn't just attempted to storm the Curtoni fortress.

Brian entered the opulent dining room hand in hand with Andrea, where she introduced him to her different uncle's, blood related and some not so much.

Something that they all had in common was that they all asked for Brian's card, in which he promptly dispensed to the objection of Andrea, who gave him her patent pending 'stop that,' look. At which point he made a show of running out of cards.

"This is my uncle Michael, my mom's brother."

Michael tried to give Brian a shoulder slap to say good job, but instead accidentally smacked the side of his upper body, causing Brian to wince in pain.

"Are you okay, is it acting up, do you need to go?" Andrea said with grave concern to which Brian replied.

"Calm down I'm fine"

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." He assured.

Moments later Brian took his assigned seat directly across from Andrea. The two of them seated next to Nicholas's head seat. Brian was seated right next to Alex, Andrea's younger brother and Andrea was seated next to Nicholas jnr. her older brother.

As the time to eat the Italian American feast arrived, like a flip of a switch all at the table had etched on their best Hollywood smiles. Recent events were ignored as if nothing had happened. Mrs. Curtoni opened the dining table up for all to feast, with words of tremendous thanks, and greeting.

Andrea kept constant eye contact on Brian, creating a sense of silent dialogue. Nicholas's odd glances went unnoticed by the pair.

"Brian, what Manhattan firm do I need to bill your services to?" Nicholas asked.

"No need, Mr. Curtoni."

"The initiative will give you a leg up at work, with the bosses."

"Mr. Curtoni, its fine."

Nicholas wouldn't take no for answer, pulling out his bill fold splaying out countless bills on the table.

Wow Brian thought to himself.

"Dad, put your money back you're being rude, and Brian is his own boss." Andrea declared with a proud smile.

"At the wedding you told me, someone told me, he worked at a firm."

"It is a firm, a small firm, I have about twenty five, employee's, ten of them are attorneys like myself."

"You own your own firm, are you joking?" Nicholas asked with a snicker that silenced the room.

Brian once again ignored the insult.

"Dad!" Andrea interjected.

"What?' What'd I say?"

"For the record, Brian's very smart. Back at the University of Chicago, most people didn't notice, because he stayed there for Law School and was always on campus."

"Andrea," Brian said, attempting to end the embarrassing conversation.

"Brian graduated a year early undergrad staying at U Chicago for law. He then went onto intern at Greene & Whitney, but decided not to accept their offer of full employment."

"Bu-" Nicholas tried to interject.

"The first year starting his one man operation in New York was rocky. I'm the one that encouraged him to take the divorce case of a housewife from the Hampton's, since not enough corporate clients were coming in."

"Andrea..." Brian began to say before being cut down by Andrea once again.

Brian simply smiled, looking into her beautiful brown eyes while she continued. "Long story short, thanks' to Brian she got seventy percent of her cheating husband's assets. The cherry on top is that the multimillion dollar condo her husband used to cheat became hers. Being that she couldn't stomach it and wanted to spite her husband she gave it to Brian as a bonus, for his good work. He then sold it and that's how he financed his firm."

The long table began to fill with chatter as the men checked their wallets the cards were emblazoned with Cargill and associates.

Nicholas didn't say a thing for the rest of the meal, which caused both Andrea and Brian to wear smiles for the rest of the meal. However it didn't last long as those in the room trickled out and soon regrouped in the great room. Brian looked on at the splendor of the fifteen foot Christmas tree in the far right side of the room.

The two lovers, with their bodies entwined, sat on a couch together, while people mingled around them.

Alex, who took a seat next to Brian, tried to assure Brian with. "Dad's going to get used to you, he's like that with everyone."

"Sure." replied Brian.

"Alex is right Bri, dad's always been a little rough around the edges. He'll come around," Andrea chimed in.

"I guess," Brian agreed. "I'm going to bathroom." Brian said lifting his long frame.

Alex stood up as well. "I'll show Brian where the washroom is."

Nearing the washroom Brian stopped and turned to Alex. "Okay, we're alone now; Alex I know something's on your mind, what's up?"

"What do you mean?"

"The reason you're so eager to show me to the washroom?"

"Nothing...."

"Don't worry, just ask me?"

"I wanted to know if I could use your apartment..."

"To get laid?" Brian said laughing.

"Shhh... You know what forget it, sorry for asking."

"What about your brother's house, he lives...." Brian stopped mid-sentence remembering why that was unrealistic.

"Don't worry its fine Brian."

"Shut up, look, unlike any one else I understand." Brian said pulling out his keys, looking for a particular one.

"My sister can't know."

"Okay, but you know your sister and I live together, so she's gonna need to know."

Alex's face was an indicator that he didn't.

"If my dad knew... if my dad knew he would explode. I mean, I'm fine with it Nick. Jnr and possibly mom too." Alex said, whispering.

"Yeah I know." Brian said handing Alex the key. "I'll worry about that later."

Alex gave him a look that said, good luck with that bud, leaving Brian to stew with his thoughts.

On his way back to the gathering room, Alex saw Andrea coming from the foyer bogged down with tons of presents. Alex rushed to help his sister before she dropped the boxes.

"Why didn't Nick jnr. help you?"

"I didn't remember that there were so many. Here, carry this and this," she handed him the gifts," the top one is yours."

"Thanks, yeah I didn't get you anything."

"Wasn't really expecting anything from you," she said with a ball breaking chuckle.

Alex didn't have time for a response as the two of them reentered the great room, where Andrea handed off the gifts she and Brian had bought.

Alex opened his present finding an Ipad which stunned both him and Andrea. "I told him nothing over a hundred dollars; Christ I wonder what he got dad." Andrea thought, before recalling that Brian had intended on buy cigars.

Although intrigued, Alex put down his new toy and went over to his sister pulling her to the far side of the room.

"You two moved in together? Dad and mom and all of us thought you moved in with your friends from med school."

"Why? Are you mad, or something?"

"I'm not mad. Well, yes, I am; we talk nearly every week. You tell me everything, but you couldn't tell me that?"

"Yeah, like I tell you everything," Andrea said with laughter.

"When I came to visit you in Chicago, he was the only one of your friends that treated me like an adult. I like him, you know I do, so you could have at least old me. the fuck Andrea?"

"You're mad?"

"Of course not, I'm happy for you; I just wish you'd told me."

She gave her brother a full hug, "Don't let dad find out Brian and I are living together. Okay?"

Before Alex could assure his sister, the deep voice of their father echoed from behind them. "

Alex's pupils widened and went from left to right, from his big sister ready to stand her ground, to a fuming father. His dad's stare bore down on him, causing young Alex to scurry off.

Nicholas held in his rage long enough to get his daughter into the next room, through a side door. "The fuck you and that bingo-bongo mother fucker playing house, now?"

"I'm not taking your bullshit. I love him. We live together and that's all."

"The fuck it is!" Nicholas yelled, his left hand catapulting a porcelain vase across the room. Andrea was undeterred; she was as stubborn as he was.

Mrs. Curtoni entered the room angrier than the two unmovable objects. "We've got guests out there wondering what's going on in here."

"Patricia calm the fuck down, I'm only trying to put some common sense in your daughter's head." Nicholas said attempting to manage a losing situation.

"What you're doing is telling me how to live my life!" Andrea barked.

Closing in on his daughter Nicholas stressed his point further. "When times get rough is he going to be there for you? No, he isn't."

"Yes he will!" Andrea said entering her father's sphere, drawing her line in the sand, as tears began to roll down her face."

"No he fucking won't! You think he's going to stick his neck out for you? You think he'd risk his neck for you?"

"I know he will, because he has."

"Ahhh, bullshit! Your family will and you need to choose now."

"Nicholas! Mrs. Curtoni yelled." "Andrea your father just a bit angry, a lot has happened today."

"You're a real asshole; don't call me... you can guess who I chose!"

To the beating tears of her mother and the stunned look of her father, the door slammed behind Andrea. Her mind and body united in her uncompromised resolve.

Bypassing all her gawking relatives including her brothers, she ran into Brian in the hallway.

"Hey, baby what's wrong, did they not like the presents?"

"I just want to head out now, okay Bri."

"Well just let me say goodbye."

"Please Bri, now."

Brian saw on her face, the immediate need to be somewhere else.

With nothing else said, he cradled her walking in the flurry filled sky, making their way to the Cherokee.

She closed her eyes and rested on his shoulder as they drove through the now snowcapped night.

Brian drove through the unusually quiet Holland tunnel. Their day coming to an end as the Cherokee descended into the underground garage of their Soho condo.

Brian felt content as he carried Andrea's peaceful angelic body through the doors of their comfortably sized home in the sky. Brian tucked her away carefully resting next to her.

----

Within an hour of the verbal explosion the final guests were leaving the New Jersey estate. Mrs. Curtoni, smiled waving to the final vehicle, away. When the front door closed her smile inverted.

"Alex is gone, we're all alone, what you do you say Patricia?" Mr. Curtoni said, rubbing his hand on his wife's shoulder, following behind her as she began walking up the long stairs.

"What the hell was that, earlier?" She questioned angrily, shaking off his advance, walking ahead of him toward the master bedroom.

"I called Zimmerman. He's going to handle everything."

"That was a massive fuck up, but I'm talking about the way you treated Brian."

"Don't start with me, Patricia!"

"You need to apologize."

"Apologize?! Don't you, dictate moral bullshit to me! You, of all people with your high expectations for her, you're worse than me."

"He's a good kid."

"So he's a black kid that comes from a rich family, this merda about him working hard and building his own firm is a joke."

"His parents weren't rich. No one is out to deceive you, and he's a good kid."

"Whatever, okay he's smart and makes his own green he should have spent Christmas with his parents... ha, but I bet he can't because Mr. Affirmative action's parents are either dead or locked up."

Mrs. Curtoni was speechless for a second, her throat choking up. "Wow when did you become such a cold old man? Your daughter trusted me enough to tell me, his parents are dead."

Mr. Curtoni's face was now flushed with schadenfruende. Before he could speak his wife continued.

"I'm going to say this then, I need you to sleep somewhere else," she said standing at the entryway to their bedroom. "His dad was killed by a drunk driver his first year of college, along with his younger brother. His Mom died a few months ago of breast cancer, and that doesn't include his other younger brother who was killed in Iraq."

Mr. Curtoni stood speechless.

"Apologize to your daughter, Nicholas." Mrs. Curtoni said closing the door.

The burden laden, Nicholas, even with the soft comforts of the guestroom couldn't come to rock himself to sleep. Unable to sleep his eyelids blinked away well into dawn.

When he awoke his wife wasn't at her regular station, slaving away behind his breakfast, and the maids had the holiday off. He made himself a culatello and mozzarella sandwich taking less than small bites.

Through that day and the days that followed Patricia Curtoni downright ignored her husband. Even when Alex returned from his sleepover he too treated Nicholas with disdain, although he was a lot nicer about it than his mother was.

It was two days after New Year's, Nicholas hadn't slept in his bed in over a week; he was sitting around the breakfast table with Alex. "So I get it the kid's been through a lot, but no one seems to see it from my point of view, except for your sister we've only known him a couple weeks."

"I met Brian back when I first visited Andrea at college, every time I visited. He and I would hangout, he's the reason...'

"It's because of him, what?"

"Nothing."

"No, what?"

Getting up from the table Alex continued. "He brought me to parties is all, looking at him he comes off as this guy that doesn't know how to have fun but, but he's really pretty chill."

"I don't get it?"

"He treated me like I was a regular person, unlike Andrea that locked me away in her apartment. He brought me to parties and that's how I... hooked up with for the first time." Alex said getting uncomfortable with the subject he started.

"When you say hooked up."

"Dad I'm not talking to you about sex."

Nicholas got up out of his seat wearing a proud smile. "I haven't seen you bring a girl by in a year; I thought you still hadn't, you know, been laid."

"Dad!"

"You always did seem happier after visiting Chicago."

Nicholas smiled, rubbing his son's hair, while a nervous look arose on Alex's face. Nicholas didn't notice it.

Mrs. Curtoni walked in right then and Nicholas dropped his smile simply running his hand through his son's hair.

"We haven't hung out in a while, we should do something soon."

"We'll see."

"Humph," Mrs. Curtoni mumbled.

"Okay, enough. I'm going to see her now. Hell, right now, okay? So you two can end your combined bullshit, I'm gonna apologize. You two are worse than the FBI."

"Good. I baked her favorite cookies," Mrs. Curtoni said, heading for the fridge, pulling out a large plastic container. "Oh, and she told me Brian loves Braciola, so here's the recipe. Tell her I'll come over there one day, to teach her," Mrs. Curtoni said, giving her husband a parting kiss.

"We can do something this weekend, dad," Alex said, lifting the embargo.

-----

"Andrea?" Brian said announcing his presence as he walked through the door. "Andrea baby, I'm home?" He said, smelling the distinctive burnt meat hanging in the air.

Andrea came into the hallway wearing a robe and a pout. "I had planned a nice lunch for you, but I misjudged the time for putting in veal."

"It's okay; at least you're a better doctor than a cook." He said, embracing her.

"That's not funny."

"I kid, you know me."

"Yeah, I know. I made you a club sandwich instead."

"You didn't need to do that."

"I know I didn't, that's why I like doing it."

During the embrace she spotted the bouquet of flowers Brian had set down on the hallway table, before entering further.

"You remembered? Our two month anniversary."

"I remembered nothing and I know not of which you speak." Brian said with a smirk.

She turned around and gave him a glance. When she picked up the bouquet of tulips she began to tear up. "Nine years ago and you remember tulips are my favorite, I only said it once."

"Hey, how could I forget?" Brian said as she picked up the bouquet finally noticing the single red rose in the middle of the sea of yellow.

Her face was glowing like a rising sun as she tore open the note; she smiled and leaped on top of her man wrapping her legs around his waist.