"Oh, yes, some things only get better with time." She smiled as she sliced through the layers with her fork.
"Hmm." He chuckled, chewing, and swallowed. "Are you referring to food, or yourself?"
"Oh! Chris!" She blushed, putting her fork down to pick up her drink.
"Hah-hah, just teasing ya. But my, the old man outdid himself, scored himself a beautiful wife and a sparkling daughter. Pair of angels, ain't ya?"
"Hoh-hoh, well, thank you, that's kind of you to say." She gave her head a deep bow to his compliments.
"It is what it is." He shrugged with a smile.
"Oh, you poor thing... locked away in there for so long... broke my heart to see Rick so furious like that this morning, tsk-tsk..." She shook her head as she put her drink back down. "Never, ever,everseen him like this before."
"Yeahhhh..." His smile faded as he cut another chunk off his plate of lasagna. "Well... back when everything was... going on..." He spoke slowly and earnestly, "I was... in a bad place... with bad people. And well... bad things happened-"
"Like what?" She asked quickly, scooting forward a bit more in her chair, intrigued.
"We... ugh, it all unraveled in court anyhow, I hate telling the story..."
Nancy quietly took another drink, letting the silence hang, not really wanting to tell him that he doesn't have to tell her and hoping that in the awkward silence he may continue regardless. She watched him as she moved slowly, placing her drink down, slicing into her food...
"We... the gang I rolled with... ahh, f-... damn..." He shook his head and swung another shot down the hatch, swallowing it and chasing with water. "Hahhhh... we were doin' a deal." He shivered, the heat running through his body, his voice altered as he recovered from the burning liquid. "Hahhhh." He nodded... that shot was just what he needed, and wasn't long after the previous one.
"Mhmm...?" Nancy held a smirk, anticipating he was going to open up more. Rick was very tight-lipped about whatever his son had gotten in trouble for.
"It was a drug deal... they had the goods, my crew had the money, we were the distributors."
Nancy's eyes flashed.
"Y-you... sold drugs?"
"Me? Nah." He shook his head dismissively, pouring another shot. "I was just the muscle. The intimidation... y'know, peace through superior firepower. Don't necessarily needgunsto do that, though they help." He sniffed, clearing his nose. Very flavorful food, quite a lot of spices it seemed, but he liked it. "What was I talkin' about-?"
"Deal. Drug deal." She aided him after swallowing her food, and rose her glass as she continued to watch him, deeply intrigued to hear his story.
"Right, yeah..." He sniffed again, eyeing his glass of water, and swirled it in his hand a moment. "Went bad. We had the money, they didn't trust us, wanted to count it first before trading, but damn it with that much cash we'd be there until morning! It was unreasonable, plus if all of them counted it some of their boys might pocket some bills and then it might be said that it wasn't the right amount..." He shook his head. "Useless...fuckin'useless op!" He covered his mouth. "Sorry, Nance-"
"No no! No, dear, it's okay, hoh-hoh, it's okay." She chuckled. What a well-mannered man. With the context of the story it wasveryreasonable and understandable.
"Alright, sorry, uh... yeah. Some of their dogs, it seems..." He shook his head again, "Not on a tight leash. Raised his AK at us," Chris mimicked the action of pointing a two-handed long-arm in Nancy's direction and waved it left-to-right, "Sayin' shit like 'You gonna rip offmyboss, mother f-... em-effer." He self-censored a bit.
"Oh, my..." she replied, not in relation to the language but... he had a gun pointed at him?
"Yeah, and well... I wasn't with the two groups but I heard 'em. I could see a few of them through the trees, I was stationed at our emergency escape route. Heard things escalating, saw some guns pointed... then rounds started poppin' off-"
"They were shooting-?! Oh..." Nancy put a hand over her mouth as Chris' eyes went wide and motioned for her to not speak so loudly; could wake up Rick.
Meanwhile, just around the corner of the kitchen's access to the hall, Julie stood just out of sight as she listened, a hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes, horrified at how close Chris may have come to getting killed. Her daddy...
"Yeah..." He nodded slowly, "Yeah..." He spoke low. "Some guys..." Shook his head, "Didn't make it."
"Ohhh myyy..."
"Boss got hit, was bleedin' out, sped right by me. Had no ride then... tried to get home by foot but... nah." He held his fists up, back-on to Nancy, his wrists close together and feigned trying to get his wrists apart but that they were cuffed together.
"So... did you... shoot anyone-?"
"No."He looked her steadily in the eyes, shaking his head slowly, "No." He stated clearly.