“Damn it, Guido! Not yet!!” she hisses, glarin’ at me as she struggles into a sittin’ position.
Now, this is not part of our planned dialogue, and I glance over at Junebug quick-like to see if he has noticed that Tananda has let it slip that we know each other. I need not have concerned myself.
Nunzio is holdin’ Junebug high enough that his feet are not touchin’ the floor, hangin’ onto him by the front of his uniform while shakin’ him hard. Of course, on the out-stroke, he is also slammin’ our colleague into the wall in a repeated manner solidly enough to shake the buildin’. He has done this to me on a couple of occasions, so I can state from personal experience that while it may look like he is tryin’ to help you clear your head, the actualities of the situational is that after hittin’ the wall a few times, you’re lucky to remember your name, much less why he is carryin’ on in this manner.
“Calm down, Junebug!” my cousin is shoutin’. “She isn’t worth it!! We don’t want no trouble!!!”
Seein’ as how Junebug is distracted, which I can tell by the way his eyes are rollin’ around independent-like in his head, I turn my attention to Tananda once more.
“Look, Tananda,” I growl, lowerin’ my voice so’s only she can hear me, “I apologize if our timin’ is less than exact. You can beat on me for it later. In the meantime, might I point out that the curtain is already up and you have been entrusted with a rather important role in our performance?”
“But we were just starting to …” she pauses here and draws a long, ragged breath. “Oh … All right!”