****
It took three months for the divorce to be finalized. ‘Ruby Kisses’, meanwhile, were popping up all over his body, making him look like he had a case of measles. Mr. Reubens fired him, telling him candidly that his skin condition was repulsive to customers. There was no sense of loyalty for his years of service; it seemed likely that Mr. Nelson had been telling him the truth. Likewise, the people he thought were his friends slowly faded from his life. Only Connie stuck by his side. She offered him the use of her guest room for as long as he needed, listened as he cried over his broken marriage, and repeatedly assured him that the ‘Ruby Kisses’ weren’t that bad.
“They’re kind of cute, actually,” she said. “Like little lips.”
‘She still loves me. In spite of the fact that I callously tossed her aside for another woman and broke her heart, she still loves me as much as ever,’ Toriano thought.
Giving the ring to her would cure him. Slowly, the idea of renewing his relationship with her began to form in his mind. He would never love her the way he loved Linzi. To give her a twenty-thousand-dollar ring would be the same as lying to her. Which you would be doing anyways if you were to rekindle your relationship. Every day he prepared to present her with the ring as a gift for their new start together, but he just couldn’t bring himself to use her in that manner. To live a lie with her. For the first time, he was appreciative of Linzi’s decision to be honest with him. There was also the undeniable fact that Connie would know something was amiss when his lesions suddenly disappeared.
For two months he wavered back and forth. To pretend to love a woman he cared for to be cured of his curse, or suffer his own fate and hope another woman will learn to love him? By the time Linzi called him, sobbing hysterically, there was barely a square inch of his body that was not covered in ‘Ruby Kisses’. This did not seem to deter Connie, who had taken to wearing sexy, revealing clothing around the house in an apparent attempt to seduce him.
“Tito,” Linzi said through sobs, “Ethan is dead.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Some…some thugs carjacked him. Shot him dead for his car. Out by the railroad track on Norwich Street.”
Toriano, too shocked to process the information, could only wonder what his sixteen-year-old son was doing on Norwich Street, an area of town known for drug deals and prostitution. His shock quickly turned to anger. Why did Ethan go to Norwich Street with the Lexus Toriano worked hard to buy his son for his sixteenth birthday? Although he realized his anger was misplaced, he couldn’t help but feel cheated. He had spent the last twenty years of his life working hard for two people who didn’t care a thing for him, who only ‘loved’ him for what he could give them. And he had spent the entire time mistaking their pretentious shows of gratitude for love.
Toriano robotically went through the motions of preparing for his son’s funeral, being careful to avoid his ex-wife and her new love. At the funeral, people stared at his disfigured body. He had barely any hair due to the lesions on his scalp, and the ones between his fingers limited his hand motion. The ‘Ruby Kisses’ on the bottom of his feet made walking painful. Whereas everyone else made a point of avoiding him out of fear that he had a contagious illness, Connie proudly sat next to him at the funeral chapel and put her hand on his. This could end today, he thought. Just give her the ring. You will learn to love her in time. Even if you don’t, would you rather spend the rest of your life with her, or alone as a pariah?