LATER THAT EVENING, AFTER Dino and Melvin and Jim waltzed into the mansion, Bella served them a glorious meal of her best eggplant parmigiana (“Nobody makes better eggplant parm!” Dino cried. “I’d kill anyone who tried!”). When supper was over, Bella brought the young capo upstairs alone. She led him through his secret bedroom suite and marched him into his secret closet.
In a flash the capo pulled the gun he always carried from the holster under his jacket and leveled it at his nosy wife. “I’ll make you sorry you didn’t mind your own fuckin’ business!” he sneered. “I’m gonna fuck you up! I’m gonna fuck you up real good!”
Bella’s blood stopped flowing for a second. She wished she had her mamma’s cheek-slicing knife. “What are you gonna do? Shoot me and dump me in the Passaic River?”
“Yeah!”
“You think that’s gonna make all this go away? Look at you! Miss All Slick with your rose deliveries and your marriage proposals! You think you’re so tough with your guns and your donut meetings! You’re nothing but a slippery little bitch who doesn’t know how to dress and wear makeup!”
Dino’s face flinched. “I gave you everything.”
“You gave me NOTHING!”
“I rescued you from a bullshit life!”
“Only heroes rescue people, Dino! And you’re no hero, believe me! You married me and kept me locked up in this goddamned Piccola Italia like a fuckin’ fairy-tale princess under false pretenses! Well, let me tell you somethin’, Miss Olive Oil! I am no princess. I’M A FUCKIN’ QUEEN! A REAL QUEEN! NOT A GODDAMNED SISSY!”
Bella waited for the mobster to blast a hole through her heart. Instead, he collapsed onto the stool in front of the dressing table and started sniveling. “All my life I wanted to be pretty,” he blubbered. “Ever since I was a little boy back in Italy. I wanted to be pretty. Just like you. I still do,” he sniffled. Then he got real quiet. Then he silently nodded to himself. “Tell Jim I’m sorry. Tell him I love him. Tell him goodbye.” Dino raised the gun to his temple and cocked the trigger.
“NO! DINO! DON’T DO IT! I CAN MAKE YOU PRETTY!” Bella screamed.
For a second Dino’s entire body tensed. Then he looked up at her, eyes wet and expectant. “What do youse mean?”
“I can make you beautiful, if you let me.” Bella took a deep breath and held out her hand. “Be a good girl and give me the gun.”
The wrecked man did as he was told.
“Go take a bath,” she ordered. “Clean yourself up real good and give your face a nice, close shave. Then come back and see me right away.”
As the water in the bathroom ran and steam billowed into the closet, Bella emptied the gun’s chamber and tossed the bullets behind the kick line of shoes.
When Dino returned all bath-puppy-wet, Bella sat him in front of the makeup table.
“Now face me and close your eyes,” she said.
With hands that shook a little, she expertly spread Maybelline Sheer Beauty over his forehead, down his nose, and around his mouth and cheeks.
“Dat feels good.”
“No talking. Remember, less is more,” she advised. “Unless you’re going to a nighttime soiree or a fancy ball,” she added as she blended. “Once you have a good base, then you can start contouring.”
“Where did you learn how to do dis?”
“A little birdie taught me.”
Tweet! Tweet!
With steady hands, she picked up a contour brush and compact and worked on giving Dino a Dietrich nose. Then she shaded under his cheekbones for some Hepburn haughtiness. Then she Harlow-plucked his eyebrows.
“Ouch!”
“Don’t be such a goddamned baby.”
“Hey! I don’t let nobody talk to me dat way!”
“Shut the fuck up. I need to concentrate.”
“Sorry.”
With a Swan Stick grease pencil, Bella shaped and thickened Dino’s eyebrows for some much-needed Crawford nastiness. Then she blushed his cheeks for a little Lombard freshness. “Always go easy on this stuff. You don’t want to look like a Coney Island clown.” She found her tube of pink satin lipstick in the pile on the table and uncapped it.
“I stole dat from you,” Dino confessed. “I thought it was too dainty for your face.”
“Bold colors can sometimes be off-putting. But sometimes they’re just what a girl needs. Open wide,” Bella instructed. She generously spread the wax over his lips and made him smack them together. Then she popped the lid off a jar of Vaseline. “This’ll give your smile an extra nice sheen.”
“Thank you.”
“You look better than Joan Bennett in She Couldn’t Take It.”
“Can I see?”
“No!” Bella scolded. “Now close your eyes. I ain’t finished yet.”
She expertly glued on a set of Star Glow fake lashes and used the grease pencil to delicately line his eyes. Then, with a tiny eyeshadow brush, she gave his lids a bit of Garbo shade and mystery. “Always use two colors from the same family,” she said. “I’m using Maybelline’s ashcake and smoky mountain.”
When she was finished, she popped open the Evening in Paris powder tin and lightly dusted his whole face. Then she picked the grease pencil back up and beauty-mark-dotted the tender jowl of his left cheek. “Another fucking masterpiece,” she whispered. Thank you, Terelli Lombardi. “Now, let’s pick out a hairdo and dress.”
“Can I wear the cobalt Elsa Schiaparelli we picked up in New York City?”
“That’ll go real nice with the blond bob you got in there.”
“And my Aris Allen black satin T-strap d’Orsay dance shoes.”
Ten minutes later Dino stood in front of a full-length mirror. The woman staring back at him was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. “Holy shit!” he exclaimed. “I’m beautiful!”
“You’re simply stunning!”
He started to cry.
Bella was immediately at his side, waving a handkerchief. “Don’t do that! You’ll ruin your makeup!”
When Dino was done dabbing, he took Bella’s hands in his, tears of gratitude standing in his star-lashed eyes. “How can I ever repay you?”