In the past hour, Angela and the three other De Luca women had been chilling in the living room, watching TV as they sat on the couch. They were mostly quiet and occasionally giggling every now and then while they watched the most interesting show there was.

It wasn't until Angela gasped and called the others that their watching was interrupted. She sat straight abruptly. "There it is. It's on again! Spice Girls is on again. Quick! Let's dance before it disappears!" She got up, tapped her foot, and swayed her hips.

"I still can't hear anything," Gabriella said, but she danced like the others anyway.

Angela began singing to the music blasting in her head, ignoring the loud TV. "Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want. So tell me what you want, what you really, really want~"

***

Meanwhile, a black SUV parked right outside the brownstone and two gentlemen in suits got out from the backseat. Giovanni lit up a cigarette and Gael stood next to him. Their security drove here too, but they stayed inside the cars that were parked in front and behind the black SUV. Alessandro stayed at the club with the other Capos when Gael and Giovanni went home.

Gael decided to come home half an hour ago when he tried calling Angela and she was whispering over the phone. Her voice was barely audible, but he could hear some giggling in the background so he thought the girls were just having fun or something. The call ended in ten seconds. He checked with the guard stationed outside Nonna's house and he was told that they hadn't left and everything was fine. So Gael wasn't worried, but he was ready to go home.

"At least it'll be quiet here for a few days while the Momos are back to their city," Giovanni remarked as they discussed what they're doing the next few days. "You guys coming over tomorrow?"

Gael dug his hands in his pockets as he shook his head. "I'll have to ask Angela what she's up to tomorrow. We might stay for dinner and then head out before midnight." He checked the time on his watch. It was nearly one in the morning. "She probably fell asleep."

He elbowed Giovanni as he turned towards the house, ready to go up the stairs. That's when he noticed moving shadows from the window that said the girls were far from asleep.

"I think they're still partying," Giovanni commented, and the two of them walked up the stairs.

"We're here…" Gael announced at the front door, but no one came to greet them. The house was quiet, apart from the faint murmurs not far away. But from the foyer, they couldn't see the living room, so they weren't sure what was happening. His brows knitted in confusion as he exchanged looks with Giovanni.

The two men walked deeper into the house, turned left, and stopped in their tracks at the entrance of the living room. The four women, with their backs facing them, flailed their arms in the air like they were fûcking Skydancers—those inflatable tubes with arms moving about outside an establishment for advertising. The scene was extremely bizarre: no music, no singing, but someone was humming. They probably hadn't realized the men had arrived yet.

"What the hell's going on?" Gael muttered.

"Are they drunk?" Giovanni stared at the girls.

Gael scanned the area but he didn't find any alcohol bottles, though he noticed that there were four empty glasses on the table. One of the glasses had about an eighth of yellowish-white liquid with a cinnamon stick inside. So he guessed that they probably drank eggnogs. He knew that Angela had a higher alcohol tolerance, so she couldn't have been drunk from just one drink.

Walking towards the four women who were lined up in front of the couch, he placed a hand on Angela's shoulder and lightly tugged her to face him. "Hey…" he called.

In Angela's head, she believed she was giving a remarkably energetic performance of "Wannabe by Spice Girls" and the other women were her backup dancers. But in Gael's eyes, Angela did nothing but raise her fist to her lips as though she was holding a microphone and lightly bobbed her head with a huge smile on her face.

Angela gasped a few seconds after seeing him. "Babe~ Babe you're here~" Her voice was soft and whisper-like.

"I… I am…" He was baffled that she called him that.

She all but climbed on the sofa to face him, holding his face in her hands and he was stunned. That's when he got a good look at her face. "Wait. Are you…"

"You guys…look. He's here~" She turned to call the girls.

He held her face and turned her head towards him. "Angel, look at me."

Angela turned to face him again, the smile still plastered on her face like it had been stuck there all night. Her eyes were bloodshot red and half-lidded like she couldn't keep them open more than halfway.

"Jesus Christ. You're high." He could hear Giovanni mumbling and chuckling beside him but he was too pissed to care what his uncle was saying.

"Shh…" She pressed a finger to her lips and continued to speak in a whisper-like voice. "Nonna will hear you."

Gael looked around and saw the plate of cookies on the table. After making sure Angela wouldn't fall over, he picked one from the plate and took a sniff. It smelled earthy and peanutty—he'd already suspected it was pot cookies and smelling it only confirmed his suspicion. He briefly closed his eyes, regretting that he left her here with Val.

Giovanni smelled the cookie and plopped it into his mouth as he slumped on the sofa, laughing as he watched Val, Gabby, and Alice still dancing about. "If I had known you girls were having this much fun here, I would have stayed."

"Val." Gael grabbed his cousin by the elbow and asked, "How much weed is baked into these?" However, Val only chuckled and he didn't get any answer. It was no use asking her.

"Relax. It's probably a low dose. This thing is small," said Giovanni as he tossed the second cookie into his mouth.

Gael hoped that was the case. One cookie was two inches in diameter and he assumed that it had probably about 2.5mg THC per cookie like Val usually did when she baked them. He turned to Angela. "How many cookies did you eat?"

Angela raised two fingers, glanced at them, and back at Gael while giggling. "Four? Five?"

The gears in his head turned as he did the math while considering Angela's size and weight. He grabbed her wrist, his thumb pressing on her pulse. It was faster than normal. Sighing, he rubbed a tired hand down his face. Weed was legal in the city for recreational use—that didn't surprise him but seeing Angela high did.

"Good. You're here," Alice's husband, Pete, appeared in the living room to get his wife. He had come home earlier because his daughter looked for him. "You should take them home. I'll bring Alice upstairs."

"How long have they been trippin'?" Gael probed.

"Not sure. I came home and found them staring and giggling at the fire pit for twenty minutes straight."

There was no TV in the room, so what Angela and the others thought they were watching before they danced had all been in their head.

Gael rubbed his temple when he felt a headache coming and then helped Angela to her feet. "Come on, let's go home."

"I'll take care of the two," Giovanni offered.

"Wait~ I gotta say bye to my homegirls!" Angela whisper-shouted.

"Your homegirls?" Gael cocked a brow, watching Angela as she hugged Val and Gabriella.

"My bae's here. I gots to go. Bye bitches~"

Giovanni burst into laughter, whipping out his phone to take a video of them. "She's so stoned. I never knew Gangsta Angela would come out when she's high."

***

Once they were out of the house, Angela trod towards the car very slowly, complaining that the soil was too soft—though she was walking on concrete. Gael held her by the waist because the ground was slippery from the snow while she shushed him, insisting that people were staring at her. There was no one around.

He fastened her seatbelt and climbed on the other side of the backseat. The ride was slow as they drove away; the roads were still recovering from the storm that day. Angela grabbed his hand and squeezed as they cruised, saying that they were driving too fast—which was absurd because the car was moving at nearly 20mph since her first complaint.

"I'm so hungry!" she whined.

Of course, she was. She was stoned.

"What do you want to eat?"

"Chicken nuggets. Fries. And chicken nuggets. And fries."

At this point, Gael could only laugh. He was past the point of being mad at her. Exhaling a sigh, he told Rick, who was driving the SUV, to stop by a 24-hour McDonalds on the way to Williamsburg.

Angela gasped as she turned to face Gael while pointing at her head. Her world was in a slow-mo at the moment. "Babe~ Do you hear that? Spice Girls is on again~"

He could only shake his head. "You're gonna regret this in the morning."