terrified about tonight's episode | boardwalk empire

[gonna]

The hell are you cryin' for?

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[roman_candle_of_invention]

Do I need a reason?

[gonna]

Most skirts do.

[roman_candle_of_invention]

[snorts]

Don't know if I should take that as a compliment or not. What do you think?

[Offers over a cigarette...unsurreptitiously eyeing the man over at the same time.]

Roberta Frobisher. Now...what were you crying for?

[gonna]

I think you've got good taste in smokes, so's we should probably leave it at that.

[ he settles the cigarette in his mouth, nodding to acknowledge her question. ]

Benny Siegel.

Hey, you're lookin' at the wrong guy; the broad behind the curtain's got a soft spot for me.

[roman_candle_of_invention]

Heh. That's the best kind to have behind the curtain, or so I'm told. The kind who likes you.

[Aims a nod and a saucy wink at the curtain itself, for she is like that.]

[gonna]

Yeah, she's alright.

[ he lights up, quirking a brow. ]

So, what's that make you?

[roman_candle_of_invention]

[Leans forward, if she might, to light her cigarette off his.]

Doesn't make me anything.

[Twirling her cigarette in her fingers and watching it playfully instead of watching Benny, although somehow the matter ends up the same thing in the end.]

Ghost. Expectant mother. Composer. Fiancee. Muse. Occasional cigarette dispenser. Cat herder. All things I might've become eventually anyway.

[Looks down the sight of her nose at her cigarette.]

...Eventually.

[bareknuckled]

You got someone else cryin' over that dumb mug of yours?

[bookeeping]

[ he might have a point, benny. ]

[gonna]

Everyone's a fuckin' critic.

[bookeeping]

Perhaps fewer things to criticize?

[gonna]

Why, you keepin' score?

[bookeeping]

You think I'd forget?

[gonna]

And have you sleep with something other than that little diary o'yours? Wouldn't dream of it.

[bookeeping]

A ledger doesn't kick in the middle of the night.

[gonna]

You know, my mother? She cried when she saw me for the very first time. "Take him back", she cried.

[bareknuckled]

I ain't gonna blame her. She leave you on Meyer's stoop like a foundling right after?

[gonna]

Well, the church wasn't gonna have me, so she figures this was the next best thing.

[bareknuckled]

Next best thing? That's the opposite direction, numbnuts.

[gonna]

Aw, Charlie, you don't hafta sound so sore about it; your house was just a few blocks too far for my poor mama. It coulda just as easily been you that day.

[bareknuckled]

It ends up bein' me in the end, yeah? Just as stuck with you as Meyer is.

[ because what's charlie's is meyer's and vice versa. including benny. as if there's no bigger affections there. ]

[bookeeping]

Yes, and fled before she gave me the chance to return him.

[bareknuckled]

And you raised 'em outta the goodness of your heart?

[bookeeping]

I kept him, yes. [ his smile implies there was no goodness involved in the decision. ]

[bareknuckled]

[ the worst influence. ]

No one's gonna fault you for how he turned out. There's no helpin' that mug of his.