I’ve wanted to marry Jessie Schultz since we were fourteen years old.

It doesn’t matter that I’m just a dumb schmuck from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and Jessie’s the most beautiful girl I ever met. It doesn’t matter that her father would rather rearrange my face than let his only daughter end up with the son of a local mobster. But it does matter when he starts threatening Jessie about what he’ll do if he sees us together again. So I gotta wait.

Then I get hurt.

I can’t let her see me after. Not like this. Not when I can’t even stand up to look her in the eyes.

So I wait again. Hoping I get better, knowing if I don’t, it could be the end for us before we even get started.