{"id":959,"date":"2026-10-23T06:55:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T06:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovenews.store\/?p=959"},"modified":"2026-10-23T06:55:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T06:55:41","slug":"my-friends-thought-sending-me-on-a-blind-date-with-one-of-bostons-most-feared-mafia-bosses-would-be-hilarious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovenews.store\/?p=959","title":{"rendered":"My friends thought sending me on a blind date with one of Boston\u2019s most feared mafia bosses would be hilarious."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n
\n

My friends thought sending me on a blind date with one of Boston\u2019s most feared mafia bosses would be hilarious.<\/h1>\n
\n

Chapter 1<\/h2>\n
\n

My friends thought sending me on a blind date with one of Boston\u2019s most feared mafia bosses would be hilarious. But when I finally told him, \u201cThey sent me here as a joke,\u201d Daniel Brooks didn\u2019t laugh\u2014and within seconds, neither did anyone else watching our table.<\/p>\n

The first thing I heard upon entering the Grand Oak was a woman near the bar whispering, \u201cOh my God. They actually sent her to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

I stopped so abruptly the hostess nearly collided with me.<\/p>\n

Across the chandelier-lit dining room, a man in a charcoal suit slowly rose from a corner table.<\/p>\n

Daniel Brooks.<\/p>\n

Everyone in Boston seemed to know that name.<\/p>\n

At thirty-eight, Daniel controlled nightclubs, private clubs, shipping companies, and enough of the city\u2019s underground business that people lowered their voices when discussing him.<\/p>\n

Newspapers called him an elusive businessman, but rumors used a much simpler description.<\/p>\n

Mafia boss.<\/p>\n

And apparently, he was my blind date.<\/p>\n

Three hours earlier, I\u2019d been working behind the register at Maple Street Books when my phone buzzed.<\/p>\n

Tonight. 7:30. Grand Oak. Blind date. Don\u2019t cancel.<\/p>\n

Three laughing emojis followed.<\/p>\n

I immediately replied, Absolutely not.<\/p>\n

Olivia called thirty seconds later.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease, Emily. Thirty minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou put laughing emojis after \u2018blind date.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe laugh at everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou laughed when Megan got locked outside in a bathrobe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe laughs about it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe moved to Arizona.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Olivia knew how to wear down my defenses.<\/p>\n

Ever since Jason ended our four-year relationship by casually admitting over leftover Chinese food that he loved another woman\u2014whom I later discovered he\u2019d been seeing for almost a year\u2014I had avoided dating entirely.<\/p>\n

Solitude couldn\u2019t surprise me.<\/p>\n

Eventually, however, I agreed to thirty minutes.<\/p>\n

What Olivia conveniently forgot to mention was that my date wasn\u2019t some random man pretending to be dangerous.<\/p>\n

Daniel Brooks was actually Daniel Brooks.<\/p>\n

Now I caught my reflection in a mirrored column.<\/p>\n

Simple navy dress.<\/p>\n

Silver earrings.<\/p>\n

Six-year-old shoes.<\/p>\n

A handbag with an ink stain near the zipper.<\/p>\n

Nothing about me belonged in a restaurant where dinner probably cost more than my weekly grocery budget.<\/p>\n

Daniel watched me approach.<\/p>\n

Strangely, he didn\u2019t look annoyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Carter?\u201d the hostess prompted.<\/p>\n

I forced myself forward.<\/p>\n

Daniel was taller than photographs suggested, with dark hair and calm gray eyes.<\/p>\n

No flashy jewelry.<\/p>\n

No exaggerated swagger.<\/p>\n

Just the unnerving stillness of someone accustomed to entire rooms noticing when he moved.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmily?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Daniel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI figured.\u201d<\/p>\n

One corner of his mouth lifted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat obvious?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople talk about you.\u201d<\/p>\n

His eyes held mine.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully only nice things.\u201d<\/p>\n

A nervous laugh escaped me before I could stop it.<\/p>\n

He pulled out my chair, and I sat.<\/p>\n

For seven unbearable seconds, neither of us spoke.<\/p>\n

Then I decided humiliation was easier when delivered quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should probably tell you something before we order.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel folded his hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sounds serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friends sent me here as a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

His expression changed instantly.<\/p>\n

Not anger.<\/p>\n

Not embarrassment.<\/p>\n

Something colder.<\/p>\n

\u201cA joke?\u201d<\/p>\n

I swallowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey thought it would be funny to send someone like me to someone like you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone like you?\u201d<\/p>\n

I glanced toward the bar\u2014and froze.<\/p>\n

Olivia and two of our friends were sitting at a table half-hidden behind a column.<\/p>\n

Watching us.<\/p>\n

Laughing.<\/p>\n

Daniel followed my gaze.<\/p>\n

Their smiles disappeared one by one.<\/p>\n

He looked back at me, then slowly reached inside his suit jacket.<\/p>\n

Every person at their table stopped laughing.<\/p>\n

And Daniel quietly said, \u201cEmily, I think your friends and I need to clarify exactly who tonight\u2019s joke was supposed to be on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Daniel didn\u2019t raise his voice.<\/p>\n

He simply lifted two fingers toward the corner table and said, \u201cWould the three of you join us?\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a question.<\/p>\n

Olivia, Tessa, and Nina crossed the dining room like students summoned to the principal\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Olivia\u2019s face had gone the color of paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmily,\u201d she began, \u201cI can explain\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSit down, Ms. Turner,\u201d Daniel said gently.<\/p>\n

She sat.<\/p>\n

Daniel finished reaching into his jacket.<\/p>\n

He drew out a small folded rectangle of cardstock, worn soft at the edges from being handled too many times.<\/p>\n

He set it on the white tablecloth between the bread basket and the candle.<\/p>\n

I stared at it.<\/p>\n

A bookmark.<\/p>\n

Cream paper, a tiny printed oak tree, and the words Maple Street Books along the bottom.<\/p>\n

My breath caught.<\/p>\n

Beneath the printed tree, in blue ink, were two lines in handwriting I knew better than my own.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re the kind of person who loses a notebook, I hope you also find a good book.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s mine,\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know,\u201d Daniel said.<\/p>\n

Eleven months earlier, on a rainy Tuesday in November, someone had left a black leather notebook on the reading table near the poetry shelves.<\/p>\n

I had looked up just in time to see a tall man in a gray coat step out into the downpour.<\/p>\n

I grabbed the notebook and ran after him.<\/p>\n

I caught up to him at the corner, soaked to the skin, holding the notebook against my chest like a wounded bird.<\/p>\n

He turned around.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t give me his name.<\/p>\n

He only looked at the notebook, then at me, and then he pulled an envelope from his coat.<\/p>\n

It was thick.<\/p>\n

Very thick.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d pushed it back into his hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a notebook,\u201d I told him. \u201cNot a ransom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then I\u2019d slipped one of our bookmarks between its pages, because Mrs. Halloran always said a book should never leave the shop without one.<\/p>\n

I had never seen him again.<\/p>\n

I had never known who he was.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took me eleven months to find the shop that printed this,\u201d Daniel said.<\/p>\n

Nobody at the table moved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a bookmark and a rainy street corner. That was all.\u201d<\/p>\n

I found my voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could have just walked in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI could have.\u201d His mouth tightened slightly. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to frighten you. A man like me appearing at a woman\u2019s workplace is rarely a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

He turned his gray eyes on Olivia.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I asked Kyle Turner, who works in my accounting office, to find out whether you\u2019d be willing to have dinner with me. I asked him to be respectful about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olivia flinched.<\/p>\n

\u201cKyle told me a mafia boss wanted to meet you.\u201d Her voice shook. \u201cEmily, I thought you\u2019d say no. You never say yes to anything. So I told you it was a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou told me it was a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou sat behind a column and laughed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tessa stared at her hands.<\/p>\n

Nina wiped her eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t think it would hurt you,\u201d Nina said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t think,\u201d I said, \u201cabout me at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The candle flame trembled.<\/p>\n

Daniel let the silence sit.<\/p>\n

Then he folded his hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said the joke would be clarified,\u201d he said quietly. \u201cHere it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He looked at each of them in turn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree women laughed at the one person in this city who returned something I could never have replaced, refused a reward, and asked for nothing. The joke was never on Emily. It was on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nobody breathed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may go,\u201d Daniel said.<\/p>\n

They stood.<\/p>\n

Olivia paused beside my chair, tears running down her face.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmily, I\u2019m so sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n

She left, and the others followed her out into the night.<\/p>\n

For a long moment, neither Daniel nor I spoke.<\/p>\n

Then he said, \u201cYou may go as well. My driver will take you home. No follow-up. No calls. If you never want to see me again, I\u2019ll understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

I looked at the bookmark.<\/p>\n

I thought about six-year-old shoes and an ink-stained bag and four years spent believing I was easy to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told you I\u2019d give you thirty minutes,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to use them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He nearly smiled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen ask me anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

I picked up my water glass.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause eleven months ago, you did something you don\u2019t yet understand\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

His phone buzzed against the table.<\/p>\n

He glanced down.<\/p>\n

His expression didn\u2019t change, but his hand went still.<\/p>\n

He tilted the screen toward me.<\/p>\n

A message from someone named Owen.<\/p>\n

Bar, far end. Man in navy jacket. Photographing your table.<\/p>\n

Beneath it, three words.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t turn around.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

I kept my eyes fixed on the candle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs he dangerous?\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s curious. It\u2019s usually the same thing.\u201d Daniel lifted his water glass with perfect calm. \u201cOwen\u2019s already moving. Keep looking at me and eat your bread.\u201d<\/p>\n

I broke off a piece of sourdough with fingers that didn\u2019t feel like mine.<\/p>\n

Behind me, someone\u2019s chair scraped.<\/p>\n

Then footsteps.<\/p>\n

Fast.<\/p>\n

Then the front door.<\/p>\n

Daniel\u2019s phone buzzed again.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s gone,\u201d he said. \u201cOwen\u2019s men are following.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowed by your men.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very Boston evening.\u201d<\/p>\n

I laughed.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t mean to.<\/p>\n

It burst out of me, loud and slightly unhinged, and a woman at the next table glanced over in alarm.<\/p>\n

Daniel watched me with something soft in his eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetter?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d I said. \u201cBut I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n

A waiter appeared and set down two bowls of clam chowder I hadn\u2019t ordered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took the liberty,\u201d Daniel said. \u201cYou strike me as someone who\u2019d rather have soup than a tasting menu.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s alarmingly correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had eleven months to think about you.\u201d<\/p>\n

I tore another piece of bread.<\/p>\n

\u201cTell me about the notebook.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was quiet for a moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cFourteen names,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were fourteen names inside. Dock workers. Bookkeepers. A retired customs inspector. People who had trusted me to keep them out of certain conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

My spoon stopped halfway to my mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cEleven of them have children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDaniel\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat night, a man named Victor Kane had three cars three blocks behind me. He\u2019d been trying to take that notebook for weeks.\u201d His voice remained level. \u201cIf it had been found by the wrong person, those fourteen families would have been visited by very unpleasant men.\u201d<\/p>\n

I set down my spoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just ran after you in the rain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou ran after a stranger to return something that wasn\u2019t yours.\u201d His eyes held mine. \u201cDo you know how many people in this city would have opened that book?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know. The page I\u2019d left folded was still folded.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a moment, I couldn\u2019t speak.<\/p>\n

Then I said, very quietly, \u201cI thought it was somebody\u2019s diary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was,\u201d Daniel said. \u201cJust not the kind you\u2019d expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

We ate.<\/p>\n

The chowder was good.<\/p>\n

The conversation was strange, careful, and somehow easy.<\/p>\n

He asked me about the bookstore.<\/p>\n

I told him about Mrs. Halloran, seventy-five years old and fiercely opposed to e-readers.<\/p>\n

He asked about my favorite book.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersuasion,\u201d I said. \u201cBecause Anne waits eight years and still gets to say what she means.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think that\u2019s realistic?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s earned.\u201d<\/p>\n

He smiled at that.<\/p>\n

A real smile.<\/p>\n

It changed his whole face.<\/p>\n

Then his voice gentled.<\/p>\n

\u201cMay I ask something personal?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat depends how personal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there anyone I should know about? Anyone who might have a reason to resent me sitting across from you?\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought of Jason.<\/p>\n

Jason with his easy laugh and his terrible timing and his leftover Chinese food confession.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly my ex,\u201d I said. \u201cHe left me for someone else about a year ago. Last I heard, he\u2019d changed careers. He\u2019s in logistics now, working for some shipping company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel\u2019s spoon paused.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich company?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKane something. Kane Freight, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change was small.<\/p>\n

If I hadn\u2019t been looking straight at him, I would have missed it.<\/p>\n

His shoulders stilled.<\/p>\n

His breath stopped.<\/p>\n

His eyes went from warm gray to the color of frozen harbor water.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmily,\u201d he said quietly. \u201cSay that name again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friends thought sending me on a blind date with one of Boston\u2019s most feared mafia bosses would be hilarious. Chapter 1 My friends thought sending me on a blind… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lovenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":960,"href":"https:\/\/lovenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959\/revisions\/960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}