Page 101 of Storm in a D Cup

It was only on the flight back, while resting my head on Julian’s shoulder, that I finally allowed myself to cry. Really cry.

Sweet,soppy Dad. Never a harsh word, never a reproach. Just his mild smiles and weak words of compliance. ‘Yes, Marcy. No, Marcy.’ And now none of it mattered anymore. I was only sorry that he wouldn’t get to meet the two new additions to the family. Joey… and… well… it had been at least six weeks since my period. And I was feeling that same old feeling.

I’d done a pregnancy test in Marcy’s en suite bathroom, my hands shaking so badly I had to repeat it three times. How ironic, I’d asked myself, was it that I got pregnant the natural way, during that one night that Julian and I had stopped the hostilities?

Yet I couldn’t bring myself to tell Julian just yet because I was afraid that he – I knew it would be a boy – might go away. Just like the last time.

‘I forgot to tell you,’ Julian said, wrapping an arm around my neck and pulling me in for a kiss. ‘As it turns out, you were right about Genie Stacie’s crazy engagement plans. There was no other groom.’

‘You see? I told you.’

He shook his head. ‘It’s absolutely bonkers. She had Paul plan everything down to the finest detail. The poor bloke had no idea it was me.’

I looked up at him. ‘You mean she was counting her chickens before they hatched?’

He grinned. ‘It would appear so.’

‘Talk about optimism.’ Why was it that some women had the confidence to win men over, the same confidence I lacked toward my own husband? Why had it taken me this long?

‘Anyway, enough about that. We’re home, sweetheart…’

We stepped into the blinding light of a glorious day outside Siena airport. Yes, finally home. Julian wrapped his arms around me and I hugged him back hard before getting into the Jeep he’d left parked there ages ago. Before Dad had died. I turned to look at him, feeling my mouth widen with a big smile.

‘What?’ Julian said, somewhat thrown. We’d just come back from my dad’s funeral and somehow I couldn’t stop the feeling of hope and life that was now bursting inside me once we’d arrived on home soil. ‘What’s funny?’

‘I’ll tell you when we get home.’

‘Tell me now. I need a laugh.’

‘You’ll have to wait.’

‘Give me a hint at least.’

‘Well, let’s say I’ve got a nice Christmas present.’

I wanted to tell him when we were home. And together we would tell our kids Maddy, Warren and Joey.

*

Joey stayed with us despite Genie Stacie’s threats alternating with her pleas to help her ‘sort out’ Joey and convince her to go home. But Joey was already home, and she knew exactly what she wanted. A solid family. And to enroll in the International University for Foreigners in nearby Perugia. She’d had the choice between living in Perugia or commuting, as it was only fifty kilometers away. But I suspected she needed to be with us, her family. Something she’d always craved.

Maddy was in her fourth year of the Academy of Art and had buckled down for her assignments like the good student that she was. She and Angelica were as close as ever, and together with Joey, they formed a loyal trio.

Warren was in his third year of medicine and although the loss of his grandfather had dealt him a huge blow, he was at the same time overjoyed to have gained a sister who was a baseball freak like him. He was also grateful to have escaped teenage fatherhood. He still dated but was always, he says, very careful.

And the anti-heroine of the story, you may ask? Once Julian had very clearly explained to Genie Stacie once and for all how things were going to work, that is, that she was going to acknowledge that he was happily married to me, and that it was time for her to stop trying to break us up, she had no choice but to bow out. She had also accepted that Joey was free to live in Italy with us and to not pester her every other day about it.

As far as the movie was concerned, Julian was already talking to other producers.

Marcy called once a week when Judy went over there to see her.

My siblings were trying to patch up their relationships, while Paul and Gabriele seemed to have something going, but I didn’t hold my breath.

As far as my sweet secret was concerned, I was saving it for the next day, Christmas Eve, the very same day their biological father Ira had walked out on them years ago. Tomorrow night I’d sit them all around the tree and announce that the family was getting bigger. Four children. And a loving husband. How lucky could I get?

EPILOGUE

‘Ciao,bella, want a rride?’ came the deep voice at my side as I trudged up the dirt road leading to our home with my eternally flat tire.

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