Page 32 of Storm in a D Cup

‘I’d talk to Terry before I took any of it for the truth. But if it is, it sounds like a wonderful opportunity.’Gawd, could I have been any more lame? ‘If you think it’s not a waste of time, by all means, go for it.’

‘I think I will. Goodnight,’ he simply answered and turned out the light. And goodnight Vienna.

The next day was Julian’s forty-sixth birthday. I always wished I had more time between our Spider Anniversary and his birthday. I didn’t do very well in the creative department so I always ended up flogging my brain for an original birthday gift, which never happened.

And just for the occasion, Genie managed to actually surface before noon, wearing a barely there burgundy dress, the same color as myno-sex-I’m-on-the-rag sheets. I couldn’t help but think that when Julian glanced at her, he was thinking that her burgundy meant nothingbutsex.

She flipped her platinum blonde hair so it rested all on one shoulder and flashed me a smile. The smile of a woman who knows she’s prettier, sexier, richer and more successful than you. The smile of a woman who can steal your man in a heartbeat if she decides to. In my heart, I already knew that was why she had come. In my heart I knew I had no chance, but somewhere a little atom of me hoped that Genie Stacie would be just a tiny, harmless little scratch on the surface of our life. And boy, was I wrong.

Before I could produce my surprise gift from under the table, she whipped out a present like a rabbit out of a magic hat. I stared at her as Julian’s face lit up in surprise.

‘What’s this?’ Julian asked. As if he didn’t know.

‘You didn’t think I forgot your Burberry day, did you?’

Burberry, for those of you who didn’t know, was Julian’s favorite designer, being British and all that. But Burberryday? Please kill me now…?

‘Ah, Genie, you didn’t have to—’ he said, and I wanted to clobber him over the head with my stupid gift.

‘Nonsense! I always liked buying you presents, remember? Now let’s see how it fits!’

And, as God is my witness, before my very eyes she dived for the edge of his T-shirt (the one withI love Sienaon it, my first present to him in Tuscany) and yanked it up his body and over his head with hardly a protest from him. They so obviously had done this thousands of times before. Before he was married to me, that is.

‘You’re as ripped as you always were, you Fox!’ she said as she patted his lower abs, too close to south for my comfort. Was that where Southern Comfort came from, I wondered? Then she helped him into a beautiful, I have to say, beige cashmere sweater.

I coughed. I didn’t mean to, because part of me wanted to see how far Julian would let her go, while the rest of me wanted to punch him and pull Genie Stacie’s straight blonde hair out of her dark curly roots. Then she turned to me as if she’d suddenly remembered we were in the real world and not her own personal dream and said, beaming, ‘Fox was his nickname on the team.’

‘Uh-huh,’ I said, clutching the measly Polo shirt I’d bought him, this time a bright blue (I had already gone through the gamut of greens ranging from pale aquamarine to dark green over seven years of birthdays, Christmases and Valentine’s days). OK, so I wasn’t very original with gifts, but it wasn’t as if Ialwaysbought him Polo shirts. I also bought him sweaters, trousers or swimsuits, according to the season. What the heck was he going to need a sweater for in the summer? At least my gifts were ready for use. And so was she, judging by the way she swayed from side to side. I definitely had competition here.

*

‘Don’t be silly,’ Renata chided as she poured me some minty iced tea. I huffed and rested my chin on my knuckles. Whenever one of us was down, we’d run to the other like magnets to a lodestone. However silly our doubts or fears, we always needed the other to tell us precisely that. ‘Besides, that woman doesn’t really look like that…’

‘Oh, rest assured, she does.’

Renata stopped, mid-pour, and looked up at me. ‘Really?’

‘Really. She’s so beautiful, she looks fake.’

‘But surely the make-up…’

‘Oh, of course, I’ve never seen her without her make-up. But I can assure you that the body is all there, Brazilian butt included. If anything, in person she looks even slimmer.’

‘Mamma mia…’

‘I know, right?’ I said as I snapped my head back and took a huge gulp of tea as if it wereRhum. ‘And what’s worse, is that Maddy is fawning over her.’

‘But that’s normal, Erica.’

‘I know. But I resent her undoing all my hard work. It takes me months to undo Marcy’s influence when she stays over, and I’m so worried that my daughter will grow up with people like me in the minority. Everywhere I look, I see more and more people being so superficial.’

‘That’s the way the world turns, sweetie,’ Renata said, shrugging her shoulders.

‘How are you planning to keep Chiara solid and good?’ I asked.

‘Oh, she’s still much too young for that. But when the time comes…?’

‘Yeah…?’

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