Page 34 of Storm in a D Cup

For some reason Judy had shifted from supporting me to supporting my fears and my ears pricked up.

For old times’ sake? Just how important had Genie Stacie been to him? I wondered.Good enough for a roll in the hayimportant, orI want you to be with you foreverimportant? Well, neither of those scenarios were an option any longer if I could help it.

*

Later that day, as I was making lunch – a nice dish of shepherd’s pie, Julian’s favorite (he was still a Brit at heart) – I had the horrible idea of glancing out the window onto the patio.

There, in our very own private pool, the one that was used solely by Julian, the kids and I and our personal friends, was Genie Stacie, floating idly.

Julian was in one of the loungers doing some paperwork, totally oblivious as he always was when working.

Genie Stacie was talking and laughing and Julian looked up a second to acknowledge her, but I could see it was a polite smile and nothing more. She said something and laughed and when her bikini top magically slipped out of place, she simply whipped it off and threw it at him. As an answer to her invitation, Julian jumped to his feet and left her there.

Needless to say I was fuming at this tramp’s gall. But I was also proud of my gentleman. It wasn’t every day that a guy walked away from a bare-breasted Genie Stacie.

Alone and defeated, Genie Stacie reached for her bikini top again as I watched. What I hadn’t calculated was Julian coming back through the kitchen doors.

‘Hey, babe,’ he breathed, blocking my view of Genie Stacie through the window. ‘Can I help you cook lunch?’ He was probably trying to rebalance his karma. Even if he’d behaved in a gentlemanly way, he was probably still shaken by Genie Stacie’s free show.

I turned to face him. ‘You can move out of the way now. She put it back on.’

Julian stared at me, blanching, raising his hands in protestation, an explanation already forming on his lips.

‘It’s OK, honey,’ I assured him. ‘I saw the way she cornered you. Now will you believe me when I say that she is after you, whether you are married to me or not?’

He closed his mouth and nodded.

I handed him some potatoes. ‘Good. Peel these for me, will you?’

He took them from me as if they were precious stones. ‘I love you, Erica,’ he growled softly.

I reached up and caressed his jaw. ‘If you love me now wait until you taste this shepherd’s pie.’

And, for a while, we worked in companionable silence, grinning at each other from time to time for absolutely no reason at all, like we used to in the olden days of our love, when we were sure about each other, and excited to discover ‘us’.

*

At ten o’clock the next morning Maddy and Genie Stacie came down the stairs together, twin gaits and dressed almost the same, refusing breakfast and hustling out the door.

‘Maddy,’ I called after her. ‘Just where are you going?’

My daughter rolled her eyes and sighed, throwing a ‘Shopping, remember?’ over her shoulder. ‘In Florence. Back tonight.’

‘Florence? But Maddy, we were going together…’

‘Don’t worry, Erica, it’s on me!’ Genie Stacie sing-songed as they left, arm in arm. The shopping in Florence, I remembered very well. It was supposed to have been a chic treat for my daughter and myself. I’d half-pinned my hair up like I did on special occasions and even dressed up in my turquoise dress with the daring neckline Maddy approved so much of. Today she didn’t even notice.

Before I could add another word, they were out the door, laughing. Should I have chased them? Embarrassed them both by vetoing their plans? Just how much clout did I have left over my daughter, and would I risk finding out in front of a gloating Genie Stacie?

As her Lamborghini roared into life and sped down the drive, I slumped onto the bench in the hall and took off my fancy shoes, my feet already thanking me after only five minutes, and threw my car keys onto the side table, staring after them through the open door as Genie’s Lamborghini could still be seen as it sped its way down the hill, the wide wheels gripping the old, winding roads. My daughter in the passenger seat of an expensive sports car driven by a raging idiot who thought fifteen-year-old girls should be on the pill just in case they met someone one night. What a sight.

Enough was enough. I was Maddy’s mother, not Genie Stacie. And it was my duty to protect my daughter. I should have stopped them immediately. Refused to let her go. Nipped this madness in the bud. What grown, mature woman takes another woman’s teenage child without having previously asked for permission? The truth was, I realized, that Genie Stacie was not a mature adult, but simply considered herself like something akin to Maddy’s older sister, and that they could do whatever they wanted under my roof. When they got home I’d have to bring them both down a notch or two.

But when they finally did make it back through the front door that evening, I almost fainted dead away.

‘What have you done to your hair?’ I cried, my hands flying to my mouth as I looked upon my daughter who looked like something between Marcy (who always straightened her hair even now that it was thinning) and Genie Stacie, only a much younger version. It looked like her head had been forcefully wedged through a crack in the front door.

‘I straightened it!’ Maddy cried back triumphantly. ‘Doesn’t it look, like, awesome?’

---