Page 36 of Storm in a D Cup

All men including Dad.Was I so blind I couldn’t see what was sitting astride my nose, mocking me?

‘I know, I know, please don’t say anything,’ Julian said, holding his hands up as he came into our bedroom later that night. ‘I think I got through to Genie Stacie though.’

‘Thank you!’ I said. ‘You see what I’m talking about?’

‘Oh yeah.’ He sat down on his side of the bed with his back to me and pulled off his socks.

‘And?’ I prompted.

‘And she says she’s sorry. She’ll never do it again.’

‘Damn right she won’t, because she’s finally leaving our home! She is a horrible person and she has offended me and my home!’

‘Our home. And she hasn’t offended anybody. Not intentionally. I told you how her mind works.’

‘I don’t care how her rotten cabbage-mass of a brain works! There is no excuse in this world for her to come here and act like she is better than all of us except you!’

‘Erica…’

‘I’m not finished! It’s your fault, too! You assume that just because you slept with her years ago that we all here have to live by it? Maddy is fifteen! I don’t want her impressionable mind to be influenced by all this Genie Stacie crap. And you should be on my side, not hers!’

Julian’s mouth tightened and he said quietly, ‘Iamon your side. But Genie Stacie is very fragile.’

‘I. Don’t. Care. I didn’t even know sheexistedin the flesh until a week ago and now I’m supposed to worry about her psychologicalbalance? What is she even still doing here, Julian? It was supposed to be just a short visit and she’s invaded our home and our privacy, not to say turned my daughter against me!’

‘She hasn’t turned her against you…’

‘You think? Maddy won’t talk to me because I won’t let her wear those three stitches that Genie Stacie chose for her!’

‘Calm down, Erica…’

‘No, I can’t and I won’t calm down, Julian. I have a fifteen-year-old daughter to raise, don’t youunderstand?’

‘Wehave a fifteen-year-old daughter to raise,’ he corrected me as he pulled off the rest of his clothes in one swing and stood up, naked.

Damn, even through my haze of fury, I could see how gorgeous he was. And he was, until it was irrefutably proven otherwise, all mine. I instantly felt like an impostor sitting at a queen’s banquet, dreading the moment someone would catch me out and take him away from me. Yeah, I know I sound nuts, but you try living with him and Genie Stacie under the same roof for a week. Deep inside I couldn’t blame women for admiring him, but I damn well could for them trying to steal him from me.

I watched as he strode into the bathroom, turned on the shower and brushed his teeth, ignoring me now. Which caught my attention big time. Heneverdid that. OK, so he was mad. I had exaggerated. But certainly a little argument wasn’t going to keep us from… atoning? Was it? The shower had always been our make-up place since our very first fight. In view of this we had had a mega-shower built with a seating ledge. Worked like a charm. And I intended to make sure it worked like a charm forever and ever.

As he stepped in and began to lather his hair, I pulled at the buttons of my shirt. But when I got under the jets next to him, he kept his eyes closed, as if he didn’t want to see me, let alone make up.

‘I’ve decided I’m going to the States with Genie Stacie tomorrow to meet this producer. Don’t bother driving me. I’ll hitch a lift from her.’

I froze under the jets, wide-eyed. ‘Oh.’

He finished washing and left me alone in the shower without so much as even glancing my way. Hadn’t he agreed earlier that she was exaggerating? Hadn’t he agreed that she had overstepped her mark? So what was happening, here?

It had already started. This was only the beginning of Genie Stacie’sGet Julian Backproject. First she reconnects with the excuse of a movie for his book. Susses me out, figures out I’m no danger to her whatsoever. Moves in on my daughter to make sure she has an ally. And then gets him to leave the country with her. Her next move would be to get him to sleep with her while convincing her that he shouldn’t be stuck on a remote farm somewhere, when he should be shining and dazzling the screen, and the entire world, by her side. After all, she was a celebrity. And I was an absolute nobody. No contest.

11

Secret Loves and Love Secrets

The next morning, the morning of Julian’s departure, wouldn’t you know it, I got my period.

No, no, no! I cried inwardly. I was so sure this time! I’d even convinced myself that my exaggerated mood swings had been due to my hormones already preparing to host a new life inside me!

So much for IVF. Forget about timing and chance. Perhaps it was fate. Maybe fate knew something I didn’t?

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