Page 51 of Storm in a D Cup

I’d surprise him when he returned with an improvised trip to the Apuan Alps. And with a lacy little number I’d found in an Intimeria in Siena, far from indiscreet eyes. A pair of knickers, to be exact.So what?you might think. Ah, but these were special. In fact, they were completely made of,waitfor it…chocolate. Yes, edible underwear, which I had to keep in the fridge for obvious reasons. There was no limit to my imagination. Or to my desperation.

Julian tooted his car as he pulled up the drive and I breathed deeply to calm my nerves. It wasn’t fair to keep the IVF failure from him. He was expecting good news, the poor fella.

I delayed it by kissing him at length, and he responded with the usual fervor, his hand cupping the back of my head while he took my mouth in an ah-mazing kiss, which told me he’d missed me. So far, so good.

‘You never told me what it was Genie Stacie needed your help with,’ I said, cursing my big fat mouth. You’d think I’d avoid mentioning her just before I began my seduction scheme, right?

Julian sighed and flung his arm around me as we climbed up the steps. ‘Oh.That.’ He gave me a sidelong glance before speaking, as if trying to gauge the degree of openness of my mind. ‘Genie Stacie did this amateur porn flick years ago and now this guy’s threatening to go public with it.’

Somehow it didn’t seem like the right moment to tell him about IVF tanking again, so I kept quiet. If I hadn’t been so despondent about my period I would’ve appreciated the trivia, reveled in it, even. I am a terrible person.

But what did a porn flick have to do with Julian?Ohmygod!I caught my breath. ‘Did you star in it, too?’

Julian cocked his head and looked at me. ‘Do I look like the kind of guy who’d star in a porn flick?’

‘Well, then? How is it your problem?’

Julian shrugged. ‘Her agent says she should let it go public. It would give her notoriety a boost.’

‘I’ll say. That would let people get to know her for who she really is.’

‘Erica…’

‘What? She stars in a porn movie, for Christ’s sake, and you’re still defending her?’

‘Erica, she was very young, she didn’t know what she was doing. And in any case she’s a producer now.’

I stopped. ‘What? When? I thought she onlyknewsome producers. I didn’t know she was one.’

‘Well, in fairness, this would be her first project. She’s reading my book as we speak.’

‘She can read? Some people never cease to surprise me.’

‘Come here, you,’ he said softly as he always did at the end of the day, and I buried myself in the nook between his arm and his side. Only it wasn’t the end of the day, and I felt that this one was going to be an all-nighter.

‘You know, Genie and I had one thing in common. We were both abandoned by our parents.’

I suffocated the snort and the retort that had flared up naturally. Seven years in idyllic Tuscany, seven years of soaking up the warmth of its sun, the sweetness of its wines and the most delicious recipes and I still hadn’t managed to mellow. I was a lost cause. ‘Right,’ I said to fill the expectant silence before he told me her sad story of abandonment and probably teenage prostitution, judging by the look of her, but I kept that to myself. For now.

‘We only dated for a short while, that’s true, but she opened up immediately (I suppressed the urge to snort again) and I saw her softer side (was he doing it on purpose now, or are men just born dumb?) because she was very lonely in her environment.’

Oh, comeon! ‘She doesn’t look lonely to me.’

‘Oh, she is, trust me. All the women were jealous of her career and all the men just wanted to get her in the sack.’

‘You included,’ I said, relieved he couldn’t see my left eyebrow that had lost itself in my hairline somewhere, like a natural facelift. No wonder I didn’t have many wrinkles. I was too sarcastic to let my face stagnate.

‘Including me, yes. I was attracted to her—’

‘Long legs?’

He chuckled, and drew me closer. ‘I was going to say fragility, but yes, her looks weren’t exactly an obstacle.’

‘How gentlemanly you are,’ I said, more sweetly, thus more sarcastically, than I’d intended.

One thing for sure, this was going nowhere good. Genie Stacie had found her way back into our lives again and didn’t look like she was going to forget our address anytime soon. I wondered how much longer I could put up with this situation. Just knowing she existed was bad enough, but then she started calling hiscell phone. And that’s when I recognized her telephone manners from before, when she’d called me in the middle of the night. I should’ve remembered her squealing voice. She had already had his cell phone number. She must have called him after she hung up with me. And Julian had never mentioned it. Why, if he wasn’t hiding anything?

Why had he feigned surprise when she called to say she was dropping by for a visit? For my benefit? Was something going on and I was totally in the dark? You might think I’m a paranoid woman who can’t forget the past.Youtry discovering that your first husband, whom you thought was working late almost every night, actuallygot off, and you’ll pardon me the pun, precisely at four thirty every afternoon to drive his secretary, who was expecting his baby, to a beautiful condominiumyouhad actually paid for because he’d asked you for a loan to save his company from bankruptcy.

---