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“Sure, let’s stop and get some frozen yogurt on the way home.” Gia’s face lit up. Then her brows knit in concentration. “Wait a minute. I brought a huge assortment pack of tampons to Italy with me.”
“That’ll help. Do you have any left?” Valentina asked as she held up a pair of jeans to add to the growing pile in her suitcase. “Do you think I should take these?”
“No. Just take the blue denims.” Gia suggested. “White is gonna get dirty too fast and black might be too hot. As far as the tampons go, I have plenty! I went to that wholesale club and bought a package of ninety- six to last me and I never even opened the box. I’ll go get them.”
Gia scurried off the bed and was out the door before either one of them had time to fully process the implication of what a never opened box of tampons might mean.
Valentina was first to reach the horrifying conclusion—a sinking feeling hit her stomach like a freight train.
She slumped down on the edge of the bed and waited for it.
Her cousin was about halfway to the bathroom when it came.
Gia’s footsteps halted midstride in the hallway and she shrieked out in a tightly strangled voice. “OH MY GOD!” Suddenly she was standing pale and wide- eyed in the doorway. Valentina watched on in horror as Gia’s throat worked convulsively as she tried to speak. Finally, she gave up and just covered her face with her hands. A full minute went by before Gia was composed enough to whisper.
“Valentina, since the night of the wedding, how many times have you had…?”
“Twice, Gia.” Valentina whispered back mournfully. “I’ve had it twice.”
“Oh.” Gia said weakly then sat down hard on the edge of the bed. She felt the blood drain from her face and her knees turn to jelly. As Gia held her throbbing head in her hands she shook like a cornered kitten.
“So…there was a guy in Italy?” Valentina crossed her fingers and prayed.
Gia shook her head. “No guy in Italy.”
Valentina bit her lip and asked hopefully. “So… the guy on the plane? That NFL player going to Rome for an endorsement photo shoot? You two crazy kids joined the mile- high club?”
“No mile- high club.” Gia moaned.
“Well, then let’s look at the calendar together. You know, I could be wrong about dates.” Valentina pulled out her phone.
Gia closed her eyes and sighed. “I’m tired all the time, and for the last couple of weeks I haven’t been able to hold anything down until about midday.”
“This all could be stress, Gia.” Valentina put her arm around her cousin’s shoulder. “You have a sensitive stomach anyway, and we’ve been through a pretty crazy time.”
“Yeah. That’s what I’ve been thinking too. And stress can mess with your cycle…but…”
“But what?”
“That night at the clubhouse, we sort of got carried away.” Gia looked down at her feet.
“By we you mean...?”
“You know who I mean.”
“By carried away you mean…?”
“You know that too.” Gia sighed in misery. She felt as though she was going to vomit and could feel the bile as it rose up from her stomach and flooded her mouth. As she swallowed down her despair, Gia looked at Valentina with eyes that stung with unshed tears.
“So, what you’re telling me is… if there is a baby… then...?” Valentina’s shoulders slumped in commiseration and defeat. She tried, but she couldn’t make herself say those next fatal words.
Tears burned their way down Gia’s cheeks and a sob was caught in her throat. “Yup. If there is a baby, then he’ll come out with black hair, dark eyes and wearing a little leather vest with the Hells Saints MC emblem sewn onto it.”
Then Gia began to cry.
After their horrifying epiphany, Valentina and Gia had raced out of the driveway on screeching tires in hopes of making it to the market before closing time. While the end of your shopping pleasure announcement echoed through the near empty aisles, the two women cleared the shelves of every pregnancy test available. Then, in apprehensive silence, they drove slowly home.
Between gulping down what felt like gallons of water, then peeing on a stick, Gia played let’s make a deal with God.If I’m not pregnant I swear I will go to church every Sunday for the rest of my life. I will do the Stations of the Cross every year for Lent and I’m talking the long version. And God, I am done, absolutely, positively done with the whole carnal knowledge thing. No sex before marriage. None! I know I have said it before, God, but this time I really, really mean it…
