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19
Valentina
I’m reapplying my lipstick when Annie and Bella enter the bathroom. There’s a small lounge area, and they sit in the velvet chairs facing the large gilded mirror.
I stop applying and meet their quizzical eyes. “What’s up?”
“You know we know, right?” Bella says. I think she’s the more outspoken of the two.
“I figured.” I drop the lipstick into my clutch and turn to face them, leaning against the small counter.
Annie’s eyes hold a note of sadness.
“What I’m wondering is… is all of it fake?” Bella crosses her legs.
“Bella, it’s none of our business,” Annie says, which I’m thankful for, but to be honest, I’d like their opinion.
My mind is a jumbled mess and Lulu is so occupied with motherhood and pregnancy that I’ve gotten away with telling her we’re moving forward with the annulment without having to go into any detail. Dominic Mancini’s name alone tends to make her blood pressure skyrocket and she doesn’t need that right now.
“Dom and I… we’re complicated. I’m sure the boys have told you that we share a past we have a hard time walking away from.” I sit on the third chair tucked into their corner.
Bella stands and moves her chair to face me.
Annie still looks as if she just watched the ending of Titanic. “Isn’t that the best part though? That you guys have so much history? Maybe you’re meant to be.”
I laugh until I realize they aren’t. “I don’t know if you noticed, but Dom isn’t a father-of-two-and-a-white-picket-fence kind of guy.”
Annie nods, but I’d really like to hear her thoughts on this matter.
“Not yet,” Bella says. “But Carm didn’t want to settle down either. Or Enzo, right, Annie?”
Annie shakes her head. “The Mancini brothers are hard nuts to crack.”
Bella laughs so loudly, she startles two older ladies walking through the door.
“That kiss, though? There was nothing fake about that kiss,” Bella presses, keeping her voice down now that we have company. Strands of her red hair fall from her updo because she’s so animated when she talks. She and Carm are so alike.
“No, there wasn’t.” I can’t refute it. My toes are still tingling, and my knees are still regaining their strength. It’s like a movie playing back in my mind, over and over again.
Bella points at me. “See.”
“Bella,” Annie sighs.
Bella’s head swivels in her direction. “What? You coerced me and Carm to get together. From that duckpin bowling to the house in the Hamptons. Why aren’t you on my side here?”
I wonder how close Bella and Annie are. They have no idea I was part of Dom’s life while they were getting together with the Mancini brothers. At least I don’t think they do.
“Because it was different. Dom is…” Annie’s gaze shoots to mine. “Different.”
“See.” I hold out my hand toward Annie. “She gets it.”
“Different isn’t bad. He’s like any other guy,” Bella insists.
“She has a son,” Annie says. “She can’t take a chance on a guy who works every hour of every day.”
“Yeah, but he’s, like, almost sixteen, right? It’s not like he’s going to grow super attached to Dom and ask him to be his Little League Coach.” She shoots me a look as though she’s asking me to side with her.
I nod. “No, but I do have to worry about who I introduce him to.”
