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27
Valentina
“Gia, it’s okay. It’s just a fun recital for the parents.” I kneel down to eight-year-old Gia’s level.
“Why have you been dodging me?” Lulu says from her seat, sipping her iced coffee as it rests on her big belly.
“I’m not dodging you.” I stand, moving Gia back toward the rest of the girls in her class. My employee Libby is demonstrating the dance one more time. “You shouldn’t be worrying about me. You should be worried about why my goddaughter is so stressed.”
The answer to that question is in the classic cliché that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
“She’s a perfectionist. Blame Vinny. Anyway, I figured you got the annulment and needed some time to yourself because that’s usually how it goes down with you. Imagine my surprise when I stop by your parents’ store and they brag about their new son-in-law.” She slurps her iced coffee, judgment resting deep in her dark eyes.
“I was going to tell you,” I lie. I would never tell Lulu. She hates Dom.
“No, you weren’t.” She pins me with a stare. “I get that I’ve given you hell over the years about the guy, but you can’t go through this alone. You cannot manage the Dominic Mancini waters solo. You get blinded by his beauty and that dick of his and forget that he’s a shark until he swallows you whole.”
I glance behind me to make sure none of the kids heard her. The last thing I need is for one of them to go home, say the word “dick” and tell their parents they heard it here. The music is on as they run through their ballet positions on the other side of the studio though, so we’re safe.
I blow out a breath, watching the girls practice for the recital that’ll start in a few hours and wishing my best friend would’ve felt too sick or too pregnant to come torment me. “I’m thirty-six. I get that I was once blind, but I’m all eyes-wide-open this time around. Trust me. Plus, it’s a mutual agreement between the two of us.”
Just the thought of waking up in Dom’s bed this morning shoots tingles along my flesh. I can’t think much of it. We were both spent last night, and when I slid to the edge to return to my room and he put his arm around my waist telling me to stay, I knew it was a bad decision. Lately, I can’t seem to make any good ones.
Lulu looks bored. “It’s the same story on repeat with you two. Always is.”
“Just relax, we’re friends.”
“You and Dom are many things. Friends is never one of them.”
I glance at her. “That’s not true.”
She pretends to yawn before grabbing my hand to help her out of the chair. “He’s already sunk his claws into you. I’m too late. Damn, before all these kids, I would’ve sensed something was wrong, but any time I thought about it and was going to call you—bam, it’s three days later.” She touches her stomach. “Now I’ll have another one to keep track of.”
I laugh and lead her down the hall to my office. Libby has the girls under control, so I decide to take this conversation somewhere more private. “I’m good with it this time. I mean, we’re in a different stage of our lives, we’re different. There was an understanding from the get-go—”
“Do you hear yourself?” she asks as she settles into a chair.
I do hear myself and I know I’m making excuses, but the truth is, I’ll suffer the heartbreak just to have him while I can. That’s always been the way I feel when it comes to Dom. Pathetic maybe, but I’ve never been able to give up the hope that maybe this is the time it will work out.
“Lulu, enough.” I’m curter than I mean to be.
She rears back, her legs wide open with her belly between them. She’s the biggest she’s been of all her pregnancies and I kind of wish she’d go into labor right now before I have to piss her off even more. “What?”
“You know the reason why I’m with Dom, so don’t pretend you don’t. I know I’m probably making a huge mistake, but it’s my mistake.” I point at myself. “And don’t worry, I won’t call you to pick me back up if things go south.”
She mocks offense. Lulu is hard to offend. “Of course you’re gonna call me and of course I’m gonna be there for you. But it’s also my responsibility to warn you in advance because otherwise I’m a shitty friend.” She inhales a deep breath, clutching her stomach. “You think I don’t know. I do.” She points at herself, wiggling to the edge of the chair. “Truth is you and Dom are blind as bats. That’s what makes it so damn frustrating. You two are the ones who don’t know, but everyone around you does.”
She stands, and I move from behind my desk to help her up because she’s sweating now. “Lu, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just Braxton Hicks. Had them two nights ago.” She shucks my hands off her. “Listen, you’re wasting your life if you two won’t be real with each other, and if Dom was here, I’d tell him the same. But he likes to play hide-and-seek from me because every time I see him, I call him out on his bullshit.”
“Calm down, you’re scaring me.” She’s sweating even more now.
“Oh shit.” She grabs her stomach with both hands and bends at the waist. “I’m not so sure this is false labor.”
Right as she looks at me with resignation in her eyes, water drips down her legs, puddling below.
“Yeah, not false. I have to get you to the hospital.”
