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“Sure, yeah,” Alessio says, looking the space over while rubbing his chin. “Don’t change a thing out in the front here, so it looks like just the tiny little cubbyhole space it’s always been.”
“We’ve been talking about switching to an exclusively higher clientele anyway,” Petre adds. “We could be dealing to the exact people coming to see the shows. Not to mention the theatre crowd itself. Those actors and directors could keep us rich just on their own.”
“See, this is why you’recapo,” Alessio says with a big grin while slapping me on the back. “You’ve always been the Phoenix, rising from the ashes!”
23
DAHLIA
I didn’t even realize that I’d fallen asleep until I feel Vari move his arm out from under me. I wake up and look at him with sleepy eyes as he carefully reaches down and lifts Lucas up from my lap. The sweet boy had fallen right over and used his stuffed octopus against my lap as a pillow while the droning sound of the movie that none of us were really watching played out in the background.
While Vari carries Lucas up into bed, I sit on the couch and let all of my feelings sink in. I’ve been fighting my fears of being hurt again if I give my heart to Vari but now I’m feeling even surer than ever that I’m right where I belong. I don’t want to look back one day and realize I missed my second chance with the only man I’ve ever truly loved. I’ve always felt like I was drawn to danger and risk and now I know I must get that from my mother. Turns out that she was just the same as me but tried to push it all down in order to be the stable mom she thought I needed. Now, I feel a reinvigorated need to live my life to the fullest, for the both of us.
I’m tired of overthinking and second-guessing, and I’m tired of being afraid of getting my heart crushed or getting wrapped up in something that might be dangerous. As I sit here on the couch feeling as if my whole life has been suddenly turned upside-down, I decide that I want to be with Vari for good this time. I love him and I love his son, and I want to try and build a home and a family with Vari, regardless of the risks or danger. I don’t care if he’s a mafiacapoor the king of the moon; I only care that he’s the man I am irrevocably in love with and always have been.
As soon as Vari comes back into the living room to rejoin me, I surprise him by pulling him down over me on the couch and kissing him. I kiss him until I can feel his tongue swirl against mine, and until I can feel his strong arms wrap behind me and hold me close. I kiss him until I open my eyes and see his staring back into mine, and then I slowly stop only so I can tell him out loud.
“I love you, and I don’t ever want to lose you again. I want to be with you always.”
Vari smiles and smooths his fingers down the side of my face as he sweeps a stray strand of hair out of my eyes. “If that’s what you want,” he says, “then I promise you’ll never lose me. You have my heart, Dahlia. I am yours.”
With that, he kisses me again before lifting me up from the couch to carry me into the bedroom. Before we even get inside the room, I can feel the swollen press of his hard cock pushing against the fabric of my pants. I want all the clothing between us off. I want to be as close to Vari as I can possibly get.
But this time, he’s in no rush. Vari pulls my clothes from my body slowly, as if he wants to savor every moment and wants me to do the same. There’s something now in the way he moves, and the way his tongue wraps around mine, that is more sensual, more loving, and more filled with adoration than ever before.
When he climbs over my naked body, I try to keep myself still, but the anticipation of feeling him inside of me again is too much. I urge my body up against his, wrapping my legs behind his waist and pulling his cock against me until the temptation finally breaks him. He pushes slowly into me with a strong and steady movement that sends shockwaves throughout my body. This is what I want to have for the rest of my life, the feeling of his hand against my breast and his breath against my mouth, the sensation of his engorged length sliding in and out of me with titillating pleasure.
As if he can read the silent thoughts in my head, Vari talks to me as he makes love to me. “I will fill you with the type of climactic passion you desire whenever you want,” he whispers against my ear. “As much as you want, wherever you want. I will make love to you until you are driven wild and unravel in my hands.” His words send me straight over the edge as if my body intuitively obeys him, and I erupt into an orgasm I can feel all the way down to my curling toes.
In the morning, we wake up in each other’s arms and take a slow start to the day. We lay there together for a while in the comfortable quiet hours. Down the hall, I can hear the soft, contended sounds of Lucas playing toys in his room. It’s the kind of morning that feels like you just want to stay home and never go out into the world again because things are too very perfect here to want to leave.
“So I wanted to get your opinion on something,” Vari says over our coffee. “I’ve been wondering what kinds of ideas you might have for the revamped performance hall? What kinds of shows might you bring there if you were the artistic director?”
“Well, if it was my theatre,” I say, getting ready to spew out a few crazy ideas, “I’d really push the envelope. All the bad stuff that happened there will stay in people’s minds unless it’s replaced with something even more crazy to make them forget about it and move on. I’d bring in some of the edgiest, most risqué, and most controversial shows you can find. Like, have you heard of this script making the rounds right now calledA Walk with Snakes?”
“No.”
“It’s a retelling of the Book of Genesis, except that Adam and the Serpent are played by the same actor, and he’s supposed to look and act like Harvey Weinstein.”
“Hmm,” is all Vari has to say, so I figure he doesn’t like the idea but is trying to be polite about it. But then a week later, he texts me one night to come meet him at the theatre because he has a surprise for me, and when I walk into the revamped space I’m stunned. I’ve never seen anything as spectacular as this before, and I’ve seen quite a lot of various beautiful scenes on stages.
I walk up to where he’s sitting on a picnic blanket under what looks like a giant magical tree. On the lowest hanging branch there is the most spectacular gown I’ve ever seen in my life. It lookscouture. It looks like something that belongs on a runway. “What is all of this?” I ask.
“It’s the set forA Walk with Snakes. I took your advice and purchased the production rights.”
“Oh my gosh!” I exclaim.
“Plus, the part of Eve is yours if you want it.”
I can’t hide my look of being overwhelmed by the thought of it all. “I…I’m honored. And I’d love to. It’s just that…” I pause. “There might be a problem with that.” I hold my hand to my stomach. “I might not be able to fit into that dress in another few months from now.”
Vari’s mouth hangs open, his eyes wide with shock, then with a big smile he gets up and embraces me. And we spend the rest of the evening in each other’s arms under the magical tree imagining our life together. We talk about what a wonderful big brother Lucas will be and Vari tells me what a great mother I will be. We lay there for hours making plans for the future and feeling blessed to have finally found each other again.
EPILOGUE
DAHLIA
I can’t believe it’s been two years already. They’ve passed so quickly that it feels like only a matter of months since the birth of our baby. And it seems like just yesterday that the theatre was being given a second chance at its reincarnation into something wonderful. Now the theatre’s a hugely profitable success, running the hottest shows in town. And I’m grateful to be at its helm as its new artistic director. I didn’t know if I could do it at first, and worried about how well I’d be able to pull it off. But now that I’ve had so many good production runs under my belt, I no longer question my ability.
