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“I’ve brought reinforcements,” Eve says, breezing into the apartment with Natalie not far behind her.
“I’m the one who can actually do hair,” Natalie says. “This one doesn’t have a clue.”
“Hence the pixie cut,” Eve says as she dumps a bottle of champagne on the counter.
“I thought you said you could do hair?” I say, watching her untwist the foiled top of the champagne bottle.
“I lied. Well, it was a little white lie. I knew Natalie would be able to help, and well, I’m here for moral support. Oh, and I brought the champagne.”
“What if I wasn’t available?” Natalie asks.
Eve shrugs and gives me a mischievous grin. “Then I was going to improvise.”
She pops the cork and goes looking for glasses.
Natalie takes my hand. “Okay, princess, let’s get you ready for the ball.”
We congregate in Massimo’s bathroom where the light is best. Natalie sits me on a stool in front of the mirror and dries and straightens my hair while Eve sits on the edge of the bath with a glass of champagne in her hand.
“So tell me, are you and my stepbrother keeping it casual? Or are you falling in love with him?”
That’s one of the things I love about Eve. She doesn’t hold back.
“I told you, it’s not like that, we’re just friends.”
“A man who gets his moody stepsister out of bed on a Sunday morning to pick up a dress he knows you were admiring, then takes you shoe shopping all morning, is not just after friendship.”
I look at her in the mirror. “He isn’t?”
She shakes her head. “You know, for a Mafia princess you can be pretty naïve.”
“I second that,” Natalie says. “I’ve seen you take a drunk asshole by his metaphorical balls and force him to show you some respect. You’re street-smart and ballsy, but when it comes to this kind of shit… Eve is right, you’re clueless.”
“Thanks,” I say sarcastically.
Do I tell them?
I hesitate long enough for Natalie to pick up on it. “Is there something you’re not telling us?”
I decide not to say anything. Instead, I turn my attention to Eve.
“I’m sorry I interrupted your afternoon plans.”
“Oh don’t be.” She waves me off. “We had a liquid lunch date and fell into bed almost immediately, so I was already well and truly laid by the time you called. Three orgasms for her and three for me. I was about done. I needed a break.”
“I know what you mean,” Natalie says. “When my husband comes home from touring with his band I have to leave the bed just so I can get some rest.”
Eve lifts her glass of champagne. “Here’s to our significant others and all the lovely orgasms they give us.”
“I’m a virgin,” I blurt out.
The laughing stops and Natalie snags the brush in my hair. Both of my friends look at me.
“Well, I’ll be goddamned,” Eve says, astonished.
“I second that,” Natalie adds.
I wait for them to laugh or to tease me. But they don’t.
“Good on you, princess.” Eve holds up her champagne again. “Cheers to that.”
Natalie gives me a warm smile in the mirror. “Tell me, how can a twenty-something hottie like you still be a virgin? Are you holding out for marriage?”
“No, my father was.”
She gives me a confused look.
“My father was old school. He wanted me to marry well to build an alliance. He said a powerful man doesn’t want what other men can have.”
“So he kept an eye on you and made sure you didn’t have any fun?” Natalie looks astounded. “What about high-school boyfriends?”
“I went to an all-girls boarding school.”
“And college?”
I shake my head. “No, my father didn’t allow me to go to college.”
I reach for my glass of champagne on the vanity and gulp down half of it, my cheeks flaming with embarrassment.
“Well, I think that’s pretty cool, I mean, if you still want to be one,” Eve says.
I laugh. “No, I don’t want to be one. That’s the thing. I’m so ready to not be one.”
“But..?”
“When my dad died, my life got complicated real quick. I was too busy picking up the pieces to jump on someone and ask them to take my virginity.”
Eve’s eyes widen. “My God, does Massimo know?”
“Yes. He knows.”
Is that why he hasn’t made a move to touch me?
My phone rings, but I can’t move to reach it because Natalie has a handful of my hair and is twisting it up and pinning it in place with a million bobby pins.
So Eve picks it up.
“Speak of the devil,” she says before answering it. “Hello, Cinderella can’t come to the phone right now because her very beautiful and very talented fairy godmothers are busy making sure she is going to be the most beautiful woman at the ball tonight.”
I can’t hear what he says, but Eve replies with, “You know, Prince Charming is supposed to come to Cinderella’s door to pick her up. Not send a car to do it.”
