AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A moment later, with her strong cup of tea in hand, Naomi was finally settled enough to begin. ‘I didn’t lie to you,’ she said.
Samantha sat in a wicker armchair and propped her feet on the coffee table. ‘About what, specifically?’
They were dealing with too many half-truths. She needed clarification.
Naomi rested a hand on her belly, which was as flat as an ironing board. ‘When I told you Anthony proposed, you asked if I was pregnant. It was the first thing you asked. You didn’t ask about the ring or any details about the proposal itself, which was lovely by the way. You only wanted to know why he’d bothered to do it. I was very upset.’
And she was clearly resentful, too. ‘I’m sure I congratulated you first, Naomi. I have some manners.’
Naomi stared at her from over the rim of the paper cup. ‘You get my point.’
‘I was stunned, OK?’ she said. ‘First, you win a man at auction. Next, you’re marrying him.’
‘Don’t say it like that! Anthony isn’t a mail-order groom.’
‘I know that now. But when you called with the news, I literally fell out of my office chair.’
Naomi resumed sipping her not-so-strong tea.
‘I’m sorry,’ Samantha said. ‘How was I to know you were living a fairy tale?’
‘I’m not,’ Naomi said soberly. ‘We’re taking a chance. How were we to know it would throw everyone in a tailspin?’
‘I’m not spinning,’ Samantha said. ‘Not anymore, anyway.’
‘Anthony doesn’t play it safe. He takes risks. I love that about him. When he started to train local celebrities, he realized he was onto something. Within a month, he sold everything except his car and moved to Los Angeles. It was a risk. His family wasn’t supportive. They never are. They’re too busy protecting him to ever listen to him. Part of the reason he moved was to get away from them, but that’s another story.’ Naomi paused for a breath. ‘Anyway, look how well it turned out! He’s one of the most popular fitness trainers in Hollywood.’
Samantha nodded, impressed. That was the sort of energy she needed to turn her life around. ‘Roman says Anthony can make a person feel like they can do anything.’
Naomi laughed. ‘That’s true. He says we can make all our dreams come true, and I believe him.’ She took a long sip from the cup and set it down. ‘I’m not like you, Sam. We lived next door to each other, but we led very different lives.’
She needn’t say more. Naomi had always envied Samantha’s boring, stable parents. Her parents’ divorce wasn’t as neat and tidy as they sometimes made it seem. It was a miserable, drawn-out affair. For as long as she could remember, they quarrelled. The slightest incident could provoke a row. It had to do with her father’s gambling and her mother’s reluctance to just leave him already.
One night she packed up Naomi and spent the night at a nearby motel. Naomi was about eight or so and hated the entire experience. To Samantha, it had sounded like the beginnings of a great adventure. When Naomi returned the next day, she told Samantha the room had smelled of cigarette smoke and pine air freshener. Still, it had been worth the sacrifice if it meant her mother was finally ready to walk away. Naomi loved her dad, but blamed him for the chaos in her life. Plenty of their friends had divorced parents and they were happy. A week later, Amelia discovered she was pregnant with Maya. There was no talk of divorce after that, not for a long time.
Eventually, Naomi’s parents split up for good. Her father was the one to leave this time. By then, Naomi was thirteen and seemed to have bounced back from her early years. She brought home high grades, starred in every school play, and had loads of friends. It was quite an aggressive comeback, come to think of it. The energy she put in to rise like a phoenix could fuel a jet. Was it all to cover up a deeper longing? Was that the dream that she and Anthony shared? To have a stable home, filled with kids, love and support?
Samantha’s eyes prickled with tears. All this talk of love at first sight had thrown everyone off. This wasn’t a story about two people who’d locked eyes across a crowded room. This story involved two deeply wounded people who had found refuge in each other. What right did anyone have to question that?
‘So when he proposed, I said yes,’ Naomi continued. ‘I wasn’t drunk. I wasn’t pregnant. I was in no way impaired. I said yes because I want a life with him.’
‘But you’re pregnant now?’
Naomi nodded. ‘Eventually, we got drunk and celebrated. A month later, we were pregnant.’
‘Thus fulfilling the prophecy.’ So much made sense now. When Samantha arrived in Tobago, she’d had trouble connecting with this new, calm and mature version of Naomi and had no explanation for it. It also explained why she’d turned down a hen do, ate like crazy and only drank water, carried around water biscuits for queasiness, and retired early almost every night.
‘Once we were sure, we went ahead and got a licence and took a trip to city hall. We wanted to be a family.’
‘Congratulations. I’m happy for you two.’
‘Thank you, Sam.’ Naomi was smiling through tears now. ‘I’m nervous. But Anthony is so excited. He’s going to be the best dad.’
‘And I get to be the cool aunt who brings sweets from the motherland.’ Samantha was eager to establish a role for herself in this new world order. She was not going to be left behind.
‘We didn’t tell anyone because, well …’ Naomi shrugged, defeated, ‘we knew what you’d say.’
This got Samantha back to the reason Naomi was holed up in her bungalow, like some wartime bunker, drinking mediocre tea, hiding from everyone.
