I listen to her tell me she has my back and something in my stomach is unsettled. “Okay, can we go back to the dating question again?” I look at her, her back is to the plane wall. Her hair is pulled back again and tied at the base of her neck.
“I’m pretty sure I left that wide open for you.” She chuckles and I put my ankle from my right foot on my left knee, folding my hands together on my stomach. “You can bang anyone you want until your heart’s content.” She smiles and scrunches her nose. “Until you have drained all the liquids from your body if you need to. Especially if it makes you less this.” She picks up her hand and does a circle in the air toward me. The sleeves from her silky top move back and forth while she does it. The silver Tiffany bracelet I bought her for her birthday with the little blue heart on her left wrist jangles.
“No one is talking about me. We already got that settled.” I ignore what she just said. “I was talking about you.”
“What about me?” Her eyebrows pinch together as she just stares at me. Her blue eyes go to a light yellow with the sun coming in from the window beside her.
“What if you want to date?” I ask, my foot moving up and down now with nerves. I’m not sure why my foot is even moving up and down. It suddenly gets hot in the plane and I reach up to turn the gray nozzle over my head, hoping to relieve it.
“Levi,” she says my name. “I’m going to be raising a nine-month-old child. When do you think I’m going to have time to date?” She tilts her head to the side. “Let alone the energy to date.”
I lean into her and whisper as quietly as I can, “So you aren’t going to have sex for a year?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “Maybe I’ll get a friend with benefits if I have to. I have a whole treasure chest of delights at home.” My eyes go big. “Oh, please, like you’ve never ordered yourself one of those silicone vaginas.” She snaps her fingers. “What are they called again?” She looks up trying to think of the name of it. “Flashlight.” She shakes her head. “No, that’s not right.” I just stare at her as she tries to remember what it’s called.
“It’s called a flesh something,” I tell her and her eyes go big that I even know this. I hold up my hands. “Not that I ever ordered it, but someone ordered it for Daniel as a gag gift for his bachelor party.” She looks at me and nods as she gives me a face that says she doesn’t believe a word I just said. “This may be shocking to you, but I’ve never had to order myself one.” She rolls her eyes at me. “I have no problem getting it or not getting it.”
“Really?” She crosses her legs and puts one hand on her knee before leaning in. “What’s the longest that you’ve ever gone without?”
“Sixteen years,” I counter her and she rolls her eyes. “I don’t know, I have never counted.”
“Think about it,” she asks me, “a week?”
“I’ve gone longer than a week, even a month,” I reply, proud of myself.
“Wow, a whole month,” she says and claps her hands. “You should get a sticker for that.” I glare at her. “Anyway, as much fun as this conversation is about the fact you can’t go long without sex—’
“The conversation was about you and dating.” My foot moves again up and down as I repeat my question, “Are you going to just bring the guy home?”
“Are you insane?” She gasps. “I don’t even bring the guys home now and no one lives with me.”
This declaration shocks me.
“What are you talking about? I’ve been at your place and—”
She holds up her finger. “You’ve been at my apartment and, yes, I had my friends over.”
I can’t help but laugh at the “friends” word. “Is that what you are calling them?”
“Yes.” She nods. “Anyway, my apartment wasn’t my home. This is my home and I’m not going to bring anyone who I’m not serious about into said home. I’m not going to have my home defaced for a quick wham, bam, thank you, ma’am.”
“If it’s a wham, bam, thank you, ma’am…” I lean into her. “…he’s doing it wrong.”
All she does is glare at me while she grumbles between clenched teeth, “I mean, look at you. If your walls could talk, what do you think they would say?”
“Are my walls male or female?” I ask.
“Does it matter?” She swings her legs in front of her.
“Well, if the walls were female, they would most definitely call me a pig.” I smile at her. “But if my walls were male, they would most definitely give me a high-five.”
“You’re a pig,” she spits out at the same time the captain comes on and tells us we are preparing for landing.
“Buckle up,” I warn her and she makes sure her seat belt is on. I fold my hands on my lap, putting my head back, and closing my eyes. The past couple of days have been a whirlwind for me, I can’t even imagine what it’s been for her.
We don’t say anything to each other until we both stand up when we hear the ping for the seat belt sign. I stand, opening the overhead bin to grab my backpack and her purse before I step out into the aisle and wait for her to walk in front of me before we exit the plane.
We walk through the airport, following the signs to go to baggage claim and the exit. “I’m getting really nervous,” she admits softly, putting her hands on her stomach as we walk out of the glass doors that say exit only.
“It’s going to be fine.” I grab her hand that is beside me. She looks up at me and smiles, but it’s fake. I know it’s fake because her eyes don’t light up. If you know her long enough, you can see when she is fake and when she isn’t, and this right here is as fake as it gets. When it’s the real smile, her eyes almost squint together and they look bright like the sun.
Still holding her hand, we step onto the escalator going down to baggage claim and the exit. As we get closer to the bottom, I look around and spot Stefano before Eva does. He’s standing right in front of the escalator, his phone in his hand, and his fingers look like they are going a mile a minute as he types. He must feel me staring at him because his fingers stop moving and he looks up. I release Eva’s hand to hold up my hand toward him. Eva looks over and he smiles at her. I look over and see Eva raises her hand also to say hello to him as we move down.
He walks closer to us, and when we step off the escalator, he goes to Eva first. “Hey,” he greets, giving her a sad smile.
“Hey,” she replies softly as he takes her in his arms and gives her a hug. I suddenly get nervous about telling him our plan. I mean, he knows I would do anything for Eva. He also knows she would do anything for me. What’s the worst that can happen? He takes me outside and kicks my ass. That would be worst case, the other would be probably his father helping him to kick my ass. Then let’s not even think about the number of cousins and cousins’ cousins that he has.
“You didn’t have to meet us,” Eva says softly once he lets her go.
“Of course I did,” he says to her, holding her arms in his hands. “Can you imagine what my mother and father would have done to me if I didn’t come to meet you?” he deadpans to her, making her laugh. “Besides, if I hadn’t come, they would have, and I don’t think you are ready for all of that.”
“You are right on that,” she mumbles to him.
“I’m so, so sorry about Lisa,” he consoles her and she looks down at her feet. I see her mouth exhale before she blinks away the tears.
She lifts her head and gives him a sad smile. “Thank you.”
“My dad said he reached out to you also,” he tells her at the same time he reaches out to take her luggage from her.
“I know,” she says as we make are way out of the airport. “It’s been a busy couple of days. Every single time I said I would get back to him, I remembered I had to do something else.”
“I can’t even imagine,” he soothes, putting his arm around her shoulders. “Well, whatever help you need, we are here for you.” She just nods, and the only thing I can think is, you may change your mind once you find out what she needs from you.
“Shall we go?” Stefano suggests, ushering us out the door and toward his car.
“Shall we go and have something to eat?” He looks over at us as we walk to the underground parking garage and to his car.
“Where is the wife?” I ask, knowing Eva is probably too nervous to ask him.
“The wife,” he says, smiling, “is at work.”
Eva looks at me with big eyes that sparkle. “Oh, let’s go there.” She looks at Stefano. “We should definitely go there.” We stop when he gets to his car.
“What?” he asks, confused by this as he looks at me and at Eva. “She’s working.” He takes his keys out and pops the trunk for me to put the luggage in. I walk over and place the bags in the trunk before taking off my backpack, adding it to the mix.
“Oh, great,” Eva says and she wrings her hands nervously in front of her. “I would love to see where she works.”
I put my hands in my pockets. “Maybe we should do lunch first.” I look over at Eva. “Then perhaps break the news to him.” It’s with that sentence you can see the patience Stefano had is gone. “Or we can just rip it off like a Band-Aid.”
“Okay, you two,” he starts, his eyes moving between me and Eva. “What the fuck is going on right now?”
“Well.” Eva takes a step toward him. “You see, we came here really because we need to speak to Addison.”
His eyebrows pinch together. “Why?”
Oh, boy, I think in my head. My hands get a touch clammy and I look down nervously, not knowing what to say. I turn my head to look at Eva, who is also wondering what to say at this point. “Well,” she struggles, shrugging her shoulders and smiling big. “There is something we need her to do for us.”
“For us?” Stefano repeats, his eyes shooting to me. “There is an us?”
“Not really,” I admit because it’s the truth, more or less. “But.” I look up. “How do I say this?”
“Like a Band-Aid,” Eva reminds me and I look over at her. “We need to talk to her because…” Her voice trails off and she takes a deep inhale and exhales just as fast. “We need her to plan our wedding.”
