Page 58 of Storm in a D Cup

‘I wish she had what you and Julian have. Now that’s something you rarely see nowadays.’

Ha. If I wasn’t so miserable, I’d probably laugh my head off. But I was, so no laughing.

‘Why do people have to have all these secrets?’ he asked me. I seriously hoped he wasn’t waiting for an answer. Especially from me. For a moment I was tempted to tell him about Genie Stacie’s secret engagement, but that would have been betraying Paul, which I have never done and never will do.

Secrets. Everyone around me seemed to have them, not just Judy. Marcy. My grandmother, my mother. Renata. Maddy and Angelica were always giggling about their secrets and I wondered just how innocent these secrets were.

‘How are you guys doing? The kids? Julian?’

‘The kids are fine, so is Julian.’ I quickly glossed over the subject. I had to get off the phone because if I stayed on I knew I’d confide in my ever-understanding father. ‘Sorry, Dad, gotta run. Will call you soon, OK? Give my love to all.’

‘All right, honey. You too!’

And that was that. If I could keep something from my dad, I could keep it from anyone.

*

‘When will Paul be back?’ Gabriele wanted to know as I wiped the sweat off my face with my towel after one of his major workout sessions.

‘Good question,’ I said. ‘Who knows? He comes and goes, and all you can do is be there when he returns.’

‘Is it like that for you too, Erica?’

If he only knew. ‘Oh yeah. A bit of advice? If you get him to commit, make sure it’s his decision and not you convincing him.’

He paled. ‘Why, what has he told you?’

‘Absolutely nothing. It’s just my personal opinion, that’s all.’

‘But do you think I stand a chance?’ he wanted to know.

‘With Paul? I couldn’t say. He is pretty much focused on his work right now, and I don’t think he’ll be back soon.’ Not for another eighteen months minimum.

14

Stefania and Melania

Although Julian came and went, I was sure glad he was home on this particular day. Whenever I was nervous, I cooked batches of food or did laundry. Going against my house rules of ‘If it isn’t in the laundry basket it doesn’t get washed’, I knocked on Maddy’s door to fetch some laundry.

Now usually she had music on full blast, dancing her little heart away with her BFF Angelica. But this time I found her sitting with Warren on the bed, both sets of eyes downcast.

My own instinctively dropped to the small object in her hands. A pregnancy test. I clung to my laundry basket as if it could keep me from swooning.

‘What are you doing with that?’ I finally croaked, my voice barely audible, my lungs barely working. Maddy? Impossible. I always knew her every move. She was a little crazy but she wasn’t stupid. She would never do anything like that. ‘Are you…?’ I couldn’t even pronounce the word anywhere near my daughter’s face.

Maddy stared at me as if I’d grown another eye in the middle of my forehead. ‘Me? Are you crazy?’

My eyes swung back to the packet of the pregnancy test. ‘Then who is? Someone I know? A friend of yours?’

Hair-raising silence. ‘Maddy…?’

‘Er – sort of.’

And that was when the door to her bathroom opened and she emerged, pale and drawn, her eyes huge, like a lost child’s: Stefania. Friggin’, bloodyStefania.

*

‘Can you believe it?’ I shrieked, a moment from pulling my hair out of my scalp.