The three of us sat around eating and lying about shit, and it wasn’t long before I heard the twins squealing and yapping about something on their way to the stairs. Ma and Sheila came into the kitchen, showing off their new dos for our inspection. “Boys, you better start getting ready for the evening. It’s well after four.”
“Speaking of which, Pop, didn’t I tell you to keep an eye on this weekend’s lineup?”
“Hey, that’s on you. Gianna’s the one who brought about the change.” I’m not touching that.
“Ma, can you go upstairs and help Gianna? Her dress and shoes for this evening are on the bed.”
“Oh, wait until you see…” Ma started to say something before Sheila shushed her and ushered her from the room.
“What the heck was that about?” Pop just shrugged his shoulders and walked out behind them while Lance and I brought up the rear.
Almost two hours later, I came out of my room dressed in my monkey suit and giving way more thought to how I looked than usual. I was thinking about her, wondering how she was doing with all this, only now realizing how it must look that I’d gone shopping for her when I saw something that pissed me off.
I couldn’t see who it was because I only saw the back of the person as they headed down the hallway in the girls’ wing. I barged into their room after knocking. It was just the two of them in the room, but I know I saw someone else go in there. “Didn’t I tell you two not to invite anyone else this weekend?” I’d wanted the focus to be her this weekend for some unknown reason.
“We didn’t.” Anna looked confused.
“So, who was that…?” Just then, she stepped out of the en suite bathroom. “Is it this one, Rosa?”
“Gianna?” She turned and looked in my direction with her hand outstretched, still holding the bottle of whatever my sister had sent her for. “Gianna!” I said her name again as if to ensure myself.
I think I moved, or maybe she did. No, it was definitely me. I stopped in front of her looking down at the long fall of hair that fell to just the top of her ass. There was so much of it and not a curl in sight. But whatever they’d done had made the bluish tint to her hair more pronounced, and her eyes shone when she looked up at me.
I didn’t hear my sisters snicker behind me. Couldn’t tell you what else was going on in the room at that moment when I reached out to touch the silky smoothness of her hair. “You like it?” Her soft, uncertain question and the look of expectation in those bluer than blue orbs touched something in my gut, and I could only nod my head in silence. “It’s beautiful.” And you just made my job ten times easier.
I bet they all thought I’d lost it when I busted out laughing. I probably shouldn’t find this much joy in imagining Victoria green with envy when she sees my girl, but shit, was this going to be fun. I thought the clothes I got her would do the job, but this shit is ten times better.
“You should thank her for that glue.” I laughed again and left the room, more so I could breathe again than anything. Some fuck had happened to my lungs in the last five minutes, and my rhythm was way off. “Fuck!” I leaned against the wall in the hallway outside the door and rubbed my chest in a daze. How the fuck beautiful is she?
GIANNA
“Breathe, Gia, breathe; he’s gone.” The twins surrounded me as if they thought I really was going to pass out, which may not be far from the truth. I’m not sure what’s making my heart race faster, the way he looked at me, or the way he looks in a tux. “Come, sit.” My legs were still rubbery from that kiss on the forehead. I could still feel the light pressure of his lips against my skin.
They led me to the bed, and I plopped down since my knees were barely holding me up at this point. They’ve been like that ever since I walked into my borrowed room to find the mountain of shopping bags waiting for me there. Since Gabriel was the only one to leave the house, there was little doubt that he was responsible, and the realization had filled me with a warmth so intense it took my breath away.
I’d been both embarrassed and pleased that he’d done it, and when I finally opened the bags and saw what he’d bought, I could’ve cried. Beautiful dresses and skirts, blouses made of the finest silk, and designer jeans that looked so tiny compared to the ones I wore that it took me a second to realize they were my correct size.