Chapter Twenty-One
Maria
I had taken Dom’s advice and invited Jade to go shopping with me. Again, note, no real arm-twisting had been necessary.
The task: find Isabella’s birthday gift—an Italian horn necklace. Or an Italian horn pendant I could put on a chain, but either way the result was the same. I had discussed the idea of getting her one before with both my dad and Dom, and they both thought it would make for a great gift.
My sisters and I all had pendants—courtesy of our mom—so it was a tradition I wanted to pass down to Isabella and get her one of her own. Which was my exact intention when I’d come to the mall, but Jade had other ideas.
Her stomach growled as though on cue, and she pointed to the food court sign, pushing me to see things her way. “It’s lunchtime, we’re right here, and I’m starving. The necklace can wait. My stomach, not so much.”
I rubbed my temples and sighed, rolling my eyes as I caught sight of the menu. Orange chicken and veggie spring rolls. I bit my lower lip and decided screw it. “Fine!” I conceded. “We can eat first and then start the hunt for the necklace.” But only because I could never say no to orange chicken. It was my ultimate weakness. Okay, that and cheesecake. And onion rings. And mozzarella sticks. And lasagna. Oooh, and fettuccini alfredo. Mmm. All right, so I had a lot of weaknesses, and those were only in the food category. Well, unless you counted Dom as food. Because then we could add him to that list.
Giddy, she clapped her hands and jumped up and down. “Awesome.”
We got in line, and she turned to me, her eyes wide. “I think I’m in the mood for rice and walnut shrimp. You?”
I told her my answer, and she gasped. “You’re saying no to rice?” she asked, shock coloring her expression. “Do you have an aversion to delicious things?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “I like it just fine, but it’s not my go-to.”
She bumped her shoulder into me. “Let’s switch things up. I’ll have your order, and you have mine because I almost never order what you’re getting.”
I cringed, swaying my head back and forth as I debated it. I wasn’t a huge fan of surprises, and this felt like a surprise for my mouth. “No. I like to stick with what I know.”
Her head tipped and then bobbed as she let a snore escape from her lips. Then she jolted, her eyes snapping open. “Oh, I’m sorry. I think I just fell asleep.”
I raised a brow. Jade and I were very different. She moved to the beat of her own drum, and I preferred consistency. The most spontaneous thing I’d ever done was come up with the idea of being friends with benefits with Dom. And had I known his benefits were so good (read: delicious), I might have forgone the whole friends thing and jumped his bones when we’d first met. And that would have been a huge—ginormous, really—regret because being friends with him meant a lot to me.
“Come on,” Jade whined. “You need to take the pole out of your ass, Maria. It makes you less approachable.”
I cleared my throat and pursed my lips. “I’m approachable.”
“You’re still single. When’s the last time you dated?”
We moved up in the line. “Actually, before you came into the picture, I was dating someone. Pedro.”
Her eyes practically lit up. Told you—just like Bianca and Allie. “Oooh, tell me more. Was he good in bed?” What did I say?
She didn’t even bother whispering that last part, even though there were people in front of and behind us in line. I tried not to focus on that, though. Maybe they weren’t eavesdropping. Even if they were, sex was a healthy part of life, right? Nothing to be ashamed of. “Is that the most important question? Bianca asked me the same thing.”
She licked her lips and nodded, feeling very sure of herself. “It’s definitely on my list of what I’m looking for in my forever man. And by that, I mean he has to be good, although I prefer knock-my-socks-off great.”
That was interesting. Now she was speaking my language. “You have a list?” Maybe we weren’t so different, after all.
“Mmhmm. Number one: he has to be experienced. Number two: he has to be dominant in the bedroom. Number three: he has to be a good student and want to know every inch of my body better than I know it myself. Number four: he has to make me orgasm at least two times per session. Three would be ideal. Number five: he has to have a filthy mouth. Number—” Okay, I’d spoken too soon. We were still drastically different.
I put a hand up to stop her. “What about other traits? Other qualities you’re looking for?” Like did she want him to be kind? Thoughtful? To put her first? To want to take care of her when she was sick? To stick by her in the good and bad? Suddenly, this was starting to sound like wedding vows. Whatever. You got my drift.
She blinked and then shrugged as though I stupefied her. The feeling was mutual because she sort of shocked me with her list. “He should like me for me?” She hardly waited a beat before bursting out in laughter and slapping a hand on her thigh. “I’m sorry. I tried, but that’s so not me. It’s, just, nothing lasts forever, and life isn’t a fairytale, so I take what I can get.”
Took what she could get? She shouldn’t settle. She should search for a man who really did care, who liked her for her. It wasn’t easy—heck, I still hadn’t found someone like that—but settling seemed wrong. It actually bothered me that Jade genuinely believed that was something out of reach, and she shouldn’t even shoot for it. I was sure there was a story there, but I got the feeling she didn’t want to elaborate.
It was our turn, and Jade immediately jumped to order for us. “Lunch is on me,” she said, pulling out her credit card and paying before I could dispute her. “I have a new fancy job where my boss probably pays me too much, so it’s actually on him.” Then she shook her head. “No, he definitely pays me too much.”
We grabbed our food and drinks and found a table in relative silence. I should change the subject to something lighter, I thought to myself. Maybe Jade felt awkward about the whole talk of partner lists.
I went to open my mouth and say something, but Jade beat me to the punch, asking, “Do you want my fortune cookie?”
I furrowed my brows and peered over at her hands in the middle of the table, holding out her cookie. “You should keep it and read your fortune. If Allie were here she’d tell you that there’s a reason you got that particular cookie. It’s your fortune and yours alone.”
She shrugged, and I had a feeling she didn’t believe that, either. “So does Dom have any brothers?” She cut into her orange chicken (since she ordered for us, she pretty much decided we were playing her game of switch orders) and took bites as she cut. “Because, don’t hate me, but I have eyes, and Dom is sinfully hot.”
I picked up some of my walnut shrimp. “Therefore, his brothers would be as hot?”
She nodded, her mouth full. “Hotness is a gene. It usually runs in the family,” she spoke after swallowing. “By the way, this orange chicken is really good. Say, what makes it orange? Never mind, I’d rather not know.” She gestured toward my lunch. “What about you? Think you’ll order that again?”
I swallowed my bite and tucked a strand of hair that came loose in front of my face away from my eyes. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but yeah, I think I will.” It turned out trying new things wasn’t so bad.
“See!” she exclaimed, her voice full of enthusiasm. “Now about the Deluca family tree. What’s the deal? Brothers? No brothers?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, yeah. He has brothers. Too many of them, if you ask him.”
Her eyes went wide, and she licked her lips. “Yum!” I had a feeling we weren’t talking about the food. “Any of them single?”
“Most of them, actually.”
She leaned forward, intrigued. “Do tell.”
“It depends. Are you looking for a serious relationship or a one-night stand?”
“Just like that things get even juicier.”
I chuckled, dabbing my lips with a napkin. “They’re all very different.”
She looked heavenward like she was thinking. Then she turned her attention back to me and gave me a lopsided grin. “No judging, but I think I want a one-night stand. They’re so much hotter. Plus, they can turn into more, right?”
That was where she was wrong. I shook my head. “Sorry, but with Carmine that’s not going to happen. He’s a one-night stand, one-time only guy.”
“Oooh! I’m suddenly very intrigued.” She pursed her lips. “Why is he like that?”
I shrugged, going back to my food. Her usual was seriously delicious. I never would’ve thought to order the shrimp. “You have to ask Dom that one. I’m not sure I know the whole story.”
She clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth and tossed a napkin at me. “No fair,” she said, and I took the napkin and placed it to the side. “You got the best brother, didn’t you?”
I dragged my teeth on the corner of my bottom lip and drew my brows together. “Yeah, I did.” Then I cracked my knuckles and shook my head. “But I don’t really have him. I mean, he’s not mine. He’s my best friend, sure. And we have sex, but only as long as neither of us are seeing anyone.”
“Do you think either of you will get around to dating again? I almost wonder if there’s any reason to when you’re both getting what you need physically. It’s like there’s no more motivation to date, right?”
I hadn’t thought of it that way before. I mean, I still dated occasionally. I wanted to find my person. Dom definitely dated less so now that I thought about it. I wondered why that was. But back to Jade, who was currently staring me down, I answered, “Yeah. I mean, no. It could happen. One of us could meet someone. My money would be on Dom meeting someone first actually.” Not because he dated more—we already established that wasn’t true—but because he was Dom, and I was. . . a tad picky.
“Imagine if there was suddenly a Mrs. Dom Deluca, you’d never get to be with him in that way again.”
My heart sank—Mrs. Dom Deluca. But it was true. Finally, playing with my food, I acknowledged, “Exactly.” The hint of sadness in that one word was obvious even to my own ears.
Why was I sad, though? This wasn’t meant to last forever. We were supposed to scratch each other’s itches, and that was it. It was a transactional type of thing. So why did it feel like I’d come to this big realization that made me want to throw up my lunch?
Mrs. Dom Deluca. It had a nice ring to it, and I knew that whoever Dom married would be one lucky girl. Potentially the luckiest girl.
I mean, Dom was something else. Just look at the way he was with me and we were only friends. The man was a saint. He never turned his back on me. He was always there for me. He was. . . so many things.
I could only imagine how he’d treat his wife.
Would I be friends with her, too? Would he want to tell her about our arrangement? Then she definitely wouldn’t want to be friends with me. I mean, I wouldn’t love that my husband was still friends with the woman he’d slept with. Unless she was really understanding. She would be, wouldn’t she? Oh, he’d totally marry a better woman than me.
And why shouldn’t he? He deserved to. He was a great guy. And great guys like him ended up with great women like this woman I was creating this whole make-believe what-if scenario in my head about. I so didn’t come to the mall for this.
“Come on,” I said, standing up and collecting my trash. “We have to start finding that necklace.”
Jade shoveled her last bite in and stood up, collecting her stuff. “Okay, I’m ready.” She swallowed. “Maybe I’ll get one for myself, too. I don’t have one, so it could be nice. They’re good to have, right?”
I smiled. “That’s what our mom always said.” Then something dawned on me, and I snapped my fingers. “You know what we need to do? We need to have a sister sleepover and tell old stories about Mom. Would you like that?”
Jade’s eyes lit up. “I’d love that! When?”
“Tonight?” I asked before I could think, getting swept up in her excitement. Then I added, “If we can get everyone together.”