Chapter 69 Geneva
Geneva
How the summer had slipped away from us so quickly, I didn’t know. It seemed the older we got, the quicker summer passed us by. It also seemed the older we got, the more bizarre our summers became!
If someone had told me back in January that during the summer a fine man nearly half my age would fall in love with me, that Crystal would break her celibacy with a gigolo, that Noah would turn down sex with gorgeous strangers, and Chevy would find and keep a job more than two weeks, I would have slapped that person into next year!
But it happened. Life is wild.
Neville left just yesterday and promised to come back to visit real soon. But it doesn’t seem that soon is quick enough for Crystal because she’s already planning on taking a trip down to Antigua before the year is out.
I asked her if it was a love thing, and she laughed and said no, it wasn’t a love thing but it was certainly a lust thing. I suppose that’s okay; I’d been involved in plenty of “lust only” relationships myself.
Me and Deeka are going strong. He is everything I ever thought I wanted, and then some.
We definitely have a love thing, peppered with a healthy amount of lust!
He’s still managing Eric’s band and recently got them signed to this small record label.
They’ve started working on their first CD. I’m so proud!
I had to finally come to terms with the fact that my baby is growing up, becoming a man in his own right.
We agreed that he wouldn’t mess around in my romantic affairs and I wouldn’t mess around in his.
To further cement the deal, I had Juuuuuuuuuuuulie—I mean, Julie—over for dinner.
She’s a nice enough girl, seems to have a good head on her shoulders.
Smart, quick, and from what I see, she adores Eric.
I’m trying real hard not to imagine them up in my apartment doing the nasty while I’m on this trip—even though I know they are!
Charlie is growing in leaps and bounds, and Deeka seems to love her as much as I do.
Noah is still in England. He patched it all up with Zhan, and he says that their relationship is as strong as ever.
He says that he will reconsider the “key swapping” thing, but not with the neighbors; it’s just a little too close to home for him.
Both he and Zhan are going to try to come to New York for Christmas.
I hope they do; I miss Noah something horrible!
Chevy, well, we didn’t even know that she had been out of the country until we all met at Crystal’s for a bon voyage party for Neville and saw that she had a tan that was out of this world!
She didn’t have much to say about the trip, which was unusual for Chevy because she usually uses every opportunity to dangle her jet-set lifestyle in our faces.
But not this time. She just said she’d had a good time and that she’d worked hard.
But I noticed that the whole time she was speaking she was also grinning like a Cheshire cat.
She even paid Noah the back rent she owed him, and we all got one-hundred-dollar Nordstrom gift certificates with little note cards that said, “Just because.”
Maybe Chevy is finally growing up. It’s about time too, because she is damn near forty years old.
She even invited me, Deeka, Charlie, and Crystal up to Martha’s Vineyard for the Labor Day weekend.
Apparently Anja has given Chevy her home in Oaks Bluff for the whole month of September.
Chevy claims that it’s one of the perks of working at La Fleur Industries.
If that’s the case, I told her, bring me home an application!
Anja’s house is supposed to be a magnificent eight-bedroom mansion overlooking the ocean!
We’re on the ferry now. I’m so excited, all I can do is grin. The only place I’ve ever been outside of New York is New Jersey, and that was just to Newark Airport.
I feel like I’m at the beginning of a great change, and that feels damn good. Looking over at my man, my friend, and my daughter, I suddenly understand the saying Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
I hope the rest of my life feels as good as this day does.
Someone named Dante is supposed to meet us when we dock. Chevy said he’ll be easy enough to spot. Just look for the short little man with the nose ring and bad dye job who’s wearing a T-shirt that says Chevy’s Bitch .