20. Farewell
“Carla?”Matt said sleepily, receiving no response. “Carla, your phone is ringing,” he repeated, giving his wife a gentle prod in the ribs. Carla rolled over sleepily.
“Huh?” Carla glanced at her vibrating phone. “I’ll get it later. I sleepy sleep.” They’d spent the past couple of hours in bed, contented with using each other as their distraction from the Gia and Ben situation. At some point, they must have fallen back to sleep. Matt grabbed the buzzing phone, prepared to hit ‘ignore’ on the call to send it to voicemail.
Matt glanced at the name on the lit-up screen of Carla’s phone. “You sure? It’s Gia.”
Carla shot up in the bed, grabbing the phone from Matt’s hand and throwing it against her ear as she hit the green ‘answer’ button.
“Hello? Gia? What’s up? What’s going on? Everything good? Are you good?” The words rushed from Carla’s mouth in a rapid-fire, jumbled mess.
“Whoa, slow down. Everything is fine,” Gia started. “I made pesto!”
“You—you made pesto? That’s all you have to tell me right now? You made pesto?” Carla’s face morphed into a frown, and she couldn’t hold the question in for another second. “What happened with Ben?!”
Gia chuckled, surprised Carla had held it in even that long. She’d expected “What happened with Ben?” to be the very first words out of her friend’s mouth when she answered the phone.
“Well, you’re making progress. It took a full 27 seconds for that question to escape,” Gia pointed out. “Listen, I’ll tell you everything. Can I come over? I’ll bring pesto!”
“As if you need to bribe me to come over and fill in the blanks. Yes! Come over!” Carla glanced down, and, realizing she and Matt were both still naked, she added, “Uh, give me—us—fifteen minutes, though.”
“Okay, back patio. Fifteen minutes.” Gia hung up the phone, grabbing the loaf of Italian bread from the bread box. She tossed it into the oven without preheating it first, just to warm it up. Pesto could be used in many ways, but Gia knew Carla and Matt loved it spread on bread.
Carla rolled over and kicked her legs over the side of the bed. “Matty, Gia is coming over. She’s bringing food.”
“Ooh, I love when she brings food!” Matt laughed, sliding behind Gia on the bed and wrapping his legs around Carla’s waist as she tried to rise. “But does she have to come right now?” Matt put his arms around her neck gently from behind.
“Come on, Matty. We’ve been in here all morning. It’s time to get moving! If you don’t let me go, we’ll both wind up greeting Gia naked,” she said, chuckling.
“Threesome?” Matt suggested, a teasing grin forming on his lips. Carla feigned being offended.
“Never. You’re mine. All mine. You’re stuck with me.”
“And, Carla, my love, you’re all the woman I can handle!” Matt released the grip his arms and legs held around Carla, allowing her to get up. She turned her head, gave him a quick peck on the lips, and walked over to her dresser, pulling out a clean pair of jeans and a T-shirt.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get dressed!”
“Yes, ma’am,” Matt said, getting up and grabbing his own clothes. They both dressed and made their way downstairs and toward the kitchen. Matt poured two tall glasses of water, added a quick squeeze of lemon to each, and pulled open the door to the back patio. Gia wasn’t there yet, but they sat at the table to await her arrival, setting their drinks down on the same tabletop where the game of Twenty Questions had triggered Gia’s rapid departure the last time.
A few minutes later, Gia appeared at the fence, sliding through the small opening and walking across the yard carrying a foil-wrapped loaf of bread and a bowl of what they could only assume was pesto. She sat down in an empty chair and began unwrapping the foil, revealing a pre-cut loaf of bread, still warm.
“Didn’t bring a knife,” Gia said. “We’re dipping.”
As Gia pried the lid off the bowl, Matt and Carla wasted no time. They each grabbed a slice of bread and dipped it into the pesto—more like a scoop than a dip, really.
“Mmmm, the bread is warm,” Carla said to no one in particular, returning her bread to the bowl for a double dip.
“Hurry up! You’re hogging the pesto!” Matt scolded, a smile dancing behind his fake scowl.
Carla rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay. Have some. Anyway, we have things to discuss. Right, Gia?”
Gia chuckled. “I suppose we do. I don’t even know where to start, honestly.”
“The beginning is usually good,” Carla said. Matt could only add a nod, his mouth full with a large bite of bread and dip.
Gia sighed, her hands clenched together, trying to keep from fidgeting. “Alright… the beginning. It started the summer after graduation. The summer that you spent traveling. Ben and I became close after we met at the World Corps presentation. I was signed up to go to Brazil, too.”
“But you never lived in Brazil,” Carla rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
“No. I didn’t. I had Aiden instead.”
“What were you and Ben like… to each other? Were you dating?”
“It’s complicated. I don’t even know what we were. We had plans to travel together and be together in some capacity during World Corps. I think we were both kind of waiting until we went to Brazil to figure it all out. Then—well, that didn’t happen.”
“Did he know you were pregnant when he left?”
“He knew.”
Gia
Gia took a deep breath, remembering the moment she learned that Ben would still be going to Brazil despite knowing she was pregnant with Aiden. It was the last time she saw or heard from him. He had made his decision, and it didn’t involve her or their baby—so Aiden became her baby.
“Gia, I can’t have a kid right now. We are too young. You’re too young. This changes everything. Everything we talked about, all we were going to do—our lives. World Corps. Everything!” Ben said.
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Gia’s face reddened; she was perfectly aware of what this turn of events meant for her life plans. Her heart beat faster in her chest in a combination of anger and fear over what was to come.
“Gia, we can fix this. You don’t have to have this baby. Or, you can have it and give it up for adoption, then meet me down in Brazil.”
“You’re still planning to go—even without me? Even knowing about the baby?”
“Gia, this has always been my plan. I can’t just give this up. It’s my only ticket out of this town. You can still come—or you can meet me next year.” Ben’s hands shook as he spoke.
“Meet you with a baby I’ve taken care of alone for a year? How can you be so insensitive?” Gia asked, burying her face in her hands and trying to hold back the sobs threatening to escape. Her chest began to rise and fall faster, heaving as the tears welled up in her eyes.
“Gia, I’m not trying to be insensitive. I’m really not. I just… I just don’t know what to do here.” Ben’s shoulders were hunched over, and he looked defeated but committed to his decision. “We are too young,” Ben said. “We are just too young…” His voice trailed off as he gazed at Gia, and the sobs began to emerge.
“Obviously not too young to get pregnant, though!” spat Gia, now angry. She felt abandoned and alone during what she could only guess would be one of the most challenging times of her life. “Get out!” she roared, causing Ben to step backward toward the door out of surprise. “Get out now! I never want to see you again!”
“Gia, I?—”
“Leave!” Gia folded her arms across her chest, tears streaming, as Ben stood uncomfortably, now at the entry to her room.
“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry,” Ben said as he turned and walked down the stairs. And that was it. That was the last time Gia saw or heard from him—and a turning point in her life.
From that moment on, Gia considered the baby growing inside her as hers alone until a few months later when she met her now ex-husband, Steve. Steve was everything Ben wasn’t at the time—older, more financially stable, and absolutely enamored by Gia from their first introduction. They had met at a fundraising event for the local garden project. Steve was a local real estate agent and wanted to “give back to the community” through the project, having done well for himself through several lucrative property deals the year prior. He wasn’t particularly into gardening, but it seemed to him as good a cause as any!
Gia and Steve hit it off immediately—first as friends. However, as he helped her and acted as a source of support throughout the pregnancy, a more intimate relationship blossomed. She leaned heavily on him, and while she never felt the same sparks as she had with Ben, it seemed safer that way. Still, somehow, she always felt like she was playing a role with Steve—merely acting out the motions of the good wife and mother, but never truly herself. In a way, it was as if she was hiding the fact that she felt more like a child he had signed up to care for. She tried to keep her vulnerability and abandonment issues a secret and they gnawed at her.
Steve proposed quickly, knowing Aiden was well on his way, and Gia accepted, thinking it the most responsible option. He was looking for a family and took Aiden in as if he were his own from birth. In all honesty, it was primarily the reason Gia married the man. Sure, she loved him back then, but it wasn’t the type of love that would—or should—have led to marriage had it not been for Aiden and the stability Steve offered.
I guess that’s why we’re divorced now, Gia thought and chuckled.