Chapter Two #2
“What’s to know? You meet an available man, he’s not an asshole, you go out,” Summer instructed.
Rosa started to laugh. “Where do you find him?”
“The available man or the not an asshole?”
Mari felt a genuine smile on her lips.
“Both,” Rosa said.
“Not in the same place.” Summer picked up the dice.
“I thought the event you two met at was a place for singles,” Mari said.
“It is,” Summer said. “There are new people every time I go. But it’s pretty easy to figure out why the men are single.”
“That’s the problem with dating in your fifties,” Susan said from the other table. “Red flags are easier to spot than when you’re young and dumb.”
“That never stops you,” Leandra/Leanda teased.
“You can’t call what I do dating, Leann.”
Well, crap. I had her name wrong completely.
“What do you call it?” Rosa asked.
“Playing.”
Everyone laughed.
“What about sex?” Leann asked.
It took Mari two full breaths before she realized the question was pointed at her.
Heat reached her cheeks. Was she really going to talk about sex with a group of women she didn’t even know?
“I think I’ve forgotten how.”
Even though her words were sincere, the women busted out in laughter.
“I know I have,” Rosa said.
“So, what’s your story?”
What started out as three tables with three different conversations shifted to Mari and Rosa holding the spotlight on female celibacy.
At least now Rosa took much of the conversation in the direction of her having a desire to date and discover her new single life.
Eventually that morphed into Susan talking about her two failed attempts at marriage and her embracing her single status, promising never to let it go. The single part, but not the no-sex part.
When they took a break between rounds, Summer came over to Mari and Rosa’s side.
“Are you having fun?”
The wine had found its way to Mari’s head, much like Salena had told her.
“Yes.”
“Good. Good. We only do this once a month, you should consider joining us full time.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” Rosa blew out before Mari could take a breath. “Don’t you think?”
Mari blinked several times. “Well . . .” Words dried up in her mouth.
There wasn’t a reason to say no, and the truth was, she was enjoying herself more than she thought she would.
It had been a long time since she’d met anyone new.
Outside of her daughters-in-law and their families. “I don’t see why not.”
Summer leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Don’t worry, we won’t put either of you on the list of hostesses for a few months.”
Mari accepted that with a smile.
“Listen,” Summer began. “I know this is kinda last minute, but I’m on a committee for our singles group, and we’re going on a cruise in two weeks. Do you have passports?”
Rosa’s eyes were already filled with excitement.
Mari felt her head starting to shake. “Yes, but—”
“One of the rooms opened up last week, and we’re trying to fill it. You two would have a blast.”
“I don’t know—”
“Yes,” Rosa interrupted.
Mari looked at her friend.
“The restaurant,” she started.
“I don’t want to hear about the restaurant. That has been your excuse for years.”
“Not an excuse. A reason. There is a difference.”
Rosa shot out an expletive in Italian, a word Summer clearly didn’t understand. Not that Mari expected her to. None of the women playing bunco were Italian or indicated that they spoke the language.
“A singles group?” Mari asked for clarification.
“Primarily.”
“I’m not looking for a man,” Mari said.
“It’s mainly women,” Summer pointed out.
“And the cruise isn’t only for singles. It just happens that our singles group wanted to do this, and the cruise line invites singles groups twice a year.
The discounts were too good to pass up. It’s probably going to be a lot like tonight.
Laughing, drinks . . . no responsibilities.
Let the staff on the ship do all the work. ”
Rosa’s pleading eyes put some serious Catholic guilt on Mari’s soul.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Great.”
Rosa was already grinning.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Where are we going?” Rosa asked.
“The Caribbean.”
Rosa sighed as if she were already there. “I’ve always wanted to see the islands.”
Summer beamed. “Now is your chance. I’ll send you an email with all the details.”
Mari pressed her lips together until Summer turned her attention to one of the other ladies. That’s when she tugged on Rosa’s arm and pulled her away from the ears of others.
“One game night is now once a month and a cruise?”
“We need to go shopping.”
Was she even listening? “Rosa!”
“I need a swimsuit. And a summer dress. And—”
“Rosa?”
“What?”
“I didn’t say yes.” Mari’s words were a rushed whisper.
You didn’t say no, Rosa fired back in Italian.
They both looked over their shoulders to the women gathered around the open kitchen island, filling their wineglasses and chatting.
Speaking in Italian while in the company of people that didn’t understand the language was on a level of rude that Mari chided her children for doing from day one.
Yet as she opened her mouth, she found herself breaking her own rules. If you want to go so bad, you go. I don’t have to travel with you.
Rosa plastered on a mirrored smile that Mari wore. If you wanted this, I’d go with you. You’re a sister to me.
Still speaking in Italian, Mari replied, Are you trying to make me feel guilty?
Instead of answering the question, Rosa spelled out the facts that Mari knew quite well.
Half of my life I’ve been married to a man who walked away to live with another woman and start another family in Italy.
I remained here, doing the right thing. Following the rules.
Raising my children and bringing lasagna to the church socials . . . and for what?
“Happy children,” Mari reverted to English.
“Who are living their own lives. Happy lives. It’s my turn .
. . our turn, Mari. I feel like I’ve been an old woman since I was thirty.
I’m staring down sixty, and even though I love my children, I no longer live for them.
There is no telling if Dante and Chloe will stay in San Diego forever.
If they will have children that they raise here.
Anna and Jackie don’t come around often. I’ve been alone, Mari. Lonely.”
Mari felt her resolve start to crack.
“I made a bad choice with Joseph. I want my friend . . . my best friend, the woman who knows me better than Joseph ever did, to help me find the right man.”
Mari opened her mouth to speak.
Rosa didn’t let her. “He never loved me. I didn’t have what you and Paulo did. Is it so much to ask that I have that at least once in my life?”
Anything Mari wanted to say died in her throat.
She felt her bags were already packed.