Current Day
El:
Luci! As your best friend, it’s my job to plan your baby shower, which according to the internet I needed to start like yesterday.
El:
Luuuuuciiiiii! Are you there?
El:
Alessandro is coming to see Andrea today and I will bombard him if you don’t text me back. I don’t think either of us wants to see him as Mr. Grumpy Pants.
El:
Yup, he’s grumpy. Let me know when you get these! Kisses!
Me:
Hi, El. When do you want to come over and plan my baby shower?
El:
Fuck, finally! I can’t believe I forgot about the texts I sent months ago. And yesterday! I’m currently preoccupied *wink* I’ll finish up and be over there in the hour.
An hour later, El shows up, arguing with Marco as they walk in. By the way they suddenly stop, I assume they didn’t expect anyone to be in the kitchen.
“Oh, hey doll. Marco, you go do whatever stupid men do because Luci and I have a baby shower to plan.” She shoves Marco out of the room before turning to me, hands on her hips and a smirk on her face.
“I’m guessing you have my baby shower planned and the only thing I need to do is show up.” She struts over, heels clacking on the floor, before leaning against the counter.
“You know me so well. You can, of course, shoot down anything buuuuuut we’ll have it next month when it’s warmer in the garden and kick the men out of the house. Andrea is already on my side and will keep Marco, Enzo, Alessandro, and Genoout of the house. That way we can have fun without stupid men controlling things. Here’s where things get hard. The guest list. There are not enough women around here. I guess I could invite Dr. Rossi, who, by the way, I think is fabulous. Oh! Quinn is also coming to stay here until Miss Diva arrives. I dooooooo want to talk to you about Stella and Caterina.”
My heart drops into my stomach when I hear their names. I haven’t heard anything from them since those letters and I’m not even sure they want to reach out. “What about them?”
“With the boys gone, I bet Aria and I could get them in. If you want me to, of course.”
If anyone could sneak my family into this house without anyone stopping her, it would be El. Hold on. “Who’s Aria?”
“You didn’t know that’s Dr. Rossi’s first name?” She must read my face and continues. “Yeah girl, you’re just as shocked as I was. Who knew such a bad bitch would have a light-hearted name like Aria? That’s not the point here, well it’s not the main point. Do you want Stella and Caterina here?”
“In all honesty, I don’t know if they would come. Maybe Nonna would, but I don’t know if Mamma would, and even if they did, I doubt Nonno would let them.”
“Yeahhhhhh, you’re right. If you want them here, then say the word and I’ll make it happen. Worst-case scenario, Aria said she could get her hands on something to knock Aldo out and get the ladies of the Bonacci clan here. What do you think?”
El’s eyebrows are almost in her hairline as she taps the toe of her shoes, waiting for my answer. “Yeah. Yeah. Let’s invite them. Maybe not the drugging part. I never thought I’d be planning my baby shower without them. It would be nice to have them be a part of it.”
“Love it! Okay, I’m going to shoot off some ideas and you can veto or approve of anything. The small details will have to be a surprise. Deal?”
El continues to list off ideas, which all sound perfect. I told El she could do what she wants and I’ll show up. By the end of the day, El has my baby shower planned, including several ideas to get the house void of men. I’d like to see how that goes with Alessandro.
After El leaves, I’m left in the kitchen, feeding my cheese cravings when Alessandro wraps his arms around me, holding my belly protectively.
“Is the baby shower planned?”
“Yes. I told El to make most of it a surprise. She did say that boys aren’t allowed because baby showers aren’t for boys.”
He stiffens at my last statement. “Excuse me?”
