“I don’t see what difference that makes. I doubt that he told you that he was looking for love and didn’t know how to recognize it until he met me.” Her voice was echoed as all three of them mimicked the very same sentence verbatim. I could tell that Julia was stunned. She thought that she was special enough for him to treat her differently than others.
“We’ve all heard that before and it’s his way of lowering our guard. I fell for it myself. I look back and I think how stupid I was to give him that kind of power over me. Don’t you see that he has learned to weasel his way into our lives? You can’t be that out of touch with reality that you don’t understand that he’s a loser. He only needs to give us one look and we follow him like he’s some sort of pied piper. I don’t blame you for feeling this deeply and I still do in some regard.” It was nice to see that they were talking and not screaming at each other. Lillian had now lowered her register and was touching Julia’s hand. She was giving her a reason to grieve for a relationship that never was.
“You all took a huge risk by coming to me for help. My plan was to meet him and then strike up a conversation, but things didn’t go exactly as I intended. He followed you and then confronted me where I worked.” I could tell that they were not happy with this new set of circumstances. “I convinced him that you were all there to warn me about him. I had to do some fancy footwork, but I let him know that I would be responsible for how I perceived him. I told him that I would not allow anybody to run his name through the mud.” They listened intently without saying one word.
“I knew that there was a reason why we came to you. There’s no way that either one of us could have done any better than what you did. I think that it goes without saying that we need to be united. If there is a weak link, then we need to either fix it or forget this whole thing.” It was obvious that her comments were meant for Julia.
We all turned and looked at her at the same time, putting her in our cross hairs and giving her a reason to throw her hands up in defeat. “I don’t see how you are going to make me forget about how nice he can be. There’s no way that you can take away how gentle a lover or how he brought the woman out of me too many times to count.” They had similar stories and I was running high with a temperature of 101 between my legs. I could see myself testing their theory and seeing if it held true.
I could smell the fragrance of Italian meatballs in the air. These were women after my own heart and had an affinity for Italian Food. I hadn’t told them anything about my heritage, but I was quite pleased that they had made something that would whet my appetite for the revenge that they were seeking.
“I don’t know how you can expect me to go along with this. All of you must know that it’s wrong to play with somebody’s life. Need I remind you that he didn’t force us to do anything against our will?” This was a woman of reason, but she was only making excuses for a man that was more dangerous than those that lurked outside of windows.
“The only thing that I want you to do, Julia is to let this play out for a little while longer. I’m sure that you can find something to occupy your time. The one thing that you can’t do is dwell on this or it’s going to drive you up the wall.” Lillian knew what she was talking about and she was suffering by keeping this from her husband.
I told them about how I had made him wait and then accidentally ran into him at the market. This was the first time that I saw Julia smile, but it didn’t last for any more than a fraction of a second. I could see that she was still on the fence. Her feelings for him had not gone away and it didn’t matter how he had literally cut her out of his life by not answering her phone calls. It should have been clear to her when the voice came back as out of service. It was obvious to me that he had to break his contract and get another phone and number to go along with it.
“I smell something good in the kitchen. We might be able to see things differently on a full stomach.” I was trying to keep things cordial and decided to change the subject.
Lillian motioned for us to follow and then we walked into a dining room that was perfectly placed. Everything was where it was supposed to be and we all sat down as Lillian came over and served us rigatoni with meatballs and a sauce that obviously came from the empty bottle of Catelli on the counter.
We all raised our glasses and toasted to a sisterhood and a bond that could not be broken by the mere presence of a pretty face and body to match. “I want to take this opportunity to make you a solemn vow that I will not give up. This has become just as important to me as it has to all of you.” What I wasn’t telling them was that I was actually looking forward to seeing him again.