You Hold My Heart [Re-done]

Chapter Eleven

How do you tell someone their entire life is about to change? How do you tell your boyfriend of less than a year that he is now going to be bound to you forever? How do you acknowledge that there is another life being brought here completely by accident? In my case, I don't. I carried around my secret for two weeks. Everyday Rochel asked me, "Did you tell him?" and everyday I had to say no. On my last day before the trip to Italy, Rochel sat me down.

"Why haven't you told him?"

"I don't know how! It's... it isn't easy."

"Listen to me, I will tell you what isn't easy. It isn't easy to be dumped two weeks before Valentines day by your boss, for his ex-wife, and still having to come to work every day. It isn't easy that you lost your parents. A child is a gift. This is the easiest thing in the world. Now man up and tell him!" Rochel said, firmly. I looked at my hands. She was right.

"Okay. I will. This weekend, I will." She looked at my imploringly. "I promise, okay!" Rochel sighed.

"I swear to God, Kira. I will kill you, if you don't." She sat back in her cubicle and I put my head down on the desk.

Geno slept the whole plane ride, and I felt consistently sick. I was so nervous. When we landed, our villa was beautiful. It was made from white stone and had a view of a perfect blue sea. In the morning, we walked along the beach. We had pizza, we made wine. The next day we visited the Uffizi gallery. We went to cathedrals and little coffee shops. We made love more times than I bothered to count. Everywhere we went, Geno tried the spaghetti. On our last night, we sat in a quiet little restaurant. The man we rented the Villa from had assured us it was the best spaghetti in Italy. Geno took a huge bite, thought for a minute and shook his head.

"Mario is still better. Better than Italy! Can you imagine?" I laughed at Geno's amazement. We went home the next morning and I still hadn't told him. I was terrified to face Rochel, so I vowed to myself I would tell him at home.

"Nice to be home, I like Italy though," Geno said as we walked from the car to the house. I opened the door first, it was open.

"Geno, the door was unlock--" I stopped. There was a blonde woman I had never seen before sitting in red lingerie on the stairs. She was posing, waiting for us to come through.

"Oh my God," slipped out of my mouth.

"Holly! What are you doing here?" Geno exclaimed.

"Who is this?" Holly said, standing up.

"My girlfriend!"

"Girlfriend? Geno, since when?"

"Holly, I not see you in months!" I felt tears welling up in my eyes.

"What the fuck?" I whispered softly. The world definitley works in mysterious ways.  I pushed past Holly, storming upstairs. I locked myself in the bathroom. I turned the bath on, I didn't want to listen to them. I felt tears storming out of my eyes. I hadn't realized it but I had imagined Evgeni spending forever with me and the baby. Now I felt like that was gone. I climbed into the tub, trying not to sob. I could hear Geno yelling downstairs. He almost never rose his voice. Actually, the only time I had ever heard him yell was at Denis. I dunked my head under the water and screamed. I felt betrayed. Who was this girl?

The front door slammed and I heard feet on the stairs. There was a gentle knocking on the door and then it opened. I sat hunched over, the tip of my nose touching the water.

"Kira, Kira, it's okay."

"No it isn't! Who is she?"

"She's nobody. I haven't seen her in ages. I don't even know how she got in!"