“She’s my mother-in-law, Reen.”
“And your mother-in-law is the devil.”
“Rena please. She’s not so bad-”
“Does she know you’re a black girl, yet?”
“Rena-”
“Does she?”
“No.”
“Why? If she’s not so bad, why not?”
Giselle left her desk, wringing her hands just a little. “We just haven’t gotten around to it yet, is all-”
“Haven’t gotten around to telling that cold bitch, her new, favorite daughter-in-law is colored.”
Giselle bristled. “That doesn’t have anything to do with a family dinner.”
“How can you say that?”
“Rena, this is about mending bridges between Gabe and his brothers. One slice of drama at a time.”
“And after that drama is done? What next?” Rena’s expression cleared when her friend didn’t answer. “You don’t care if she knows, do you? You don’t care if any of his family knows.”
Giselle began to pace the cramped space of cubicles where the library’s reference assistants worked. She and Rena had the spot to themselves for the time being.
“Humphrey comes here a lot to work, not um...I don’t think it has anything to do with Tesano,” she bit her lip and was quiet for a long moment. “He’s studying eugenics, lots of superior race stuff.”
“Evil bastard,” Rena sneered, clutching a small fist. “I always knew he was a horse’s ass of the highest caliber.”
“He’s not evil, Rena. He’s...damaged somehow. He’s-”
“He’s dangerous G.G.. Anybody who reads crap like that has to be.”
“My point is, if the truth comes out and Humphrey and his mother act in a way Gabe can’t accept... where does that leave him? He’s already on the outs with half his brothers. I don’t want him losing touch with anymore of his family.”
Rena’s large, expressive brown eyes reflected adoration. “An angel, through and through,” she pursed her lips briefly and then sighed. “Your plan is very self sacrificing, Guy. I gotta hand it to you. Just one thing-what happens when Gabriel gets you pregnant?”
Once more, Giselle bristled. “That hasn’t happened.”
Rena laughed abruptly. “Not for lack of trying, I’m sure.”
“Maybe I can’t get pregnant.”
“Is that what you want?”
Giselle gave a quirky tilt of her head. “It could be a blessing in disguise.”
“That’s not what I asked you.”
“No that’s not what I want! Are you crazy?” Giselle stalked the room then, frustration fueling the drags her fingers made through her hair and the quick pass they took down the sides of her pencil slim khaki skirt. Finally, she perched on the corner of her supervisor’s desk at the end of the cubicle row.
“I’m happier than I’ve ever been, Rena and that terrified me.”
“Honey why?” Rena looked stricken.
“Because no one should be this happy. I know I’m getting more than my fair share and even still, I know there’s more happiness I haven't experienced. The kind that comes with having a child of my own. That would be the ultimate.”
A new kind of realization set in for Rena. “And you think happiness would end?”
Giselle left the desk and started walking the small room again. “It’s all about balance, isn’t it? How can a person experience joy before the scales get tipped? Before it all becomes a nightmare?”
~28~
“So we have service, I see.”
Rosella waited until Bianca Marsala finished the call, to make her presence known. The older woman appeared shaken when she put the receiver back into its cradle with an unsteady hand.
“You surprised me, Rosella.”
Rosella was moving toward the phone. One hand was pressed to her lower belly, now more noticeably swollen with the child growing inside her. “This is wonderful,” she said.
Bianca eased the phone out of Rosella’s reach and clutched it to her small bosom. “The service is still out of sorts,” she said.
“May I see that for myself?” Rosella huffed when Bianca didn’t appear ready to give over the phone. “I want my mother here,” she said.
