Joy wasn’t one of the popular girls, but she had a lot of friends from all walks of life. Why was Tony asking her to dance? He must have lost a bet.
In his arms, though, Joy didn’t care about the reason. All she cared about was how tall he was, his dark blonde hair, slim, muscular torso underneath his sweater, and his scent.
Polo cologne.
“Thanks again for helping me with my chemistry homework,” he said.
“No problem,” Joy replied without looking up at him. Instead she glanced around the gymnasium. Girls smiled at her and giggled. Her friends flashed her a thumbs-up as they stood by the bleachers, cheering for her.
So that’s why he asked me to dance. To thank me. She rolled her eyes. A pity dance.
“I honestly don’t think I would have passed that class without your help,” he continued.
Finally, Joy allowed herself to look into his eyes. His light hazel eyes. “You’re welcome.”
And that was it.
She was hooked. She was his.
Tony asked her out a few days later, and they spent every day of Christmas break together.
Months later, after graduation, Tony proposed, and two and a half years after that high school dance, Joy and Tony married.
He had a football scholarship but gave it up for an academic scholarship to Penn State, so Joy followed him and studied art.
After Jaime was born, Joy devoted her life to making a home for her little family. Tony’s brilliance and charisma always worked in his favor, and soon he had his own consulting business, making millions of dollars a year.
Now in Venice, Joy wrapped herself in a soft hotel robe and rested on the bed, reflecting on those early years in her marriage.
The years she lost herself and her identity. She willingly handed it over to other people and too often.
Tony’s success moved them to New Rochelle, New York, where Jaime attended a posh private school and then entered Rhode Island School of Design to study photography. Life was good.
Joy thought back to her time in the Junior League and other women’s groups, women’s ministry at church, golfing with Tony and couples from his work, entertaining at their house in New Rochelle and at their beach home in Morehead City, North Carolina. Christmas parties, New Year’s Eve parties, birthday parties, and on it went for decades.
A perfect life.
A perfect couple.
Looking back, Joy thought she was happy back then. But soon she realized she was blinded.
Blinded by the prosperity.
Blinded to what Tony was doing behind her back.
Blinded to how she had lost herself.
Blinded to how she put God last.
“Ugh. How could I have been so stupid?” Joy punched a pillow. “No. I won’t do this to myself. I won’t revisit the past. Why go backwards when I can’t change anything?” she said to no one.
She rushed to the window and opened the shutters, revealing nightfall over Venice. Italian music from the café below rose to greet her, as did conversations in Italian between patrons. The ocean breeze fluttered through the lace curtains and blew her brown hair away from her concerned face, relaxing her expression.
Easing her mind.
I won’t let this man ruin my time in Venice like I let him ruin so many other things. I feel badly about him and Tiffany, but that’s that. She inhaled and slowly exhaled the stress.
Her phone vibrated, startling her.
Before answering, she checked if it was Tony. A smile came to her face when Jaime’s name appeared.
“Hi, sweetie.”
“Mom, please don’t be mad.”
“I’m not mad, honey.” She rubbed her forehead. “A little shocked, but not mad.”
“He called me and told me he needed to see you, that he was already in Italy, so I just . . . I didn’t think there’d be any harm in you two talking about things.”
Joy sensed stress in her daughter’s voice. Familiar stress.
Jaime had been inadvertently placed in the middle during the divorce. Joy had no issue with Tony marrying Tiffany, but Jaime did. She resented her father’s actions. But Joy also knew Jaime projected her anger toward Carl, her ex-fiancé who had jilted her, onto her father.
Still, as an only child, the divorce left Jaime shattered and afraid.
Afraid she’d lose her family.
“Honey, don’t worry. I’ll talk with him tomorrow, okay? It feels strange seeing him here, I’ll admit that.”
