*Olivia*
I huddled into Gio to escape the pouring rain and stared into the face of Elena, our surrogate who had been missing for countless hours. She looked exhausted, and the skin around her eyes was puffy in a way I knew ant she had been crying.
Unlike the increasingly fancy dresses she’d been sporting of late, she wore a pair of pink sweatpants that strained to contain her stomach and a loose gray T-shirt that draped off one shoulder. Her mouth fell open as she saw us standing there, and a hint of a blush colored her cheeks.
“How did you...?” she asked.
Emotions warred within . I’d been so angry with her lately, so isolated in my feeling like she was stealing my husband. But seeing her now, with my baby still safe in her stomach, emotional and unpolished for maybe the first ti since we t, the feeling I got when I first saw her in the surrogate agency sprang to the surface once more.
I’d talked a big ga to Gio at ho, but until that mont, I’d struggled to not feel like his way might be best. As she swiped at her eyes and let her gaze wander between us, I felt like we’d been crying the sa tears on different sides of the city.
Gio shook his head. “Friend of a friend. Do you mind if we co in? We’d like to talk.”
Elena opened and closed her mouth a few tis, but finally stepped silently back from the door. I entered first, and Gio followed after, shaking off our umbrella and leaving in the front room.
“Um,” Elena said. “I guess we can talk in the kitchen. I just started so tea.”
She took off down a narrow, tiled hall, and I trailed after her. She didn’t seem aggressive, and I saw no signs of the potential violence Gio was worried about. In fact, it looked like a normal ho with a cluster of rooms and a few pieces of art on the wall. When we arrived in the kitchen, it had the sa terracotta tile floor as the entryway and just enough space for a four-person table in addition to the counter and appliances.
Elena fiddled with a steel kettle on the stove as Gio and I sat.
“It’ll take a second to boil, but, um... do you want any?”
Gio shook his head.
“A warm beverage would be nice in this weather,” I said. “Thank you.”
She nodded jerkily and ca to stand next to the chair. “There’s only black tea here.”
I smiled. “That sounds perfect.”
“So...” she said. “What now? You drag back to the mansion? You tell you don’t want to see until I hand over the baby? You bring in a team of lawyers to sue into oblivion for disappearing?”
I shook my head and spread my hands on the table. “We’re here to talk. Honest. I think we all went into this with good intentions, and it seems like those got lost along the way. I—we want to see if we can get back to a good place.”
She exhaled unevenly. “Really? No swift, punitive action? I saw your cousin outside.”
“I told him to be subtle,” Gio muttered under his breath.
That got a choked laugh out of Elena. “Not so much on the subtle front. For a minute there, I thought you were calling in so kind of mafia hit on .”
Gio and I exchanged glances and laughed loud and long. After a mont, Elena joined in, and a little of the tension eased. She was making a joke, but she had no idea how close to the truth it was.
She sat. “Okay, let’s talk then. I’ll go first.” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry I ran away. I really thought I was picking up on sothing between us, and when you shot down, I was beyond embarrassed. Literally, the second after it happened, I realized how delusional I must have seed. I couldn’t face anyone, and I couldn’t co up with another way to handle things, but I bet that was probably really scary.”
She dropped a hand to her stomach, and I let the fear of her disappearance really crash over for the first ti. Tears welled in my eyes and fell quickly. I swiped them away and swallowed, but I couldn’t stop them entirely.
Our baby had disappeared, just like I feared, but here he was, back where I could see and touch him–or at least his safe cocoon. Everything would be okay.
Gio grabbed my hand. “Scary is kind of an understatent. We had no idea where to look, no idea what you were thinking. I thought you might be planning sothing drastic.”
She buried her head in her hands. “Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I didn’t want you to find . I just felt so stupid.” She shook her head. “‘Felt,’ ha. I still feel stupid.”
The kettle whistled, and Elena started to stand, but I beat her to it.
“Rest,” I said. “Where’re the mugs?”
She pointed to a cabinet where I found them, and I poured us two mugs of black tea.
She wrapped her hands around hers quickly, as if she needed the warmth. “Can I just ask one selfish question?”
I bit my lip and looked at Gio. He shrugged at .
“Okay,” I said finally.
She turned to Gio. “You took on walks, you learned about my interests, you bought everything I halfway hinted at wanting. Why did you do that if you didn’t feel anything for ?”
I turned to face him as well. He scrubbed a hand across his face and sighed.
“To be honest, Elena, I thought of it as taking care of the baby,” he said. “I beca so focused on that, I forgot to consider how my actions could be perceived from the outside. I’m sorry if I encouraged this, directly or indirectly, at any point.”
She nodded slowly and stared into her mug of tea. “So you really never liked .”
“I think you’re a charming young woman,” he said. “And I’d like to discuss Rossellini’s work with you soti, if we can get this back on track. But I never felt anything more than friendship and gratitude.”
Elena swiped away a tear. “Okay. I can handle that. I can get over this.” She turned to . “I’m not sure I’m ever going to be done apologizing to you for this.”
I bit my lip. This Elena seed so much more real than any other ti we’d spoken, and I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, but I’d spent the last five months in varying states of extre emotional distress.
I ran my thumb over the chipped handle of my mug. “Can I ask what changed? I really believed we were on a good track at the beginning there.”
She laughed wetly. “I kinda wish I knew. I can’t pinpoint a mont, but I can tell you what happened in my head.” She rubbed her neck. “I’ve always wanted a family, but I’m not in a place where I’m gonna be able to do that any ti soon. Forget having a guy in my life; I don’t have the money to support anyone other than myself. My mom can’t retire yet because I can’t help her out. I just got jealous. There you were, a girl just like , with everything. I thought you wouldn’t mind losing one thing.”
I swallowed heavily. I knew that jealousy, to so extent. In low monts in high school and middle school, I’d caught myself thinking similar things about Dahlia here and there. It was hard, when it felt like the world dealt you a crap hand, not to resent people who had been dealt better ones sotis.
“I’m sorry about that,” I said slowly. “I know I got really lucky, and I hope you get a break soon. But Gio—and this baby—are everything to . I could lose the house, the clothes, the money tomorrow, and I’d still be happy if I still had them.”
She shook her head and took a sip of her tea. “You know, I really believe that’s true.”
Gio squeezed my hand, and I smiled up at him.
“So I’m sorry.” She put the mug down but kept her hands around it. “It was a shitty thing to do regardless, and I based it on wrong assumptions and my emotions.”
I looked into her eyes. She looked emotional, a little bit heartbroken, but there was none of that carefulness I’d seen in her of late, the carefulness that set Alessandro off at the beginning of everything.
I owed him an apology, once we got out of here.
I nodded. “I accept your apology. We need to figur out how to get back to a semblance of normalcy. I have also made so stupid choices when my emotions were involved, but there’s a baby at stake here.”
“Yes,” Gio said. “Now that we’ve got everything out in the open, we’d like to see if there’s a way we can move forward with this relationship.”
Elena inhaled deeply. “Wow.” She blinked a few tis. “I kinda thought you wouldn’t want anything to do with after that, and I wouldn’t see you until delivery day. Um. Okay. Yeah, let’s see if we can figure this out.” She offered a watery smile. “I liked it when we were friends.”
The months of simring resentnt and day drinking while she flirted with my husband rushed back to . I took a sip of tea, searing the inside of my mouth. I believed she was sorry, and holding onto the grudge would only bother in the long run, but I didn’t think I could be friends just yet.
Gio picked up on my hesitation. “Honestly, we think it might be better to set up a functional working relationship before we try for personal ones.”
Elena nodded and leaned back, a blush coloring her cheeks. “Yeah, of course.”
“I’m not saying we can never be friends again!” I blurted. “I just... need a little ti. I had a pretty rough few months of it, and I’m not sure how quickly I can get over that anger, even though I forgive you.”
She nodded slowly and sat forward again. “Okay. That makes sense.” She swallowed. “If we’re working on our professional relationship, then I think we can’t touch each other for a while. Or at least, not without the person being touched offering to be touched, with full right of refusal to the other party.” Elena shrugged. “When I started showing, Gio—vani started putting his hands on my stomach, and that opened the door for a lot of other things.”
My heart broke a little. I wanted to feel my baby kick, wanted to lean close and croon so it knew my voice. But I nodded.
“That makes sense.” Gio’s voice sounded rough with unshed tears, and I knew his thoughts had gone where mine did.
“And I think we should et outside of your house,” she continued. “It’s a beautiful place, and that makes it hard not to be jealous of.”
“Alright,” I said. “I have a few ideas of my own, if you’re willing to hear them.”
***
We left the house a few hours later, having agreed on a whole new set of rules for everybody’s conduct. The rain had cleared to a light shower, and the setting sun peeked through the clouds, illuminating the droplets in golden light. I shook my head when Gio went to open the umbrella and stepped out into the storm.
Warm rain t my skin, and I took a deep breath with my eyes closed. Elena was safe. Our baby was safe. And finally, finally, everybody agreed the way we’d been treating each other couldn’t continue.
Gio stepped up behind and wrapped his arms around my waist. He felt warm and solid against my back, a bulwark against whatever showers ca with our sun.
“She’s due in four months,” he murmured in my ear. “We have to start getting ready.”
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