Tony's Tale Ch. 02

So of course, my parents welcomed her with open arms. The one subject that I got her to agree to was never to discuss or even hint at romance. It was natural I suppose that some people would think that there had to be something going on between us, because she was so much like Helen.

The problem as far as I was concerned though, was that she was absolutely nothing like Helen, because where it mattered the most, Celine ran away, Helen did not. To me that meant everything.

A hurdle that came up unexpectedly was Vanessa. Her dislike of Celine was almost violent, and became something of a major discomfort for me.

She was only hostile towards Celine in front of me and out of earshot from everyone else. Whoever else talked about her was encouraged by Vanessa to go into details, so she always presented a serene and caring front. Even when she was in Celine's presence, she was a sterling example of a warm and caring friend.

When we were alone though she refused to hear a single word about her, stating she had more important things to think about than some tramp pretending to be Helen. I would have taken offence, but she really didn't look like she was messing around. Her dislike was real.

The one time I tried to coax anything out of Vanessa by insisting she tell me what her problem was, she gave me a funny look, quietly called me a bastard and locked herself in the bathroom to begin her nightly ablutions. Clearly I was dismissed. Steph and I looked at one another in confusion for a moment and shrugged. We went back to playing GTA 4 on his PS3.

About six months after Celine's dramatic appearance she called a family meeting at her place, which was a huge penthouse apartment in upscale Rushcutters Bay as she had some sort of announcement to make.

We were all invited, from my parents to Vanessa, Joey and my brothers and their wives and kids. We numbered around forty five people, and yet her place still seemed as though it could hold many more. It was massive, with a rooftop terrace that suited our gathering perfectly.

Everyone seemed in good spirits, except for Vanessa, who was in a particularly foul mood and was snappy at just about everyone. Even Steph was not immune to her considerable ire. He found shelter behind me, but offered no insight into his mother's mood. He was just as confused as the rest of us.

I kept him beside me and kept throwing one-liners at him till I had him in fits of laughter. Vanessa almost cracked a smile at one point, but looked up at me, frowned and turned away. At least she was civil towards Celine, given it was her party.

After we'd all been fed, Celine stood at the head of the table and called out to us as she was about to speak, requesting everyone make their way back to their own seats. Vanessa looked like she was going to be sick. I pulled her aside for a moment and just as she was about to snap at me I grabbed her wrist firmly and lifted to ensure I had her undivided attention.

"Let go of my fucking hand." She hissed.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong." I lifted the back of my free hand and felt her forehead for temperature. "Are you sick? Do you want me to take you to a Doctor? Tell me what's wrong?"

After staring into my eyes for a long moment, she visibly relaxed and looked as though she was about to say something important, when Con's wife Margaret appeared right next to us and asked if she was ok.

Vanessa looked at both of us, put on a brave face and smiled. "I'm ok guys, really. I think I was coming down with something, but I feel better now. Really, I'm ok."

Neither Margaret nor I believed her for a second, but we had to accept it unless we were going to miss Celine's speech.

She turned quickly and made her way back to her seat, as I was shamefully caught by my sister in law admiring Vanessa's amazing back side. Margaret gave me a sly, knowing kind of grin, made the 'shhh' sign by putting her forefinger to her mouth and moved away to her own seat.

Now that was embarrassing.

Back at the table, Steph was eyeing his mother curiously, and my brothers were pretending that they were ancient kung fu grandmasters battling it out for supremacy while sitting next to each other. Joey was standing over them, throwing a slap in there every now and then, while his mum was standing behind him smacking him in the head trying to get him to behave. Some things never change. Feeling left out, my father threw a bread roll at Tom's head and told him to sit and behave. I had to laugh, it really was very funny.

"Thank you for coming today everyone, this is a very important occasion for me, and I wanted you all to be the first to know and hopefully wish me luck." Celine looked happily at all the faces around the table. "I've spoken to my parents."

Everyone erupted together. Her story was common knowledge by now, and Celine made no secret of the fact that she wanted to be part of a family now with a passion. She knew that her first real steps were to reconcile with her own parents first. Quickly the table fell silent again, looking at Celine to continue.

"I've sold my chambers, quitting work and am going to France. I'm going to live with my parents for a while." She was looking at me as she spoke with pride, and I could see she was starting to cry. "I can't believe my mother said she forgave me."

She turned around then and was weeping into her hands as everyone suddenly got up to be around her. She found me as I was standing right next to her by then, and fell into my chest crying gently. Tears of joy? I couldn't pretend to know what was going through her mind at that moment. I'd imagine it would probably be a bunch of ambivalent emotions but ultimately, I thought she was doing a very brave thing. Both for herself and for her folks.

"I still blame you." She said quietly and gave me a light peck on the lips before stepping away to be with the others.

Vanessa held back and watched me carefully, almost as though she was trying to make up her mind about something. Tom stood next to her and offered her a hug, which she accepted gratefully, all the time staring at me. She was starting to freak me out a bit, so I walked over to my mother and talked to her for a while about Celine's upcoming trip.

Joey started whining then about how hard it was to find a good, stable barrister, and everyone laughed.

Vanessa made her way quietly to my side and took my hand into hers. I didn't know what to say to her so I remained silent. She did too, which only confused me further. My mother smiled at Vanessa, but was then almost bowled over by my five year old niece. Her three year old sister didn't want to be left out so she grabbed onto my leg as though it was a tree stump. I bent down to pick her up, but Vanessa wouldn't let go of my hand. So I had to lift her with one arm only, and did everything in my power to not analyze why Vanessa didn't want to let go.

We went around then talking to anyone that would listen, while Vanessa stayed glued to my side. Joey just laughed at me as he was walking by with his wife but kept arguing with Teresa about the weather in the south of France at this time of the year.

During a quiet lull in the party, a fair while after I'd lost my niece to her mother; I pulled Vanessa closer to me and asked her if she was feeling better now.

"Oh yes, absolutely. I had some heartburn probably from something I couldn't digest, but the queasiness seems to have gone away all of a sudden."

"Babe, stop bullshitting me, there's something else going on here, I know."

"Oh yeah? What do you know dumbass?"

"Nothing yet. But I'll figure this out soon, and then..."

"What?"

I just attacked her sides then, tickling her knowing her reactions to be severe. I have never met anyone quite as ticklish as Vanessa.

"Huhh! promises, promises..." She squealed, running away from me into the crowd.

A few days later, I received a call from one of my sisters-in-law.

Margaret was particularly close to Vanessa, as she had a daughter at about the same time Vanessa had Steph. She asked me over for a coffee and a chat.

I acquiesced and bought along the superfluous packet of Tim Tams for which I knew she had a passion, yet always tried to resist. She laughed opening the door eyeing the biscuits, and led me to her dining room where she had the coffee already prepared.

"I'm just happy that you're coming out of your shell finally and I wanted to catch up with you." She still had a big grin on her face which slowly faded, as she focused intently on my eyes.

"We want to see you smile again Tony. We love you very much. I can only imagine how hard things have been for you recently and I felt the time was far overdue for me to pull my finger out, and try to get you out of your cave for a bit. I agreed with Vanessa a long time ago that she would check on you periodically rather than me. I just didn't want to come across as too clingy and smothering. Con agreed, but only reluctantly. I told him that you still needed your space. I dunno, I'll never forgive myself if we seemed to you like we were pulling away..." She looked down then, quite unsure of herself all of a sudden. This was very unusual for her.

"Jesus Muggie, you guys have all been absolutely perfect. I don't ever want to hear you talking like that again. Is that clear?"

She brightened up at that, and seemed very relieved.

"Yeah, I hope so. Besides," She said with a sly grin. "You could do worse than having Vanessa wait on you, hand and foot."

I didn't know how to respond to this without tipping her any hint one way or another so I remained as neutral as possible. It was hard. She could tell.

"Anyway," she continued without making her veiled enquiry too obvious "Tom thought that you might find it easier talking to a female rather than one of the boys." She took a Tim Tam, dipped it into her coffee, and took a bite big enough to finish half the biscuit. I laughed at her with that, and she almost spat the thing out while coughing and sputtering and laughing at herself. She cleared her throat before continuing, still laughing.

"I had a nice long chat to Vanessa last night, and she was absolutely thrilled to see someone vaguely resembling the old you at Celine's place." She paused and looked at me again. "So what happened? Did you finally decide to join us party animals again?" Her smile was big and genuine and I could feel the concern radiating off her, so I let it all out.

I told her everything, about the sadness and loneliness, the nightmares, about Christine and The Door That Must Never Be Opened and finally about Celine's sudden appearance.

She was magnificent. Didn't say a word, asked no stupid questions and let me finish, only occasionally asking the briefest of questions that clarified whatever didn't make sense to her. She took my hand and affectionately called me an idiot again, this time making it obvious that she was only upset because I didn't share my difficulties with her sooner. Did I mention before how much I loved my family?

Margaret then began to make silly little jokes at my expense and then threw a couple in there about herself and my brother, and bit by bit, without my realizing quite how it happened, she had the both of us laughing so hard we were having problems breathing. Then she took it up a notch and started with the rest of the family and some of our closer friends, all the time doing impersonations and matching their voices and mannerisms wonderfully. By this time Con and their daughter Caterina came home, and joined the fun.

Caterina was a master of impersonations, better even than her mother. When she did her father, my brother Con though, and followed up with my mother, I thought I was going to pass out. It was perfect. He lit up the barbeque, and I have to say, that afternoon and night turned into one of the most memorable meals of my life. I felt reborn.

I spent the following week catching up with the rest of the family and kept myself busy not thinking of Vanessa. Her fortieth birthday party was coming up soon, and I found that she was by now almost constantly on my mind.

The night of her party arrived on a sultry Saturday night in November. With summer just around the corner I was looking forward to the beach weather ahead. This year I might take advantage of it and actually go.

The club was pumping when I arrived, as is always the case for me. I could never manage to get to a place during a quiet lull. It's just my luck to always be at the back of the line, adding to my nerves. I spotted Steph and my niece Caterina in the line and they dropped back a few places to join me and keep my spirits up.

They obviously drove here together which meant that Vanessa was probably running late. Or maybe she was already inside dancing with some guy. He's probably charming her with his rapier like wit, and is probably just that shade more her type than maybe some loser like me. She probably wouldn't want me barging in and interfering with her fun. Yeah, that's probably what was happening. I thought I'd better just go quietly so that I didn't embarrass her or myself.

Caterina was expecting this as she knew how unsettling I found lines. She was waiting for me when I turned around to leave and forcefully pushed me forward.

We eventually joined the party inside and it looked like it was going to be a big night. I was looking around at the other guests when I spotted her across the room as though it was the first time I'd ever seen her.

The solitary saxophone was producing a smoky film noir experience as I made her out in a pale green cocktail dress with a split up the side that verged on the illegal. Surely it was some kind of enslaving device for men. It would only take a glance. It was cut in such a fashion so as to accentuate the contour of her hips where they met with her narrow waist with deep and impossible angles. Her legs went on for miles. The arch of lower back made me weak at the knees.

But to stop here would be criminal, and so the visual journey continued while the saxophone screamed.

The silky material was cut low enough at the bust to tease mercilessly, her wondrous deep cleavage frustratingly concealed, yet exhibiting just enough to forever ensnare any hapless male that miraculously escaped the initial view of those legs. I wanted to weep.

I didn't think I could stand anymore, but then I saw her face. And as the song went, 'now I'm a believer.'

With curves that were breathtaking, hair immaculate, movement graceful, liquid and smooth, I was without a doubt looking at the most spectacular woman there. It wasn't a fair competition that night, even to girls half her age, but then how could it be? This was Vanessa.

What the hell was I doing? Why was I thinking of her like this? I was waxing poetic, slipping away. I had to get a drink!

I jerked around to look for the bar behind me and almost knocked over her son Steph. He was grinning widely, and nudging Caterina. They were both watching me. Busted.

"What's getting you so worked up?" He asked, knowing exactly what or more accurately, who I was looking at.

"Nothing." Man, was I on fire!

"So you're calling mum a thing are you? And a no-thing at that, eh?" His grin just got bigger. "I'm sure she'll be thrilled." He was laughing at me now, picking on me.

"Oh? Your mum's here already? Where is she?" I was fucked now. Totally.

"I'm not as dumb as you look, Tony." Playing dumb was probably the wrong tactic.

"No, you're a very clever little shi ... boy, aren't you?"

"Observant too!" He smiled knowingly.

"Really? Great. Anyhoo, it's been fun, let talk again soon ok?" Escape wasn't going to work, but I was going to try.

"Oh yes, we can see lots of things, pretty funny stuff too." Caterina said, totally ignoring my last comment. Again, typical teenagers these days ignoring their elders like that. "Like all those losers trying to get that lady's attention over there."

She pointed towards Vanessa, before Steph nudged her and told her to stop being so obvious. Obvious? About what? But before I could enquire, I noticed that sure enough Vanessa was surrounded by three guys who were hitting on her. Not too forcefully, just playfully enough to remain entertaining.

Steph was still grinning, not at all concerned for his mothers' safety. I was infuriated on the inside, but I couldn't advertise my weakness.

"Oh yeah, there she is, I might go say hello later..." I was trying to act and sound cool.

Just then she lifted her eyes and looked straight at me. The temperature in the room rose ten degrees.

The music changed then to a Spanish motif, and she smiled big as she started moving towards us. The guys she was talking to looked at each other in surprise. She stopped with a small frown after a few feet, returned to her crowd and must have apologized to them before she started back towards us. I enjoyed watching her graceful movements way too much I think.

I don't know what she said to them but they just shrugged, smiled, and moved away to another table. She winked at her son and Caterina as they moved away and turned her attention to me while she stood for a moment, three feet away. Her smile more intimate and knowing, her eyes full of gentle laughter.

We took a small step each and connected. In my arms I could feel the gentlest quiver. She was laughing but very quietly, still trembling, as though she didn't want to share our moment with anyone else. Her embrace was warm and exciting. Familiar, comfortable and close. I was a mess, and, well ... enthused. We didn't exactly kiss, but there was a smooth shift while we were touching cheek to cheek and our slightly opened lips met gently for a few heartbeats.

Her belly came into contact with my discomfort and she looked up at me in mock horror. Obviously she was enjoying her effect on me, tightening our embrace and adding considerably to my eternal embarrassment. She released me, but stayed very close and whispered to me that it might be a good idea if she acted as a shield to protect my dignity.

She turned around then and proceeded to not move away. To not give me a chance to regain my composure. Damn. She pushed herself backwards onto me instead, so she was pressed snugly against me. This made things so much worse. Think of an erupting volcano.

Maybe she was just getting comfortable, but she was doing me no favors. I closed my eyes and focused everything I had into maintaining my decorum. I was failing. She leaned her shoulders into my chest so our bodies were making the most possible contact, every contour of hers connecting with me. I went back to focusing on my control.

She guided my arms loosely around her so that my palms were resting on the gentle curve of her smooth belly and coolly began chatting to one of my brothers who happened to approach at that moment; as if we were all just standing around talking about our taxes. How the Hell do chicks do that? So fucking cool.

Tom looked over and greeted me as casually as though I wasn't holding the most precious creature that ever lived. Could he not see how flustered I was? Couldn't anyone?

As he moved away to the bar, Vanessa turned her head back and looked into my eyes. She didn't say anything, just smiled and turned back to look at the crowd.

It occurred to me then that my being this close to her didn't mean a lot to the others there tonight, because this is pretty much the way we've always been. The affection we've had for one another over the years was always a close, but safe, familial kind of affection, never coming close to crossing the boundaries we were tearing towards at full steam on this night.

There were two major symbiotic issues at play that night that made all the difference though. Firstly, was my state of mind. I was starting to think of Vanessa as something more than a good friend. Nothing was exactly formulated in the way of direction or of possible future developments, just a real warm and fuzzy feeling that I was trying very hard not to analyze.