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“And I wanted to ask you about that,” London sipped her iced tea, “why kids and not

grown folk?”

“I have no interest in dressing grown folk.” Zoe defended her choice. “Besides, there are plenty of grown folk clothing lines. I don’t need to add to it.”

“You’ve been talking about this fashion dream of yours for a while now,” London nodded as if she was proving a point, “I’m just sayin’…show it or shut it.”

“I apologize if my dreams of being a fashion designer are getting in the way of you being a stay-at-home NBA wife.” Contempt ran through Zoe’s words as she glared at her sister. “By the way, how is that scoreless streak Marq seems to be on?”

“I thoroughly support Zoe’s dream of becoming a fashion designer,” Aoki cut the building tension between the sisters, “she had always had a knack for fashion and she had coordinated many of my ensembles for dinners and other gatherings. Some people have the talent. Others don’t.”

“Thank you, Mother.” Zoe smiled at her sister. “I’m glad to have someone’s support.”

“But you’re not getting any younger, Zoe Bear,” Aoki warned, “your eggs are gonna

shrivel up and fall out.”

“And here it comes…” Zoe slightly shook her head.

“I’m just saying, you’re not getting any younger. Once a woman reaches a certain age, she’s no longer desirable. She’s considered to be used goods. I mean, your dad got me when I was 22. We dated for years throughout school and we only got married once our careers were established.” Aoki took a bite of food. “For example, we decided we would name our children after places they were conceived in.”

“Okay and that’s enough family conversation for the night,” London pretended she didn’t hear her mother’s revelation, “so Dad, how’s your practice coming along?”

“For example, London was named after the city.” Aoki smiled proudly.

“What was I named after?” Zoe took a bite of food.

“Um, so how are the Lakers doing this year?” Aoki changed the subject.

“You didn’t answer my question, Mommy,” Zoe persisted. “What city is named zoe?”

Aoki sighed. “Well, it wasn’t a city, per se…”

“Per se? Per se?” Zoe questioned. It then dawned on to Zoe what her mother was getting at. “Are you saying I was conceived at the damn zoo?”

Aoki sighed again. “You act like it’s a bad thing.”

“It’s a
good
thing?” Zoe asked. “You got your freak on around the monkeys and elephants?”

“People do it all the time in nature.” Aoki replied. “It’s natural.”

“It’s natural when they’re not at the zoo!” Zoe commented.

****

“I wish I could be like you,” London commented from the doorway.

“What? What are you talking about?” Zoe finished changing Alex’s diaper. After the

entertaining dinner, Zoe watched over her nephew so London could talk with their parents privately. “You have everything you could possibly want.”

“Do I?” London walked into the room.

“Um, yes,” Zoe put Alex’s shorts back on. “You’re married to a NBA player, you have

indispensable wealth at your fingertips, and you have a host of servants to cater to your every whim, not to mention a nanny from my work that helps you out with Alex when you want to go shopping. So yes, I say you do have it made.”

London sat next to her son and smiled down at him. “I wish I would’ve waited.”

“For?”

“Everything?” London looked up at her sister. “I mean, you’re almost 30 and you’re not trying to settle down…”

“Not for lack of trying,” Zoe interrupted, “and thank you for pointing that out…again.”

“But still, you have no one to answer to. If you want to go out and spend thousands of dollars on a new Louis Vuitton, you just do it. If you want to go out and have dinner with a guy friend, you just do it. You have…you have
freedom
.” London forced the words out of her mouth.

“You can do whatever you want with no consequences whatsoever.”

Zoe held Alex and sat next to her sister. “Is there something you want to tell me, London Bridge?”

“You’ve always called that me since we were kids,” London smiled.

“I call you that whenever there’s a problem you want to talk about it but you don’t want to talk about it and I spend the next several minutes pulling your teeth to admit what’s going on in your head.” Zoe looked over at her sister. “Is there something you want to admit? The truth shall set you free.”

“I’m jealous of you,” London admitted.

Zoe scoffed. “Why? You’re the one married to a baller and have a baby.”

“But you pursued your career instead of dropping everything to become a wife and mother.

I foolishly thought I could pick everything back up after I got married. But once we got married, we started having babies on the brain. Then we thought it was going to take a while to get pregnant and it didn’t. It only took a month! One month! So I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just pick things back up when Alex is in daycare’ and it’s like…I wonder if it was too soon for everything.”

“It just sounds like you got the Mommy blues,” Zoe comforted. “Have you talked to Marq about this?”

“I’m afraid to,” London admitted, “he provides everything for me. The chef, the nanny, the shopping sprees…I’m going to sound like an asshole—”

“Shh!” Zoe scolded and covered her hands over Alex’s ears. “Earmuffs!”

“Sorry,” London narrowed her eyes, “don’t get me wrong. I love my son and I love Marq with all of my heart. But if I had to do it all over again, I would’ve waited a bit longer.”

“But hey, sis, things happen for a reason.” Zoe cheered up her sister. “Maybe this is what you needed in your life at this time. I still think you should talk to Marq and see if he’s willing to meet you halfway. I’m sure he won’t mind if you want to pursue a career.”

London leaned on Zoe’s shoulder. “Why are you always so smart?”

“Eh,” Zoe shrugged, “age and experience. Plus, I’ve had the chance to be dumber a lot longer than you have.”

Six

“I see you showed up alone tonight,” Nicola D’Amato handed her son a bowl of salad and smiled at him, “thank you.”

Sunday dinners at Nicola’s house were always entertaining. Between overseeing Madre’s and running
Donne Forti
, her schedule was jam-packed along with everyone else’s. Family Sunday dinners, however, were mandatory.
You can afford one day of the week to see your
mama
, she politely warned her sons.

Nicola was used to Joey bringing over what she referred to as ‘flavor of the week’ to the dinners. Every month, it was a different girl. The ballerina. The painter. The hairstylist. The college student. The single mother. Those were the ones she knew about.

There were so many.

There were
too
many.

She was nice to the women for what it was worth. She also made sure she had plenty of disinfecting spray and wipes after they had left. Oh they looked nice and sweet and Nicola was sure they had cleaned up their acts before they came over. Some didn’t bother and clearly tested her patience, making her believe Joey intentionally brought the low-class women over just to have an excuse to break up with them.

But Nicola also knew her son and his type of woman wasn’t anything close to her or any other woman in their family. Joey scraped at the bottom of the barrel and was almost proud of that fact.

“I had to stay at the shop a little late,” Joey placed the salad bowl on the table. He went back into the kitchen and grabbed a dish of lasagna. “So I couldn’t bring anyone tonight."

“You know the option of not bringing anyone is always on the table,” Nicola smiled. “You are not forced to bring over anyone here.”

“Are you saying you don’t enjoy my company, Ma?” Joey asked, with a smarmy smile.

“I’m saying I don’t appreciate the company that comes with you.” Nicola smirked, with a twinkle in her eyes. “You know you could bring home a nice good girl if you wanted to, Joseph.”

“Those nice good girls don’t exist, Ma,” Joey brought over another dish to the table. “It’s not that I haven’t been looking for her. Just when I find a “good girl”, she realizes who I am, the money and name attached to me, and the next thing I know, it’s about what I can buy her, what I can do for her, the fancy restaurants, and riding around in my car. That quote-unquote good girl quickly becomes a chickenhead. I bring them home to meet you so you can see for yourself why I’m still single. Women are transparent.”

“So are men,
mio figlio
,” Nicola checked her meatballs and turned off the fire, “so are men.”

Joey ignored his mother’s shade towards him. “I don’t want to get married,” he finally revealed. “I just don’t see myself ever being married.”

“Because of your father?” Nicola asked.

“Part of it,” Joey shrugged. He remembered the long hours his mother had to work,

bouncing from one job to another with just a small break in between. He could vividly recall the sadness in her eyes each time it came to one of the boys’ birthdays or holidays, knowing she couldn’t give them exactly what they wanted.

But the most vivid memory Joey had of his mother, wasn’t an event that actually happened to her, but to Kieran. She lit up in a fiery rage that lasted for weeks over the breakup of his marriage, almost daring God to send Jalara over to her home so she could beat the woman within an inch of her life for hurting her son.

Kieran spent two years mourning the failure of his marriage to his high-school sweetheart by bedding countless and nameless women. Even when he found someone to get serious with, he also made sure she knew from the jump he was not about to get married again and the

relationship usually ended a short time later.
I just don’t see myself as ever getting married
again,
Kieran once told his brothers,
I can’t take that risk, especially trying to run Fits and
Giggles.

He met Tiana a month later.

“You’re still not upset about Jalara, are you?” Nicola seemingly read her son’s thoughts.

“I’m sure Kieran has gotten over her.”

“Marriage scares me,” Joey sat down at the dining table. He still couldn’t get over how any woman would break the heart of one of the most kind, gentle human beings he had ever known.

“I still remember what you went through, Ma. I know what Kieran went through. And I know things aren’t what they seem between Faye and Eli…”

“What’s going on with Faye and Eli?” Nicola wondered.

“Besides that,” Joey deflected from his mother’s newfound interest, “I know marriage isn’t for everyone and I would rather not promise roses and forever to a woman when I’m not sure I can even give her daisies and a few hours.”

Nicola sat across from her son and gently patted his arm. “Out of all of my boys, you’ve always seemed to be the most stubborn.”

“And thank you for that vote of confidence,” Joey quipped.

Nicola smiled. “You’re stubborn in a good way. Remember how hard college was and you wanted to quit one semester short of graduating NYU? But you kept on. Remember how you kept getting rejected by bank after bank after bank for Madre’s? But you kept on. Even when you knew the contractors were trying to rob us blind, you remained steadfast until they lowered their price. My point is, while other people would’ve said, ‘Uh, forget it! It’s never going to happen’, you didn’t.”

“So you’re saying I should just go out and get married?” Joey raised an eyebrow.

“I’m saying there’s a woman out there who is absolutely perfect for you. She won’t care about your money. She won’t care about your last name. She would probably be annoyed with both, if anything,” Nicola chuckled and Joey smiled, “but I am saying, she is going to love you just for you. And when she comes around,
mio figlio
, you better not let her go or it would be the worst mistake you would ever make.”

****

Sunday dinner was entertaining as usual. The brothers caught up with each other while the women talked amongst themselves. The major topic of the night was Tiana’s impending delivery of the newest grandchild and the whole family was excited for the first granddaughter in the family.

“Antonio, I forgot to mention to you earlier,” Nicola gathered some more salad on her plate, “Art will be staying over tonight.”

“And I will make sure I won’t be here when he arrives,” Tony shot back.

The brothers looked at each other before they turned to Tony. “Is there something going on we don’t know about?” Nick asked.

“I thought you were cool with Art?” Eli asked. “He’s a great guy.”

“I have no qualms with Art,” Tony clarified, “I just don’t like it when he comes over here.

That’s all.”

“Why is that, Antonio?” Nicola asked. “If there is a problem you have with Art, I most certainly want to know.”

“Um…um…” Tony harrumphed. “…um…”

“Is there a problem,
mio figlio
?” Nicola asked. “You need to speak now or forever hold your peace.”

“Yes, I do have a problem when Art spends the night here,” Tony put down his fork and took a gulp of beer. “Your bed squeaks. There, I said it.”

“How would you know my bed squeaks?” Nicola asked.

“Now is that a question you really want to know the answer to?” Tony replied.

“I’m allowed to have my boyfriend to spend the night here at my own discretion,” Nicola reminded her youngest son, “and if we decide to make love…”

“Okay, that…that right there? STOP!” Tony politely warned his mother.

“I’m not going to apologize for being in love and wanting to express it with my

boyfriend,” Nicola calmly replied, “you bring those tramps over all the time and I say nothing except quietly keeping your condom drawer full.”

Joey dropped his fork and raised his hands. “Why are we talking about this?”

“I really don’t want to hear about your sex life,” Nick said to Tony before he turned to their mother, “and I
really
don’t want to hear about
yours
!”

“He started it!” Nicola pointed to Tony.

“And yeah, I’m ending it,” Eli interjected. “Can we have a nice peaceful meal without talking about who is getting ass around here?”

“Thank you,” Faith agreed with her husband.