My Funny Valentina (12 page)

Val
entina had urged him to go when he’d hesitated after receiving the call.  Said she would stay with Zoey until he could return. I’ll just take a shower, he thought to himself, change out of these dusty jeans and work shirt and get back to the hospital.  Sighing with tiredness, rubbing a weary hand around the back of his neck, Stash entered the dark apartment then stopped.  Sniffing the air. 

It
almost smells like someone is...cooking in the kitchen!

Puzzled, Stash made his way
down the hallway to the kitchen.  Spotted Valentina bending down peering into the top-of-the-line, double-oven convection range with infrared grill.  ‘Val,’ he said her name, startling her, her body giving a little jump.    

‘
Oh!’

‘
Sorry,’ he apologized from the doorway, ‘I didn’t mean to scare you, but I’m surprised to see you back here at the apartment.  How’s Zoey?’

‘
Zoey’s fine, Stash.  The doctors said all her vital signs are excellent and your mother is staying with her at the hospital tonight.  She said I should come home.  Said I should cook you a good meal.’ 

Stash stared at her across the room
, taking in how exquisitely beautiful she looked.  She’d clearly taken time with her appearance, no longer wearing the creased, rumpled clothes he’d seen her in, in the hospital room the past few weeks.  Instead clad in a nice pair of black pants that molded to her lithe, supple form, a silky long-sleeved white shirt on that gave a titillating glimpse of her lacy bra beneath. 

She’d
put on makeup, her lips tinted with a peachy gloss.
She washed her hair too
, Stash noted, recognizing how it bounced and shone as it did whenever she blew it dry curled around her brush, the fruity smell of her shampoo clinging in every coppery gleaming wave.  ‘That’s great, Val,’ he heard himself say, ‘I haven’t eaten all day and I’ve been starving for awhile now...’

There was
a silence as they looked across the room at each other, both clearly remembering the last time he’d spoken those words. 

‘
Well, come on in and have a seat at the table then,’ Valentina blustered going into motion all at once, placing plates and napkins and silverware for two on the long butcher block table in the apartment kitchen.

Stash took a seat, shaking out the linen napkin
and placing it in his lap.  ‘Need any help?’ he offered.

‘
Nope,’ she chirped out, ‘first course coming right up, sir!’ 

Stash looked up as she placed a glass bowl on the table in front of him filled with
a salad. 
Greek Salad
.  Romaine lettuce, sliced cucumbers, green bell peppers, onion, feta cheese and fat black olives.  Valentina walked to the refrigerator, got out a bottle of salad dressing putting it down next to the bowl.  She brought over a cutting board from the counter with chunks of fat red tomato that she slid into the bowl, taking the salad tongs in her hands and deftly tossing the ingredients together as Stash watched her transfixed. 

‘
What else is there, Val?’ he got out, just a slight inflection in his voice.

‘
Next,’ she turned away, went to the oven, bent and pulled out a pan with two sizzling, juicy, grilled Porterhouse steaks, ‘is the steaks,’ she announced with a flourish, forking one on to his plate and hers.

Stash
felt himself starting to sweat.  ‘Anything else?’

‘
Yes, Stash – there are potatoes, golden roasted right from the oven,’ she scooped some of the crisp, browned potatoes from the pan onto his plate right beside the steak.

He closed his eyes, swallowed hard
.  Opened them again to croak, ‘Is there any...dessert?’

‘
Yes, there is, Stash.’  Val went back to the refrigerator, reached in and pulled out a...
Black Forest Cake
... with chocolate shavings and red cherries arranged neatly in a circle on top.  She slid the cake plate in front of him, his eyes glued to it, his breathing growing shallow.  ‘Oh, wait, I almost forgot something...’  Opening the refrigerator door, she grabbed a can, shook it, came and placed it right in the center of the table with a metallic clank.  ‘The whipped cream.  We can start with dessert if you like...’

His eyes flew to hers
and they were luminous with desire, almost a molten jade with the deep
hunger
she felt for him clearly visible.  Stash groaned, leaped up, one long arm swiping the food, the plates, the silverware, off the table onto the floor in a cacophony of breaking glass and crockery, splattering meat, smashing cake and bouncing vegetables.  He cleared the table so he could lift Val and place her on top of it, following her on to it, ripping at her zipper to remove her pants in Olympic record seconds, desperate to get to her, to appease his own hunger, ease the long painful starvation for his wife.

‘
I’ve missed you, missed you,
missed you
,’ he muttered against her mouth, her hands trying to beat his record time on the zipper to his jeans.

‘
Oh, Stash, I never should have left you,’ she wept against his neck, ‘I didn’t know, Stash, didn’t know about Athina...’

‘
It’s not your fault, it was my stubborn macho Greek pride – I couldn’t believe you left me, I should have come after you right away...should have explained,’ he issued his own regrets knowing they no longer matter.  She was here, in his arms again.  Right where she belonged.  ‘No more talking, Val, it’s been too damned
long
without you!’ 

Stash drove into her,
his entire body shaking with desire, Valentina crying out with emotion, with gratitude as he filled her.  Made them both whole once again.  Their eyes held steady the entire time, never wavering, never looking away from each other’s as they reclaimed their rhythm, relearned each other’s needs, revisited their private shivery heaven with grateful exclamations and joyous exhalations.

After
wards, after a moment they grasped at to catch their breath, Valentina spoke, gazing lovingly up at him, her soft hand cupped against his raspy, stubbled jaw.  ‘We...er...we seem to still have our shirts on...’ she said weakly. 

Stash gave a
guttural laugh looking down at her, ‘so we do, well let’s resolve that issue right now...’  His hand went to the buttons at the top of her silken shirt, got the first two at her throat undone, then he stopped, his eyes darkening further with emotion.  Hanging on a fine chain around her neck was her wedding ring engraved with his words that were never truer, never meant more...
Agapi Mou. My Love. 
He reached and clasped it in his palm, feeling the warmth from her skin on the never-ending gold circle signifying eternity.

‘
It never left me, Stash,’ she whispered, ‘I had to take it off during my last months of pregnancy because my fingers were so swollen, but I always had it with me...always kept it near my heart.’

Stash’s eyes closed, he smiled, nodded. 
‘Take my shirt off, Valentina.’

Her trembling fingers rose to
obey his husky command, worked on unfastening his rough denim work shirt, unbuttoning the first three buttons before she stopped, tears filling her eyes making them glimmer with a vivid green glow.  ‘Oh, Stash,
Stash
...’ she choked out, for there on a chain between the whorls of dark hair on his chest, was his wedding ring engraved with her words for him...
My dearest heart.

With shaky hands and
trembly fingers, they finished removing the shirts from each other and they came together once again, a husband and wife truly reunited in love, in spirit, in body.  Afterwards, they lay with Stash collapsed atop her on the sturdy butcher-block table, her arms holding him close.  He lifted himself slightly, not wanted to crush her, but loathe to leave her, even for a moment.  He felt her stir, felt her hand glide over his ruffled hair in a gentle loving stroke. 

‘
Would you care for some more, sir?’ she questioned in a fake Cockney accent.

Stash’s head lifted from her breast,
one black brow arched high, ‘does a bear shit in the woods?’

Valentina’s laughter still rang out as he lifted her off the table
, picking carefully through the debris on the floor to carry her to the bedroom.  They made it halfway down the hallway, footsteps measured out in an equal number of kisses, before Stash stopped, pivoted, made a 180 turn, heading back towards the kitchen.

‘
Where are you going – isn’t the bedroom the other way?’ she asked looking up at him puzzled, arms clasped around his neck.

‘
Slight detour, Val...we forgot the whipped cream.’

‘
Funny, Stash!’  Her gleeful giggles mingled with his deep, rich, joyful laughter until another kiss silenced them both.

~
Epilogue~

‘I can’t believe the temperature is in the 60s on Valentine’s Day in Chicago!’

‘
Well, the best part about it is, thanks to global warming, we were able to hold the reception right here at the house,’ Valentina said with a smile aimed at her sister-in-law as they stood amidst the boisterous celebration going on all around them – family, friends and neighbors all having a raucous good time based on the rising noise level.

Her sister-in-law laughed,
‘yes, and it is amazingly beautiful out here,’ she said gazing over the stretching, tree-filled acreage of the outsized lot perched on a hilltop.  ‘Now tell me again, Val, how was Stash able to convince the new owner to sell your house back to him?’

Valentina
tapped the side of her nose with her index finger in a ‘can you keep a secret’ gesture from her old Brooklyn neighborhood, and in her best mumbled Brando, she spouted, ‘let’s just say – he made him an offer he couldn’t refuse!’ 

Though actually, the man
had gladly accepted Stash’s buyback offer that was several hundred thousand more than market price value for their old home, and had moved out in just a week for an additional
significant
monetary bonus, allowing her, Stash and Zoey to move back in four months ago.

‘
I’m so happy for you both, Val, – and can I just say, the decorations today are absolutely fabulous!’

‘
Thanks, Agnes – but you should thank Aphrodite, really.  She was the Event Planner – she did all the decorations here and at the church.’  Valentina gave rightful praise to Aphrodite – formerly known as
‘Sulky. 
Whose petulant frown had flipped upside down once she’d found something she enjoyed doing, turning her flair for decorating into a career, filling the ornate Greek Orthodox Church where the ceremony was held earlier with flowers, ribboned garlands and wedding favors of sugared almonds signifying the bitter and the sweet, wrapped in lacy gauze for their guests.  She’d also filled the back yard of their home with linen covered tables groaning under the weight of Greek delicacies and a traditional Greek wedding cake of honey, quince and sesame seeds.  Had strung lights up in all the trees and placed arches and trellises of roses, hydrangeas and baby’s breath at strategic intervals throughout the yard.

Agnes – formerly known as
‘Uni’,
nodded; her thick black uni-brow now sculpted into two delicate arches after Valentina had sneakily invited her along on a trip to visit Lance at the studio on Canal where she’d prearranged to have Kandi waiting for them with tweezers in hand, offering innocently to, ‘give you both a quick brow shape up’.

Laughing with her sister-in-law,
Valentina felt a sense of guilt for the times when she’d viewed Stash’s sisters as something to ‘
put up’
with. She’d learned these past months, with humbled humility, that a family was a
blessing
, something to treasure – not avoid or tolerate as she’d thought due to her own difficult childhood. But they had all proven her staunchest support during Zoey’s operation and recuperation.  Each one of his sisters had offered her something specific she needed, earning their own special places in her heart – and permanent memory of their names on her lips.

Besides Agnes
and Aphrodite, there was Agathe – formerly known as
‘Stinky’
– who had brought beautiful gift baskets to the hospital with sweet-smelling gels and soaps Valentina used to wash up with when she’d slept overnight there.  She also kept Zoey supplied with baby lotion held in duck shape containers that she splashed after in the tub as a grinning, soaked Stash struggled to clasp hold of her wriggly, giggly body.

A
lecia, formerly known as ‘
Boobie’
, who had loaned her piles of her own comfortable warm sweaters Valentina was lacking after living in balmy California, with loads of ample room in front carved out by her sister-in-law’s extra Greek voluptuousness, to wrap around her during those chilly nights in the hospital.

A
lthea, formerly known as ‘
Peppy’
whose boundless, seemingly unstoppable energy made her the perfect person to run after and try to keep up with Zoey once she’d started toddling around the house a few months ago.