Chapter Thirty Four
I guess I don't have to tell you that Jersey Boys was a gigantic hit. After its premiere year in La Jolla, it moved up to the big time—to Broadway—in 2005.
Also in 2005, I got a couple of bombs dropped on me.
The first one was when Michael came home from New York.
I was sitting in the living room, reading a book. I kept the book close to my face. My eyesight wasn't best it used to be but I absolutely hated my glasses and I refused to wear them.
"Tyler!"
"What?"
"You'll never guess who I bumped into." Frankie walked into the living room and then stopped. He looked at me. "I've told you time and time again to wear your glasses. Why won't you wear your glasses?"
I looked up at him. "Fuck glasses." I put the bookmark in the place and shut the book. I messed with his tie before lightly tugging on it, making him lean down and kiss me. "Who'd you bump into?"
"Hey, Mom!"
I jumped up and looked behind me at the doorway that led into the hallway. "Michael!" I beamed and hurried over to him, hugging him tightly. "How are you? How's your writing career?"
"It's great. I've got a book coming out."
I squealed and looked at Frankie. "He's got a book coming out!"
"I know." He smiled and nodded.
"Also, Mom... I want you to meet someone." Michael cleared his throat. He looked behind him and called to someone. Not too long after, a young woman walked up. She had a short choppy bob, her hair a light brown. She was a tiny little thing, probably five foot or just under that, and was a little twig. Her eyes were sky blue and she had fair skin. "Mom, this is Roxanne."
"Hi." Roxanne smiled. I smiled back.
"She's a dancer."
"Oh, I love dancing. I could never do it though. I've got two left feet." I joked.
"Which is why we never danced together." Frankie smirked.
I turned to him and wiggled my finger, mainly joking with him. "Alright, mister. We will talk about this later."
Roxanne giggled.
"She's also my fiancée." Michael said quietly.
I stared at Michael. "Your who?"
"Fiancée." Roxanne nodded. Her voice was a little high, but it wasn't obnoxious. I looked at her. "I wanted to meet you guys sooner, but Michael didn't want me to until he was sure it was the real thing."
I turned to Frankie. "Did you know about this?"
"They told me to keep quiet." Frankie shrugged. "Otherwise I would've told you."
I turned back to the two, and Roxanne was biting her lip. "Please don't be mad Mrs. Valli."
I ended up shaking my head and hugged her. "It's not a big deal. I was just in shock." I pulled away and smiled at them both before hugging Michael. "I'm happy for the both of you. I really am."
"I'm glad to hear that." Michael smiled.
!
I dug through my planner and stumbled across my old wedding plans.
"Frankie!" I called and stood up, hurrying to the bedroom. "Look what I found." I giggled and sat on the bed.
"What did you find?" I heard his voice from the bathroom.
"My old wedding plans." I giggled.
"Oh, here we go again with the wedding plans." I heard him laugh quietly before walking out. I could tell that, from the heat coming from the bathroom, he had his shower of the night. He wore those old blue and white pajamas he's had for God knows how long.
"You know I've bought you so many pairs of pajamas and all you ever wear is those old rags."
"I like these, thank you very much. They're comfortable."
"You may think that but they're so worn out, like—"
"Quiet." He kissed me quickly. "Let me see the plans." I handed him the binder and he looked it over. "Looks like you already planned everything."
"Not really. I still need the seating chart and catering and all that kind of stuff. And then we have to find a church to do the ceremony in. I was going to do that, but Nicky and..." I sighed quietly.
"I understand."
I nodded and he put his arm around me. "Maybe we should do red and white for the colors."
"No. Teal and white."
"Red."
"Teal."
"Red."
"Teal."
"Red."
"Teal."
"Red."
"We'll argue about this tomorrow."
"Sounds good."
!
A few months later, we were going over the plans with Crewe. We had everything figured out.
Except one.
"Red."
"Teal."
"Red."
"Teal."
"Shut up!" Crewe stood. Automatically, the two of us stopped and looked at him. "Thank you. You are having a light, pale green and white. That's it! End of story!" he sat down again. Automatically, Frankie and I started to object but Crewe shook his head. "Green and white or nothing at all!"
We stopped.
"Green and white is nice." Frankie nodded.
"Yeah, especially the pale green I like that."
"Thank God this is over." Crewe sighed and relaxed into the couch. I wrote down the color scheme. I looked at Frankie and smirked.
"Red."
He smirked back. "Teal."
"Red."
"Teal."
"Red."
"Teal."
"I'm done!" Crewe shot up out of his seat and left the room. Frankie and I started laughing. "I'm too old to babysit, I am done!"
!
"So when is this shindig happening?" Jovanna looked at me as she snacked on a cheese stick.
"Soon. In a few months. Now all your father has to do is go and get a new tux,"
"My black tux is fine, thank you very much." Frankie called from the kitchen.
"Frankie, the thing is full of holes! At least the jacket is."
"One hole and I can easily get that fixed."
"You're not wearing that black tux." I got up and walked into the kitchen, where Frankie was making dinner.
"Fine. I'll wear the red one, the one I performed Sherry in. Better?" his voice was dripping with sarcasm. "And you can wear the Sherry dress."
"Ha!" I rolled my eyes. "That dress is a size six. I'm not a size six anymore."
"I am!" Jovanna called.
"Quiet, you're not in this." I crossed my arms. I heard Jovanna laugh.
"Come on, Mom. What dress size are you? I can go find you one."
"12."
"15."
Frankie and I spoke at the same time, me saying twelve, him saying fifteen. I glared at him.
"Now how do you know my dress size?"
"Remember the other day I went to the dry cleaner's?"
"Yeah..."
"Well. I saw the tag of your purple dress. Size 15, bold letters."
"Well, if you didn't make so much Italian food, I'd be a size 12."
"I'm Italian! What do you expect me to make?"
"Steak! Hot dogs!" I paused. "Spaghetti!"
"That is Italian, smartass!"
Jovanna snorted and started laughing. Frankie rolled his eyes and muttered a few things in Italian. I rolled my eyes.
"Oh, shut up." I went into the living room and sat down on the couch, where Jovanna still hadn't recovered from laughing.
"Okay, Jovanna." I ran a hand through my hair. "What did you want to tell me?"
"Well." Jovanna stopped laughing after a moment. "I have some news."
"Yeah..?" I raised my eyebrows.
"You remember John right?"
"No... I never met the guy." I shook my head.
"Oh. Right. Anyway. We had a little fun a few months ago and went to a bed and breakfast, but completely skipped the breakfast and well..." she bit her lip. "I'm pregnant."
There was a loud clang from the kitchen and Frankie started cursing in Italian. A few seconds later, he appeared at the doorway.
"You're what?"
"Pregnant..." Jovanna looked down.
Oh boy, here we go.