I was late. The pot roast was ruined. The potatoes over cooked. Saint Valerie's halo was restored and she was sitting at the table when I arrived, adorable daughters fanned out beside her. Mary Alice neighed when she saw me, but still remained in her seat.
I slid into my place at the table. My mother followed me in from letting me in the house, and frowned. "I hope it's not too dry," she said, looking at the pot roast.
"That's what gravy is for, Helen," Grandma Mazur said, rolling her eyes. My father picked up the gravy protectively.
"I'm sure it's fine, ma," Valerie said. We all passed food around and got stuck into eating. There was a little more room at the table tonight without Dickie and Morelli there. We were halfway through dinner when there was a knock on the door, and Grandma bounded off to answer it.
"That might be my date!" she said brightly. I wondered what Grandma had planned for a date. Did I want to know? The door opened, and Grandma returned to the table, followed by Joe.
"I had a break and thought I'd stop by and see everything," Joe said, coming in, kissing Val and looking around the table.
"You can sit where I was, I need to get ready for a date," Grandma said and disappeared upstairs. My mother gestured to Joe to sit down and fixed him a plate, fussing around him.
"It's good that you can take a break to eat," she said, putting a plate of food in front of him. Val reached across the table and squeezed his hand.
"Joe, Joe," Mary Alice chanted, trying to get his attention. He looked over at the table at her. "Joe, today at school, Anthony said that you saw a dead body. Did you see a dead body?"
"Mary Alice, Joe is a homicide detective. That means that he sees lots of dead bodies," Angie said impatiently.
"I'll talk to Anthony Junior about conversations not to have at school. Or maybe at all," Joe said, looking at Valerie. Val nodded. Anthony Junior was the son of Joe's brother Anthony. That made him kind of Mary Alice and Angie's cousin. He went to school and was in Mary Alice's class and the two of them together were trouble. Val was still negotiating the intricacies of belonging to the Morelli clan. Mostly it was don't cursed by Grandma Bella (Val nicely won her over by naming baby Bella after her) and don't upset Angie Morelli. Telling Anthony Junior not to talk to Mary Alice about homicide cases might fall under upsetting Angie Morelli by implying that Anthony Junior was less than perfect, so it fell to Joe to handle.
We finished eating, and I got up to help clear away the dishes. Joe reached over and picked up Bella from her high chair, Val got dessert ready for everyone and my father took his cake into the living room to turn on the TV. Grandma clattered down the stairs and out the front door, yelling for everyone not to wait up for her. My mother shot out after her to find out where she was going. Joe and I sat back down to eat dessert. Joe was an experienced dad by now and had no trouble juggling the baby and dessert at the same time. That was my goals for my future parenting.
"You don't talk a lot about being a cop anymore," I said to Morelli. He shrugged, and reached over for a toy to keep Bella amused.
"I work in gang crime. There's a lot of bodies and not much to talk about. It's what I'm good at but not always enjoyable."
"I'm sorry," I told him. Morelli was a bit of an ass but he had a good heart underneath it all.
"It is what it is. And I have this little one now to keep me focused on why I became a cop. I wanted to make the world safer."
"I thought it was because you thought that cops got laid a lot."
"Yeah, that too. And I didn't want to be a mechanic."
Joe's brothers were mechanics. His father was a mechanic. Anthony Junior was probably going to be a mechanic. Joe bucked the trend and joined the navy. I bucked the trend of being a housewife and became a lingerie designer. Joe and I might have worked well together if we weren't so alike, and he wasn't such an ass. Valerie seemed fine with him though. Joe had settled down a bit since his wild years. Okay, a lot.
I left with my arms loaded with leftovers, and half of a pineapple upside down cake. I pulled into the garage and went to swing into the middle when I saw that Dickie's car was on its usual side. He appeared in the doorway of the garage soon after and I ran over and hugged him.
"Hey you, I figured you'd be at dinner with your parents. I just got back," he said. He kissed me, then reached for the cake. "Is that what I think it is?"
"It is my compensation for suffering through another family dinner," I told him.
"I missed you," Dickie said, kissing me again.
"Missed me or missed easy access to cake?"
"I was staying at a resort with a dessert buffet."
"Are you trying to make me jealous?"
"Make sure you come with me next time. Dessert buffet, warm water, lots of sand, no Slayers. How are you? All sorted out?"
I thought of all that happened in the last week. Slayers, Junkman, Ranger's apartment, staying with Ella, the takedown in Plum Lingerie, Ranger's slightly flirty behaviour… well if Dickie wasn't asking, then it wasn't lying…
"Yes, it's all sorted out. Back to normal," I said brightly.
"Great! I'm so relieved. Now come on, let's put the cake down and get reacquainted," he said, pulling me inside.
The next few months passed with more of the same. Mary Lou and I were a good team, and our number of orders grew steadily. I decided to stay with the current range – Plum Blossoms, Plum Vintage and Plum Stars – for a while so we could keep a handle on our growth. We were getting a number of repeat orders, which excited me to know that my customers liked my products enough to keep coming back.
Dickie travelled a bit for work, although he was making more of an effort to be home. We went out for dinner once a week. His office seemed to be growing with more clients. We kept having to put off our beach trip because of his cases though. I was hoping we could get to the beach before the weather got too cold.
It was my birthday, then shortly after that we celebrated one year since Plum Lingerie began. Mary Lou and I, being my entire workforce, went out for dinner with Lenny and Dickie.
"To Plum Lingerie!" Mary Lou said, holding up her champagne glass. We clinked glasses.
"Did you hear the latest Burg news? Someone has bought Stiva's funeral home and is going to reopen a funeral business," she said.
"Grandma Mazur will be thrilled," I said. "That's going to increase her social circle again and get her out of mom's hair more often."
Lenny held up his champagne glass, and we did another toast, this one to Grandma Mazur staying out of my mom's way more often.
I was a few glasses of champagne down when we got home and I was singing on the car ride. I'm not sure that Dickie appreciated my musical talents well enough.
"Want to have ice cream and watch Wonder Woman?" I asked him.
"I need to start thinking about our next step," Dickie said. "While we're working on having a baby, we still need to think about what comes next in the plan."
"And what comes next?" I asked.
"I want to make my move into politics. Local at first, then up to senator. I'm working on getting local support."
"That's great. I know that's your dream," I told him. Dickie had been telling me about his plans since we first met. I wasn't too keen on being a politician's wife, but I loved Dickie and it was important to him.
"I've been thinking tonight. This whole night might me think – I have to be honest, Steph, I wasn't sure how long your business would last. And I don't think a lingerie designer is a suitable profession for a politician's wife. Can you imagine the press?" he asked me. I suddenly felt sober.
"So what have you been doing for the last year, Dickie? Waiting for me to fail?" I snapped at him.
"No… but you know, I thought we'd have a baby, and you'd realise that being a mother and having a business was too hard. But that's not happened yet, and well, we need to think about the future, Steph."
"I am thinking about the future, Dickie! That's why I've been building up my business, just like you have. Mine just happens to be different than yours but that doesn't make it any less worthy. And we'd have more luck with having a baby if you were home more often," I shouted at him. The last few months he'd been away at the key points of my cycle, saying that he needed to be away for work. That may have been true, but it meant it stung more when he brought up wanting to have a baby. He couldn't even commit to staying home for a month.
"Calm down, Stephanie," he told me.
"You know what? YOU CALM DOWN!" I said. I stormed upstairs and slammed our bedroom door. Then just in case he hadn't gotten the hint that I was mad at him, I grabbed a handful of his clothes, threw them in the hallway, then slammed the door again. That should get the point across that I didn't want to see him or speak to him. Then I cried myself to sleep. This should have been a celebratory night but Dickie had ruined it by being a complete jackass. Or a horse's butt, like my Grandpa Mazur would have said.
I was still angry about it the next morning. Okay, so lingerie designer wasn't quite up to Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton level in terms of career, but surely successful small business owner was worth something? I'd done it on my own, we made enough to cover our costs and pay Mary Lou and I an admittedly small salary.
"Dickie by name, Dick by nature," I muttered to myself.
I refused to talk to him the next day, and he left for yet another business trip without us speaking. He sent flowers while he was gone, and by the time he came home a few days later, I'd cooled off enough to speak to him, although things weren't the same between us. I couldn't believe that he'd been waiting for me to transform into a housewife when I'd put this much effort into Plum Lingerie. Then again, he was never around to see the number of hours I'd worked on it. For all he knew, I slept in, took long lunches and was home in time to watch the afternoon Soap Operas. I didn't mention the fight to Mary Lou. She would have agreed with me that Dickie was a horse's butt, but I didn't want to talk about it.