Ryan_A Contemporary Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “You might want to lay off the beer if you’re planning to eat that many.”

  “Jack, why are you wearing those ridiculous pants?” Agnes asked.

  Jack must have changed when he got here because he was now wearing Batman sweatpants.

  “I came prepared for the contest,” he said as he stretched out the waistband. “This is serious business. I’m not letting a waistband stand in the way of me winning this contest.”

  “How many did you bet, Jack?” I asked.

  “Fifty-seven.”

  “How’d you come up with that number?” Drew asked.

  “Easy. Last year, my record was forty-five. I figured that I had to do better than last year. I started overeating a week ago to stretch my stomach.”

  “Overeating? Jack, every meal you eat is larger than normal.” Harper rolled her eyes at her husband, but he just pulled her into his arms.

  “That’s because I need to always be prepared to feast on you.”

  “Eww, gross. Could you please save that for when there aren’t little ears around,” Cassie said as she walked into the living room with a handful of beers.

  “I’m sure I could be right up there with Jack. Put me down for sixty Ravioli.”

  Everyone started laughing at me for some reason. “What? I could out-eat all of you. They’re just little Ravioli.”

  Harper was laughing so hard that tears were leaking down her face. “Ryan, you’re the smallest of all the guys. You can put away the food too, but seriously? There’s no way you can eat more than all of them.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “I’m like ten pounds lighter than Jack.”

  More laughter ensued and it wasn’t until Agnes called from the kitchen for help that we forgot about the contest for five minutes. When the table was set and the ravioli was on the table, Lillian said grace and then all of the guys started reaching for the ravioli.

  “Hold on a minute, boys. Only the women will hand out the ravioli. We don’t need any cheating. You’ll each get ten at a time and only when your plate is clean will you get more.” Cece said.

  We all grumbled, but put our plates down and waited to be served. When the ravioli hit my plate, I had a moment of panic. These were huge ravioli, not like the ones in the Chef Boyardee can.

  “Eat fast so that your stomach doesn’t have time to process that you’re full,” Cassandra whispered in my ear.

  I dug in and started eating. Each plate that was filled had me feeling more and more stuffed, but I made a bet and damnit, I would win. The girls ate lazily around us, eating small bites of their ravioli and salad that had been prepared. None of the parents took part in the contest, but they seemed to enjoy watching us all try to outdo each other.

  “Mmm. These ravioli are so good,” Harper said around a mouthful.

  “I should go check on the kids,” Anna said, getting up from her seat. We had put them in the kitchen at card tables.

  “How are you doing on those thirty, Cole?” I taunted across the table.

  “It was thirty-five and you’re not going to be laughing when you’re sick tomorrow from eating too many.”

  “I love this sauce. Is it homemade?” Lillian asked.

  “I’m going on forty. I bet you all were wishing you wore pants like mine.” Jack waggled his eyebrows, taunting the guys.

  “It was my grandmother’s recipe from Italy. I always make homemade sauce,” Agnes said after finishing a bite of food.

  “I make a really good Alfredo sauce. It’s not as good as this, but I really like it,” Alex said.

  “Baby, don’t lie to them,” Cole said with a smile. “I see you bury the jar of sauce in the garbage whenever you make something with Alfredo sauce.”

  Alex scoffed and turned bright red. “I do not. I always make it from scratch!”

  I was starting to feel like my pants were strangling my stomach and I was only at forty-five. Something had to be done. Standing I opened the button on my pants and let down the zipper, groaning as relief spread through me.

  “Ryan!” Cassandra shrieked as she tried to block anyone from viewing my cock through my underwear. Little did she know that I was so full, no amount of her touching me would result in an erection right now.

  “Ooh, I think I’m about to get another show,” Jane said excitedly.

  “Mom!” Cassie shrieked.

  The other guys immediately stood and followed my example, except for Jack who had on his comfy pants. A round of groans were let out and soon we were all back to eating.

  “What do you mean another show?” Cal asked.

  “I can’t believe you think that my Alfredo sauce is out of a jar.” Alex crossed her arms over her chest and huffed.

  “Fifty-five!” Sean said as he held his hands over his head.

  “Don’t you remember when we came home early with James a few weeks ago? Cassie and Ryan were going at it like rabbits in the living room,” Jane giggled.

  “Mom, please. Can we not talk about this in front of all my friends?”

  Jane waved her hand dismissively at Cassie.

  “Oh, God. I think I might throw up if I take another bite,” Drew said.

  “That wasn’t even the worst part,” I said with a laugh. Cassie covered my mouth, but it was too late. Cal was already eager to hear what the worst part was.

  “Is that like how your ice cream is homemade from bananas?” Cole teased Alex.

  “They are homemade! You freeze the bananas and then blend them into ice cream,” Alex shot back.

  “What are you up to Logan?” Sebastian asked.

  “Dude, I’m not even at forty-five yet. I’m done.”

  Cassandra scooped another ten on my plate, trying to distract me with food.

  “What was the worst part?” Cal asked.

  “That wasn’t grime you wiped off the window,” I said around a mouthful of food.

  “Oh, God. Kill me now.” Cassie was burying her face in her hands.

  “Geez, Lillian. How many are you going to eat? You didn’t say anything about joining the contest,” Sean accused.

  “I’m not joining. I’m just eating because I’m hungry.”

  “That baby’s gonna come out the size of an elephant,” Sean muttered.

  “Are you saying I’m fat?” Lillian glared at Sean, but he didn’t notice because he was still stuffing his face.

  “I wasn’t saying anything. I was just stating a fact.”

  The whole table got silent as Lillian stared down an oblivious Sean.

  “If it wasn’t grime on the window, what was it? It was sort of sticky.” Cal questioned me.

  “Oh my God! He was rubbing that spot with his fingers!” Jane yelled.

  Cassie was shaking her head in her hands and muttering please kill me now over and over again.

  “I can’t believe you would say that your pregnant wife is fat!” Lillian said as she smacked Sean on the shoulder.

  “What was it that I was rubbing?” Cal asked his wife.

  “Sixty!” I yelled as I jumped up from the table, immediately regretting it and running out of the room to the bathroom. I thought I was going to throw up, but after I put on some more comfortable clothes and laid down for a minute, I felt better. I walked out of the bedroom fifteen minutes later to everyone clearing the table.

  “Where are your parents?” I asked Cassandra.

  “Well, after Dad figured out what the sticky substance was that he wiped off the window, he made an excuse about needing to get up early for the Black Friday sales and they left.”

  “I’m sorry, Cassie girl.” I chuckled and kissed her on the forehead. “I wasn’t trying to let on to what happened. It just sort of popped out.”

  “Yeah, well. That’s not exactly how I want my dad thinking of me.”

  I saw the girls all in the kitchen helping with the clean up, but the guys were nowhere in sight.

  “Where are the guys?”

  “They’re all downstairs groaning about how much pain they’
re in.”

  “So, who won the contest?”

  “Lillian. She had sixty-five.”

  “What? No way. She wasn’t even a part of the contest. Where’d she put it?”

  “She’s pregnant. She was hungry.”

  I looked in the kitchen to see Lillian eating some kind of dessert as she talked with the girls.

  “She’s still eating,” I said, completely baffled that she was still stuffing her face.

  “Yeah, well I once ate one hundred and forty-four cookies in a weekend when I was pregnant with James. It happens.”

  “One hundred and forty-four cookies? Where did you even get that many?”

  “I made them,” she glared at me. “I didn’t realize I was making the full batch and they were really good.”

  “Obviously.”

  “Hey, you try carrying another human for nine months and try not to eat everything in sight.”

  I held my hands up in surrender. “I won’t say a word. I love the extra curve you have.”

  “The extra curve?” She raised an eyebrow at me and crossed her arms over her chest.

  “You know, in your hips. I love that about you.”

  “And you think I got this curve because of the extra cookies I ate?”

  “Well, I..I mean, your mom doesn’t have those curves so I assumed..”

  “That I got fat because I ate too much while I was pregnant?”

  I cleared my throat and pulled at the invisible noose tightening around my neck. “Of course not, sweetie.”

  “But you do think that I’m fat,” she said accusingly.

  “No! No, I would never say you were fat. You just have more to love around your hips.”

  “That’s the same thing!”

  “It’s not! I swear. I love your hips. Isn’t that why they call them love handles?” She actually looked like she was going to cry. Shit. “You know? So the guy has something to hold onto as he loves his woman.”

  “That’s not why they call them that!”

  “It’s not?” I pulled out my phone and did a quick search of the word. To my relief, I saw that according to the Urban Dictionary, that’s exactly why they were called love handles. I thrust the phone at her and gave her a minute to read what it said. The tears that were threatening to spill over cleared as she looked up at me.

  “So, guys like this?”

  “Yeah, Cassie girl. No man wants a woman so thin she could be snapped in half while he’s fucking her.”

  She laughed and wrapped her arms around me. “So, if I get old and fat, you’ll still love me?”

  “The more the merrier.”

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “Mom! Ryan! It’s Christmas!”

  Any thoughts of sleeping in were banished when James jumped on the bed over and over until Cassie and I got out of bed. Cassie went into the living room and I went to the kitchen to make coffee. It was five-thirty in the morning. He wasn’t even up this early on a school day.

  “Hurry up, Ryan. It’s time to open presents!”

  “Coffee first, bud. Then stockings. Then presents.”

  “Aww, man!”

  When the coffee had been made, we each sat down and opened our stockings. Santa had given us all deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, an apple and orange, socks, lotion, and some candy.

  “Looks like Santa wants to be sure we’re healthy this year.” Cassie didn’t find my little comment funny.

  “There’s nothing wrong with Santa encouraging good hygiene and healthy eating.”

  James had gotten a few new books, paint balling gear, and some new movies. Cassie had gotten me a new Dyson since my vacuum was getting old. She knew me so well. I wanted useful presents. I had gotten Cassie a necklace with a three heart pendant. One was white gold, the next gold, and the last rose gold. Each heart had little diamonds around one curve of the heart.

  After all the presents had been opened, it was time for the final present, but it wasn’t under the tree.

  “Let’s get all this wrapping paper cleaned up and then we can watch one of your new movies,” Cassandra told James.

  “Wait,” I said as I stood up and put my hand in my pocket. “There’s one present left.”

  Cassie looked nervously at me and then at James. “Uh, Ryan, I think we should save that present for later.” She jerked her eyes over to James.

  “It’s not that kind of present.” I got down on one knee in front of her. “Cassie, I never thought that I would be lucky enough to find someone as special as you. When all my friends got married and I still hadn’t found anyone, I thought I just wasn’t meant to find someone to share my life with. Then you changed my world that day I saw you in front of your car. I was nervous and excited all at once and while ours didn’t start as the most romantic love story, it turned out even better than I had ever hoped.”

  I pulled out the ring and held it in front of me. “I know that this time around will be different because of everything we’ve already been through. I love you so much, Cassie girl. Will you marry me? Again?”

  “Of course I will.”

  She flung her arms around me and squeezed until I thought I would pass out from lack of oxygen.

  “I don’t get it. You’re already married. How can you get married again?” James asked.

  “We’ll renew our vows.”

  “Oh. Do you have to do that every year like you do with the stickers on your car?”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Cassandra

  RYAN AND I decided that we didn’t want a big elaborate wedding. I had a child that was almost eleven and Ryan and I had eloped already. It seemed all backwards. What I really wanted was a nice outdoor ceremony at our house. It was going to be simple and stress-free.

  I didn’t want to let it show how relieved I was that Ryan asked me to marry him. Although we were already married, sometimes I felt like I was still a passenger in his life, not because he made me feel that way, but because maybe it didn’t really belong to me. While I had become comfortable around his house, occasionally I still felt it was that, his house. Now that I knew for certain that he wanted me here permanently and he wouldn’t be changing his mind, I found myself more comfortable not just around him, but also in our house.

  I wanted a fall wedding, so we planned it for September, which left plenty of time to plan and find the perfect dress to wear. I didn’t want anything too fancy, but I still wanted something breathtaking. Alex was needing to get out of the house one weekend and agreed to take me dress shopping. We headed to a little boutique outside of Pittsburgh.

  “Do you know what kind of dress you want?”

  “I’m not sure what will look good on me. I know that I want something simple because it’s an outdoor wedding, but other than that, I guess I’ll need to try some on.”

  “I think you would look great in a mermaid style dress.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “You have the perfect curves for it. It’s exactly what I would have wanted.”

  “But you didn’t go with that?”

  “No, we had a beach wedding and I didn’t really have the figure for it.”

  I had known Alex for a little over a year now and this was the first time I had really spoken with her about her wedding or anything to do with Cole. Usually our conversations revolved around other people or superficial things.

  “How long have you two been married now?”

  “Two years. We met a little over a year before that, but then..”

  She didn’t have to say any more. I knew the story from Ryan and it wasn’t a pretty one. I was sure she didn’t want to talk about it.

  “So, have you guys thought about starting a family?”

  “Um..yeah, but it’s not really working.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I haven’t been able to get pregnant. I think it’s me. The doctors don’t know why I can’t get pregnant. They tell us to just keep trying but not to stress over it.”

  “Have yo
u thought about trying IVF?”

  “We’ve talked about it a little, but I don’t know if we want kids that much. I mean, I want them, but I know it’s a lot of pressure to do IVF and it could put a lot of strain on us. We’ve already been through so much. I just want to live in peace for a while.”

  “What does Cole think about that?”

  “I think Cole wants to give me a child any way that he can. It must be a guy thing, that he’s supposed to make this happen for me, but I don’t blame him. I don’t think it’s him that’s the problem.”

  “Alex, you can’t look at it that one of you is the problem. Maybe you just weren’t meant to conceive naturally. There’s nothing wrong with alternative ways of getting pregnant.”

  She blew out a breath and stared out the window. “I know, but after everything, I just don’t think I’m up to it. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I still don’t have a job. I’m basically a housewife.”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  “In today’s society? Tell me what’s not wrong with that. I’m supposed to be out finding a job and helping to support the household.”

  “Who cares? It used to be that women stayed home and took care of the house and the man earned the money. What’s wrong with that, as long as Cole’s okay with it.”

  “Cole would wrap me in bubble wrap for the rest of my life if he could. He’s so freaked out whenever I leave the house if I’m not with him. He doesn’t want me to work because he wants me at home where he knows I’m safe, but honestly, I’m glad about that. I don’t know if I could handle a job. Maybe some day, but right now, I get panicked if I’m out in public for too long. I feel like people are watching me and I get freaked out.”

  “So, was this a bad idea for you to come with me?”

  “No. I think it’s good that I push myself. If I don’t, I won’t get better.”

  “Well, you’ll have to tell me if you start panicking. We can leave if you start to feel overwhelmed.”

  “I appreciate that, but I really do want to try to be okay today.”

  We arrived at the shop a few minutes later and immediately started going through dresses. The shop ladies were excellent at helping me pick out a style that worked for me and it only took two hours to find the right dress. The dress was a mermaid style, just like Alex suggested. It had a sweetheart neckline with two inch straps that wrapped over my shoulder and then connected with the fabric under my armpits. It left the back completely open, forming a v at the small of my back.