“A model – no, I stand corrected, a super model – that hates fashion is very unusual. You realize that, don’t you?”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“I’d never do that,” he said.
Joan turned away, looking out the window as they got off the freeway and drove onto a busy street that would lead them into downtown.
“Stop!” Joan said.
“What? Why?”
“There’s a fair! Please, please please, you’ve got to take me there Antonio. Please? Pretty please with sugar on top?”
She was bouncing in her seat, her face bright as she pointed to a carnival in the distance. He checked his watch. They were already close to her hotel, but it was still early.
“Alright,” he said, “But, only for an hour. Then I’m taking you back.”
She smiled the whole time. That smile lit up her face, lit up the carnival, and lit up his soul.
He laughed when she ate cotton candy and got some of it stuck in her hair. They went through the fun house, staring and laughing at each other as they looked at their reflections in the fun house mirrors.
After the fun house, she took his hand and dragged him to the ring toss.
“Win something for me,” she begged.
Some of the carnival attendees recognized Antonio, and soon he had an audience as he tossed his rings. The first batch didn’t land over a single bottle. Angry, Antonio bought another batch of six, and then another, until one of the rings finally hung on by a thread.
The carnie was trying to say it wasn’t good enough, but the crowd hooted and complained that the carnie was trying to rip off a national treasure.
Joan joined in the protest and finally the carnie relented and handed her the stuffed monkey.
By the time they left the fair, smiling and stuffed full of carnival foods, Antonio knew that he’d wait for Joan to be old enough and find a way to make her his wife.
He was only nineteen, and promises made that young have a way changing or slipping into the ether of the forgotten, but for the rest of the time he was with her the promise burned hot in his soul.
He’d fallen in love with Joan Edwards, and he knew that he’d never be the same.
The sun was already setting and darkness was closing in by the time they caught another taxi and made it back to her hotel.
“I hope I can see you again, perhaps the next time you are in Milan?” Antonio said, hoping that the next time she was in Milan she’d be at least eighteen.
“Suit yourself,” she said, flippantly, but there was a sly smile on her lips. They stood in the lobby. He wanted to kiss her so bad, but he forced himself to stay cool.
“See you around, then?” he said and started to go back outside.
“What, you’re not walking me to my room? That’s not very gentlemanly.”
“Uh, I’m not sure, I mean, what if your mother is angry?”
“Stop being a wuss, Antonio,” she said, and she punched him in the arm.
“Hey, watch it, I’m an athlete.”
“An athlete that can only use his feet and head and chest, never his hands or arms.”
“Hey, you said you didn’t know anything about soccer.”
“No, I didn’t.”
They were in the elevator by then, and when the door closed so did their nervous banter.
Joan moved to him suddenly and, from the look on her face and the longing in her eyes, Antonio knew that she wanted him to kiss her.
He backed away and put a hand out to keep her from getting any closer. “Joan, no. I’m sorry. Not now. Not for a few more years, okay?”
Joan’s shoulder’s slumped and she jerked away. Antonio felt bad, knowing the sting of his rejection had to hurt her very badly. He didn’t want her to hurt.
“I’m sorry, Joan,” he said.
The elevator stopped and the door pinged open. She flipped her hair and plastered on a fake smile. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. I was just kidding.”
She walked out of the elevator and headed down the hall. Antonio hesitated.
She turned and scowled. “Are you coming or not?”
“I think I’ll just wait over here.”
She stomped towards him and pulled him out of the elevator, surprisingly strong for such a skinny thing.
“You’re coming to the front door whether you like it or not, Antonio Ferraro.”
“Okay,” he said laughing. He walked along side her, and soon she arrived at her door.
“Let me do the talking,” she said as she took out her key and entered it into the lock. It didn’t work. “Shit, she always does this when I bolt. She doesn’t trust me not to bring back some tall handsome stranger when she isn’t around. Typical.”
Antonio lifted an eyebrow. Was she making a joke?
She knocked on the door and he could hear heels clicking on the marble floor inside the suite.
The door was flung open and Annabel Edwards gasped at the sight of her daughter.
“Joanie, my God, where have you been? I’ve been worried sick about you!”
“Mom, don’t be such a drama queen. I left you a note and I’m back early – before dark, like I promised.”
“I don’t care, I didn’t give you permission to go. And who, pray tell, is this man?”
“This is Antonio from the photo shoot.”
Annabel gave Antonio a withering look. “Oh, yes, I remember you. One of the jocks. Lawn bowling was it?”
He flinched from the obvious slight. “Soccer.”
“Whatever,” She flicked her hand dismissively and glared at him. “Young man I could not care less what type of ball you choose to toss into a hoop or roll across a lawn, but I do care if you think you can make advances for my daughter. I’d like you to leave now, and if I ever see you near my daughter again I will not hesitate to call the police.”
“Mom!” Joan said.
Antonio’s cheeks flushed even as his jaw clenched and his fists tightened. He was starting to understand Joan’s attitude about her mother.
“Come inside, Joanie,” Annabel Edwards said, stepping out into the hall to grasp her daughter’s arm and attempt to pull her inside.
Joan yanked her arm out of her mother’s grasp. “I won’t!”
“Joan, get away from this scoundrel, right now,” she ordered.
“Mother!” Joan screamed. “Don’t call him that. Antonio and I are in love, and he’s going to marry me, and I’m having his baby!” she announced.
Antonio was so shell shocked by this unexpected announcement that he didn’t see it coming - the next thing he knew Joan Edwards had leaped onto his torso, her skinny arms around his neck,
long legs hooked around his waist. He had no choice but to grip onto her and keep her from falling, she had no power to stop the kiss.
“Joan, what are you doing?” shouted her mother.
Antonio was caught by the taste of her sweet mouth on his, shocked by the hot invasion of her tongue. For just a second he gripped her tight to his body and kissed her back. Then he remembered where he was, who he was with and who’s mother was pounding on his back trying to yank them apart.
He pried his mouth away, pulled her limbs off his body and forced her back to her feet.
“I’m sorry, Joan, I’ve got to go.”
He ran away, leaving the most intense woman he’d ever met behind him, and even as he entered the elevator he could hear Joan’s maniacal laughter in the hallway.
He jabbed at the elevator door, fearful that Joan would escape her mother and come running after him.
They were both a couple of fruitcakes – two crazy bitches.
“Get in,” shouted the mother. He heard a grunt and a sound as if someone had fallen on the floor.
The door to the hotel room slammed shut as the elevator door pinged open.
He thought he could hear Joan crying out to him, faintly, “Antonio, don’t leave me! What about our baby?”
He stepped into the elevator and jabbed the button to the lobby. As the doors closed he burst out laughing.
Holy shit!
He ordered a cab back to his apartment and told himself that both daughter and mother were out of their gourds. Even though he’d never felt the same kind of attraction or connection with any other woman, it was clear that Joan was trouble on a paper plate.
That would be the first time he walked away from Joan Edwards, but it wouldn’t be the last. Joan was his kryptonite.
Despite, how bizarrely their first day together had ended, and despite all the warning signs, Antonio followed Joan’s skyrocketing career with the interest of a dedicated hobbyist. He had not missed one cover, magazine spread, or tabloid article if Joan was in it.
That was his first mistake, other than the ill-conceived first date – following her career and admiring her from afar.
He never should have done that and he never should have tried to connect with her years later, after he’d determined she was of age and no longer under her mother’s thumb, but, he had. The drama that would come next would make that first day seem like a walk in the park.