Monte Vista Stories | 2.41. Artful

Gina was buzzed… well, maybe a little past buzzed. But then if she woke up after her own wedding without a bit of a hangover, what was the point? She held her glass happily, looking out at her friends and family enjoying themselves, dancing, laughing. In the centre of it all, her husband talked to his siblings, his bright eyes and the ease in them making her feel warm inside.

Nothing about the past four years had been easy. Enzo still had the occasional anxiety attack and at times she had to remind him to emote, just like he had to remind her to keep her temper in check. It felt more like stumbling than floating through life, but she was glad she got to stumble with him.

As if he sensed her thoughts, he looked up in that moment and their eyes met across the floor. She would never get tired of those eyes, of the absolute love and devotion that shone at her when she looked into them. He patted his brother on the shoulder, handed his drink over and walked over to Gina.

She set her glass to the side as well to reach out for him, immediately wrapping her arms around him and inhaling his familiar scent as he came close. A moment later, his lips were on hers and she sighed happily against his mouth. He broke the kiss a moment later and rested his forehead on hers. They stood in silence like that for a long time, soaking in each other’s company and the fact that they were here. At their wedding.

Enzo was the first to break the silence.

“I’d say this is a successful party.”

Gina smiled. “Dude, it’s the best party. Your mum is drunk.”

“And crying again.” He giggled. “Which reminds me: You lost the bet. Your dad definitely cried more at the ceremony.”

She rolled her eyes. “Seriously? Your mum is still crying. You lost, rich boy.”

“We said at the ceremony. The ceremony is over.”

Gina glared at him. “We need an impartial judge.”

Enzo stood back, took her hand, and gazed out over the party guests. Then he pointed at Carlotta who was in a conversation with Gina’s siblings. The two of them marched over there, hand in hand, and Gina declared:

“Please tell my husband that dad didn’t cry more than Georgette.”

The small group went silent, Lotta sharing a look first with Giulio and then Marta. She looked at her.

“Your dad cried like a baby, Regina.”

Marta grinned. “Yup, that’s the truth.”

“I think he cried more at your wedding than mine, actually,” Giulio said. “Parental favouritism at its finest.”

Gina groaned and turned to Enzo. “They’re not impartial. Look at them, looking all partial and shit.”

He laughed and drew her into his arms, brushing a lock of hair from her eyes. “Sorry, love, but we agreed. The judges have spoken. I won.” He kissed her. “Now, I think we agreed that I can ask for whatever I want…”

“… aaaand, we’d better let them settle that in private,” Marta said, grabbing both Lotta and her brother by the arm. “More wine, anyone?”

Gina watched them leave and rolled her eyes before turning to Enzo again.

“Fine then, what do you want?”

Enzo replied, not with words, but another kiss. Now that they weren’t being watched—at least not up close—he deepened the kiss, sneaking his tongue out to meet with hers while his hands followed the curve of her hips and back. The tip of his fingers pressed on her spine and she moaned into his mouth. Then he drew back.

“I’ll have to think of something. It’s our wedding night, after all.”

Her breathing sped up at the look in his eyes. “Why do I suddenly feel like there are only winners in this bet?”

A tingling went down her spine as he leaned in close and whispered:

“I love you, Regina Mancini Cavalcante. I love you more than you’ll ever know.”

“And I love you, my rich boy.”

She went in for another kiss, but was interrupted by a clearing of the throat and her dad appearing next to them.

“Interesting bet,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

Gina turned slowly, smiling sweetly at her dad. “What do you mean, daddy?”

“You know what I mean, but no matter…” He shook his head. “I wanted to say that the girls are getting tired. Your mother plans on putting them to bed.”

“The babysitter can do that so she can stay at the party.”

He shrugged. “I tried telling her that, but she is determined to be, and I quote, the best fucking grandma in the world. She adores them.”

“My mother might want to go as well,” Enzo said. “I’ll get her.”

Before going, he kissed Gina on the cheek, then left her with her dad. She looked over at Carlo to find that he had tears in his eyes again and he was just then wiping them away.

“For fucks sake, dad,” she said, but she smiled.

“If I can’t cry at my little girl’s wedding, when can I?” He offered her his arm and she took it and walked with him out of the room. “If you think there were many tears this time, you should have seen me at my own.”

Gina laughed. “I can imagine. Enzo did his share of crying.”

“As did you,” Carlo said, winking.

“There’s a reason I made sure to get waterproof make-up.”

They walked out the venue, just outside to a small area with bushes and grass, where he stood still and looked into the evening at nothing in particular. He had a smile on his face.

“Do you know how old I feel with two of my kids married?” he asked. “Not to mention the four grandchildren.”

“Not so old you can’t run the Collesena branch of the gang still,” she said. “It’s flourishing.”

Carlo grinned. “Speaking of the gang.” He looked away, to where Vittoria and Georgette were gathering all the little kids so they could go to sleep. “I know they’re young but do you plan on keeping it in the family?”

“Oh yes,” Gina said. “If the girls want it, they’ll take it after me.”

“Not just one of them?”

She shook her head. “No. They both have the spark, I can tell. Adriana already figured out how to manipulate us into giving her attention and Francesca is tough. They’ll be perfect at it.”

Carlo put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to press a kiss to her hair. He was tearing up again.

“I’m proud of you.”

A sweet night breeze came in and Gina put her head on her dad’s shoulder.

“I love you, daddy.”

“And I love you, sweetheart.”

They stood in companionable silence, until the guests started buzzing behind them. She looked inside to see Enzo taking an envelope from someone who must be a courier… and his face suddenly changed into the kind of expression he had before an attack. Gina moved without thinking, hiking up her skirt and running to him.

“Honey,” she said as she neared.

“My father has sent a telegram.”

Every person around them went quiet, as though the entire gathering held their breaths along with them. Gina curled her hands into fists, her entire frame shaking with fury.

“That fucking—”

Enzo put a hand on the small of her back and shook his head. “Let’s go read this away from our guests, love.” He said out loud: “We’ll be right back.”

He took her hand and left the venue. Gina didn’t know where he led her, and she frankly didn’t care. After a while of walking in the semi-darkness they were in a familiar park, standing on the small footbridge and yet again looking at the bank where they had their first kiss. Gina wrapped her arms around Enzo while he opened the telegram with shaky hands.

Enzo took a deep breath, then read out loud:

“I congratulate you on your wedding. Enclosed is a check for the amount of… damn.”

He showed Gina and she sucked in a breath. “That… that is a shit-ton of money and possibly the worst wedding card I’ve ever read.”

Enzo snorted. “You don’t say.”

He tucked the card back in the envelope and pulled out the check—as promised, it had the same absurd amount on it, as well as his father’s elegant signature—and then his hand fell limply to his side. Concern creased his face and Gina held him tighter, wanting to take the pain away.

“He hasn’t even tried to contact you in four years, so what the hell is this about?” she asked.

“I believe my father has realised that time is running out. He remarried two years ago and that union still hasn’t produced a new heir, so…”

“Ugh.” Gina felt her skin crawl. “Yeah, I forgot about that.”

Suddenly, two years ago, Vincente had remarried and Enzo was sure it was an attempt at replacing his heir. He just barely managed to stop Gina from marching over to the house and telling the asshole a thing or two. Normally, she would’ve been happy to just leave the old idiot be with his new marriage, only she could tell it hurt Enzo. His dad might be a terrible person, but he was his dad and nobody wanted to be replaced like that. It made her think of the moment she had just shared with her own dad and her heart ached to think that he would never have anything like it.

“It’s okay, Gina.” Enzo’s voice sounded bemused. “You’re squeezing me very hard.”

She let go. “Sorry. He pisses me off.”

“I’m glad you can be angry on my behalf. Right now, I don’t feel much of anything. It’s so typical of him. Not a single apology, not a kind word or a well-wish. Just a ridiculous amount of cash to bribe me into coming back. As if I could ever look him in the eye again. As if I’d ever subject my girls to being near that man… No.”

“Let’s not even talk about the fact that he wouldn’t want anything to do with Adria or Franca. They’re girls, after all.”

“I know. The utter horror. And imagine if they turn out gay?” He sighed, then he took the letter and ripped it in half. “I almost hope they’re both gay. I’ll take them to pride parades and march in the streets right there with them because they’re my girls and damn it, that’s what a father is supposed to do.”

Gina blinked tears out of her eyes. “Oh, Enzo…”

He ripped the letter another time, then another, and another. When he couldn’t rip the pieces any smaller, he let them fall into the water below the bridge. They drifted softly down and landed, rippling the surface. Then he turned to Gina and took her hands.

“When Francesca was born and I held her for the first time I realised how… monstrous you have to be to hurt your child like that, to send them away for some perceived defect. I couldn’t do that to her or Adriana.”

“I know.” Gina squeezed his hands. “You’re a good dad, honey.”

“I hope so. I hope to God that I’ll never be like him. I love them so much, Gina, and I love you.”

She reached up to brush a tear from his cheek. “I know and we all love you, too.”

Enzo kissed her. A short, sweet, delicate kiss that told her he was better and it made her heart swell with pride. A mere year ago, his dad contacting him would have sent him spiralling into another anxiety attack, but he’d come far.

“I’d like to go back to our party,” Enzo said. “It must be time for more cake.”

Gina smiled. “Oh, fuck yes.”

He grinned and they walked back, hand in hand, stumbling in the dark but staying on their feet because they caught each other. The lights from the wedding venue came into view and together the two of them re-entered the light and the life they had made for themselves.

Author’s note: Hi everyone, and welcome back to the final chapter of Oh Yeah, Did I Mention Enzo’s Dad Is a Piece of Shit? And yup, this really is it – the end. It keeps hitting me over and over again. I’ve really completed this monster of a story. If I’m not mistaken, I started posting this on the 9th of June 2018, so a little over a year ago, and since then it’s grown to 97,585 words. For comparison, both of the first Harry Potter books are under 90,000 words, so when I say to people I don’t expect them to catch up on this monster – I mean it.

I don’t think I can adequately say everything I want to say for this post, but I’ll try. First of all, I’m so glad to have completed this. A little sad – I actually cried a little when I put The End on that final picture. I’ve been with these two so long, so it feels strange to let them go. Of course they’ll be popping up here and there, but I’m generally happy with where I’ve left their story and I’m happy with how it turned out. Second, I want to thank my boyfriend for being my beta-reader through all of this generation. Artful is generally much more coherent and makes more sense than things I’ve done before and it’s largely down to him going through it with me. Third, I want to thank you guys! All my readers are such a big part of the experience when posting. I’m so glad to have you cheering and raging with me, and on several occasions you have changed the course of the story – for the better, I’d say. A special thank you to the people who provided their sims as background characters for this chapter. You can see them waltzing in the back! Though if you’ve seen the tumblr posts you’ll know I also have proper pics of everyone. It was fun and frustrating to do this wedding chapter – I did not know lag before I started putting all the guests on this lot.

Finally, the future… I need a break before I start posting anything else and by that I’m afraid I don’t mean a week or two. I mean… probably quite a bit more than that. I’ve posted this nearly consistently every other week since last year and I barely had time to focus on any other projects. When will I start posting chapters again? Man, I don’t know. I’m thinking it’ll take a few months at the least. I want to build up a backlog of chapters and I want to take time to do just-for-fun things. As for what I’m posting, it won’t be generation 3. Not right away, at least. Another thing you may know if you’re on tumblr is that I’ve developed something of an obsession with Rosalia, Enzo’s sister, and my next project is to tell her story. 🙂 She’s gone through some stuff, as you’ll know if you read the last chapter, so I want to explore it and let Lia have her own romance.

I have more stuff to post about this generation. I usually do reflections after a gen is over and I want to do it this time as well. I also have A LOT of pictures from the wedding venue with my own as well as my friends’ sims so watch out for a post with that. If you want to see clear photos of everyone who attended, you can start here. Look to the bottom of the post for a link that’ll take you through all the pictures of guests. 🙂

That’s it for now. Thank you guys so much for reading, commenting, liking, and lurking. It’s meant a ton to me to have you all along for the ride. I’ll see you all in the next post!

Cheers!