The Body #4: Nico and Cosi

Chapter 1 (Cosi): Officially Infatuated

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

If our engagement day was the beginning of my crush on Nico, seeing him at Christmas turned those feelings into something more. Looking back, I wondered if this was deliberate, as if many years ago, the Body realized that betrothing a girl at sixteen and cutting her off from the possibility of any other boy focused the girls on their betrothed, turning the men into more than they were because their betrotheds were their only option. It made us look for the slightest gesture to prove they would be good, caring husbands.

The men, being Body men, and seen only a limited number of times a year, were mysterious and stoic and tough. A dangerous man was appealing to a Body girl because it was all we knew. Our husbands were meant to protect us and the stronger our husbands were, the more attractive they were to us.

All of us girls -- Ant, Fina, Ginevra, Moxie and Vic -- had gotten betrothed at some point during the year, and after we trained at Ginevra's, we would sometimes have enough time to talk about our respective husbands-to-be before we had to head home.

We would sit around, trying to catch our breath after whatever rigors we'd been put through that day, and one of us would start staring into space. We all had been guilty of that look before, so we all recognized it.

"I saw him last weekend," Moxie would sigh. "You'll never guess what! Right before he left, Enzio put his hand on my cheek, and he said he liked seeing his ring on my finger."

All of us immediately touched our cheeks and sighed at the romantic gesture. 

"I don't understand why Lucio hasn't given me a ring yet," Ginevra said, looking at her still-naked finger.

We didn't either; the rest of us had gotten our rings on the day of our betrothals. For some reason, however, Lucio hadn't had one for Ginevra.

"But Papa said he would get to it," she continued cheerfully. "Lucio's just under a lot of pressure right now, being trained by Dario La Forte to one day take over the Body." 

Ginevra always listened to what her Papa told her because she worshipped him, especially after her Mama had been killed. 

"I can't wait until we see them again on Christmas," Ant said. "Do you all have your outfits picked out yet?"

That got us launched on the dresses we'd bought to wear for the all-important holiday, each of us describing every last detail of our outfits. Looking back, we were so innocent to think that our simple and sweet dresses would be at all attractive to these men. They were used to women coming after them, women who were not their betrotheds, and maybe they would be doing things with these other women until they married us. Maybe even after, and there was nothing we could say about it, nothing we could do except ignore it and greet our husbands warmly whenever they came home.

It made me sick to think of Nico with another woman or women, but it wouldn't be surprising. Body men could do what they wanted, and we Body girls were trained to accept whatever. There was also no expectation of fidelity in the two years between betrothal and wedding. After all, men had needs and they couldn't wait for two entire years to get married before having sex. And then, our mothers prepped us delicately for infidelity once we were married.

Was it too much to want and expect a faithful husband?

So we talked about our outfits, we talked about our hair, we even talked about makeup and what little we were allowed to wear so we didn't look like mistresses, and then we practiced what we were going to talk about with our betrotheds.

"My mama said to ask them about themselves because men like to talk about themselves," Vic said. "So, like, do you play golf? What's your favorite sport?"