My Kind Of Perfection(EDITING)

7. Going to the barre

"Merda" Emmaline curses as I walk into the kitchen.

"Hey, hey what's wrong?" I come up behind her and plop my bag down on the ground. 

She turns around and hangs up the phone, frustration etched on her round face. "Cara Mia! Nothing that worries you. What time is barre?"

I raise my brows. "4. I have time to talk."

Em sighs, knowing how stubborn I am. "Fine. It's my son again."

Shit. I repeat her previous swear.

"Which one?"

"Antonio."

Tony. Even worse.

"Well, okay. What about him?" I bite my lip, hoping it's not girl trouble.

"He broke another girl's heart." She sighs. "My friend is upset. She can't find a good man for Savita, and I can't find a girl for Antonio. We thought it was perfect, you know?"

Of course. "Yeah...I know you are moms and all, but maybe you should let him pick his own girlfriend?" I suggest.

She frowns and stirs pasta on the stove. "He did that last time. Someone named Athena." She grimaces. "Greek, that girl. Is he trying to break his Momma's heart?"

I roll my eyes. "So How's Marco?"

"Ah, good, good. They are all coming to dinner at 7. You will be there, right?"

"Of course. My barre practice should only be about 1 ½ hours." The yearly 'Family Dinner'.

"Do you bring a date?" she asks hopefully.

I sigh. There's the real question. "No, Emmaline." I don't want to date your son. "Is everyone else bringing?"

"I'm not sure about Josephina, Antonio isn't, Marco is bringing Rosa...Sabrina might not be coming, she does nae want to travel pregnant, you know? Andre..." She sighs. "Bless his heart."

I smother my grin. Still a playboy that owns a club, then. "Isn't Rosa the Spanish girl that he brought last year?"

She gets my point, and stirs the pasta again. "Yes, but when you have children, you will gain a certain tolerance. He is almost 30 and my two other oldest have families already. I cannot be picky for long. He is my eldest, and holds a place in his Momma's heart, so I will –how do you say- let him off the hook?"

I giggle.

"Besides. She is a nice girl and they both seem quite happy, no?"

I pat her on the shoulder. "If you say so. Do you want me to bring anything?" I ask, already knowing the answer, I pick up my barre bag.

"No, no. Just your pretty self. Anyways Miss Kasei, you'll have to tell us how your job is going over dinner, si?"

"Sure."

"Oh, and I don't think that Ms. Katherine will be joining us, but it will be here. In the dining room, so if you get here early, you could help move stuff around...otherwise I could get my young, strong attractive son to and you could watch." She shoots me a sly smile.

No, Emmaline. I don't want to date Tony. Yes, he's attractive, but I've already gotten my heart hurt over that one.

"Yeah, I'll help. I need to get going through, but it smells very good." I lean in and give her a hug. "See you later, Momma Em."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Okay, and switch legs. Bend, bend. Good, girls!" Jen claps. "Now, stretch it out. Okay. That's about all for tonight... Unfortunately, we won't be able to meet on Thursday, so are all of you available for Friday?"

Abigail raises her hand. ugh. "So sorry, Jenna..." She starts.

"Jen."

"Aha. Jen. I will be auditioning for NYCB on Friday, so I guess I won't be able to." She fake-pouts.

"Really? New York City Ballet? Wow. Good job! Break a leg!" Jen claps.

"We can only hope." I mutter to Erin, who giggles. Abigail looks at me. Shit. She heard.

"You know, just because you aren't good enough to get in auditions early, doesn't mean that you have to be angry." Abigail snaps.

"Abigail"

"Abby." She corrects

"Abby. We all know the only reason you got in before any of us is because of your 'good connections' to the management."

"Um yeah. And you don't."

"Yeah, the 'good connections' you have is that your mom is sleeping with the director. Which, might I add, all our moms have done. You're not special."

The other girls all nod, laugh, or mutter in agreement. "All I want to suggest, is that you get your mother to get checked, like all of ours did. We wouldn't want Ms. Tiffany Banks to get an STD, from him." I add, sass oozing from my tone. 

"I wouldn't mind." Lily pipes up. "That bitch could use a peg knocked down. A couple girls laugh.

"The only reason my mom would get an STD is if she caught it from your mom." Abby growls.

"What is your mom doing to hers?" Erin laughs, causing the class to erupt into giggles.

"Okay! Girls! Let's all calm down. Friday at 8 should work for most of you. If it doesn't, find a way to work barre into your weekend! That's all, you guy are dismissed!" Jen claps twice, and shoos us into the change room.

We all change fairly quickly, and I pull my hair out of its bun, deciding that I can shower when I get home, and depending on the amount of time I have, wash my hair then too.

"I'm not sure your schedule right now, so I'll tell you if you are working the rest of the week later..." Erin drifts off. "I guess we will just get Keila and Dakota to swap our shifts for Friday. Anyway, good luck at the dinner tonight!" she calls. 

"Text you later, Erin!" I call back as I get into my car.

* * * *

I step into the house and hang up my keys on the hook beside the door.

"Smells delicious Em!" I yell as I walk into the kitchen.

"Grazie, grazie...I cannot say the same about you at the moment... are you going to shower before he gets here?" she asks, her eyes glinting as she takes the lasagna out of the oven.

"Yeah, I was going to wash up before THEY get here." I grab one of the dishes off the counter and put it on the dining room table. She never stops trying, I tell you that.

"Well then, I can get Antonio to do the table. Go take a bath." She shoos me out. I sigh and pull all my hair up into a high bun so that it won't get wet, and turn on the water for the tub.

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Thanks for reading!

Love to all of you! 

Cassi

*images at the top are from pinterest, depict an image in my head while I wrote, are not 100% accurate to the story*