Chapter 6 : Bonding
Everyone at Ybarra residence saw Julia was holding Roman’s hand and rushing down the stairs from the attic. While she was zipping through the hall towards Jeremy’s study, Eva Coppola stopped Julia, “Julia, you’re still in your pajamas!”
Julia retorted, “Oh my mother-in-law, I thought of getting dressed and donning my hair and make-up. But helpless. It’s Christmas and all the salons are closed for the week.”
She gave her audience enough time to digest the sarcasm, then snapped, “Besides, you didn’t bring my man in a tuxedo, either. Did you?”
Eva scoffed a little, “Your man?”
Julia held her ground, “Hun.. Hun … With all legal connotations …”
While the audience was searching for a suitable reaction in all the folds of their brains, Julia finished her run. She brought Roman to the bay window by the wooden deck by the first floor study. She offered Roman a snow boot to put on over his woolen socks. Then she stepped out in the ankle deep snow of the deck and made Roman follow her. She noticed through the corners of her eyes that their parents were flocking in the study in pretense of reminiscing about the good old days.
Roman said, “You look like the eye of a storm - a very speedy tropical cyclone …”
Julia agreed, “I am.”
The silence engulfed them for a few minutes. Julia wanted to scream “Why? Why must things turn so complicated?”
But there was a lump in her throat. She could not say a word. Her eyes were getting filled with a sticky haze. The haze was ascending to her brain, occupying every single space and putting on a pressure on her skull as if her brain would explode and the tissues would spatter all over the winter snow.
She pushed the lump in her throat towards her stomach. A few times. Yet it kept coming back. Roman was looking at Julia. He never saw Julia so lost. He himself was reeling under a weird wave of feelings. Sadness. Joy. Anxiety and wrath.
A moment he felt like all the time he spent courting Julia was about to come to an end. The next moment he thought, “Oh, great. It’s Julia. Should I continue the marriage?”
The very next moment he thought, “Will Julia accept that? She was up for a divorce. Should I ask her to give us a chance?”
Then it came to, “What a crooked joke. We’re seeking divorce from each other so that we can date each other! … All these past years we hated each other to our cores, now that we’re almost enamored by each other, we just discovered that we are the reasons for each other’s misery …. What a farce! Just because our parents wished us to be together so we can never be together. They’ve made our lives a joke.”
Looking at Julia’s painful helpless face, he started thinking about what could be the logical step for Roman to ask Julia, the wife he ignored for the past six years, but never met before, as if not met at TechBiz Award Ceremony and afterwards. He imagined a scenario where he never met Julia before and met this bitch who invited him to her parents’ place on Christmas. He asked the most logical question, “Why did you ask me to meet you?”
Julia’s answer was brief, “I want a divorce.”
Roman agreed, “So do I.”
Julia asked, “When?”
Roman fixed the date, “First tuesday after the New Year’s Day.”
He added, “After the holidays, I’ll talk to my lawyer to prepare the papers. They’ll contact you for the details. Think about your conditions with care and tell those conditions to my lawyer. The more you will be prepared, the higher will be the possibility of getting the divorce on the date we just agreed upon.”
Julia frowned and maintained the cold and distant vibe, “What are your conditions? Oh! That would come from your lawyers I guess. … I must think about my conditions and must be prepared to tackle your conditions, too.”
Roman tried to wipe off a smile on his own face. He swallowed the words “So far, I am ready to give you all you ask …”
Those words could have ruined the gloomy grey surrounding of them and could have sweetened the environment.
Julia’s face brightened with a crooked smile, “I’m not telling them, until I have to.”
She pointed to the people in the study.
Roman grinned, “You never failed to impress me.”
Julia surprised Roman again, “If you wanted a divorce, then why did you wait until I took the initiative?”
Roman’s eyes darkened and voice turned bitter, “I’ve my reasons.”
Julia went blatant, “Why did you agree to marry me in the first place?”
Roman almost repeated his answer, but in a phlegmatic tone, “I had my reasons.”
Julia snapped, “Still playing the cold distant loser … can’t tell me the reasons … as if I would feel sympathetic and would go back on my wish to get a divorce.”
Roman snapped back, “You're the bitch. You can never be sympathetic to me. As if you’ve some reasons other than your own spinelessness when you married me.”
He continued, “I wonder why you want to get a divorce now. Is this because my company has been doing too good for the past four years and you want a chunk of it?”
Julia almost spat in anger on the snow piled under the deck, “Arrogant. Do you want a chunk in my company? That’s why you’re so eager to get a divorce. From all legal aspects, You can ask for that as I built the company up after my marriage.”
Then silence dropped on them, wrapped them up, like a fog in a cloudy winter afternoon. They felt all engulfing bitterness around them. They were asking their own lone selves in the silence, “Why things have to come to this point? Why?”
Julia spoke first, “I’ll send you my company details - the annual report, tax evaluation, market valuation as soon as we go inside.”
Roman disagreed, “No need.”
Julia looked at Roman in surprise. Roman asked, “Do you think that I’d enjoy snatching a chunk of your company asset from you?”
Julia looked into Roman’s eyes for a while. Roman did not shift his gaze from Julia’s eyes. Julia’s reaction was almost inaudible, “What are we now? Have we overcome the loser and the bitch?”
Roman’s voice was calm, “Not yet. But at some point of time we have to take a step to move on so that we can reach our goal that made us meet to seek a divorce. Consider this’ the first step.”
Julia sighed, “Where would we go from here? Can you ever listen and believe why the bitch had to marry you? Whenever you’ll be seeing me today onwards, you’ll see the bitch. In the back of my mind, I would always know how much you hate me.”
Roman did not try to appease Julia, “So do I. I will always see how much you hate me.”
He asked, “Why did you ask for a divorce after all these years of reluctance?”
Julia could not hide her pain and anger, “Because in my whole youth, now I’ve met someone and I want to date him. I want to start afresh, on a clean slate, without the shadow of my hopeless marriage and without the shadow of my parents.”
Roman still did not try to appease, “And who is that person whom you would like to date?”
Julia sniffed. Roman knew that the strong woman was swallowing up her tears through her nose. Roman asked, “You’re not shy. You’re a confident person. Then, don’t get scared of the truth.”
Julia said in a heavy voice, “Roman Coppola, who handed me over a trophy in a business award ceremony.”
Then her voice broke as if she was crying, “That’s complicated everything.”
Roman refuted, “Not at all. You’ve already separated out the Roman Coppola that you want to date and the loser Roman Coppola that you want to divorce.”
Julia almost screamed, “Can you separate Julia Ybarra you've been courting for months from the bitch you hated so much?”
Roman answered, “I have to. That’s the first step in pursuit of the happiness of my life. Otherwise all the feelings that grew between us for the past few months will all be in vain. Otherwise we can never build and cultivate our relationship free from the curse of that forced marriage and the interference of our parents. Otherwise we will never be happy in our lives.”
Julia wiped her tears. Roman reached out and wiped Julia’s tears with his thumbs half cupping her face in his palm, “I can’t explain my joy when I saw you here … I forgot why I’m here. I just thought that out of that suffocating business environment I got a chance to see you, in your pajamas, in a casual mood. I want to cling on to that joy. Will you help me forget the bitch for the few days we are about to spend together … till the divorce and let me have fun with you?”
Julia smiled, “I can do that. What should I expect in the fun?”
Roman was decisive, “We’re not dating. Not here. Not yet.”
He continued, “In fact, that’s my condition for the divorce. I want another year before we start dating each other.”
Julia looked devastated, “I was looking forward to the divorce so much just because I wanted to date you. But you don’t want to date. Is that because you hate me?”
Roman was cautious, “Not at all. I want to date you all the same as before meeting you here, before you turned out to be the bitch. I am just being cautious so that none of the threads from the marriage could tie us up.”
He knew in his heart that he did not tell Julia the complete truth. He wanted to pay back his parents and to free his company from their control so that they would not get a chance to control his life by threatening him to divest from his company.
He went on, “I would rather suggest that both of us - you and I - should try dating others and see if we were entangled by the marriage or our feelings for each other were spontaneous.”
Julia sighed but agreed, “Then I’ll register us up on Bumble as soon as we get the divorce decree.”
They heard the bay window behind them open. Julia’s aunt called, “Julie, the food is ready. Everyone is having lunch. Can you bring Roman inside and have lunch with us?”
After lunch Roman asked Julia, “Where did you put my bag?”
Julia asked Jarvis, “Where’s his luggage?”
Jarvis said, “Aunt Judy told me to put them into your room. And I took all our things to the attic.”
Julia frowned. The kid was spilling unnecessary details. She took Roman to her room. Roman asked, “Is this first time you’re bringing a boy to your room?”
Julia giggled, “I’m sad. But you’re right.”
Then she complained, “Even then I’m the bitch.”
Roman apologized, “I never thought ill of the woman I have been after since last summer. I did not know you. I think, over time I will be able to forget the bitch and to forget that you and the bitch are the same person, with an age gap of six years.”
Julia was still lost, “I don’t know what to believe and what not.”
Then Roman climbed on the bed grabbing a book. Julia left him alone and went to the attic to join her cousins. In the evening Julia was preparing dinner. Roman gave her a hand. He asked, “Are you a fan of the classics?”
Julia shook her head, “Not much. But I was curious about them and read as many as I could.”
Roman asked, “You’ve not brought any books from college?”
Muscles on Julia’s face stiffened. Roman sensed a change of mood. The word college and anything that was related to her coming of age used to turn her into a cold rigid person.
After dinner everyone took part in a game. Julia sensed a conspiracy but she did not find an opportunity to leave the game. Then the elders tricked Roman and Julia to stand together under the Mistletoe and cheered them on, “Kiss, Kiss, Kiss.”
Roman looked into Julia’s eyes. Julia was frozen in embarrassment. Roman whispered, “Can I do the honor?”
Julia shivered a little. Roman cupped Julia’s face in his palms. Julia could not avoid putting her arms around Roman’s neck. They were surrounded, There was no chance of cheating. A hasty, hesitant brushing of the lips relieved them from the daunting task of kissing. Yet none of them miss the lingering electrifying sensation and a longing for more. The claps from their audience made them cautious and they pushed each other away. They dragged their feet to the far away corner of the hall to avoid each other’s touches. Yet, they could not help stealing glances at each other every now and then till the family game ended.
A few yawns in the hall made the hosts - Judy and Jeremy - announce their planned sleeping arrangements for the night. Before anybody could say anything, Roman joined Jarvis and Miles in the attic for sleeping. Julia slept with her cousins, the two girls in his room, like the night before. She could not forsake the feeling that the bed had Roman’s touch and so did her lips. She almost skipped brushing her teeth before going to bed.
Roman did not miss the smudges of warmth on his lips either. He sighed and lamented, “I'll have to bear with this longing and the loneliness that it would bring along for another year. Then, I’ll kiss her whenever we agree.”
On Christmas night there was a talk in the kitchen that Judith and Jeremy would leave their bedroom to their daughter and son-in-law. Both Julia and Roman heard. They texted each other, “Let’s plan.”
On the dinner table, Roman praised a lot about the SUV that Jarvis’s parents brought. In the end he asked, “Can I drive the car for a bit tonight?”
As soon as he got the keys he invited, “Julia, cousins, let's roam around the town tonight.”
They returned a little before dawn. All of them slept throughout the day in Judith and Jeremy’s bedroom. The girls were on the big bed. The boys were in the bags on the floor.
That afternoon Julia’s uncles and aunts left. Eva and Ronald Coppola stayed. So did their son, Roman. That night, Roman and Julia were pushed to Julia’s room.
The bed was a small one. Julia and Roman looked at the bed for a while. There was no way they could keep a respectable distance from each other if they both slept on the bed. Roman said, “The divorce would be a cake walk if you both confess that we have not consummated the marriage for the past six years.”
Julia scoffed a little, “That’s what I thought.”
Roman started opening the hutch in the room while confessing, “We know that we have feelings for each other. Any closeness and touch could light a fire of desire in our youthful minds and bodies. And all the sacrifices that we have made over the years, will go down the drain.”
Julia was leaning on the door, grabbing the door knob, “What’s the plan?”
Roman took out the chessboard and the scrabbles from inside the hutch, “ I took liberty to know you as much as I can on my first afternoon in this room. Hope, you’ll forgive me.”
Julia sighed in relief. She was scared that a great chunk of her life had been exposed to Roman while she did not know how Roman grew up. She was relieved that the predicament of spending night together on the same bed had come to end. She sounded cheerful, “Let’s play.”
They played chess, scrabble and other word games till the household buzz of morning hit them. Roman went to the attic to sleep till lunch leaving Julia in her room so that she could get a good sleep.
That day after lunch, Roman and Julia hit the road to get back to the city, in Julia’s rented car. But Roman drove all along. They shared their Christmas memories from almost all the past years on the road.
Reaching the city, first Roman drove to the rental facility to drop the car. Then he flagged a cab and took Julia to his place, “Before divorce, let’s have a peek at your husband’s living conditions.”
Roman was living with two postgraduate students in his apartment. They were out on vacation and holidays. Inside the apartment, there were just Roman and Julia. Julia got excited seeing Roman’s books. Then she invited him, “Come sometime to my place. I’ll show you my books.”
Roman uttered a cold reminder, “Remember, we would not date each other for another year.”
Julia muttered, “I swallowed my pride for nothing.”
Roman was irritated, “What did you mean?”
Julia complained, “I swallowed my pride and requested Mrs. Coppola to ask her son to meet me at my parents’ place during Christmas so that I could talk to the loser and make him understand how the divorce could be beneficial for both of us. I swallowed my pride to be free from the looming shadow of adultery so that I can present myself to you as your New Years’ gift from me.”
Roman knelt before Julia, held her hands and said, “That would have been the best gift to me, at present.”
Then he mentioned, “But that would have been adultery, because both you and I will be divorced sometime after New Year.”
Julia argued, “How could that be adultery after we knew each other - after we knew who is the loser and who is the bitch …?”
Roman uttered the caution, “Then we would not be able to say under oath that we have not consummated our marriage …”
He belched out his confusion, “If you’ve overcome the loser and the bitch situation and are ready to move on with me anyway, then why did you ask for the divorce?”
Julia was firm on her conviction, “To teach our parents a lesson. A retribution. To free my life out of their clutches.”
Roman shook his head, “That’s all about you and your parents. Then why do you hate the loser?”
Julia held her grudges, “When the loser married me, he was already living outside his parents’ home. He could have run away, if he could not stand for himself.”
Roman held Julia’s hand in a stronger grip, “I told you, he had his reasons. He appreciates you taking the initiative to get the divorce. But that divorce would not free him from his parents’ clutches. He still needs the year to free himself from his parents’ whims.”
Julia’s eyes were brimming with tears, “How old are you?”
Roman stood up, cupped Julia’s face in his palms, wiped her tears with his own fingers, “Twenty-seven years. But my age has nothing to do with my freedom from my parents’ leashes.”
Their faces were too close. A little movement could have sucked them up into the storm of strongest desires. Roman stood up and pulled Julia by her hand to make her stand up. He dragged her along with her carryon bag and her sling purse. At the entrance of the apartment he put her coat and her scarf on her. Then he stopped outside on the street and said, “Let’s take a cab. I am sending you to your place.”
Julia struggled to free her hand from Roman’s grip. Roman did not let her go, “We’ll have our life together. Just try to see others in the coming year. Next year I will give myself to you.”
Julia was almost choked in her tears, “Text me the location of the court. I’ll see you there. Before that I don’t want to see you.”
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