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finally says, “I’m pregnant!”
    My mother leaps up from her chair to hug Gabriella and Tony while my father looks at me and shakes his head, clearly disappointed that I wasn’t the one to make this announcement. In his mind, I should have been the first one pregnant.
    Before rising to hug everyone, I take my glass of wine and down the whole thing in one gulp. I hug a proud Tony, whispering my congratulations. I move on to Gabby, and she gives me a hard hug as she whispers in my ear, “Soon it will be your turn.”
    While everybody continues crying and hugging, I polish off another glass of wine, waiting to resume eating lunch. As soon as we’re all seated again my mother returns to interrogating me about Autumn’s romantic luck.
    “Does Autumn have a boyfriend?”
    I sigh. “Not a boyfriend, but she’s been on a couple of dates with the same guy, and she really likes him.”
    My father asks me in his thick Italian accent, “Why can’t you meet anyone? You are just as pretty and smart as Autumn, plus you’re Italian. Men love Italian women!”
    My mother nods her head in agreement. “It’s true, Lucia Pia. Italian women are known to be very warm, we can cook as well.”
    Gabriella teases, “Are you sure you don’t want me to introduce you to any of Tony’s friends?”
    Tony chimes in excitedly, “You know, Lucia, my friend Angelo won’t stop asking about you.”
    My mother claps her hands in excitement while my father slaps my arm. “See, Tony has a nice friend for you. It’s wrong for a woman your age to be single.”
    I throw my hands up in frustration. “Dad, I’m twenty-seven. I’m not that old.”
    “Yes, but you’re going to be twenty-eight this year,” my father retorts. He looks up at Tony, “Give your friend Lucia’s number.” I open my mouth to decline but my father interrupts me. “One date, Lucia. You just go on one date with him.”
    My mother serves herself some chicken and asks, “Lucia Pia, how did Autumn meet her boyfriend?”
    I finish my third glass of wine. “Mom, I told you, he’s not her boyfriend, but to answer your question, she met him on Chat Love.”
    I see my parents’ confused faces; they’re clearly not up-to-date regarding the latest trends and technology. Tony and Gabriella are trying to conceal their snickers as I shoot them a confused glance. My father suggests, “You should go there sometime and meet a nice young man like Autumn did.”
    “You don’t want her to do that, Daddy. Then she’ll be the embarrassment of the family,” Gabriella says with a chuckle.
    Tony adds in, “Chat Love is for geeks and social retards who can’t meet anyone normally.”
    Gabriella finishes, “Yeah, and those dating sites don’t work; it’s all a scam.”
    Frustrated by their negativity, I argue, “That’s not true. Autumn has met several great guys and my friend Skyler is getting married this year to a man she met on Chat Love.”
    “Skyler? That pretty black girl you introduced me to when I visited you at work? “my sister asks skeptically. I nod, and her eyes open wide with surprise.
    Skyler Williams is an associate producer for the
Big Apple Morning Show
, a news and entertainment morning show that I work for as a talent scout. She is beautiful, with mocha-colored skin, long black hair, big brown eyes, and plump lips. She is twenty-nine but doesn’t look a day over twenty-five. Her fiancé, Dave, is a handsome corporate lawyer who looks a lot like Taye Diggs. When he looks at her you can see the love, respect, and admiration he has for Skyler. In an attempt to help me find the same kind of love, Dave once introduced me to one of his coworkers, Tim, and we dated for a few months. My parents even met and loved him, but Tim still wasn’t over his ex-girlfriend, so we stopped seeing each other.
    Gabriella rolls her eyes. “Whatever, Lu, you don’t want to be on that site. People will laugh at you and think that you’re pathetic and desperate. Everybody