Promise returned when using async...await from another function

[nara-golfdistrict-com]

I created a utility function to retrieve the count from an API. The value is properly returned in the utility function though the caller (the actual test) is getting a promise. Is there a way to get the actual value in the test? See below code samples.

const cyAwaitPreprocessor = require("cypress-await/src/preprocessor");
setupNodeEvents(on, config) {
      // implement node event listeners here
      on(
        "file:preprocessor",
        cyAwaitPreprocessor({
          debugOutput: true,
        })
      );
...

emailUtility.js

export async function getCount() {
  var url = "https://api.publicapis.org/entries";
  var count = -1;

  cy.log(url);

  var res = await cy.request({
    method: "GET",
    url: url,
  });
  // .its("body.count")
  // .should("be.a", "number");

  cy.log(`Response body count = ${res.body.count}`);
  count = res.body.count;
  cy.logcc(`Count variable = ${count}`);

  return count;
}
...

test.cy.js

import {
  getCount,
} from "../support/emailUtility";

describe("Testing Environment", () => {
  it("Get API Count", () => {
    cy.logcc("Get API Count");
    cy.logcc("Begin");
    var value = getCount();
    cy.logcc("End");

    cy.logcc(value);
  });
});

Below is the screenshot of the test run.

If I used async...await in the test then I get the below error.