My Real (25 page)

“You want it?”

“Are you kidding me? Get out of my over-priced, shitty apartment that is almost an hour drive every day. Yes, I want it.”

“Alright, I’ll talk to Bailey about it tonight. I don’t know what she would want for rent.”

I walk to the sink to wash out the pipettes, concerned my samples wouldn’t meet their specs. That would be shitty because I don’t feel like dealing with all the work that would entail. Shaking my head, I get back to my current problem at hand. It would be perfect if Jake rented the house from Bailey. We wouldn’t have to worry about selling it right away, and it would help Jake out as well. He needs to catch a break at some point in his life.

“I’m sure it’s less than I’m paying now. Talk to Bailey and find out what she wants for it. I can afford it. I’m just not ready to buy a new house again right now.”

“Yeah, I’ll talk to her tonight. Also, I need your help with something at the end of the week. Maybe Friday night or Saturday. You free?” I ask.

“Depends on what you need me for? You want me to help move her in don’t you?” he asks.

“Well, eventually yes, but it’s not that. I’m going to propose to Bailey at Hershey Park. I’m going to need some help setting everything up,” I explain.

Jake whips his head around. “You’re proposing already?” he asks skeptically as he puts his pipette down. “Don’t you want to see how it goes living with her first or I don’t know, be divorced from the she-bitch?”

“I talked to my lawyer on Friday. The paperwork is all filed. It should all be finalized this week. That’s why I’m not sure when I’m actually going to do it. I want to have the paperwork in my hands before I ask her.”

“How in the Hell did you get everything done so fast? My lawyer said it would be a minimum of ninety days.”

“I paid a Hell of a lot of money for him to do it as fast as he could. I wasn’t going let Jessica ruin anything else in my life. It also helped that Jessica isn’t fighting back.”

I pick up the report for the next medicine trial and prepare my supplies. “I love her Jake. I’m willing to do anything I need to in order to make her mine.”

“Okay, I get it. I’ve got your back. You know that!” Jake confirms.

“Thank you. I have some calls to make, but when I know more details I’ll let you know.”

“Hershey Park? Really?” Jake questions.

“Why does everyone keep saying that? It’s a great idea! She loves chocolate.”

“If you say so man.”

I just step outside for my morning run when I see Andrew’s truck pull up.

“What are you doing here? Don’t you have to work today?” I ask as he gets out of his truck.

“Yes, I thought I’d get a run in before I went in today,” he answers pulling a water bottle out of his car.

“A run? You’re going to run with me today?”

“Sure, why not?” he answers as he starts doing some silly looking stretches.

“Well, it didn’t end so well the last time you went with me.”

“Har har … Let’s go woman,” he yells as he slowly jogs off.

I catch up with him, and we jog at a slow pace. I keep looking over at him waiting for him to get winded like he did last time. When it looks like he is still doing okay, I start to run at my normal pace. He is still keeping up, so I turn it up again and start to push myself faster than I normally go. I glance over at him, and he gives me a huge smile.

“Okay, what gives?” I ask as I slow down to a walk, catching my breath.

“I’ve been training during my lunch hour every day,” he says with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Oh you have, have you. And what are you training for?”

“The 10K we are doing in Philly in October.” I stop dead in my tracks. When he sees I’ve stopped, he turns around, and jogs back to me.

“You signed us up for a 10K?” I ask stunned. He nods at me.

“But I’ve never done a 10K. And you don’t like to run,” I state.

“That’s why we are going to train for it, so we are ready. And if you like running, I will run with you.” He takes my hand and pulls me along with him until we were both jogging again.

“You keep doing this to me,” I say.

“Doing what?”

“Wonderful things that make me fall even deeper in love with you. You are going to run a 10K with me, and you hate running,” I marvel

“I never said I hated running. I just never did it, so I didn’t have the stamina that you do. Now quit talking and start running. Six miles is no joke, and I need to concentrate.”

After our six-mile run, the last two being very painful for Andrew, he showers quickly, while I make him a to-go breakfast sandwich.

“So what are you going to do all day with no pip-squeak to keep you busy?” he asks as I walk him to his car.

“I should get some school work done, but I’ll probably end up on the hammock reading all day,” I confess. He fakes irritation, and I hit him on the arm.

“Hey buddy, I keep telling you. Get your teaching certificate if you want your summers off.”

“I’m kidding you. From the stories you’ve told me, I know you more than deserve your time off.”

“That’s right. I’m marinating steak, so hurry home so I don’t have to char it on the grill by myself.”

“You got it,” he says as he leans in to kiss me. “Enjoy your day.”

“You too. Thanks for running with me.”

Once he was gone, I head for my Kindle and then feel guilty. I need to make new math word problems for the new math series. I’m going to put in three hours of school work then after lunch, that hammock is mine.

Seven hours later, I wake from the best dream ever by the sounds of someone singing Pearl Jam in my ear.

“What is that awful noise?” I groan as I stretch in the hammock.

“Very funny, Eddie is the most prolific poet of the this century,” Andrew responds.

“I wasn’t talking about the song, I was talking about the singing.”

“Funny girl,” he says tipping the hammock, dumping me on my butt in the grass. “You sleep the whole day away?” he asks.

“No, I’ll have you know that I did three hours of school work, a load of very stinky man workout clothes, got everything ready for dinner tonight, and read, all before I got an hour’s nap in.”

“That’s all?” He jokes as he helps me up from the ground. “I already started the grill. Do you need anything else before I go get changed?”

“Nope, I’ll meet you on the deck with a beer,” I say.

He taps me on the butt as he passes me, “You’re too good to me.”

I am just finishing up with the salad when Andrew’s phone starts playing Meredith Brooks’ “I’m a Bitch” on the table. Last weekend, he had me program it into his phone as Jessica’s ringtone. I told him he can’t keep it like that, because Emerson is likely to hear it, but he insisted.

“Hello,” I answer.

“Bailey! I miss you,” a sweet angelic voice comes over the speaker.

“I miss you too Emerson. Are you having fun with mommy?”

“Well, I’m kinda bored now. We’re at the beach, and mommy fell asleep. I’m not allowed to leave my towel.” What?

“Andrew!” I yell into the living room while covering the speaker on the phone.

“Emerson honey, are you sitting on the beach right now?”

“Yes, I really want to play in the sand, but Mommy said no touching the sand while she sleeps. So I called you instead.”

Andrew comes running in from the living room hearing the urgency in my voice.

“What’s the matter?” he asks as I cover the phone again.

“Emerson just called your phone. She said they are on the beach and that Jessica fell asleep and told Emerson not to move off the blanket.”

Andrew grabs the phone out of my hand as I hand it to him.

“Emerson, it’s Daddy. Are you okay?” he asks Emerson quickly.

“Yes Daddy, I’m just bored. I’m not allowed to play in the sand while Mommy sleeps,” Emerson explains.

“Wake Mommy up please, I need to talk to her,” Andrew commands.

“No, she told me not to wake her up and if I’m really good, she’ll take me out for ice cream tonight.”

“It’s okay baby. I really need to talk to Mommy. You’ll still get your ice cream tonight,” Andrew promises.

Andrew is pacing in the kitchen. I can hear Emerson trying to wake Jessica up.

“Mommy, it’s time to wake up. Daddy wants to talk to you. Mommy?”

“Damn it, Emerson. I thought I told you I needed to take a nap. What is so hard to understand about that?” Jessica bellows.

“Daddy wants to talk to you.”

Jessica’s voice now fills the kitchen. “What in the Hell do you want Andrew. I’m trying to relax here,” Jessica yells.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me Jessica. You fell asleep on the beach with a five-year-old?”

“Oh, calm down. It was five minutes. I told her not to move off the towel. Although, she is now not getting any ice cream tonight, because she woke me up.”

“Jessica, try to understand this. You cannot fall asleep on the beach. You need to watch Emerson,” Andrew instructs.

“I don’t see what the big deal is. You go to sleep every night when you have her don’t you?” Jessica remarks.

Andrew’s voice is getting louder and louder. He is now gripping the counter, and he takes her off speaker.

“Do not fall asleep with her on the beach again. If you don’t want her to be there, I will come pick her up right now,” he hisses through his gritted teeth.

He pauses to listen to Jessica. I can hear her screaming through the phone, but I can’t hear what she is saying.

“Jessica, if I find out you fell asleep this week and you are not locked in your hotel room, I will call the cops. Do you understand?” Andrew threatens.

Another pause.

“And you will take her to get ice cream tonight. You are not going to punish her for something you did wrong. Let me talk to her.”

He puts the phone back on speaker so I can talk to Emerson too. He sits down at the island, putting the phone down between us.

“Hi again Daddy,” she says sadly. I’m sure Jessica is shooting daggers in that poor little girl’s direction.

“I just wanted to say good bye, and I love you. Enjoy your ice cream tonight.” Andrew says and I add, “Get some sprinkles for me!”

“I will. Bye guys!”

“I’ll see you soon.” Andrew hangs up the phone, puts his head in his hands, and takes a deep breath. I walk behind him, and try to rub the stress out of the shoulders.

“She knew she was wrong. As soon as I called her out, she started back pedaling. She never apologized, but she knew she fucked up,” Andrew explains into his hands. “What if something would’ve happened to her?”

“It didn’t. Don’t think about what ifs. They’ll only drive you crazy,” I try to comfort him.

He spins around on the stool and puts his head on my chest, hugging me tight. We stand like that for a long time. Coming down off of a scare like that is not easy, especially when it deals with your child.

“Go sit down on the deck and relax. I’ll grill the steaks and bring them out to you,” I offer.

He shakes his head and stands up.

“No thanks, I’d like to be able to chew my steak tonight,” he laughs lightening the mood as he walks into the kitchen and pulls the plate of steaks out of the fridge.

Andrew is grilling the steaks while I get the rest of the dinner ready in the kitchen. I bring everything out to the deck just as he is turing the grill off.

“This all looks great honey, thank you,” Andrew compliments.

“You bet, how was your day today? How’s Jake doing? I haven’t heard about him in a while,” I say.

“Now that you mention it, he did ask me today what your plans are for your house,” Andrew recalls.

“I don’t really want to have to think about selling it right now. Does he want to buy it?” I just promised Ella that I wouldn’t sell my house until later, but I really don’t want to get into an argument with Andrew about why I decided not to sell yet.

“No, he just wants to rent it. He bought a huge house with his wife, and he’s still paying on that for now. He’s not ready to buy a house again yet.”

“Wait, if he moves into my house he’ll be living on the same block as Ella.”

“Yeah, so?” Andrew asks.

“That could make things very convenient for them,” I plot.

“What things? What are you talking about?” he asks. I just shrug, smiling.

After we finish dinner, we’re washing the dishes when Jessica calls again.

Expecting the worst, Andrew runs for the phone.

“Hello?”

I dry my hands and come to stand next to Andrew so I can try to hear what she is saying.

“Now?” Andrew answers into the phone.

“No, I’m at Bailey’s. Drop her off here,” he seethes.

I put my hand on his arm as I see his face getting red.

“I’m not going to argue with you about this Jessica. Drop her off at Bailey’s.” He tosses his phone on the couch behind him, and he tugs his hands though his hair. I walk up to him and wrap my arms around his back. He brings his hands around me and holds me tight.

“She’s bringing Emerson home now. She said she couldn’t take another day at the beach with her. They’ll be here in an hour.” He lets out a sigh and I can feel all the stress leave his body.

“I’m going to make up a fort in the living room. Why don’t we all camp out in there tonight together,” I suggest.