My Real (34 page)

We start loading the cart with Kindergarten essentials when Emerson goes running down the aisle yelling, “Mommy.”

We follow behind her to see Jessica standing in the book section, holding a pile of new romances in her arms.

“Awe, isn’t this nice. The happy family out shopping together,” she answers with a sneer.

“Hello Jessica.” Bailey says politely.

“Mommy, look at all the good stuff I got for school,” Emerson says bouncing up and down again.

“Emerson, stop that incessant bouncing,” Jessica snaps.

“Emerson, why don’t you go with Bailey and get some snacks for your lunch box? I’ll come find you in a minute.” They walk off hand-in-hand, talking about what kind of snacks are the best. I turn back to Jessica ready to explode.

“Listen,” I growl at her, “we are finally divorced. We’re both with someone else now. We are going to have to deal with each other for the rest of our lives. Why can’t you be cordial? Bailey said ‘hello’ to you, and you ignored her. Then you snapped at a five-year-old for being excited about her school things.”

“I’m not here to make your life easier Andrew,” Jessica states coldly.

“I’m not asking you to make my life easier. I’m asking you to make Emerson’s life easier,” I counter.

“Whatever. I can’t take her this weekend, by the way,” Jessica snaps again.

“You are completely unbelievable Jessica. I told you that we were taking her to the beach this weekend for the wedding,” I say, rolling my eyes.

Jessica’s eye go wide. “Oh wait, I did want her this weekend. I’m bringing her to my mom’s,” she backpedals.

“I’m done playing this game with you. I’m going to tell you how it’s going to go. You will call me on the first of every month and give me the dates and times you want to take her. The first time,” I emphasize by putting my finger up between us, “you miss one of the times, I will go for full custody with child support. And let me just tell you, there is easily two hundred dollars worth of back to school things in this list. I already have the papers drawn up at my lawyer’s office.”

Jessica looks flabbergasted. “Do you understand?” I repeat.

Her shoulders slump. I think she finally gets the picture that I was done with her messing with my life. She turns around and stomps off. Damn that felt good.

I give myself a minute to cool off before going to find my girls. When I’m finally calm enough, I walk toward the snack aisle and find Emerson and Bailey sitting in the camping section reading a book.

I stand back and watch them while they read. I take a moment to appreciate everything I have. My ex-wife is finally put in her place, and I doubt she will be giving us any trouble anytime soon, my beautiful wife-to-be is reading to my, no our, daughter. I’m getting married to the love of my life in two days. I can’t imagine how my life could get much better.

Bailey notices I’m staring at them and winks at me. I walk up to my girls and ask, “Who’s hungry?” Both girls shoot their hands in the air in lighting speed.

I rolled over in bed, an empty bed. This will be the last time I ever wake up in a bed that I don’t share with my husband. That thought makes me smile. I roll out of bed and change into my running clothes and head out.

After a shower and a quick breakfast, I’m out the door for school. I’m still a little early, so I do a little work in my room. This will be my last chance to get anything done before the kids start on Tuesday. I’m taping name tags to their desks when Ella walks in humming “Here Comes the Bride.”

“You ready hon?” She asks. I nod and smile at her.

“I have to go pick up a few things at the mall. Can you drop me off while you go pick up your dress?” I ask.

“Getting me an awesome maid-of-honor present, aren’t you?” She prods.

“Yeah, the mall’s the only place I can get a pearl necklace.” She wrinkles her nose as I laugh at her. It was a running joke because every Christmas her grandmother gets her a new set of pearls.

“I’m not wearing some ugly granny pearl necklace,” she says as she links her arm in mine and pulls me out the door. “Let’s get this over with,” Ella continues as she walks toward the library.

We end up working through our lunch, so we can leave an hour earlier and head to the mall. As we are walking to the parking lot, I see Jessica standing next to Ella’s car.

“Oh, shit. What does she want?” Ella asks. I shrug my shoulders in response.

As we get closer, I see that Jessica’s eyes are red. She’s been crying. I instantly feel concerned for her even with all she’s put me through.

“Can I talk to you for a minute, Bailey?” Jessica asks quietly, almost remorsefully. When neither Ella or I say anything she asks, “Alone?”

“I’ll grab us some hoagies for the ride. I’ll meet you back here in a few minutes,” Ella says, getting into her car. I turn toward Jessica waiting for her to stay. When she doesn’t say anything for a minute I walk over to a bench and sit down. She follows behind and takes a seat next to me.

“I don’t know where to start,” she says as a tear falls down her cheek. She plays with the buttons on her shirt and continues slowly, “Cody left me. He called me a raging bitch. He went on and on about what a horrible person I am. The entire house was empty. The only thing left was the boxes of my clothing that I brought with me.”

I’m not sure what I’m feeling about all this. I know what it’s like to be left, so I do feel sorry that she has to go through this. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, not even Jessica.

“He told me that he sold the house and that I needed my things out by the end of the day, or the movers were going to take it to the dump. After my anger subsided I figured I better call some friends to help me out. That’s when I realized, I don’t have any friends. Not one,” she continued to play with her button not looking me in the eye.

“It took me all night to move just a few boxes to a hotel room. It gave me time to think about my life. Think about the person I’ve become. The horrible person I’ve become,” Jessica said as she looked up at me with tears in her eyes then continued again before I could say anything. “I just wanted to apologize to you. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I needed to tell you that I am sorry. We were friends in college. You were the most loyal and trusting friend I’ve ever had and I ruined that. I’m really sorry.”

I scoot closer to her on the bench and put my hand on hers.

“Jessica,” I say.

“No, you don’t need to say anything. I just wanted you to know how sorry I am. I’m going to talk to Andrew too and apologize, for everything. He is a great man and didn’t deserve what I put him through. I’m also giving up my parental rights,” Jessica says.

“Jessica, that’s really not necessary,” I say quickly. “Andrew and I both want you to be a part of Emerson’s life.”

I see a small smile escape. “Well, we can talk about it. I know I’m not a good mother. I do love Emerson, I just don’t have the Mommy gene. Not for someone this young, maybe when she gets older I’ll be able to relate to her better. Anyway, I’m moving back to Pittsburg with my parents,” she shrugs.

“We can work something out so you’ll be able to see her,” I tell her.

“Thank you, that would be nice,” she says then takes a deep breath. “I know you and Andrew are getting married tomorrow. I really do hope you two will be very happy together.”

I hear Ella’s car pull up behind us. Jessica stands up quickly and wipes her tears. When I stand next to her she pulls me in for a quick hug and says, “I’m sorry,” then rushes off to her car.

“What was that all about?” Ella asks, walking up to me.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I say still stunned over what just happened.

“Try me,” she begs.

“Come on, I’ll tell you in the car on the way to New Jersey. That way, I can call Andrew and not have to tell the story twice,” I say as we get in the car and head toward the mall.

When Ella drops me off, I go to the jewelry store first to pick up our wedding rings. The woman walks up and recognizes me from when we bought the rings earlier in the week. As I walk by the watch case, I get a brilliant idea. I add a watch and a necklace to my total before heading back to meet Ella.

We leave the mall and head straight to Ocean City, New Jersey. Lead Foot Ella will get us there in less than two hours. She’ll also take years off my life.

“When you call Andrew, ask them in they’ve had dinner. I could go for some boardwalk food,” Ella mentions.

“Crap, my phone’s dead. Where’s yours?” I grab for her phone at the same time she does. Ella yells, “Wait.”

I have the faster hands and snatch it up holding it to my chest. “What are you hiding woman?” I ask with a laugh. She reaches over and tries to grab it out of my hands.

“Hands on the steering wheel,” I scold. I push the home button and gasp. “Ella, you have fifteen texts from Jake,” I exclaim.

“Give it back to me you, bitch,” she laughs, making a grab for the phone again. I hand it back to her waiting for an explanation when I notice her face is bright red.

“Ella, spill.”

“There’s nothing to spill.” She stashes her phone away. “We’re just texting.”

“Mmmhmm.” I plug my phone in and wait for it to turn on to call Andrew.

“Hey, where are you guys?” Andrew asks when he picks up.

“We are almost there. You’ll never believe who was waiting for me outside school today,” I say. I have yet to wrap my head around her sudden change, and I’m thinking Andrew will have an even harder believing it.

“Jessica.”

“Hey, how’d you know?” I question.

“She called me after she talked to you. Apologize for everything she’s done to me, Emerson and to us. I thought she was joking at first, but I really think she was being sincere.

“She was. It wasn’t an act,” I say.

“She also told me that she is moving, and the you told her we would working something out so Emerson could see her,” Andrew says.

“I did. I hope I’m not over stepping my bounds,” I say worried that he will be angry.

“Not at all. It made me fall even more in love with you. What woman would encourage the bitchy ex-wife to spend time with her daughter. You’re an amazing woman, Bailey,” Andrew says. I can hear the smile in his voice.

“We can talk more when we get there in fifteen minutes. More if Ella gets pulled over for speeding”

“Okay, so now that Andrew knows the whole story, spill,” Ella begs.

I relay everything that happened with Jessica. Ella sits quietly for a second. I’m a little worried about what her reaction will be. Ella has never been a big fan of Jessica’s, for good reason. I do need her to understand why I’ve chosen to forgive her though.

“You have to give it to her. It takes a big woman to not only admit she was wrong, but come apologize to you and Andrew,” Ella says.

I sigh with relief. Ella laughs, “That doesn’t mean I think she should be hanging out with us anytime soon.”

We pull up in front of the hotel a few minutes later. Judy, Emerson, and Andrew are all sitting on a bench out front waiting for us.

“That was a fast fifteen minutes,” I laugh.

“Talk to Speed Racer,” Bailey says hitching her thumb toward Ella.

“Food!” Ella points at the boardwalk, grabs Emerson’s hand and starts running with her.

After Mom walks up and hugs Bailey she says, “I’m going to go back to the room and take a bubble bath in that tub. You kids have fun.”

It is my turn to pull Bailey in for a hug. “I missed you,” I breath into her hair.

“Me too. I woke up this morning and realized that it would be the last time I would be waking up alone,” Bailey says.

I tuck her into my arm and follow Emerson and Ella up to the boardwalk.

“So, Jessica,” Bailey starts.

“Nope, not going to talk about her this weekend. We can work out the details and talk about it later,” I say.

“Okay, new topic. Ella had fifteen text messages from Jake on her phone just from the ride up here. Do you know anything about that?” she asks.

“Guys don’t talk about stuff like that. He hasn’t mentioned her at all,” I admit.

“Hmm.” She frowns. She is doubting her matchmaking skills, which is funny because if a guy texts a girl fifteen times in the span of two hours, I don’t think there’s any doubt about his feelings for her.