by Rebeca Seitz
“Jane, give us all the scoop.” Mac grabbed a cookie off the plate in the center of the table and sat back on her stool.
“Okay, here’s the deal,” Jane said, and took a deep breath. Thank heaven for girlfriends. “I decided to be honest with Jake earlier this week, so I told him that I had run into Bill at the store.”
“When did that happen?” Mari asked.
“Saturday, when I was on my way over here. I stopped to get a tape runner, and Bill was there.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I didn’t think it mattered. We live in the same city; it was bound to happen sooner or later. But then he called and asked if we could get together.”
“And you said yes.”
Jane nodded. “I did. I met him at Davis-Kidd, and he said he had changed this past year, was very sorry for what he’d done, and wanted me back.”
“What’d you say?” Mari said.
“I didn’t say anything. I just left him sitting there on the bench. And then he dropped by with flowers.”
“What kind?” Lydia said.
“Does it matter?”
Lydia rolled her eyes. “Everything matters. What kind?”
“Tulips.”
“Ugh. Droopy flowers?”
Jane grinned. “I thought he might have liked the bright colors. Anyway, we talked for a bit, and he kissed me.”
“He kissed you?!” Mari said.
“Yeah.”
“Did you kiss him back?”
“Sort of.”
“Now, it’s been a long time since I kissed a man, but I can’t remember it ever bein’ a ‘sort of ’ kinda thing.”
“Well, I kissed him back, but it was more out of habit than desire. Does that make sense?”
“No, but go ahead,” Mari said.
“I had dinner with Jake that night at his place, and things were really starting to take off.”
“This is when you told him about Bill?”
“No, that didn’t happen until Tuesday.”
“Why’d you wait three days to tell him?”
“I tried to tell him the day it happened, but I didn’t know how. See, the woman that Jake was with before me was separated from her husband. She’d been living on her own for a few months when Jake met her, and she was in the process of getting a divorce. They started seeing each other, and he fell pretty hard for her, I think.”
“Why isn’t he with her?”
“She went back to her husband. He got left with the cat.”
“That’s her cat?” Lydia said.
“His cat now. Her husband was allergic.”
“No wonder you didn’t want to tell him about Bill. That had to be awful for him to hear.”
“Exactly. I had just told him about Bill coming over when my cell rang and it was Lydia with news about the orphanage. I haven’t seen Jake since.”
“You haven’t seen him at all?”
“He came over with this gorgeous redhead on his arm, probably to rub my nose in the fact that he had found someone new. I didn’t answer the door.”
“How do you know it wasn’t his sister?” Mari said.
“Thank you very much. I said the same thing.” Lydia smiled.
“I still believe my luck in men would dictate that she’s his new girlfriend.” Jane held up her hands to stop their protests. “But let’s assume it may just as well be his sister. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s been four days since I told him about Bill, and he hasn’t called or come over except for that one time.”
“At all?”
“At all.”
“Don’t he have your cell?”
“No, I never gave it to him, but I have an answering machine that would have caught his call if I was out, and I’ve checked the caller ID about four thousand times, and his number’s not on it.”
“So no contact for four days other than the one time. It’s not looking good for the home team.”
“You’ve got it.”
“Before we get too far into this, are you absolutely certain it’s over between you and Bill?” Mari said.
“Yes. I had lunch with him today at my place. We had a good talk. I’m not mad at him—I think I’ve moved past that point. It’s more now that I feel sorry for him. He’s never felt what I feel for Jake for any woman, which is why he’s happy to settle down with me.”
“So there was never any passion or romance in your marriage?” Mari said.
“Not really. I thought that was just movie stuff. You know, a Hollywood invention to sell tickets at the theater.”
“But now you’ve changed your mind.” Mac smiled.
Jane grinned back. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. Jake makes my world stand still. When I see him, my breath just goes, and I get all excited and tingly. Does that sound crazy?”
She looked about, hoping for affirmation.
“No, it’s not crazy, honey,” Lydia said, and Jane sighed with relief. “It’s called being in love and it’s scary as all get-out.”
Jane pointed at her. “You hit the nail on the head. It’s scary beyond belief. No wonder people fight wars and conquer kingdoms over this feeling. But won’t it go away? I mean, we’re talking about a major change in my entire belief in marriage. If you marry for the zing, what happens when the zing goes away?”
The women looked at one another, and Lydia spoke up again. “You fight for it,” she said in a small voice. “It doesn’t have to die. It might go down to a low simmer, but the undercurrent of passion and romance can always be there if you pay attention to it. If you don’t, you’re right—it’ll take a hike. And when that happens, you have to fight doubly hard to get it back.” She grinned. “You’ll do illogical things, like have your own cable cut off.”
The Sisters laughed.
Jane remembered Lydia and the orange feathers, and it all began making sense in her mind. “But, assuming I can get him to talk to me, forgive me, and have a relationship with me, how do I take care of the zing?”
Mari piped up. “You figure out what makes him feel loved, and you tell him what makes you feel loved. If you need to hear the words, tell him that. If you need hugs and kisses, tell him that. And ask him when he feels loved by you. Is it when you’re doing things for him, like taking care of Major Carter? Or is it when you bring him things? You know, he did bring you that bag of CDs to smash. If that’s the way he shows he cares, it’s probably the way you can show him you care.”
“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere.” Jane said and rubbed her hands together in excitement. They could do this. They’d figure out a way for her to be with Jake. “So you’re telling me I need to take him a gift, and he’ll get that I care about him.”
“You think he don’t already know you care?” Mac asked and chuckled. “He knows you care; he just thinks you care more ’bout Bill.”
“Right.” Jane wrinkled her forehead in confusion. “But if I tell him what happened, then he’ll know I’m not going to be with Bill, and we can move on, right?”
“I doubt it’s as easy as just telling him,” Lydia said. “What exactly did he say to you when you told him about seeing Bill?”
“Nothing. As soon as I got the words out, I got your phone call.”
“Hmm. That doesn’t give us much to work with.” Lydia tapped her finger against her lip.
Mac slapped the table. “No more of that talk,” she said.
“Bible says love never fails, and that’s the truth.” She pointed at Jane. “So we ain’t gonna have no negative talk around here.
If it’s love, it won’t fail.”
Jane went around the table and hugged Mac. “Right. You’re totally right. Okay, Sisters, we need the best present ever, and I need a groveling speech.” She took a deep breath. “Ideas?”
“A good gift doesn’t have to cost a lot of money if that’s his love language,” Mari said.
“Love language?”
“Yeah, it’s in The Five Love Languages.”
&
nbsp; “You read that, too?” Lydia said. “Mac just gave it to me.
I’m on the second language right now—touch—trying to figure out how Dale speaks love.”
Mari laughed. “John and I read it before we got married. I know it made us better communicators.”
“What is this book? Why hasn’t anyone given it to me yet?”
“Because you don’t read nonfiction.” Lydia stuck out her tongue at Jane. Jane returned the favor.
“People speak love either with words, by giving gifts, doing acts of service, touching, or spending quality time. Jake is probably a gift person, since that’s how he showed you he cared about you.”
“That is so smart,” Jane said.
“Yeah, it helped me and my marriage a ton,” Mari said. “So it doesn’t matter if you spend a lot of money on Jake’s present.
It just has to show that you really thought about the person you’re giving it to. What kinds of things does he like?”
“Sci-fi, Major Carter, computers.” Jane ticked the things off on her fingers that she knew about Jake.
“And you,” Lydia added and Jane grinned.
“Yeah, and, hopefully, me.”
“We can work with that,” Mari said. “What else does he like?”
“Helping me kill the Internet?” They all laughed.
“What is something you could give him that would have a major impact? Something he’s wanted before but couldn’t have?”
“If he still has feeling for me, I guess that’d be me.”
“Right, and what’s a tangible way we could give him the gift of you? Something he can hold in his hand to look at and know that you know him and love him.”
Jane thought for a second as the women watched her. She threw up her hands. “I have no idea. But while we’re figuring out my life, can someone please tell me what to do with my wedding scrapbook?”
“Why wouldn’t you just throw it out?” Mari said.
“I was going to do that today, but I looked through it again and I don’t want to lose the pictures inside it. Some of my family members are in there who aren’t even alive anymore. Plus, even though my marriage is over, it did happen. It’s a part of who I am.”
“If Jake had a scrapbook full of pictures of the cat woman, would you want him to have it?”
“I don’t know. I guess it depends on whether or not he had closure with her. If it was over. It would also depend on how he told the story inside. Like, does it stop with her, or does the story continue with him finding me?”
Lydia snapped her fingers. “That’s your gift idea!”
“What?”
“Why didn’t we think of it before? It’s perfect!”
“Great. We’re thrilled you’ve come up with something.
Mind sharing with the rest of the class?” Jane said.
And she did.
Lydia walked inside, carrying the sleeping twins. She was still excited about her gift idea for Jake. Maybe that’s my love language. Gifts. She’d have to remember to talk it over with Dale.
The memory of their time together before he left for work made her smile. She glanced at the clock on the microwave and saw it was a few minutes past time for him to be home. “Dale?”
She didn’t call too loudly, trying not to wake the twins.
As she walked through the house to the stairs, she saw the glow of the television from the living room. “Dale?”
She walked in, and there he sat, remote control in hand.
“Cable’s back on. I called the company, and they said they’d gotten an order to turn ours off. Stupid cable people. Don’t know what they’re doing.” He pointed the remote and clicked to a different channel.
Lydia’s heart sank. “Oh, glad it’s back on.”
“Me too. Just in time for the games this weekend.”
She didn’t say a word, just carried the twins on up to bed.
chapter 26
Jane took a deep breath as she stared at the phone hanging on her kitchen wall the next night. He might hang up on her before she could get the words out. Or he could let her get the words out and then hang up on her. Or he could listen and agree to meet with her. Or the redhead might answer the phone. Those odds sucked.
Knocking on his door could be a better idea. Though having a door closed in her face would hurt a lot worse than hearing the dial tone over the phone. So would having the door opened by his new woman. At least being hung up on would occur inside her own home, where no one else could be watching her humiliation.
But putting it all on the line was the whole point here. The Sisters had told her that she had to go all out to make this work—really be honest with him, let him know she was offering her heart. Which was terrifying, but made sense.
She glanced at the gift lying on the kitchen table, wrapped in white paper with a huge red bow on top. They’d spent half an hour on the bow alone, but it was perfect. And the gift inside was perfect. All she had to do was figure out the perfect timing and the whole thing should go off, well, perfectly.
Except this was Friday night, which meant Jake was over there watching sci-fi. Maybe tomorrow night would be better.
No, there was no way she could endure this torturous waiting for another twenty-four hours. She walked over to the living room and flipped on her TV, surfing through the channels until she hit SciFi. She’d just wait for a commercial. As soon as it started, she’d have at least four minutes to go over there, knock, plead ignorance, beg forgiveness, and hand him his gift. Four minutes. That was good.
The first three segments of Stargate SG-I passed by before she got up her nerve. As a commercial for the latest stuffed-crust pizza came on, she grabbed the gift off the kitchen table and turned to Wilson. “Wish me luck, boy.” Wilson gave a bark that she swore sounded like encouragement.
The night air was chilly and made her shiver as she crossed the breezeway to his door. Cold air and nerves. Not a magic combination. She waited what seemed like an eternity, and then there he was, standing before her with a bewildered expression on his adorable face, and she longed to reach out and touch him.
“Jane?”
“Look, I know you’re mad at me, and it’s fine if you want to slam the door in my face. I just wanted to bring you this.” She held up the gift as the peace offering it was. “We don’t have to talk or anything; the commercials are probably over.” She gestured inside to the TV. “I’ll just go back over here and, um, live.” She turned and walked back toward her door, certain that there were a million ways she could have said that better, but also certain that the hounds of Baskerville couldn’t get her to turn back around.
“Jane, wait.” Hounds, no. His voice, yes. She stopped and turned to face him.
“Yes?”
He came across the breezeway. “Thank you for this, but I don’t take gifts from ladies involved with other men.” He held the gift back out to her. “I’m sure you understand.”
“Oh, I’m not involved.”
“I thought you were going back to Bill.”
“Yes, um, I forgot you didn’t know about that. Turns out I just don’t love him.” Jake’s eyebrows shot up. “Which I know sounds crazy, because I married the guy, for heaven’s sake, but I didn’t know the kind of feeling you were supposed to feel for somebody you were marrying, because I had never felt that, and now I know, so I asked Bill if he felt that way for me, and he said no, and I asked him why he would want to be with someone he wasn’t in love with, and he told me he didn’t value that, which tells you a lot about our marriage and even more about why I’m not going back to him.”
Somebody shut me up. This was beyond embarrassing. When had her tongue decided to develop a life of its own?
“So you’re not going back to Bill, and you’ve brought me a gift because . . .”
“Oh! Yeah, I guess you would wonder, right? Sorry. I should have explained. I mean, I know it seems out of the blue and all, but . . . um . . . you brought me a gift, remember? And so I thought may
be you liked gifts, and I tried to think of a gift that would be perfect for you, and I made you this.” She gestured to the beautifully wrapped package.
“You made what’s inside this box?” He held it up to his ear and shook it.
“I had some help from the Sisters, but I did the entire first part of it by myself.”
He smiled at her. “It’s cold out here, and you’re shivering.
Why don’t you come inside and I’ll open it?”
Did she want to be there when he opened it? Who cared?
He was inviting her over! “Sure, um, that’s fine. It’s just—” She glanced over her shoulder at her apartment door. “Wilson is loose in there, since I didn’t think I’d be gone long, but I’m sure he’ll be fine, so, okay, let’s go.”
“Are you sure he won’t tear anything up? You can bring him over if you want.”
“Oh, I don’t think Major Carter would love that too much.”
“Carter’s in the back bedroom, hiding under the bed, letting me know how mad at me she is for not sharing dinner with her. Go get Wilson.”
“Okay, if you’re sure it’s not a problem. I mean, I don’t want to intrude or anything, and I may not even be there long, but, okay, I’ll get him.” She turned and made a beeline for her door, anything to stop this inane chatter she seemed to have lost control over. What was wrong with her?
She opened the door, and Wilson trotted out, going over to sit down at Jake’s feet.
“Smart dog,” Jake said. “Shall we?”
Not trusting herself to open her mouth again, she nodded and silently followed him into his apartment. Wilson walked over to the fireplace and collapsed in front of it, making himself right at home. She followed Jake over to the chairs and sat down.
Jake sat down in his chair and, pulling a knife from his pocket, gingerly slit the ribbon holding the bow in place. He tore the wrapping paper from the box and looked at her in question.
“Did you get me the entire DVD collection of Galactica?” He smiled at her, and she relaxed a little.
“Thought about it, but it would have taken too long to get here.”
He lifted the lid on the box and turned to her in confusion. “This is your wedding scrapbook?” He pulled it out and set the box aside.