Courting Mrs. McCarthy

by Ian Thomas Malone

  This morning had caught Nathan completely by surprise, but he reminded himself that while things had been smooth sailing for him, he had responsibilities to her that he might have neglected. He’d preoccupied himself with how he’d been able to cope with the situation and the people he consulted with had no real idea who Jackie was or what she was like. He felt selfish.

  Nathan found himself in a situation that might have been enviable for someone like Griffin, but not necessarily for him. Having only had sex once before, Nathan had never been on the receiving end of what he now understood was a booty call. He accepted that he didn’t really know what was going on, especially since communication had been spotty over the past couple of days, but he allowed himself to forget that.

  “Jackie, don’t be upset,” he said, taking her hand. They made eye contact. “Let’s go upstairs and forget about the real world for a while.”

  What might be construed as a bad pick-up line was strangely genuine. He took her hand, and they went upstairs.

  Chapter 22

  Nathan hardly felt like an altruistic saint when he was done making love to Jackie. He had enjoyed his morning sex. He wasn’t exactly guilty either. Jackie was the one who came on to him, so he could hardly be accused of taking advantage of a woman experiencing conflicting emotions.

  He wasn’t sure whether or not he should try to see if she wanted to talk about what had prompted her to be in the mood that brought her there for morning sex. Asking her would most certainly kill the mood, but the mood wasn’t the only thing to consider.

  Jackie spoke before he needed to make up his mind. “Thanks, Nathan. I really needed that,” she said as she stood up. “Are you free later this week?”

  Nathan stared at her for a while before saying anything. “Yeah, I’m around.” He spoke in a semi-smug fashion given that he was naked on top of his adolescent bed. She laughed at him and bid farewell. He wanted to ask her to stay, but he remembered that it was the middle of the day and Jackie had children to attend to.

  Remembering that he also had things to do, he showered and made his bed. He couldn’t be sure what day the cleaning people would arrive so he cleaned up the garbage as well. He thought he might concoct a plan to find out this information from his father the next time they talked. Nathan had not spoken to him in a while.

  He carried a sense of pride that Jackie had used him for a booty call. He doubted many boys his age could say the same even with a girl their own age. Despite this, he didn’t think he would tell Griffin just yet. His friend would give him a load of crap for it, and he needed him to help cover his tracks.

  Nathan had promised Mrs. Buchanan they could meet in the park for a game of chess. Neither one were particularly good at the game, but June was the only part of summer when Mrs. Buchanan cared to be out in the sun. Temperatures in Scotland never reached the levels of New York in the summer, and she’d never gotten used to this even though she’d been in the states for decades.

  She was waiting for him in the park when he arrived around eleven. Her most notable feature were her Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses that she’d purchased after watching The Blues Brothers with Nathan. He would never admit it, but he thought that was a pretty cool thing of her to do.

  The exact time they were supposed to meet escaped him. That didn’t stop him from hurrying along as soon as he saw her. She was never one to keep quiet about punctuality.

  “Am I late?” he asked.

  His uncertainty was met with a funny look from Mrs. Buchanan, who replied, “You sure I’m the old one?” Seeing his confused expression, she added, “No, don’t be stupid. Sit down.”

  The post coital glow had not subsided from Nathan’s body and mind. It was unclear whether or not he prominently displayed that specific body language, but he carried himself in such a noticeable fashion that Mrs. Buchanan had to make a comment.

  “What were you up to this morning? Someone looks like he’s in a good mood,” she said while she sized him up. He hadn’t expected to feel this good nor did he anticipate that Mrs. Buchanan would be able to read him with such accuracy.

  If she did know, Nathan wouldn’t find out as she dropped the subject in favor of setting up the game. They had first journeyed to the park for chess when Mrs. Buchanan had mentioned a desire to do something that was stereotypical of her age. It was a suitable activity for a pleasant Monday morning.

  Mrs. Buchanan was full of surprises. While she didn’t like to drive, her vehicle of choice was her late husband’s 1984 Bentley Continental. The car was the envy of everyone in town who appreciated legendary convertibles. Mrs. Buchanan rarely drove more than two or three miles over the speed limit, which caused Nathan to tell her how she couldn’t appreciate a car that nice. She answered that by giving him the middle finger.

  Their chess games were more about conversation than actual chess since neither of them were very good at the game. Nathan, having had such an eventful morning, found himself with little to say. This was not lost on Mrs. Buchanan.

  “You’re awfully quiet for someone who came here looking like he’d won the lottery,” she said. Nathan hadn’t realized he was acting out of character. Acting odd had become the standard for his meetings with Mrs. Buchanan since Jackie entered the fray. His newfound feeling of post morning sex was more powerful than a wake and bake session with Griffin. Not that he made it a habit of being under the influence of marijuana when he was around Mrs. Buchanan.

  “Things are good,” Nathan replied. “Sun’s out, school’s far away, and I haven’t got a care in the world.” All of this was true, but it hardly told the full story.

  This façade did not fool her. “Bullshit. It’s a Monday morning and you’re playing chess with an old woman. I love you, baby, but that’s not enough to make you so damn happy. I bet it’s that girl you’re always cryptically going on and on about. Share the details, boy.”

  That kind of speech coming from a woman who’d bought sunglasses because they looked cool on John Belushi was more than enough to make Nathan crack up in the middle of the park. He didn’t want to share his conquest with her under any circumstances. “I’m not going to kiss and tell. By the way, checkmate. Maybe if you focused more on the game and less on my happiness, you wouldn’t be so terrible at it, old woman.”

  Mrs. Buchanan gave him the finger once again. An old man at a neighboring chess table started laughing.

  Aunt Cassidy was marinating a steak when Nathan returned from his chess game. He vaguely remembered that she said they were having a family dinner that night, which meant Martin would be home. The conversation around the Thompson dinner table was not exactly invigorating.

  It was a bit early to be thinking about dinner, but Aunt Cassidy had her hands full with the twins. He wondered why she even bothered to go through the effort in the first place, but he wouldn’t dare think to ask. All he said was a simple hello and he headed up to his room to lie down.

  He was tired, given his morning escapade coupled with time out in the sun. His TiVo had a backlog of television that he hadn’t quite kept up with in the summertime. Nathan climbed into bed to watch some TV and dozed off watching home improvement shows.

  It was close to six o’clock when he woke up from his nap. He put a polo shirt on and went downstairs to see if his aunt needed any help.

  While Nathan was setting the table, he felt his phone vibrate. Figuring it was Griffin, he left his phone in his pocket, knowing how much his aunt hated when people used their phones at meal time. It vibrated more times than Nathan could accurately gauge, indicating that something might be urgent. He turned his back to his aunt to see who it was.

  There were three missed calls, a voice mail, and three text messages, all from the same source.

  Nathan, can we meet at your house? I really need to talk to someone. It’s okay if you can’t. I could just really use someone…to talk to right now.

  Jackie needed him. Nathan made a quick plan to get out of the house. Aunt Cassidy would not be pleased with h
im at all, but he had to go. Staying wasn’t an option.

  “Hey, Aunt Cass,” he started to say, still unsure of what was going to follow. “Something’s come up that I need to attend to.”

  She did not look amused. “Nathan, this is our first family dinner in over a week. What’s so important?”

  He told himself to think of a believable story—fast. “A friend needs my help,” he blurted out, while trying to stop himself from saying anything more than was necessary. He backtracked a bit and added, “I’ll only be an hour, hopefully. I’m sorry. I have to go.”

  She didn’t appear to suspect him on lying, though his vagueness left much to imagination. “It’s that old woman you spend time with at the library, isn’t it?” She rarely mentioned Mrs. Buchanan in conversation and Nathan hardly ever brought her up, knowing his aunt thought their friendship was weird.

  The question put him in the awkward position of now needing to lie in order to get out of the house. His words prior to that were vague, but true. Unfortunately, this lack of clarity now forced him in the position of exploiting his relationship with Mrs. Buchanan to tend to Jackie.

  “Yes. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said as he headed for the door.

  Jackie was once again waiting for him in the driveway when he pulled up. He could see tears running down her face as he headed for her car. “Come on, Jackie, let’s go inside,” he urged, as he opened the door for her. She said nothing but followed him into the house.

  She sat down on the couch where they’d been earlier that day. Nathan went to the kitchen to put the kettle on, before returning to see what had made her so upset. It didn’t take a PhD. to figure out her husband had played a factor in it.

  A few minutes passed as Nathan sat next to Jackie while waiting for her to explain what had happened. The tea had to be ready by now, but he didn’t sense that he’d received a cue to leave. After a couple minutes passed, he asked lightheartedly, “Is Earl Grey good? I think that’s all we have.”

  There was a glimpse of a smile as she nodded. Nathan rushed back to the kitchen to brew some tea.

  He brought the hot beverages back to the living room and sat down next to her, farther away than she had when she’d mounted him, but close enough to let her know he cared. Nathan was bad at these sorts of things.

  She spoke after a few minutes of awkward silence. “Steve and I had a fight.”

  Jackie spoke in fragmented sentences for nearly fifteen minutes while Nathan sat patiently and listened. There were many times where he thought it might be smart to make a comment like, “What an asshole,” or “I hate that man,” but he decided to wait until she had finished saying what she needed to say.

  Steve had left an angry voicemail on Jackie’s home phone the night before. From his tone and the content on the message, it was likely he’d been drunk and possibly high as well. The message explained in great detail the inadequacies of Jackie as a partner and the lack of support she provided him while he was undergoing public scrutiny for his use of steroids in baseball.

  The message also said that he’d gone elsewhere for the support and needs a husband should expect from his wife. He claimed that he gave her everything and received nothing in return. He even went as far as to say that he did not care if she returned to the West Coast at all, but that he would protect the kids from her failings as both a mother and a human being.

  She’d returned the phone call with the intent of berating him, not necessarily for the content, but for calling on the home phone where the message could have easily been intercepted by one of their children. She did not really wish to combat the allegations levied against her by a man whom she’d grown to despise. The extent of her retaliation was admitting that she too had satisfied her womanly needs through another venue.

  This last part was the only bit that truly made Nathan feel uncomfortable. While he had never met Steve, he feared the man greatly and did not wish to find out what a retired professional baseball player with a history of steroid use would do to a boy who made him a cuckold. The only positive note was that Steve was likely without any sort of method to figure out his identity.

  Despite Nathan’s desire to punch the man, he was happy that Steve was on the other side of the country. He did have a desire to do something to make her feel better without really realizing that doing nothing at all besides being there was precisely enough. He put his arm around her and they sipped their tea in silence for a while.

  After more than half an hour of silence, she spoke up. “I’m going to tell him I’m leaving him tomorrow. I’m going to take the kids and half his money and we’re not going to stay in Seattle any longer.” This wasn’t news to him, but he’d suspected that Jackie might have a change of heart eventually.

  He was perplexed over what to say next. He agreed that Steve needed to go. Divorce was ugly and the ensuing custody battle was going to be a lot harder than he thought Jackie realized. His father had been through the process, though Nathan was too young to remember any of it.

  Instead of questioning the logistics, he asked, “What will you do next?” He refrained from asking about whatever was between them; such talk would have been selfish and inappropriate given her vulnerability.

  “I don’t know yet,” she said. “I guess I’ve always wanted to go back to school. I’ve only got a semester of credits left and then I can be a marketer or whatever they do now. It’s probably not that simple but I can figure it out.”

  Naturally, Nathan wanted his next question to be where would she and the children go, but that would also be somewhat inappropriate. Instead, he let her ramble for a bit longer about future plans, none of which particularly included him. This was something he told himself to worry about later.

  After what felt like an eternity, Jackie asked, “Can we finish the rest of that Spinal Tap movie we were watching before?”

  Seeing Jackie exhibit something that resembled a smile for the first time all night, Nathan happily replied, “Sure. I think it’s still in the DVD player.”

  The movie was good for Jackie, who laughed more than Nathan was expecting. Some of her laughter sounded a bit forced. They cuddled while the mockumentary played, giving Nathan hope that his time as her significant other was not over. He found it interesting that he’d likened Steve being removed from the situation with the end of his time with her, but he got the strange feeling that she’d want to move on to someone her own age once the taboo of adultery was no longer a factor.

  When the movie was over, she turned to face him. “I’d better be getting home. I’ve been relying on Zhanna way too much lately, but I’m sure she likes the money.”

  Nathan was sad to see her go, but also relived. The night had been taxing on him as well. He would find it hard to explain to his aunt why he spent the night at Mrs. Buchanan’s house. “Okay, let me know if you need anything. Really, anything at all,” he said as he embraced her for a hug.

  “Thank you, Nathan,” she said, pausing for a second before addressing what had been on his mind. “Whatever happens between us, I want you to know how much you’ve meant to me over these past few weeks.”

  This gave Nathan enough hope to realize that all was not lost. Jackie, in her vulnerability, still valued him as more than a crutch to lean on. “I know. Thank you. Don’t be afraid of Steve. Money and steroids don’t make him a man.”

  Jackie waited for him on the porch while he locked up. Nathan was tired and didn’t feel like going through his house to clean for the second time that day. He wasn’t explicitly forbidden from going there anyway.

  When Nathan turned around, Jackie grabbed him and gave him a long, romantic kiss. He closed his eyes and embraced her, knowing that whatever came next, he’d be there for her. His fear of abandonment did not mean that he couldn’t be there for someone who needed him.

  He was so caught up in the moment that he didn’t notice the flash of a camera and the many pictures that followed as Corinne Kalford documented their public display of affecti
on at the front door.

  Chapter 23

  Nathan slept well that night. His aunt has taken his cousins to swimming so he had the kitchen to himself to make breakfast. He was frying up some bacon and eggs when he saw his phone ring.

  The call was from Griffin, who Nathan knew was working that day. Thinking that his friend was calling just because he was bored, he ignored it as to not disturb his cooking. He thought that it was odd that his phone started to buzz again, but thought nothing of it. Morning summer retail work was not the most exciting job on the planet.

  The third call was when he grew concerned. He was annoyed that Griffin was pestering him in a near identical fashion to Jackie the night before. Seeing that something might actually be wrong, he picked up the phone.

  “This better be damn important, Griffin, I’m in the middle of making breakfast.”

  “Nathan, your secret is out. I got a call from Megan, who’s at the club. People are talking, dude. She even said there’re pictures of you two circling around.”

  He felt as if his heart stopped. “Mother fucker,” he shouted, without even considering the irony of his expletive. “Does my aunt know?” If so, he was about to be in a world of trouble.

  “I’m not sure. Look, man, I told my mom the whole thing. Don’t be mad. It seemed like the right thing to do. She knows your aunt and wanted to make sure that you knew we were here for you. It’s going to be okay, buddy.”

  It most certainly was not going to be okay. “I need to call Jackie.” Fearing a world of hurt from his aunt, he added, “I’m probably going to need a place to lie low for a while. Hope that’s okay with your moms.” He hung up without waiting for an answer.

  His eggs were burning. He put them into the sink without trying to salvage them, then turned the kitchen fan on with one hand and called Jackie with the other. He was sweating profusely.

  The call went to voicemail. He called again to no avail. And again. He tried a fourth time before deciding to text her instead.