The Denver Cereal

by Claudia Hall Christian

“I don’t know how,” she replied.

  “Just follow me,” Jacob said. He set his glass down on the bar. “I’m this close to you. I’m not going to let you go.”

  He put his hand on her arm and was confronted with another server holding a tray of drinks.

  “It’s all right, Christy,” Jill said. “He just wants to dance.”

  Christy scowled at Jacob and then looked him up and down. “Be nice.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Jacob laughed.

  Holding Jill’s hand, he led her to the dance floor. He situated her hands then whispered instructions into her ear. After a few missteps, she fell into the simple rhythm of the dance and the closeness of this man. For the first time in a long time, she felt — well, not exactly happy, but a tiny bit of delight.

  “You are a wonderful dancer,” Jacob said.

  “Not really,” Jill replied. “I just know how to follow what you’re doing.”

  Jacob laughed. “That’s most of the work.”

  “It’s not hard to follow,” Jill said.

  “Do you dance?” Jacob asked.

  “I like to dance . . . Oh, you mean for a living? You think I’m a stripper?!”

  Jacob laughed.

  “Why is that funny?” Jill asked. Dropping her arms, she stopped moving. “I’d like to sit down now.”

  “Please don’t. I laughed because I suck at this small talk crap, particularly with a beautiful woman. I rehearse what I’m going to say, you know, in my head? But it sounds awful when it comes out.”

  “Oh. I do that sometimes if I’m nervous. Are you nervous?”

  “Yes, I’m nervous.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, if I blow this, someone might kill me,” Jacob laughed.

  They danced in silence for a while. Listening to the music, Jill enjoyed the liquid pleasure of movement in the arms of this man. She’d only ever been this close to Trevor. She sighed a little as her body warmed in response to him. God, he even smells good.

  “Is your wife here?” Jill asked.

  “I don’t have a wife,” Jacob said.

  “How come?” Jill asked.

  “It’s shocking, I know. I am smooth with the ladies,” Jacob laughed.

  She pulled back to see if he was serious. He winked at her and she returned to looking over his shoulder.

  “Actually, I fell in love with a woman and then found out she was married.”

  “Oh, did that stop you?”

  “Yes, it stopped me,” he said.

  “Why? I thought that’s how you people did things.”

  “You people?”

  “Rich people,” Jill replied.

  Jacob laughed. He’s funny too. Jill sighed, melting a little closer to his warmth, his strength. She nodded at the guitar player in the band when he winked at her.

  “Is she here?” Jill asked.

  “Who?”

  “The girl you fell in love with.”

  “Yes, she’s here,” Jacob said.

  “Where?”

  Jacob pulled back a bit to look at Jill. His eyes puzzled for a moment. Seeing her sincerity, he made a vague movement in the direction of a crowded corner of the room.

  Jill waited until they were in full view of that side of the room, then gave him a soft, lingering kiss.

  Pulling back, she whispered, “So she knows what she’s missing.”

  Jacob blinked, his eyebrows moving as if he was trying to work it out, then he laughed.

  “What would it take for you to kiss me again?”

  “You mean kiss you for real?” Jill’s voice held her surprise. “You don’t even know me.”

  “Actually,” Jacob said, “you wait tables at Pete’s. I play midnight hockey and our team goes to Pete’s after the games. I’ve been there every Sunday morning . . . gosh, for years.”

  Jill wasn’t sure how to respond. She had no memory of this man. Sunday mornings were always crazy. The bars d at two and Pete’s Kitchen filled to the brim with drunken, happy people. She slung coffee, pancakes, and eggs until four in the morning every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. She made great money, and right now money took precedence over everything, especially handsome men.

  Looking over his shoulder, she saw Trevor’s dark eyes, so like Katy’s, follow them on the floor. As she watched, the tiny, blonde rich girl, dressed in another ivory silk gown, took his elbow and guided him toward a group of elderly couples.

  “I work in an office during the week. Secretary. But Pete’s is an oasis for me,” she said finally. “I’ve worked there as long as I’ve worked. I’ve got friends there. That probably doesn’t mean much to you since they’re low-class friends.”

  “Friends in low places?” Jacob asked.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It’s a country song.”

  “I don’t listen to country,” she replied.

  As they twirled around the room, Jill watched the people. That woman’s shoes cost more than a month of Katy’s day care. Jill nodded slightly. Trevor was right to choose this life over scraping by every month.

  “May I cut in?” Trevor said to Jacob. Jill bristled at the sound of his voice.

  “It’s up to the lady.” Jacob pulled back from Jill. His eyes searched Jill’s terrified face. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

  Jacob took Jill’s hand and walked her off the dance floor. Picking up two glasses of champagne from a passing server, he led her to an empty table. He helped her into her seat and then sat down beside her. She took a sip of champagne.

  “Will you kiss me again?” Jacob asked.

  Jill blushed.

  “I thought you’d be so overwhelmed with gratitude that you couldn’t help but kiss me again,” he laughed, and took a sip from his glass.

  “Why are you uncomfortable around women?” Jill asked.

  “I’m not around them much,” Jacob said. “My sister lives in California and our mother died when I was in high school. I work in construction, so I’m around men all day long.”

  “You mean you own a construction company?”

  “I’m a carpenter by trade, like my father was,” Jacob said. “But yes, I help my father manage his construction company.”

  “What about these sisters?” Jill gestured to the group of beautiful girls sitting with the rich girl’s mother.

  Jacob shrugged. “A couple of them were a package deal with my father’s new wife. The others are barely out of diapers. We’re not close. I assume that’s your brother.” He nodded toward the security guard making his way toward the table.

  “Steve,” Jill said.

  “How would you like to get out of here?” Jacob asked. “I don’t mean to be forward, but you seem uncomfortable, and I am uncomfortable. I’d like to get to know you better.”

  “Um . . .”

  “You have something planned?” Jacob asked.

  She nodded.

  “I don’t want to miss that.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  What he’s missing . . .

  “Back off, Trevor,” Jill’s brother Steve growled.

  Jill’s head jerked to see Trevor storming toward her. Steve put his arm on Trevor’s shoulder and pushed him away from Jill and Jacob. Turning to Jill, Steve said under his breath, “Get this over with.”

  “Jill, I need to speak with you,” Trevor said.

  Standing, Jill put her hand on Steve’s arm.

  “It’s all right,” Jill said to Steve. “What do you want, Trevor?”

  “Why are you here?” Trevor’s eyes were slits of rage and indignation.

  “To celebrate your new life,” Jill said. “I’m very happy for you.”

  “Bullshit,” Trevor spit the fury packed words at Jill. “You show up in your ‘get lucky’ boots to celebrate my new life?”

  “What I wear is no concern of yours,” Jill said. “Anyway, I’m just a one night stand.”

  “Ah, Jill, what did you expect me to say?”

  “‘I love he
r with every cell in my body, every fiber in my being, every thought in my head, and every action in my life,’” Jill imitated his voice. “That’s what you used to tell everyone, including me.”

  “Jill, please try to understand. I still love . . .”

  “Don’t even start. You threw me away. You threw away our friends. We were all too low class for you. Yet . . .”

  “I know that look. What are you up to?”

  “All your low-class ex-friends are here, Trev. Look around.” Jill leaned into him. Her face was less than an inch from his face. “We came to wish you a nice new life as far away from us as possible.”

  She watched surprise, then fear flash through Trevor’s eyes. She took his glass of champagne, drained it, and then gave it back to him.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  She raised one eyebrow in challenge. He opened his mouth then shifted to neutral. Jill turned to see what he was looking at and saw Megan. She was wearing a server’s uniform and, holding a cordless microphone.

  Jill beamed at her oldest sister. Only Megan could be completely loving and absolutely disapproving at the same time.

  “Go on, sis,” Megan said.

  Jill took the microphone.

  “May I have your attention, please? I’d like to make a little toast to the happy couple.”

  The crowd moved to get a view of Jill, and the rich girl came to hold Trevor’s hand.

  “But first, in order to launch Trevor into his new life, we wanted to share some photos with you.”

  The lights fell and a screen came down from the ballroom ceiling. The band began to play “The Way We Were.” As the crowd became silent and a photo flashed on the screen. Trevor’s rich girl started screaming.

  “I don’t know what’s here . . . Oh, you can’t turn it off. When you trust a working person to set things up for you, you should check his loyalties first.”

  The rich girl stomped to the back of the ballroom to scream at the ballroom staff.

  “Um . . . this is a photo of Trevor and me at our junior high school dance. Aren’t we cute?”

  A picture of Trevor and Jill dressed as Raggedy Ann and Andy filled the screen. The photo vibrated with joy and laughter. The image changed to a picture of two wrists with matching “Soul Mates” tattoos in scripted blue letters.

  “Those are our tattoos.”

  Jill turned over her arm to show the tattoo still inked on her wrist. Glancing at Trevor, he held up his wrist. His tattoo was gone. His blank wrist combined with his nasty smile knocked the wind out of her. She gasped for breath. She gawked at him.

  “Go on.” Megan slipped her arm around Jill’s waist.

  Jill nodded.

  The screen shifted to a legal document — their wedding license.

  “This is our wedding license. We got married three years later. My parents died when I was ten so we had to talk my sister Megan into it.”

  “I was against it,” Megan said.

  Jill laughed at Megan’s strong tone. Megan was always so smart about everything.

  The image shifted to their wedding picture. She wore a short white rayon dress that cost twenty dollars at Sears. Trevor wore a borrowed tux three sizes too big. Sitting on his bended knee, she was laughing at something he’d said. They were kissing in the next photo.

  “I was sixteen and he was seventeen. Here’s our first apartment. Oh, and that’s a picture of our puppy, Scooter.”

  An image of a tiny mutt puppy appeared on the screen.

  “He was a wedding present. Scooter got hit by a car a couple years ago.”

  The screen cycled through three or four pictures of them playing with Scooter, then showed a picture of them kissing in their high school graduation robes.

  “We graduated from high school,” Jill laughed. The picture switched to their graduation party. “I’m pretty drunk here.”

  She was sitting facing Trevor on his lap, wearing only small panties and her graduation hat. Trevor’s face was buried in her neck. She heard laughter and catcalls. Looking from the screen to the crowd, she realized they were doing something no one expected — these rich people were enjoying the show.

  The picture changed to one of Jill standing sideways.

  “Okay, you can’t tell, but I’m pregnant here. Trev wanted a photo every week.”

  The screen flashed through nine months of her growing baby belly. Then there was a photo of Trevor kissing Jill while she held a one-minute-old Katy.

  “That’s Katy. Her name is Katherine, after my mom, but we call her Katy. Isn’t she beautiful? She’s almost four.” Jill beamed.

  The slide show went through countless photos of Katy. Infant pictures changed to toddler pictures. Image after image, Jill watched her pretty baby grow up. They seemed so happy in the photos. The image shifted to Christmas.

  “You can see the date on the picture. This was last Christmas. That’s a picture of Trev and me at Keystone.”

  They were sitting on a ski slope with their snowboards, wrapped in each other. “I love Jill” was written in the snow, and Trevor was kissing her face. They looked so blissfully happy. The images cycled through a family Christmas, pausing at a New Year’s Eve party. Taken at midnight, the picture showed Trevor and Jill making out in the corner. The back of Jill’s gold T-shirt read “Trevor’s wish,” while a large “J,” the rest unseen from the angle of the picture, was visible on the back of Trevor’s matching T-shirt.

  When the next image came up on the screen, the crowd gasped.

  “These are our divorce papers. As you can see, Trevor divorced me two days later, and that means . . .”

  “You’re still married,” a man’s voice yelled from the back of the room. “Lawyer, sorry.”

  The crowd laughed.

  “Until tomorrow,” Jill said. She took a step toward Trevor who was shaking his head. “I wanted to give you a few things to help you in your new life.”

  The band began to play “I will survive.”

  “First, here’s my wedding ring. While I see you managed to get her a diamond, my little thirty-dollar ring was good for nine years. You should keep it.”

  She pulled the ring off her left ring finger and placed it in Trevor’s hand.

  “And I think you should have these.”

  There was a whistle from the back of the room as Jill unzipped the beautiful boots. She gave the boots to the rich girl.

  “He calls these his ‘get lucky’ boots. They’re probably a little big for you, but you can stuff some tissues in the toes. Just put them on, honey, and you’ll have a good time,” Jill said.

  Megan touched Jill’s arm and helped her step into the black pumps. “Thanks,” Jill said to Megan. She looked up to see every eye was on her.

  “I guess that’s it,” Jill said.

  “No, it’s not.” Steve yelled from the back of the room.

  “Oh.” Jill nodded.

  In her heart of hearts, Jill had hoped Trevor would see their happy pictures and change his mind. She let out a breath. He wasn’t going to change his mind.

  Megan was right, as always.

  Trevor only saw dollar signs.

  Lowering her head to cover her last hope exploding in her heart, she unbuttoned her shirt. Reaching into her shirt, she retrieved a folded piece of paper. Candy gave her the long-stemmed, white rose.

  “This is our wedding present to you, Trevor.” Her eyes full of tears, Jill’s voice caught on the words. “We terminated your parental rights. You’re not Katy’s daddy anymore.”

  “No, Jill. No.” Trevor shook his head back and forth as his voice rose in desperation. “No, you can’t do that.”

  “You haven’t even seen her in six months!”

  “I . . .”

  “It’s done,” Jill said. “You signed the papers when Mike had you sign the financial papers.”

  “Then it’s legal,” the lawyer in the back of the room yelled.

  “We’re leaving, which means you high-class
people don’t have low people to serve your dinner or your drinks or even play in your band. Pete said if you bring your invitation to the Pete’s Kitchen on Colfax, he’ll feed you dinner as a freedom present to me.”

  “Good luck, Trevor,” Jill said.

  She gave Trevor the rose, and she couldn’t resist the magnetic draw of him. She kissed his lips. He moved to draw her deeper, his lips pulling at hers, but she shifted away from him.

  “I’m not yours to kiss anymore. No matter how much I love you . . .” Her voice, barely above a whisper, caught and tears dropped. “You chose someone else. I had nine wonderful years with my soul mate. That’s more than most people have in a lifetime. I have no right to complain.”

  She put her hand on his chest and she nodded.

  “Good night.”

  As she embarked on a hip swinging trip across the floor, someone clapped. She looked over to see Jacob, then his father clapping. The rich people began to cheer for Jill. She blushed and left the room.

  “That’s the girl, isn’t it?” Jacob’s dad asked.

  Jacob nodded.

  “She is very much like your mother.”

  Jacob watched Jill through the glass wall as she rode the escalator down from the Seawell Ballroom.

  “She’s really just herself.”

  “You are a damned fool if you don’t snatch up that woman,” his father said under his breath. His weeping daughter came over to him.

  “Now, sugar,” he said. “I told you not to gloat about stealing someone else’s man.”

  “But Daddy . . .”

  ~~~~~~~~

  2 weeks later

  “He’s been here every night,” Candy said to Jill. They met in motion behind the counter at Pete’s Kitchen.

  “So?” Jill replied. Leaning through the cook’s window, she pointed at the check. “José, can you make sure those hash browns are a little crispy?”

  “You should talk to him,” Candy continued. She filled two coffee mugs and walked toward the floor.

  “I told you, Candy. He’s in love with some married girl.” Jill called after her.

  Candy shook her head. She was almost to the booth when she turned back to Jill. “Go talk to him.”

  Jill straightened her bright pink uniform with its little white apron and walked over toward Jacob. He was reading the newspaper at the counter. He looked up to watch her walk over to him.

  “What’s up?”

  “I was wondering if you would marry me, but I’d take a date or a conversation or maybe another kiss.” Jacob’s face flushed with emotion. “How was that? I’ve been practicing.”

  “Very smooth,” Jill replied. “What about the married girl?”