by DW Cee
“Oh, Oliver. I’m sorry I came so late and I’ve missed you too. I’ve been missing you for a very long time. We have a lot of catching up to do, Son.” He kissed our son several times and was in tears himself.
“Ollie, let’s go and get your cake,” I heard Mother try and give us a chance to talk some more.
“No. I want to be with Mommy and Daddy.” Mommy and Daddy. Ollie finally had a complete family.
“Son, give me a few more minutes with your mom and I promise I’ll be out there soon.”
“Okay.” Saddened, Ollie didn’t want to leave but Mom carried him out the door.
Jamie tenderly pulled me into his body and held me for what felt like an eternity. It felt amazing to be back in his arms.
“Liv, how did Ollie happen?”
“Ollie is our miracle child. None of the doctors ever said I couldn’t get pregnant. They just said chances of having more kids were slim. Well, Ollie proved them wrong. I got pregnant the last night we were together and I didn’t realize I was carrying him until four months into the pregnancy. I wasn’t trying to keep him a secret from you. I came back looking for you but ran into Melinda and your mom and decided to leave you alone after listening to what they had to say.”
“Oh, Liv. All those years lost for you...me...Ollie.... I wish I could’ve seen Ollie being born. What was he like as a baby?”
“Ollie was the most amazing baby. He knew from the moment he was born, how much I needed him in my life. He was such a good baby. As soon as the doctor brought him to me, he looked identical to you.” Jamie looked sad to have missed all this. “I’m sorry I kept him from you. I really thought you were married. I didn’t want to wreck a happy home.”
“And I’m sorry for all the misunderstanding. I love you, Olivia. I always have. I’ve been miserable since you left me. Mom felt terrible after we broke up and she and I have not had the best relationship because of her meddling. I’m sorry I was so weak. I’m sorry I couldn’t make up my mind about what I wanted. I should have admitted to myself a long time ago that I needed you more than I needed a child.”
He then held out my hand. “I love you, Olivia. I don’t want to be separated from you anymore. Would you and Ollie be content spending the rest of your years with me, loving and living and being a family? Will you marry me?”
After Paul’s death, I assumed Dani and I would be alone. After Ollie came into our lives, I thought it would be me, Dani and Mom taking the place of a father. Now, here was Jamie asking us to be a family. What else could I say but, “Yes! I’ve missed you, Jamie.”
Our lips joined with maddening desire. How sad I hadn’t kissed a man in almost six years. By the depth of his kiss, Jamie acted as though he hadn’t kissed anyone in about the same amount of time.
“You think we could lock the door for the next two days and make love to one another without any interruptions?” Jamie smiled.
“You obviously haven’t ever lived with a five year old. There’s no such thing as privacy anymore. Everything you say and do is in front of two very watchful eyes. Let’s go out and join the party.”
We held hands out of my bedroom, stopping to embrace a few more times before reaching the party.
“Jamie, I think I need to talk to Dani before we tell anyone else what just happened.”
“Okay. I’ll be the tall one in the bounce house with our son. I love you, Olivia.”
“I love you, too.”
Dani’s eyes met mine as soon as Jamie let go of me and I knew we had to talk. Nervously walking over to her, I saw Ian give her a hug and Dani walked slowly.
“Dani. You knew about Oliver?”
“I just figured it out the other night.”
“I’m sorry for not telling you the truth about Ollie and Jamie. You were so angry with me during that time; I didn’t want to make our situation worse.”
“Oh, Mom. I’m embarrassed to say it took me this many years to realize how selfish I’ve been. Ian urged me to talk to you about Jamie so many times but I couldn’t. I’m sorry I made you choose between me and him. I hope I don’t have a daughter like me.” Dani was tearing hysterically.
“Dani. You have been a wonderful daughter and I thank you for loving your brother so much. He absolutely adores you.” I wiped away some of her tears with my sleeve. “I love you more than my own life and when you have a child, you will understand that there’s no deeper love than the one between a parent and a child. Your dad would have been very proud of you.”
We hugged until Dani’s crying hiccups calmed down.
“Jamie asked me to marry him today and I accepted. Is that okay with you?”
“Of course, Mom. You go and be happy. I don’t want to stop you anymore than I’ve already done.”
I saw Jamie and Ollie walking our way.
“Dani, do you know this is my daddy?”
“Yeah, Ollie. Congrats on finding your daddy.” She picked up her brother.
“I have a Mommy, a Daddy, a Gammy, a sister and a new brother. Wow, Ollie has a big family now.” Ollie pointed to each one of us while reciting our title.
“Are you and Ian engaged too?” Jamie gave Dani a congratulatory hug even before she answered.
She just nodded yes.
“Congratulations, Dani! Ian, you finally got the girl of your dreams.” Jamie gave Ian a light punch in the arm. “I guess you won’t want to come live with us when your mom and I get married?” He turned to Dani.
“No. Ian and I are moving to London after we get married. He has to finish his studies there.”
“Daddy, let’s go play some more.” Ollie was done with our conversation.
“Alright, Son.” Jamie pulled my hand and made me go into the jump house with them and we spent more time than I cared to spend in there. Finally, I told them I was getting nauseous from all the bouncing around and used that as an excuse to leave.
Knowing how much work Jamie had to do, I sped the party along and Jamie gave Ollie a bath while I cleaned up the kitchen. It was like a dream to have Jamie helping me. There had been times I had hallucinated Jamie’s support during many difficult days but to actually have him here, it was surreal.
“Ollie’s in bed waiting for you,” Jamie whispered from behind me while caressing the back of my neck with his lips.
“I can’t believe you’re here. Ollie’s been asking about you more and more these days. It was getting harder to explain who you were and why you weren’t around.”
We walked hand in hand to Ollie’s room.
“Mommy, can I sleep in your bed tonight since it’s my birthday today?”
“Alright, sweetheart. Grab your pillow.” My child was always looking for ways to sleep with me. Tonight I welcomed his presence, especially since Jamie wouldn’t be around.
“Daddy, are you sleeping with us tonight?” Ollie started rubbing his eyes.
“I can’t tonight but we’ll be together soon. Your mommy and I will talk about living arrangements immediately.”
“No, Daddy, I want you to stay with me. Don’t leave me again. When will Ollie see you again if you leave?” Ollie began crying.
Jamie picked him up, held him tight and sat on the rocking chair. “Ollie, I need to go back to work tonight but we’ll see each other tomorrow. I’ll come by after work or you can come see me.”
“No! I want you to stay with me. You’re my daddy and that’s what daddies do. They stay with their little Ollies.”
There was no reasoning with our son. With fatigue setting in, Jamie rocked him to sleep. Carefully laying him on my bed, Jamie got up and held me as tightly as he had held our son.
“I wish I could stay with you and Ollie tonight but you understand why I have to leave, right?”
“Jamie, go do what you need to do. I know this is the busiest time of the year for you. You don’t have to stop by tomorrow. We can see you in a few days when work calms down.”
“I hate the thought of leaving you. Now that I’ve found you, I don’t know how
I’m going to stay away. We have so much catching up to do.”
“I will fill you in on all the years you’ve missed. I have photos, journals, videos - you’ll feel like you’ve been there from day one. I kept a good record of Ollie’s life just in case you were to come along later in life. Fortunately you only missed five years.”
I pushed him towards the door. As much as I wanted him to stay, I knew he had spent way too much time with us today. He would probably have to stay up most of tonight to make up for all the hours lost.
“Bye. I love you,” Jamie murmured between kisses.
“I love you too.” I got him into his car.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” he called out, slowly backing out of the driveway.
I nodded my head okay.
With Jamie gone and Oliver asleep, I boiled some water for tea and went in to talk to my rock, my strength – my mother. She had been very quiet all day. I knew she would support me regardless of the situation but I was concerned about any reservations she might have about Jamie.
“Mom? You still up? Would you like to have some tea with me?”
“Sure. Come on in.” Mom put on her robe and got up from her bed and into her favorite chair.
“Thanks for all your help today. I think the party went well.”
“Yeah I think it was a big success. All the kids enjoyed it, especially Ollie.”
“You haven’t said much about Jamie. What do you think? Did I make the right decision?” I was scared to hear her answer.
“Olivia, since Paul died, you’ve had so many ups and downs. Even with Oliver in your life, I don’t think I’ve seen you completely happy. Go love and be loved by Jamie. Be a family with him. I’m relieved to see that the three of you will finally be together. Of course you made the right decision and of course I am happy for you.”
My mother, always the encouraging one, gave me her blessing to leave her nest and try again.
“You know Mom, I couldn’t have come this far without you. You have been my rock during the last six years and I will always be grateful to you. I really don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t allowed me back into your house after I had Ollie. Geez, I sound like some teenager who got pregnant out of wedlock.” We both laughed out loud.
“You were worse than a teenager. You were forty with a teenage daughter of your own. What a crazy year that was. I didn’t know when Dani would come around. I think going away from home to study and being with Ian has been good for her. She’s grown up a lot in the last five years.”
“I feel guilty I haven’t been a full time mother to Dani. After her dad died, I didn’t think I’d meet Jamie so soon and my love for Jamie really did a number on her.”
“Olivia, you were and still are a good mother to both your children. None of us can determine when love will come and go. Never could we have predicted Paul would die so young and it was just as implausible to think you’d fall in love again so soon after his death with someone so much younger than yourself. You should enjoy yourself. Don’t worry anymore about everyone else.”
“Thank you, Mother. I hope when I’m your age, my children will think that I’ve been as much help to them as you’ve been to me.”
Ollie woke me up with a loud wail that shocked me out of bed.
“What’s the matter, baby? Why are you crying?”
“Where’s my daddy? Where did he go? Is he coming back?”
I pulled him on top of me hoping to comfort him back to sleep.
“Daddy’s at work. He’s very busy right now. He’ll be back at night or we can go see him at lunch time.”
“No! I want to see him now!” He was adamant. “Mommy, call him.”
“Alright.” I began dialing Jamie’s number and couldn’t help smiling at the thought of Ollie looking for his father. There was no awkwardness between these two. Love was instant and permanent for both of them.
“Hi Liv. What are you doing up so early? Ollie? Why are you crying?” I had put Jamie on speakerphone and if he had put us on speakerphone, the entire office would have heard our son’s cries.
“Daddy, why did you leave? I want to be with you.”
“Ollie, Daddy had to go back to the office but I was actually going to call you in a couple of hours to ask you what you were doing around lunch time today.”
“I don’t know. Having lunch with you?” His crying abated, he sounded happy at Jamie’s pending invitation.
“How would you like to come and be my best man, today?”
“What is that, Daddy?”
“Your mommy and I are getting married today and I want you to stand right next to me when I marry her.”
“What?” I asked. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, I told all my co workers how I found you and Ollie and they thought we should lighten up the office mood and throw a wedding today at lunch time.”
I heard a throng of cheers in the background.
“Jamie, we can’t just throw together a wedding. These things take time.”
“No worries. The ladies in the office have taken care of everything. You, Ollie, Dani, Ian, and your mom just need to show up. They are all so excited! They went out in the middle of the night to random 24-hour stores and bought cheesy decorations and hung them all over the office. The ladies also ordered cake and champagne to be delivered by noon.”
“Who’s going to marry us?” I still couldn’t believe what was happening. Within a day, I went from a single mom to being a married one.
“You remember my best friend, Seth?”
“Uh huh.”
“Well, he works here in the New York office with me and he called his pastor late last night and asked him to come here at noon to marry us. Like I said earlier, you guys just need to show up.”
“What about your parents? Aren’t they back in LA?”
“Yeah. We’ll call them and they can watch the wedding on the computer. Everything’s been taken care of, Liv. All I need is you and Ollie in my life now.”
“This is crazy, Jamie.”
“You – who married a man after one date – are calling this crazy? You’ve known me six long years.
We could’ve had at least five Olivers by now at the pace that you set. Just get over here and on time. Oh…bring some clothes for you and Ollie so you can stay over at my place. We’ll eventually bring all your stuff over after the wedding.”
“Daddy, does that mean we get to live with you from now on?”
“That’s exactly what it means, Son. I have a room with your name on it.”
“Yay!” Ollie yelled. “Can I sleep with you?”
Before I could warn my soon-to-be husband, he answered, “You most definitely can!”
Ollie started jumping up and down on the bed yelling from the top of his lungs, “Hurray, hurray, hurray!”
“I’ll see you soon.”
“Bye.” I laughed trying to calm down our son.
“What is going on here?” Mother walked in on the revelry.
“Mommy and Daddy are getting married and I’m the bestest man. Gammy, are you going to come with us when we live with Daddy?”
Mom looked at me for an explanation.
“Jamie and his co-workers planned a wedding in his office last night. We all need to be there for a noon ceremony.”
“Jamie has changed quite a bit. I’ve never seen him so impulsive. Well, congratulations Oliver Hutchison. I guess we’re going to a wedding today.”
Mother, Dani, Ollie and I walked into Jamie’s office and everyone was in good cheer. Ollie immediately gravitated towards the young ladies who plopped him on the desk and started grooming his hair and showing him more attention than necessary.
Mom exchanged words with Rose and Harry on the video phone and Dani walked outside to meet Ian. Jamie pulled me away before the festivities began.
“I want you to know this is seriously a dream come true for me, Liv. You don’t know how many times I’ve dreamt of being married to you –
minus the cheesy metallic streamers, balloons and all.”
Laughter spilled. This highly respectable office looked like a Vegas chapel.
“Jamie, are you sure this is what you want? I won’t keep Ollie from you. You don’t have to marry me. You’re so much younger than I am. You can still marry someone who can give you that large family you’ve always wanted.”
“Olivia, you and Ollie are my family. You two are all that I need. I love you. Please don’t talk or think like that anymore. We’ve wasted too much time with those kinds of thoughts. Let’s do what we should’ve done so many years ago.”
I decided to let go of guilt and feelings of unnecessary selflessness. I accepted what was before me – happiness for Jamie, me, and our son.
“Okay. Let’s get married,” I answered.
I choked back the tears many times during the short ceremony. Instead, I saw the tears in everyone else’s eyes. We kissed to make our union complete and toasted to a lifetime of bliss. Once the wedding was done, the office was back to business as usual as they only had a few days left to finish their work. I thanked everyone in the office and took Ollie back to Jamie’s apartment so he could take a nap after all the excitement. Setting Ollie down on Jamie’s bed, I noticed a framed picture of the two of us the night we had our first “date” at the ballpark. He still had it near his heart. Looking around his apartment, there were other pictures of us decorating this bachelor pad. My sweet husband…he really had missed me as much as I had missed him.
After Ollie and I put some of our stuff away and got ourselves comfortable, we met the family for dinner in the city. The office was kind enough to give Jamie the night off as a wedding present to the both of us.
“What are the chances that Ollie will sleep in his own room tonight?” Jamie whispered in the cab ride back home.
“Slim to none. You promised him before I could warn you. I think our wedding night will be spent with our five year old.” I laughed and kissed him on the cheek.
“You’re kidding? We haven’t been together in six years. How much longer will he insist on sleeping with us?”