War.

by Shannon Dianne

  “Of course. You know your Aunt Pammy loves you.” She smiles and looks me. Preston comes into the living room, gives me a kiss on the cheek and then slaps Wynston on the head. They begin to fight off to the side. “Oh, Preston, be careful of Sunday!” Cadence slips Sunday Simone out of my hands and walks back to the couch with her.

  “She’s still wearing a hat?” he asks.

  “Yes, she is. And don’t you touch it,” I warn him.

  “I thought Malcolm took the hat off this weekend,” Danielle says. “Jasmine’s dad said-”

  “Yes, he did. And now it’s back on,” I warn her. I don’t care if Jasmine’s father is a Harvard educated pediatrician or not, he raised that harlot Jasmine Harlow. Perhaps if he had kept her hat on a bit longer, we wouldn’t be in this situation now.

  “Oh, okay.” Danielle looks up at Malcolm and then begins to whisper in his ear. He starts doing that smirk of his.

  “Oh, and Lola,” Pammy says, her eyes still locked on mine, “tell Angie the good news.”

  “Pammy and Danielle will be throwing me a baby shower here at Pammy’s house in two weeks!” Lola says. “Isn’t that exciting?” Pammy continues to smile at me.

  “It sure is, dear,” Pammy says. “This is your first child, I’m surprised no one thought of it before. Cadence, will you please tell us all your good news?”

  “Well, Aunt Pammy and I were talking,” Cadence says as he leans back on the couch with Sunday Simone on his chest and takes a sip of bourbon. “And since you’re moved in with Danielle and Malcolm for the time being and will be busy with little Sunday, Lola and I will move in here. With Aunt Pammy and Uncle Preston.”

  “Excuse me?” I say as Malcolm, Danielle and Lola start walking over to Cadence.

  “Good deal, huh?”

  “Sure is, dear,” Pammy says. “Oh and Cadence, why don’t you tell your mother the big surprise.”

  “It’s a girl!”

  “I’m sorry, what did you say?” I ask.

  “I know, I couldn’t believe it either when he came in and told me…” Pammy says while looking at her watch, “about fifteen minutes ago. So happy! Oh , and guess what ? Guess who’s going back home?” Oh, don’t you say Gwyneth. Don’t you dare say Gwyneth! “Gwyneth.” She nods towards Jacob and Winnie talking near the staircase, Jacob not saying a word, Gwyneth looking extremely cross. “What’s the saying? The family that eats together stays together?”

  Danielle eases Sunday off of Cadence’s chest and begins to kiss her. Lola takes her hat off to see her red hair. Malcolm stands by proudly looking on with the side of roast in his hands. Preston and Wynston, still fighting, bump into me.

  “Sorry, baby,” Wynston says to me as he puts Preston is a headlock. “You bumped into my wife, I ou gh tta murder you for that!” Do you see what I mean about Pammy’s home being the breeding ground of criminal activity?

  “Shut the hell up, you old ass geezer,” Preston grunts out.

  “If only someone would have thought of this family dinner sooner,” Pammy continues. “Oh well, come along family, let us move into the kitchen to enjoy some aperitifs.” And everyone rushes to the kitchen to sip vermouth. Cadence slaps Malcolm on the back and Malcolm whispers something to him, a small smile on his face. They both start to laugh. Danielle and Lola walk side-by-side into the kitchen, talking and smiling. Wynston and Preston walk into the kitchen talking and laughing loudly. And apparently we’re all going to pretend as if Pammy’s daughters aren’t in jail. We’re all going to pretend to be happy.

  Well, everyone besides Jacob and Gwyneth. They haven’t moved. Wait…something’s wrong.

  WINNIE

  He passes me the keys to our condo without me having asked for them.

  I was ready to come back to Boston after my conversation with Lola. Call me stupid but I love Jake. I do. And I miss him. I miss his smell. He always smells like soap and musk. No matter how often we wash his clothes, his scent remains through both the rinse and drying cycle. It’s the penalty of being a virile man.

  I also miss his dick. Jake can fuck like none other. It’s always fun, and hot, and laughable and so damn serious and…there’s just no other man like Jake. Sex for love is great but sex for lust is better and I lust after Jacob. I lust after him as he walks out of the door to the office adjusting his tie, looking for his keys. I lust after him when we meet up for lunch; the mere thought of him having a booming ass law firm in a city filled with millions of lawyers is sexy to me. He’s special. He’s done something right.

  He married me.

  Let’s be honest, I helped Jake along the way. But he’ll admit that to anyone. “I have no shame in saying that I am who I am and I have what I have because of the woman I married,” he said over a toast a few years ago, at a family dinner. “And if I’m indebted to anyone, it’s the woman who birthed three Blairs; the person I can go to both Mass and bars with. What more could I ask for?” The entire table clinked their glasses together when he said that.

  But the truth is that Jake and I help each other. I gave him my military circle, he gives me long nights in bed, four brown-eyed kids, the chance to forgo a nine-to-five and the last name Blair. That name pulls rank in this town. Rank that Yates just doesn’t pull.

  Jake and I both need each other.

  I was getting all kinds of encouragement from Danielle and Lola for two days. I was seeing that there is life after infidelity, as I spoke with Lola. The theme of this weekend? Anything’s possible. Jacob could change. I could change. We could be a mature couple. It seemed that both of us were stuck in our twenties: him and his women, me and my partying. Maybe, if we both decided to grow up —not get boring, but to simply grow up—we could make this work.

  So when his mom called me and told me that Malcolm and the kids were coming for dinner and that it would be nice for Danielle to come, I knew what she would eventually get at. She wanted me to come as well. I beat her to the chase. “I’ll come too,” I said to her.

  “Are you serious?” she asked.

  “I am. I’m ready to move on.”

  “Oh, God. Thank you, Winnie. Thank you. You have no idea how Jacob is…” she said nothing more.

  “How he’s what?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” she said quickly. “He’s just sad, given the circumstances.”

  Within an hour, Lola rallied Cadence and we were on a private flight back to Boston. Our trusty pilot, Jim, taking us home. I had a renewed resolve. So what if people called me stupid or desperate? Because I am. I’m stupid for Jacob Blair. I’m desperately in love with him. He’s my first love. He’s also a cheat. I’m also a party girl. Do people call him stupid when he’s picking me up from the chief’s office two weekends in a row? Do they call him stupid when he’s paying off the Cambridge police to drop the charges? His father is the mayor of Cambridge and he’s paying off the police to look the other way. Do you know how stupid that is? Do you know what his father would say if he knew that? Leave her alone, Jake! You’ll ruin my career! What, are you stupid? Desperate? I imagine Jake saying yes. So I came back to Boston to tell him that I’ll come back home and we can try this marriage thing again.

  But when I walked in the door, I knew something was wrong.

  As soon as he saw me, he got off the couch and slid Jaden in his father’s arms.

  “Can I talk to you for a second before you go?” he asked. I felt foolish telling him that I planned on staying.

  “What’s up?” I asked. He pulled me over to the side. I noticed he looked as gorgeous as always but his face was drained. His energy, that Jacob energy, was gone. His eyes met mine but they had a far-off look.

  “Are you alright?” Now I was getting concerned. “You look…stoned.” He shook his head as if to say he wasn’t. I know Jacob’s vice is women, not drugs, but at that moment, I wasn’t too sure. He looked…out of here.

  “You shouldn’t be living in someone else’s home with four kids. So I’m moving out of the condo and getting another one down the
street. I actually have to meet up with my realtor now so I can’t stay for dinner. I tried to get a place in the building but there aren’t any for sale. And Aunt Angie uses Cadence’s place from time to time so I can’t stay there.”

  Aunt Angie walked through the door with Uncle Wynston and Malcolm. Jacob passed me the keys to our condo. I stood there with my hand open.

  “If you’ll allow me to have the kids for dinner, like I do now, and if I can bring them here for Sunday dinner with my family…” he drifted off. Damn, he looked exhausted. He stood waiting for me to answer. But I’ve got to admit, tears were starting to sting my eyes.

  Jacob wasn’t begging me to come back to him anymore.

  Immediately, I thought that I let things go on for too long. He had lost hope. He had moved on. He was thinking about trying out Jasmine, again. Both of their partners had left them. They now had each other. My face turned stone cold. How dare he, leave me.

  “And, since this week is Easter Break, I went ahead and booked tickets to Disney World. So, if you don’t have any plans for the kids, I’ll take them to Orlando. My father’s gonna come with me. I know you’re still pumping breast milk so I went ahead and ordered this service called Milk Maids. All you have to do is pump your milk in some storage bags—I went ahead and bought some, they’re in the condo on the kitchen counter—and they’ll come to the condo at nine each morning, put the bags in a freezer and transport them on one of their carriers overnight to the hotel. Trent told me about it. I guess the hospital uses them. Anyway, Jaden will be able to come with us, too.”

  He had this all planned out. He even consulted our brother-in-law, Trent, the doctor, for advice on how to become a single parent. Everyone knew that Jacob was leaving me.

  “Come along family, let us move into the kitchen to enjoy some aperitifs,” I hear Pammy say now. Everyone starts to head to the kitchen. I’m too stunned to move. For some reason, Angie is too. She looks like she’s seething as she slowly puts one foot in front of the other towards the kitchen.

  “Is that alright with you?” Jacob asks. Is it alright with me? Is it alright with me! You bastard!

  “No!” I scream out. He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “You fucking bastard!”

  “Winnie. Wait a minute-”

  “How dare you make decisions for our entire family, once again, and expect me to go with the fucking flow.” Within moments, Angie appears before us.

  “Jacob, Gwyneth? Is there discord?”

  “Winnie, I was just trying-”

  “What? To leave your goddamn family!” Now everyone’s standing in the kitchen doorway looking at us.

  “Oh, dear!” Angie says. “Looks like there’s trouble. Pammy, hurry and get a glass of water for Gwyneth.”

  “But everything was so-” Pammy begins.

  “Pammy, not now!” Angie screams. “Hurry! Winnie’s terribly upset!” Pammy runs into the kitchen for water.

  “Alright, come on,” Danny says as she steps in front of Angie and takes me by the arm.

  “I’m not going anywhere!” I yell out as she drags me away. “He’s a fucking bastard!”

  “Winnie,” Danielle whispers. “The kids.”

  “Oh, boy,” Angie says from behind me. “I’ve lost my appetite. I…I just can’t eat anymore.”

  “I don’t understand,” Pammy says as Danielle drags me into Preston’s study.

  “Not surprising,” Aunt Angie says to her. “It’s well past appetizer time. Everyone’s hungry…things happen when people get hungry.”

  Danielle shuts the door.

  “What the hell, Winnie?”

  “He’s leaving me.” She and I lock eyes. Mine fills with tears. “He gave me the condo.” I show her the keys. “He’s got a new one already.”

  “He said that?”

  “Yes, Danielle!”

  “Okay, calm down. Umm…” she starts pacing. “Let me think.” I hear the office door open. I turn to see Jacob and Malcolm entering the room. Jake’s eyes are red, Malcolm’s face is confused. The bleak face that Jacob wore when I walked in earlier is now replaced with a pained look.

  “What the fuck am I supposed to do?” he whispers to me, his voice choking. Malcolm gestures for Danielle to leave the room. “What the hell am I supposed to do, Gwyneth? Because I’m lost here. I’ve tried it all. What. Do. I. Do?” Danielle hurries out of the room with Malcolm. They silently shut the door behind them.

  “You know what I want you to do, Jacob?”

  “Just say it, Winnie. I’ll do it. Just fucking say it.” I watch him give a hard swallow.

  Silence.

  And we stare at each other.

  Finally, I shake my head and then walk out of the office. Fuck the family dinner. Why do I have to tell this man how to love me? How to win me back? Fuck Jacob.

  “Winnie…” he says after me.

  And suddenly my phone buzzes. I have a new incoming message.

  MALCOLM

  I know it’s her before I even walk into the condo.

  “Ms. Harlow, I think you’ll agree that this condo is the best out of the five we’ve visited,” I hear a woman say.

  “I agree,” Jasmine says from another room. “How much?” Jake shoots a look over to me as we stand in the empty living room.

  “Seems like we walked in on another agent!” Jake’s real estate agent, Vance Frankfurt, says.

  “Shit,” Jake says to me under his breath. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

  “Vance,” I say. “Let’s give these other people some privacy and-”

  “Oh, hello.” Vance, Jake and I turn towards the voice of the real estate and see Jasmine standing there beside her. Now, I would expect that after two months of being gone, she’d look surprised to see Jacob. Maybe mad. Maybe wistful. But, no. She’s none of the above. You would think that she didn’t even know him.

  “Sorry about this, Nancy,” Vance says. “We were told to come here at eight.”

  “Oh, no, this was our fault,” Nancy says. “Ms. Harlow and I went over time; she wanted to see the view of the city at night. We’ll just get out of your way.”

  “Well, you don’t have to do that,” Vance says. “We can treat this like an open house.” He waves for Jacob and me to follow him. “We’ll start in the home office.”

  “Thanks, Vance.”

  This shit feels weird. I’m not the one who was fucking Jasmine, so why do I feel uncomfortable? And don’t Vance and Nancy know that Jasmine, Jacob and I know each other? I mean, come on. Everyone knows that we’re all in the same circle. Won’t this cool exchange between the three of us get people talking? Jake trusts Vance, but who the hell is Nancy? Vance owns his own small real estate firm. It’s not big but he doesn’t need the money. He’s a silver-spooner whose father was an army man. He’s known Jake for a while, Winnie even longer. So he can be trusted. But Nancy? What’s her family name? Who’s her mother? Her father? No, I need to say something.

  “Jasmine, Red’s been trying to get a hold of you,” I say with a smile. “When you’re done, give her a ring.”

  “Oh, I planned to stop by tonight to see her,” Jasmine says coolly. Hmm…good job. Your turn, Jake. I look at him but he says nothing. Without even making eye contact with Jasmine, he walks through the condo, the echo of his steps ringing out against the hardwood floors. Vance hurries to follow him.

  “See you tonight,” I say to Jasmine. She gives me a small smile and I walk in the direction of Jake and Vance.

  I get into the office and Vance is showing Jacob the view of Beacon Hill from twenty-five stories up. I walk over to the window, stand a little behind them and look down. Not bad.

  “How many square feet is the office?” Jake asks.

  “Well, the condo is two thousand square feet but let me see about the office…” Vance starts to look through his phone. “As a matter of fact,” he says to himself, “let me just get that email I sent you and your wife.”

  What?

  “You sent
us an email?” Jake asks.

  “Yeah, you didn’t get it? Right before you and I met up at Starbucks, I sent an email to you and Winnie giving you the basic info: address, square feet, price…”

  Oh shit! Jake immediately looks at me.

  “We gotta go,” Jake says as he walks towards the office door. I turn and hurry towards the door, too.

  “Everything alright?” Vance asks as he shoves his phone in his pocket.

  “Yeah, it’s just that-”

  “Lovely place.”

  Jake and I stop dead in our tracks and look at each other. The voice.

  Winnie.

  “So, you’re thinking about calling this place home, huh, Jasmine?” Winnie asks.

  “Thinking about it,” Jasmine says in a relaxed tone. “I like the neighborhood, the floor plan.” And Jake looks like he could die on the spot.

  “Nancy, can you give us a second?” I hear Red say. Goddamn. Red. This shit looks planned.

  “Sure!” Nancy says.

  “Vance! You in there?” Winnie calls out in a chipper voice.

  “Right here!” he says back, just as happy.

  “Can you give us all a moment to look at this place?”

  “Sure.”

  “Be right outside when you need me,” he says to Jake and me with a smile as he walks out of the office. I look at Jake, he looks at me. We can’t even whisper because of the echo. Shit! He shakes his head, his eyes red and tired. I close my eyes.

  We hear the footsteps.

  He and I look at each other. We had a good run. Good times. See you on the other side. (Why the fuck did I agree to come here with him?)

  “Now, I’m confused,” Winnie says as she and Red appear in the doorway. I’m not even going to look at Red. “If you two are planning on moving in together, why the separate realtors?” She points behind her shoulder at Jasmine who’s slowly approaching. Winnie crosses her arms across her chest.

  “Winnie, this was a coincidence,” Jake whispers.

  “Mm…” Winnie says. “A coincidence…”

  “Malcolm,” Red says. I slowly look at her. She gives me ‘the look’. Have you lost what’s left of your mind? I give her the look back. I promise you I didn’t have shit to do with this. I just came because Jake looked like he needed a friend. Had I known this would happen, I would have left him out in this world on his own. She continues to stare at me.