by P. S. Power
“Um... no... I mean it really was just the one time. I didn't know that the jerk was married and happened to mention knowing him to my dad after the party the other day. I would have never slept with him otherwise. I guess I should have looked it up online, it's not a secret. But, you know, I just thought that a married person might mention that fact first.” She let her head hang for a bit then shook herself, like a person trying to wake up. “Silly me.”
Josh gave a stern look for a few seconds then nodded. “Alright, we can work with that. So, the problem or thing you wanted to discuss?”
“Oh, that, um, Warren wants to know when you think it would be alright for him to come and deal with my father. He's very anxious about it. I guess a lot of big money supporters follow dad and if he cuts off Warren then it will really hurt his campaign. Plus he really thinks dad would make a good Governor, the last few days notwithstanding. Even then, dad's managing the situation better than most would. I can't believe Laura did that. Or rather I can, but...” She shook her head and looked down again.
“How old are you really?”
“Sixteen.”
“Crud. At sixteen I was barely getting babysitting jobs. You look like a jock too. I guess I can see that, it gives you enough physical presence to own a room. So are you a genius or something?”
“Yes. Don't tell anyone though, it makes people uneasy. I normally try to hide it.” He smiled. It was true enough. Even the genius part. He thought for a second and shook his head.
“It's going to be at least a few weeks before Warren should even let Bill know that he's been helping him out directly. First we have to make sure it actually all works. Everything is hanging on a thread, as you probably realize already.” He looked at the woman, who didn't seem to have a bag with her at all. He knew from the second time that they talked that she actually lived near Tacoma, about an hour's drive away. More with the current conditions. It had probably been a breathtaking trip for her to come down given everything.
“Did you plan to stay for the holiday? That would be good if possible. As long as you can try to view Laura's actions as signs of an illness and remember that no one is allowed to drink here. Not for the time being. If you can't do that then it would be better to leave. But if you can... Well, it's important for them to see that you stand with them. People need to know that.”
Samantha took a step toward him, which was an odd move really, since they were close already. Her right hand found his shoulder and held it, not a death grip but tightly enough he got the sense of a drowning person again. She nodded though.
“It will be hard, with Laura. I can take or leave alcohol. I don't know if anyone else here can, but if you even got them to cut back that's huge. I'll do my bit. What's the plan?”
He needed to have a plan for their holiday? What would work? He scrambled, trying to look confident, like he had a real plan and wasn't just playing make believe with peoples lives' in a desperate scramble.
“Comforting rituals. What do they normally do? Let's see it's Christmas eve... midnight mass? I'll be by the phone, but should probably get out of their lives before people start screaming at me to leave. Unless people want me to stay. I don't think they need me though. Not now. I'll be around.” Mainly to try and see Amy. If possible.
“OK, I guess I can see that. I'm putting you on speed dial though. Can you get here faster now that the roads have been mainly plowed? I don't want you three hours away I guess. I mean, what if I start flipping out on Laura?”
“Remember, it may actually, honestly, be a psychological condition causing her to cheat all the time. In fact it almost certainly is. So treat it like an illness. As for any other issues you have... Well, try to keep it under wraps and if you're absolutely going to blow up, call me first. Only, you know, sleep at night if you can, so I can get something approaching six hours.” Josh laughed and shook his head. He really wanted to go workout, but didn't have a gym for weightlifting with the school closed, and running was out, cleared roads or not. His ankle still ached.
They shook hands again and went back to the main room, where everyone was getting along a lot better now that the scared and angry crowd of lawyers was gone. The only problem with the situation currently was that Amy was all the way across the room. She smiled at him when he looked at her and instead of going back to the far more boring adults Josh walked over and sat between her and Meridith, who looked at him with a charming expression.
“Hey, you're actually talking to us too? Thought we'd lost you to the old-fogey crowd over there.” Meridith spoke with a voice that was probably meant to be humorous but came out a bit disgruntled. Like she really felt lost without him around. Josh had to resist blinking, but it did make him feel pretty pleased. Almost appreciated or something.
“Never for long. All yours for now. I'm surprised they managed to get the roads clear this fast.”
Amy grabbed his hand and nestled in closer to him, her body moving down on the sofa like she was hiding suddenly.
“Don't go... Please? I don't want everything to fall apart again.” It was a little voice, meek, one that got a strange look from Meridith, who crossed her arms.
“Amy's little miss helpless act aside, she's got a point. The last day has pretty much been held together thanks to you. Pull that block out and it may all crash to the ground.”
Josh leaned into Amy a little, which was nice. Very nice.
“Well, first of all, you two can call at any time if they start to act up, so keep that in mind. Second, without drinking I doubt much will happen, it will just fester under the surface, building up for later. That's why we really have to follow through on everything. Finally, you two have a church thing tonight and then your normal family thing tomorrow. I'll be by. Mainly because holidays are a very stressful time most years. This one more so than most. That and I want an excuse to see Amy.” He stared at her for a second again, what had happened the night before came to mind. He'd love to do that again too. Just holding her hand was a treat. That... He hugged her, which got a laugh from Meridith.
“Ah, OK. I can understand that. Envy your name is... me.” She smiled at them, a pleased thing for all her faked up offers to “steal” him away from her sister. That it was an act to get Amy not to mess up was becoming pretty clear to him. Josh wasn't going to stop her though. It was about the best hope he had.
Really, he couldn't kiss Amy goodbye, not properly, since both of her parents and his mom were watching. Oh, he'd totally make out with her in front of Joanie, who would probably grab a camera and take pictures if they did, but that was an issue for later, after the real scarring from everything had set in. Instead he hugged her, a lot, which got Samantha to go wide eyed and come over, hands on hips.
“And what,” she waved a hand at both of them. “Is this?”
Amy smiled at her step-sister and twined her fingers through Josh's.
“Mine. All mine.”
“Oh, so you're dating the specialist? Do you have any idea how much he charges?”
“Nope, I'm hanging on to my good friend, who hasn't insisted we date at all, for dear life. That he's been here for us all is... more than we deserve I think.”
Meridith sighed.
“That's the truth. It was damned close Sam. I was standing there ready to just chuck it all and leave, mom would have been out of here the next morning and Bill was closing down the business and trying to ruin everything on purpose. At the rate we were going I was shocked to find we didn't have to move yesterday morning. That or wake up to someone shooting everyone.”
Amy looked around, saw that everyone else was busy talking and kissed him quickly. That got Sam to smile at least. After a second she quirked her mouth a bit and seemed to consider what she wanted to say.
“Well, I have you on speed dial, like I said. I'll hold down the fort tonight, but we reserve the right to call you in at any time.”
Amy nodded, answering for him.
“Totally fair. He'll be ready. He always is.
” She looked at him proudly.
It made him blush.
Everyone laughed then, at least in their little clutch of people. The others looked over and Josh knew it was time to go. Not too late yet, but no one really knew what the day would bring weather wise. Plus, he really had to go shopping. Otherwise Joanie was getting a wrapped up jar of peanut butter.
Honestly, he didn't have any better ideas at all yet. It would be something she could use at least. He'd seen her eat it too. Something to keep in mind if he ran out of ideas. Maybe he could wrap it in socks? It took a while for everyone to say goodbye, longer than normal. Josh got it eventually.
He was their rope, or they thought he was. What they were clinging to. If he was gone no one was really sure they could handle it. That was silly though, they'd made it without him all their lives. He hadn't even done that much, just acted entitled and bossy, as if he knew what he was talking about while spouting nonsense and pop psychology. That it had worked at all was due to them all wanting it to. In the end they all really loved each other, so it could work. Maybe.
He looked at Bill and Laura who managed to stand side by side, though not touching at all yet. It was a start. If they kept going. If they could get enough distance from the pain.
“Oh, I'll be by tomorrow if that's alright? Just to stop in, when would be good?”
“How about now?” Laura said, looking a bit desperately at her husband who made a face at her. It was cute, or would have been if they weren't in so much trouble at the moment.
“Or how about three in the afternoon?” Josh made as a counter offer. They pushed him back to one, which he accepted easily enough. No buses would be running, so he'd have to leave early, but he thought his ankle could take it.
He nodded and waved to everyone as Mercy and Joanie pushed him out the door.
Chapter thirteen
The rest of the day Josh ran.
Not literally, it was too slippery out for that, but from store to store, and in a last minute dash, back to the grocery store, having a sinking feeling that if he hadn't remembered to do all the Christmas meal shopping, Laura Banister might have forgotten herself. Josh had to search to find a lonely pay phone, but called to check on that, just in case. He hadn't noticed a turkey sitting in the fridge when he'd raided it for breakfast supplies the day before.
Normally they had that catered, he'd been told, but she hadn't even gotten that scheduled, being more than a bit distracted this year. It wasn't just the fight, a lot of things had been building up in her life it seemed. The drinking surely didn't help. It would change the timing on everything for the next day, but at least Mercy let him have her car already, since even she didn't have to work on Christmas. It was hectic and nerve wracking, since he had no clue what to do with half the stuff he'd gotten at all.
Luckily the Internet hadn't gone out in the storm. It took a bit of time, but he found instructions for all of it.
He spent the evening alternating between cooking, baking and setting up Joanie's present, which he had no clue if she'd actually like. Probably not, it was a stupid idea, going symbolic with the gift, but he just ran out of time.
He didn't even have anything for Amy at all.
That kind of filled him with dread.
They weren't dating, true, but she'd been through a lot in a very short time, and on some level he still felt like he needed to buy her affection. Why else would she be willing to spend any time with him at all? Not that it would last. Josh tried to keep that part in mind too. Everybody left eventually. It might be a while, possibly, but Amy had already had three significant others so far that year. Maybe more than that. Josh hadn't asked. Even if they set the average generously that meant she'd had one person for each three months out of the last nine.
Really it was a lot less than that, closer to one every month and a half. They were all special people too. Really good looking like Anthony, on the football team in Rick's case or her best friend. Sarah. How could someone like him compete with that?
So, he needed to be ready for it.
For the axe to fall.
In the meantime Josh actually needed to make sure things didn't get too stressful for any of her family. If he wanted to protect her, then that had to hold together. It wasn't comfortable, realizing that everything hinged on a bunch of people. People left and made major mistakes and kept doing what they wanted, rather than what was best for him. They slept with the wrong other people and abandoned their responsibilities. In short, no matter how much you liked them, you could never really trust them to do the right thing.
Still, he'd do what could be done for her until she told him to go away. Even then, he decided. After all, his love wasn't contingent of being loved back. No, that wasn't something he expected to have returned at all. It was just... something he couldn't help.
Josh had learned a long time before that he could only control what he did and try to do as well as possible at it. The rest was at the whim of others.
Mercy and Joanie kept coming and giving him hugs while he worked in the kitchen, as if they didn't get the idea, but didn't want to dissuade him from his new culinary hobby. The rest of the time they watched TV. It was cozy and nice. He stayed up until midnight, working on one thing or another, and fell into bed, only to have the phone ring at two in the morning. He'd taken the handset in with him, just in case anyone needed to get in touch.
“Hello, Josh Harding, how may I help you?” He didn't answer it properly, but having come out of a deep sleep, it was hard to remember his manners. His voice wasn't rough at least.
“Um... Warren Jeffreys told me to call you? I don't know what else to do...” The voice was young and female, a little scared sounding. Totally unfamiliar too. Josh just hoped it wasn't anything too important, not a pregnant girl or something. If so he was going to be a little ticked, after all she'd still be pregnant in the morning, right? He had no idea how to arrange for abortions or secret adoptions. Maybe he could find out online though? If it was that he was charging Warren double for it.
It wasn't, thank god, not even anything close, she was just the daughter of one of his contributors that had taken a bus back from college as a surprise, but snow had altered her arrival time, leaving her stranded since the next day, that day now, was Christmas. She was three towns over and just needed a ride. No one was home for some reason or out of reach. Possibly at a party still.
Heh.
He yawned silently and looked at the clock. Was he the kind of guy that left college girls sitting in a strange town in the middle of the night?
Of course not.
Not even ones he didn't know.
Josh stood and told her he'd be there in an hour and to look for the sixteen year old blond kid that looked sleepy, confused and a bit lost. It got a chuckle from the handset, but was probably an accurate description of what she'd be seeing shortly. Of course everything took longer than it should have, because a fresh layer of snow had fallen, but the roads weren't that bad, as long as they drove slowly. The girl was glad to see him at least, actually clapping when he found her at the outdoor bus stop, a half enclosed bench. They traveled in near silence, no one wanting his attention to waiver for some reason. Probably that looming specter of death.
“Thank you so much!” She said when he let her off at nearly six in the morning in front of her parent's home in Portland, Oregon. This came with a small hug, and then a laugh as he waved her out of the car.
“Go, go, I have to get at least a little sleep. Call if you need anything.” He didn't have a card, of course, but she had his number in her phone she reminded him. That would work, he assured her before he drove away slowly.
The only thing he knew was that Warren had better at least kick in for gas. Given everything he'd managed to burn through all the money his mom had given him in the past few days. Still, it was keeping everything together and Barb, the college girl, seemed to think that his coming to help her was some kind of Christmas miracle.
It was.
<
br /> A miracle he hadn't crashed or run off the road. She was cute at least. Not as good looking as Amy, but then, he was biased. She did have really pretty blue eyes though and had smiled at him like he wasn't just a little kid, which was kind of nice. He didn't feel all that young anymore.
It started to snow again as he drove back to Vancouver, crossing the I-5 Bridge as it got light out. A hazy silver blue color that glared across his window. He'd have been lost if the car didn't have GPS. Thank god for that. His mom's car was nice, even having seats that warmed themselves. His butt was toasty as he pulled into the apartment complex parking lot at nearly eight. No one else was up, not even the neighbors that lived below them, who were always up. That was a drug thing he thought. They were nice enough otherwise.
If possible Josh wanted to go to bed for just a little bit, but... that wouldn't work. If he tried now he'd sleep through the day and people were counting on him. Instead he made a fresh pot of coffee and warmed up the cinnamon rolls that he'd gotten from the Kroger's bakery the day before. OK, it wasn't the same as making them, but he didn't know how to do that and this did scent the house nicely. No presents were out yet, so he put out the ones for Joanie and his mom and set the table up with some candles and the nice plates.
Then he drank cup after cup of coffee.
By the time the others woke up he was making a second pot, felt sick and had a decent buzz going on. He felt warm and a little jittery. Actually very shaky to tell the truth. It felt like his muscles were all vibrating even though he wasn't moving at all. Whee.
