Happy Hour

by Michele Scott

  “They were awfully flirty with each other,” Kat said.

  “I noticed,” Danielle replied.

  “Brian?” Kat called out.

  “Yeah?” He was a few feet away sitting with one his pals from school.

  “Did you see where your brother went?”

  “I dunno. I think he’s still swimming.”

  The fireworks started with a display of gold shooting up through the air. Oohs and aahs echoed from onlookers as spirals of color blasted out and danced in the night sky. For those fifteen minutes, all Kat could think about, (and probably Danielle, too), was what their two teens might be up to.

  The fireworks ended and people started their hike down the mountain.

  Danielle leaned into Kat. “You thinking what I’m thinking about our kids?”

  “Only that they could be getting it on with each other anywhere within a few-mile radius?”

  “Pretty much.”

  Brian trotted past them while his friend threw him a football. “Careful, Bri, you could trip and …,” Before Kat finished the sentence it was too late. Brian tripped, fell, and tumbled partially down the hill. Kat screamed out and tried running after him the best she could. Christian beat her to him.

  Christian knelt down next to Brian who was moaning. “Okay, son, hang on, hang on a minute here.”

  Brian cried out. “It hurts!”

  “What hurts? Tell me what hurts,” Christian said calmly.

  “My leg. My leg, it’s killing me.”

  One of their friends handed Christian a flashlight and he shined it on Brian’s leg. Kat gasped.

  Mark bent down and took the flashlight from Christian. “Let me take a quick look, and then we’re going to get you down the hill and go from there, deal?”

  Brian’s body shook. Kat’s mind spun. Mark shone the light in Brian’s eyes and then over his body. He turned to Christian. “You get on one side and I’ll get on the other and let’s get him down the hill.”

  Christian nodded.

  Mark handed the light to Danielle. People were crowding around them. Christian asked them nicely to move out of the way while Danielle flashed the light ahead of them.

  “It’s going to be okay, sweetie,” Kat assured him. In the dim light, she could see tears coming down his face.

  “It hurts, Mom.”

  “I know.” She tried to sound as calm as Mark and Christian. Danielle took her hand and they made it down the hill and back into the house.

  Once in the light, Brian started to shake. “He’s a little shocky. Get me a blanket,” Mark ordered. “Let’s get him to the hospital. It’ll be busy in the emergency room tonight, so I’ll call and get you in. I can follow you.”

  “Would you?” Kat asked.

  “Sure. Not a problem.”

  Danielle squeezed Kat’s arm. “I can get the other kids home and clean up. I’ll let your mom know what happened.”

  “Thanks. Don’t worry about cleaning up,” Kat said. Danielle waved a hand at her. “Just leave it. My car keys are on the hanging thing, the…God, I don’t know what you call it, by the door.” She’d almost forgotten about her mother. Oh, and Jeremy. Too much to think about. “Jeremy.”

  “I’ll find them and tell him, too. Go on with Brian and Christian. Don’t worry. Call me when you can.”

  Mark kissed Danielle and told her he’d be back to help her as soon as possible. They got Brian into the car. His shaking had lessened but he was still in quite a bit of pain.

  “Can you call Dad?” Brian asked.

  “I will honey. Let’s get you to the hospital first.”

  A couple of hours later, x-rays revealed that the break, although bad, wasn’t as bad as they had all initially thought. Brian had broken the leg in two places, but the good news was the breaks were clean and surgery wasn’t needed. Kat could finally sort of relax.

  Brian was now occupied watching the FX channel while the cast dried.

  His dad finally returned Kat’s call. “What do you mean the kid broke his leg?”

  “I don’t think I need to translate broken leg for you, do I?”

  “What the hell were you letting him do?” the Sperm Donor asked. “Weren’t you watching him?”

  “You’re kidding me, right? He’s a teenage boy and he was catching a football and tripped. I thought you might want to know. He’s not two anymore, and this could happen on your time, my time or some other parent’s time. Get off your high horse, Paris.”

  He sighed. “I’m in Palm Beach, Kit-Kat.”

  “Good. Stay there and don’t worry about it. I’m sure if you send him a video game, he’ll be happy and you can be the good guy as always. I have to go.” She hung up the phone and went back into Brian’s room.

  Christian asked Kat if she wanted to get coffee. She looked at Brian. “Go, Mom. I’m fine.”

  “You sure, honey?”

  “Yes, Mom. Did you talk to Dad?”

  So much for that needy creature up on the hill only a few hours earlier. “Yes. He’s out of town for a few days. He says he’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  They headed to the cafeteria. Mark had gone back to their house to get Danielle, and Kat’s mind was now free to wonder where her other son had been all evening. She dialed Danielle’s cell number and gave her the full report. “Any news on your end?”

  “I found them. They were in Jeremy’s room hanging out. They seemed to be just talking but I can’t say what, if anything, occurred before that. I did tell them that they needed to come out of the room. I plan to have a talk with her about why it isn’t okay to hang out in a guy’s bedroom. Even though I’m sure that will go in one ear and out the other.”

  “We’ll have the same talk with Jer.”

  They said their goodbyes and after Kat and Christian sat down in the cafeteria with their coffees, Kat said, “I can’t go with Alyssa tomorrow, not with Brian like that.”

  “It’s a broken leg, babe. He’ll be fine. I can take care of him.”

  “But what about when you’re at the restaurant?”

  “Your mom is there and you’ll only be gone for a couple of days. We can manage. Brian will be fine. He’s in good hands. I promise you that I’ll take care of him.”

  “Why the change of heart?”

  “What do you mean?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Since we’ve been married you’ve pretty much steered clear of developing real relationships with them. Sure, you’ve been around, but it’s not like you’ve reached out to them. But lately you’ve been bonding with both of the boys. It’s nice.”

  “I know. I can’t tell you why exactly. I’m sure if some shrink got a hold of me, I’d discover it’s some archaic issue in my psyche because the boys belong to another man.”

  Kat looked up at him from her coffee, astounded. “You’re not serious, are you?” She’d been right all along!

  He sighed. “I don’t know. I know they’re good kids, they’re your kids and I can’t complain, but I have not been able to connect. They don’t look like me, or act like me. They’re nothing like me.”

  “That’s nutty, Christian.”

  “Maybe, but I’ve realized that I have a choice in this. I can choose to have a relationship with the boys and to become their friend. In the process, I know it will make you happy and in turn we’ll all be happier. I know what family means to you, and watching you with my child and the way you’ve taken her in and the way you love her, I thought that maybe it’s about time I do the same thing with your kids.”

  “Our kids,” she said.

  “Our kids.” He smiled. “You’ll go tomorrow. Alyssa needs you.”

  As much as Kat didn’t want to leave an injured Brian behind, she did know that he would be in good hands. She’d worry, but she’d go. In some ways she felt relieved because it would be nice to have someone besides the Sperm Donor acting as a parent. “I’ll go.”

  “Good.”

  “On a different note, tho
ugh, since we’re sharing parental duties, I need you to have the sex talk with Jer.”

  He groaned. “Which talk would that be?” He laughed. “How not to have it?”

  “What does that mean?” she asked defensively.

  “Nothing.”

  “I thought maybe you were implying that we don’t ever have sex.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “You are.”

  “I wasn’t, but…”

  “Christian, we had sex two weeks ago.”

  “Two and a half. Seventeen days actually.

  “You’re counting? Since when did you start counting?”

  “I’m not some freak, okay. But we have only been married for a few years and every two to three weeks is not that much.”

  “Oh my God, you sound like my mother.”

  “I’m not trying to sound like your mother. I’m saying that I would like to make love more often and now with Amber in our bed, it’s complicated things a little more.”

  “We do have three kids in the house.”

  “We have a lock on the door. We used to have sex every day. Remember? Sometimes two or three times.”

  “Yes. But that was the lust period. The falling in love period. Now we’re in the real world.”

  “But couldn’t we bring a little of that back? A compromise, maybe.” He pinched his fingers together.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking a few times a week might make me happy.”

  “A few times a week! Where do we find time for that? You are such a guy. Are you not happy? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “No, goddamn it, Kat. Why are we arguing about this? I love you. I’m your husband, and I am a man, and I want to be with you. Is that a crime?”

  She didn’t say anything for a minute. “No. It’s not a crime. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I feel overwhelmed. I feel like I can never get it all done, and sex eats up time, time when I have things that need to be getting done.”

  “It’s time to do me. It’s time invested in our relationship, Kat. You know what we need? We need a vacation.”

  “What about the kids? What do we do with the kids?”

  “We have family and friends and they all do have other parents.”

  “I don’t want to send them with their other parents.”

  “I know, but I’m not talking about a week. Even a weekend away would do us some good. Think about it. Okay? Take the days you’re with Alyssa, try to relax some if you can, and think about a weekend away together.”

  “Okay.”

  “Good. And I’ll talk to Jeremy.”

  “Thank you.” They got up from the table and Christian took her hand while they walked back to Brian. Kat’s mind sputtered. She knew her husband was right, but it didn’t change the fact that Kat had lost her sex drive.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Alyssa

  Alyssa was grateful that Kat had joined her, but felt badly after Kat told her what happened to Brian. However, without her friend there, she thought she might chicken out and not go to see James. She also worried that he wouldn’t show up.

  Darren asked her, almost begged her, to let him go with her. But she said that it was something she needed to do on her own, and that Kat would be with her. Meeting James face to face would be a part of her healing.

  But what if he didn’t come? He would come because she had tricked him. She’d spent quite a bit of time over the last week researching James. Alyssa had learned that James was the owner of several jazz clubs in New Orleans and in other parts of the country. Since Katrina, he’d lost a great deal of money and was trying to sell off some of his clubs or find investors to help him open clubs in other areas.

  Kat made the initial call, telling him that she was the assistant to a possible investor who was only in town for a day and who would very much like to meet with him. James offered to have her come to his offices, of course, but neither Kat nor Alyssa thought that prudent. Kat insisted that Alyssa needed to meet him at a nearby coffee shop.

  Alyssa stood in front of the mirror and noticed how much she’d aged in the past month. Lines creased around her eyes and bags that weren’t there before stood out, making her look older than she cared to. She finished putting on her makeup and came out to see Kat leaning back on her bed, probably as tired as she was.

  Kat opened her eyes. “You ready?”

  She shrugged. “I suppose as ready as I’m ever going to be.”

  “I’ll be right there for you. You’ll be fine. Say what you need to and get out. It’ll be okay. I know it.”

  They walked out of the boutique hotel and headed west to the coffee house in the French quarter that they’d staked out earlier. They were intentionally a few minutes late, not wanting him to have a chance to see her first and leave.

  “Do you want me to go in with you?” Kat asked when they reached the shop.

  “No. Wait out here. I can do this.”

  Kat hugged her and Alyssa slipped through the front doors. The smells of greasy food and coffee hit her, and her stomach gurgled. The restaurant painted in light pinky peach with black accents tried to be twenties retro-chic looking. It failed. The colors and the smells swirled together and Alyssa swallowed hard, trying to keep the nausea at bay.

  She spotted him in a booth near the back, sipping coffee. Her heels clicked against the scuffed hard floor. James looked up and spotted her, recognition crossing his face, and then terror.

  She sat down across from him. “Hello, Jimmy,” she said, using the name he’d called himself back then. “Surprised to see me?”

  He stared at her. “Who…?”

  “You’re not going to ask who I am and play that game you played so well a few years ago, are you? You knew then who I was and you know now who I am.”

  “I have a business meeting.”

  “I’m the investor, although I’m also not the investor.”

  “What do you want?” He squirmed.

  “I’m Ian’s mother.”

  “I know.”

  “You do have a memory, then. I’m sure when Ian’s uncle mentioned my name to you, it rang a bell. And you’re Ian’s father.”

  He didn’t reply.

  “You’re not a bone marrow match for our son.”

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  “The best chance that Ian, our son, has at finding a match is from a sibling.”

  James stared at her and then started shaking his head. “No, no, no, no. You are not asking me to have my children tested.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  He nearly choked on a sip of water. “I can’t do that. I can’t. I can’t. I have a family and I don’t want my wife to know anything about this. Or Terrell. He can’t know that you and I dated and had a child together. I’m sorry, but they need to find another donor.”

  Alyssa leaned across the table, her hands no longer shaking. “Listen to me, you son of a bitch. We didn’t date. You took something away from me a long time ago and it’s doubtful that you ever looked back, ever thought about me.”

  He tried to interrupt.

  “No. It’s my turn. I have had to live with that night for the last nineteen years. Every day. I think about that night. The night that you raped me.”

  “Wait a minute now,” he retorted, his face turning red. “I didn’t…”

  “Don’t go there. You did rape me. The word no meant nothing to you.” She noticed a couple staring at them, and she tried to lower her voice, but rage took over every part of her—rage that she’d kept pent up for almost two decades. “How about my crying and begging you to stop? Remember any of that? I do. You’ve taken too much from me already but you won’t take my son away from me now. I have a relationship with a child that I have missed for years, thinking that if I looked at him it would only bring me more pain and memory of that night that you raped me. But I was wrong, and now it’s time for you to make amends so that, in some small way, you may be forgiven. I don’
t care what you tell your family about Ian. All I care about is keeping him alive. It’s a blood test. That’s all your kids need and if there is a match, we can go from there. Maybe you’ll get lucky and none of them will match Ian’s marrow and then you can walk away and forget about all of this. But, if you don’t do this, if you don’t test your kids, then I will tell your wife and I will tell Terrell why I left him right before our wedding day. I don’t care who it ruins.” She stood up. “You will do everything you can to save my son. Your children can be seen tomorrow afternoon by Dr. Preston here in town.” Alyssa had chosen the doctor so that James couldn’t find a loophole.

  A sadness and fear crept into his eyes. He slowly nodded. “Where is he located?”

  She gave him the doctor’s address. “The results will be back within forty-eight hours. Where can you be reached?”

  He handed her his card. “My cell phone.”

  She took the card and walked out. Kat came rushing over from across the street. She’d been waiting as promised and immediately hugged Alyssa. They started walking silently and Alyssa finally spoke. “He’ll do it. He’ll have his children tested.”

  Kat hugged her again. “You did the right thing.”

  “I did the only thing.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Danielle

  Danielle didn’t like this one bit. She’d shown up at the Starbucks out of curiosity because she thought Al might be trying to send Cassie back home.

  He’d called her up and insisted they meet in person. What could be so damn important that they couldn’t have discussed it over the phone? She shut her eyes, hoping Cassie hadn’t done something stupid.

  “You okay, Danielle?” It was Al.

  She opened her eyes and nodded, looking up at the man she’d been married to for twenty-one years and feeling almost as if she were seeing a stranger. It wasn’t that he’d changed all that much. Yes, he’d put on about fifteen pounds, his hair was grayer, and the lines on his forehead were more prominent. “I’m fine. Want to sit down. What has Cassie done?” she blurted.

  He shook his head. “Nothing. This isn’t about her.”

  “Oh. Good. Thank God,” she sighed. “What is this about then?”