Becoming Us

by Allie Everhart

The woman goes up to Jade. She’s about 45 with shoulder-length, straight brown hair and brown eyes. She isn’t wearing much makeup and she looks like she works out a lot. She has on a blue sleeveless dress and her arms are really toned. She seems like someone Jade would like—casual, friendly, athletic.

  “Hi, I’m Jennifer. Nice to meet you. Come on back.”

  “Um, he’s coming, too.” Jade points to me. “Is that okay?”

  “That’s up to you. If you’re comfortable with him joining us, then yes.”

  “I want him there. This is my husband, Garret.”

  “Hi.” I shake her hand.

  “Hi.” She seems a little shocked, as everyone does when we tell them we’re married. “Follow me.”

  The room we go in looks like a living room, with a big couch and two overstuffed chairs and bookcases along the back wall.

  “Have a seat.” Jennifer motions us to the couch. Jade and I sit down and Jennifer sits across from us on one of the chairs. “So tell me about yourself, Jade.”

  “Um, what do you want to know?” Jade’s doing the foot-tapping thing she does when she’s nervous. And she’s got a vise grip on my hand.

  “What do you like to do for fun?”

  Bad question. Jade struggles with that one.

  “I don’t know. Go to movies?”

  “I like movies, too.” Jennifer smiles. “So tell me how you met Garret.”

  Wow. She’s good. She instantly knew to get off the what-do-you-do-for-fun question and move on to something else. And she picked a good topic. Jade likes talking about how we met.

  As Jade tells her about it, I feel her hand relax. And then her foot stops tapping. She talks for a good 30 minutes.

  When she’s done, Jennifer says, “You mentioned you’re from Iowa. Tell me about it. I’ve never been there.”

  Another good topic. Jade can easily talk about Iowa and her hometown of Des Moines. She talks until 5:30 and we were supposed to be done at 5:15.

  Jennifer waits for Jade to finish, then says, “Well, you two probably want to get home.” Another interesting technique. Instead of acting like we’re the ones taking up her time, she acts like she’s the one taking up ours. These psychologists have really upped their game since I went to one. Not that my guy wasn’t good, but he wasn’t this good.

  “Would you like to come back on Thursday?” Jennifer asks Jade. “I have an opening at the same time, 4:15.”

  Jade hesitates. She looks at me, then back at Jennifer. “Okay, that works.”

  “Great, I’ll see you then.”

  As soon as we’re out of the building, Jade takes a deep breath. “I did it.”

  I hug her. “It wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  “No. She was nice. And she didn’t ask me any stupid questions, except that first one about what I do for fun. Why do people always ask that? It’s annoying. That question should be banned from ever being asked again.”

  She says it jokingly, which tells me the session went well and that she liked Jennifer. I think Jennifer will be good for Jade. She seems to have some tricks to use to get Jade to talk about stuff. And she’s going to need them. Getting Jade to talk about her past is next to impossible, especially with someone she doesn’t know very well.

  When we get in the car, I turn to Jade and say, “So tell me, Jade, what do you like to do for fun?”

  She laughs and shoves my shoulder. “I like to kill people who ask that!”

  “You can’t kill me because I’m taking you out for dinner. Where do you want to go?”

  “The Mexican place downtown.”

  “Sounds good.” I drive onto the street, heading toward the downtown.

  “Can we get nachos?”

  I reach over and hold her hand. “Why do you even ask that, Jade? Do I ever deny you nachos?”

  “You haven’t yet, but someday you might. You’re always trying to get me to eat better.”

  “After repeatedly witnessing the immense joy that nachos bring to you, I promise you that I will never deny you nachos.”

  “They don’t bring me immense joy. I just like them.” She pauses, then says, “Okay, they bring me immense joy, but don’t tell anyone that. It sounds weird.”

  “Lilly loves nachos almost as much as you do.”

  “Katherine lets her eat nachos?”

  “Hell, no. She’d never allow it. But Katherine’s been gone a lot with her boyfriend so my dad’s been taking Lilly out for dinner. He took her to that Mexican restaurant by the house. You know the one we went to?”

  “I thought you said he’d never eat there because it’s not fancy enough.”

  “I said Katherine would never eat there, not my dad. Lilly loves the Mexican place. They’ve been there twice now. She’s had the nachos both times.”

  “Is that mariachi singer still there?”

  I laugh. “Yes, so when we’re back for Christmas, I’m definitely taking you there for dinner. Maybe we’ll take Lilly with us.”

  “Garret, do you think your grandparents will be at your house for Christmas?”

  “They have to be. For Lilly’s sake.”

  But if it weren’t for Lilly, I know my grandparents wouldn’t show up. They don’t want to see me, especially my grandfather, who hates me right now.

  I’m dreading Christmas. I know it’s going to be bad. Katherine will be a bitch, as usual, and my grandparents won’t speak to me. It’ll pretty much suck.

  “I’m sorry, Garret. About your grandparents.”

  “It’s okay. They’ll come around eventually.”

  After dinner, we go home and Jade goes out on the deck to do some studying. I stay inside and watch sports highlights from last weekend. It’s football season and I love football and yet I’ve hardly watched any games.

  My phone rings. I see it’s Sean so I answer. “Hey, man, what’s up?”

  “If you’d call me once in a while, you’d know.” He’s kidding but he’s right. I do need to call him more.

  “Sorry. I’m a shitty friend. I’ll buy you a case of beer next time I’m out there.”

  “You’re underage, buddy.” He laughs. “You’re an old married guy but you can’t even buy me a beer.”

  “Yeah, that’s right. I always forget about that. I feel a lot older than 20. I’ll give you some money and you can buy your own beer.”

  “When are you guys coming out here?”

  “Not until Christmas, so you’ll be waiting a while for that beer.”

  “I might need something stronger than beer.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m going to propose to Harper at Christmas. And I’m already fucking nervous as hell.”

  “You don’t think she’ll say yes?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I’m nervous. One day she acts like she’d marry me in a heartbeat and the next day I’m not so sure. But by Christmas we’ll have dated for over a year and we lived together all summer, so if she doesn’t know by now that I’m the one, then she never will. And if she says no, then I figure it’s better to find that out now than in a year or two. But I really hope she doesn’t say no. I can’t imagine being with anyone but her.”

  Shit. This really sucks. If Kiefer was offered membership, Sean will never be with Harper, even if she accepted his proposal.

  “Did you already buy a ring?” I ask him.

  “Yeah. I bought it last week. I spent more than I should have but I wanted to get her a really nice ring. I had to charge it, which means I’ll be paying that thing off for the next 10 years at 18 percent interest.”

  “Sean, just pay it off. I’ll loan you the money. You can pay me back when you can. It’ll save you from paying all that interest.”

  “I don’t like owing people money.”

  “The offer’s out there. Just think about it.”

  That’s just great. So now the poor guy’s in debt from buying a ring Harper may not even want. Or may not be able to accept because she’ll be forced to marry someone else. This is such a
mess, but I don’t know anything for sure, so for now I’m going to pretend everything’s fine.

  I hear Sean talking again. “I know you’re going to tell Jade about this, but she won’t tell Harper, will she?”

  “No, she’ll keep it a secret.”

  “So what’s going on with you? You see the Patriots play last weekend?”

  Sean and I talk sports for the next half hour. It reminds me that I need to find some more guy friends. Last week I started going to swim practice so I’m getting to know the guys there, but we don’t talk much during practice. I’m friends with that Nate guy I met at the gym but we don’t do stuff together. I just talk to him at class. And I talk to Dylan when I see him on campus. Kyle, a guy I met my first week here, keeps asking me to hang out but I always turn him down. I have nothing in common with him. He’s quarterback of the football team and spends the majority of his time drinking and partying. That’s not my scene anymore.

  It’s hard to find a good friend like Sean. Someone who’s easy to talk to and would help you out if you needed it. Unfortunately, right now I don’t feel like I’m being a very good friend to Sean. Not because I haven’t called him, but because I think he’s going to get his heart broken and I can’t tell him.

  13

  JADE

  I’m out on the deck, studying, when Frank calls.

  “Hi, Dad.” I call him that sometimes. I call him Frank, too, but he likes it better when I call him dad.

  “Hi, honey.” He’s smiling. I can hear it in his voice. “How are classes going?”

  “Good. How’s your house going?”

  “It’s almost done. Did you get the photos I sent?”

  “Yeah, the house looks great. You did a really good job picking stuff out. I didn’t know you had all those design skills.”

  “It wasn’t just me. I had some help.”

  “From who? Ryan? Because I can’t picture him picking out that tile and those paint colors.”

  “No, um, I had some help from a friend of mine. Karen.”

  Karen is his girlfriend that he’s never told me about. Ryan tells me about her, but I’m supposed to pretend I don’t know about her.

  “Who’s Karen?”

  Frank clears his throat. “She’s a woman I’ve been seeing.” He hesitates, then says, “Romantically.”

  I almost laugh when he says ‘romantically’ but instead I try to act surprised and serious.

  “I didn’t know you were seeing someone.”

  “Jade, I know Ryan told you about her.”

  “He hasn’t told me much. Just that she’s a nurse and a widow and that you met her at the hospital.”

  “I met her last summer, but we didn’t start dating until a couple months ago.”

  Hearing Frank say he’s dating is just weird. It shouldn’t be, but it is.

  “And it’s going well?”

  “Very well. In fact, I’ve invited her for Thanksgiving. I hope that’s okay.”

  “Of course it’s okay. Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “You’ve never met her. It might make you uncomfortable to have her there.”

  “I think it’s good you invited her. I’d like to meet her. And I like the idea of a big Thanksgiving with lots of people. I’ve always wanted that. And now with Chloe, Garret, and Karen, we’ll have six people. That’s a crowd compared to our usual Thanksgiving.”

  “Yes, our family’s grown a lot the past year.”

  Family? Is he considering Karen to be family? Are they that serious? Maybe he just meant Chloe and Garret.

  “Where does Karen work in the hospital? Or does she work in the clinic you go to?”

  “She works at the hospital in obstetrics. She loves working with all the new moms and taking care of the infants. She never had children but she enjoys working with them. Karen’s a very nice lady. I think you’ll like her.”

  “I think I will, too.”

  “Oh, she wanted me to ask you if you’d like to take part in a Thanksgiving Day run. It’s at a park in West Des Moines. She’s running the 5K and asked if you’d like to run with her. I told her how you like to run. But Jade, don’t feel like you have to.”

  “I’d love to. Tell her I’ll do it.”

  “Thank you for agreeing to it. She’ll be thrilled. She didn’t want to do it alone.”

  “Do you have any other plans for while I’m there? Because I told my algebra teacher I’d speak at that event he invited me to. It’s Saturday afternoon.”

  “Good. I’m glad you’re doing that. And no, I didn’t have any other plans. I thought we’d all just stay at home, play cards, watch movies, eat turkey.”

  What he’s describing is exactly what I want. To be back with family and just be together at home.

  “That sounds perfect. I’m really looking forward to Thanksgiving.”

  “I am too, honey. We missed having you last year.”

  We talk a little more, then we hang up and I go inside. Garret’s watching a sports show on TV.

  I snuggle up beside him on the couch. “I can’t wait for Thanksgiving.”

  “You craving turkey?”

  “No, it’s not about the food, although I am looking forward to that. Ryan says Chloe’s a really good cook. But besides the food, I’m going to run in this race with Frank’s girlfriend and then we’re going to spend the weekend hanging out at the new house, watching movies and playing cards and stuff.”

  Garret’s laughing at me because I was talking really fast. “Slow down a minute. Now what was that about Frank’s girlfriend?”

  “Frank just called. He finally told me about his girlfriend. You should’ve heard him. I think he might be in love. He invited her over for Thanksgiving, so I’m thinking that’s pretty serious. And she’s running in a Thanksgiving Day race and I’m going to run with her. Do you want to run, too?”

  “No, but I’ll stand on the sidelines and cheer you on.”

  “This Thanksgiving is going to be so great.”

  He gives me a kiss. “You’re finally getting into the holidays. I must be wearing off on you.”

  I spot his phone on the couch. “Were you just on the phone?”

  “Yeah. Sean called.”

  I set his phone on the table and sit so I’m facing him. “What did he say?”

  “Promise you won’t tell Harper?”

  “He’s proposing, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah.”

  “When is he doing it?”

  “Christmas.”

  I sigh. “And she’s going to say no. Did he already buy a ring?”

  “Yes, and he’ll be paying it off for years, with 18 percent interest.”

  “This is so bad. See? I knew we should’ve said something to him. First he loses that job opportunity and now he’ll lose Harper. He’ll have nothing left.”

  “Maybe she’ll say yes.”

  “She won’t. She’s already upset that her parents are giving her the silent treatment. Marrying Sean will make her relationship with her parents even worse. She won’t let that happen. She’ll want to fix it before she’ll even consider marrying Sean.”

  “If we’re right about Kiefer joining the organization, there’s nothing Harper can do or say that will change her parents’ minds. They’ll still say they don’t want her being with Sean.”

  “Maybe we’re wrong about Kiefer. If he was invited to be a member last summer, then why is he taking so long to break up Harper and Sean? I mean, he just recently told her to break up with him but it’s not like he gave her an ultimatum or anything.”

  “I know. I was thinking the same thing, which makes me wonder if this has nothing to do with the organization. Maybe her parents just decided they don’t want her with someone like Sean. Maybe it’s like she said and they want her with someone who’s rich and has a college degree.”

  I wish that were true, because if it was, Harper and Sean could be together. Eventually her parents would come to accept him. But if Garret is right and Kiefer joins the organi
zation, that’s never going to happen.

  On Thursday afternoon, I go back to see Jennifer. I only had that one session but I think I like her. She seems smart and I like that she’s not one of those women who wears a ton of makeup and reeks of perfume. The counselor I saw after my mom died was one of those women. Her perfume was so strong it gave me a headache and she always wore purple eyeshadow and way too much blush. Jennifer has more of a natural, outdoorsy look and she seems athletic.

  Garret came with me again, but next time I think I’ll tell him to stay home. Now that I’m more relaxed, he doesn’t need to sit in on all these sessions.

  Today Jennifer asks about Frank and Ryan and I talk about them for the entire hour. It’s good she’s not forcing me to talk about my mom right away. If she did, I wouldn’t come back.

  Before we leave, I make an appointment for the same time next week. Afterward, Garret takes me out for dinner, just like he did the other day. He thinks he has to reward me for going to counseling, but really, I should be thanking him for making me go. I couldn’t do it on my own.

  Friday night we go to the park for the outdoor movie. Garret brought a sleeping bag to put on the ground and I packed a cooler with drinks.

  Sara and Alex are already there when we arrive. They’re sitting on a blanket with Caleb between them. They’re talking and smiling, so that’s a good sign.

  “Let’s set everything up over here,” I tell Garret. We’re standing off to the side, far away from Sara and Alex.

  “Don’t you want to say hi first?”

  “We can’t. If we do, we risk Alex telling us to sit by them and that will ruin the whole plan.”

  Garret’s shaking his head. “You mean your matchmaking plan?”

  “Yes.” I toss the sleeping bag at him. “So get with the program.”

  “You haven’t even met this guy. He could be a total jerk.” Garret spreads the sleeping bag out and puts the cooler on top of it.

  “That’s why I need you to ask him some questions. We need to get to know him, figure out if he’s good enough for Sara.”

  “Jade, I’m not getting involved in your little scheme.”

  “Come on. You’re a guy. Take him aside and talk to him man to man.”