The Christmas Promise

by Sean D. Young

  Jennifer shook her head as she climbed onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar. She didn’t want to drink and then have to pick up her babies before driving home. “No, the kids are at momma’s.”

  “Okay, I have some sparkling cider. I can pour that in your glass while I have some wine.”

  Jennifer giggled, which helped relieve the pressure she was feeling in her chest, but only for a minute.

  Renee opened the bottle and poured a half glass for Jennifer, then the bottle of pinot grigio for herself. She set the glass in front of Jennifer.

  Walking around the counter, Renee wrapped her arms around her sister. “What’s going on with you, Jenn?” She then sat down on the stool beside Jennifer and picked up her wine glass.

  Jennifer shifted her body around toward her sister and released a loud sigh. “Simeon came into the shop today.”

  Renee’s eyebrows lifted. “What? What happened? Tell me everything,” she asked in rapid succession.

  “This wasn’t the first time I’ve seen him lately. I ran into him at Macy’s on Black Friday.”

  “Is that why you didn’t come to Faith’s grand opening?”

  Jennifer nodded. “Yes, because I was so upset after seeing him like that, I didn’t want to spoil things for Faith.”

  “Okay, so what’s going on between the two of you now?” Renee wanted to know.

  “He wants me to go out with him and to call me sometime.”

  Renee’s eyes widened. “Well, isn’t that good news? I thought you told me that you liked this guy.”

  Jennifer got up from the stool. “I guess it would have been good news if he hadn’t acted like I didn’t matter for the last three years.” She walked over to the window and looked out. “Seeing him today messed me up, Renee,” she said, turning around to her sister.

  Renee got up, walking toward her. “In what way? Did it bring up past feelings?”

  “Yes, so many conflicting feelings that I didn’t really know what to do with.”

  “Did you talk to him about the children? Is that why you had mixed feelings?”

  “No, we didn’t. He’s acting like he doesn’t know that Mariah’s his daughter.”

  Renee frowned in confusion. “I don’t think I’m following you, Jenn.”

  Jennifer took Renee by the hand and they sat down on the sofa together. She needed her sister to understand so that she could make the best decision for her and the children.

  “Remember, I contacted him once I found out that I was pregnant and he never responded?”

  Renee nodded. “Yeah, so.”

  “When he walked into the salon today, he acted like he did nothing wrong. Even told me that he’s thought about me a lot over the years.”

  “Jenn, there’s got to be an explanation for his behavior and you probably won’t find that out unless you go out with him and give him a chance to explain himself,” Renee said, raising her brows. “You know what I’m saying.”

  Jennifer stood. “To make matters worse, he kissed me.”

  She heard her sister catch her breath. “Did you kiss him back?”

  “Renee, I was so mad at myself. It was like my mind wanted to be angry at him, but my body was welcoming him.”

  “You kissed him back,” Renee said, throwing her hands over her mouth. Dropping them into her lap, she nodded her head. “Okay, now I see. So what you’re saying is that you want to go out with him, but you don’t.” Renee paused, looking up at her sister. “Is that what I’m hearing, Jenn?”

  Jennifer plopped back down on the couch. “Every time I think about his disappearing act, I get so angry, I can feel my blood pressure rising. But, then just like today, when I’m near him, I just want to fall into his arms.” She folded her arms underneath her chest. “This is crazy ridiculous after everything he put me through.”

  Renee turned toward Jennifer. “You’re not going to like what I’m about to say, but I have to tell you,” she said, then paused.

  Jennifer knew very well that Renee was going to give her opinion no matter how Jennifer felt about it. “Would you just tell me, please?”

  “Jenn, you can’t change the past, so now, you’ve got to find a way to push your personal feelings aside for your children’s sake. They’ve got to get to know their father, so focus on the future.”

  “You sound like Faith.”

  “Faith?”

  “Yeah, she called me on Monday and we talked about Simeon. I got angry with her, but I’ve apologized since then.”

  “I’m sure Faith wasn’t judging you for feeling the way you did, but she was probably trying to help, just like I am now.”

  “Yes, I know that. My kids are the most important people in my life. In my heart, I know I have to stop being so angry, but it’s more than that.”

  Renee smiled. “You want to be mad and infatuated at the same time. You have every right to be angry with him; he’s been gone for a long time. But then there’s nothing wrong with you wanting to be with the father of your children.”

  “I don’t know how to read him. How do I know what he wants? He just showed up out of the blue. He has to want something.”

  Renee stood up and Jennifer stood with her. Turning to each other, Renee placed her hands on Jennifer’s shoulders and stepped closer to her. “Of course he wants something and it’s probably you. You’ll never know for sure why this man stepped back into your life if you don’t talk to him.”

  Tears sparkled in Jennifer’s eyes. She nodded before pulling her sister toward her, resting her head against her shoulder.

  Renee rubbed Jennifer’s back in a circular motion. “It’s going to be all right, sissy. You’ll see.”

  “Thank you, Renee,” Jennifer said.

  Renee stepped out of her grasp. “I’m always gonna be here for you. You can do this and if it’s meant to be, it will be.”

  Jennifer loved her sisters because they were always there for her. She realized that she and she alone would have to handle Simeon, but it felt good knowing that she could depend on them for support.

  “I’d better get back so that I can pick up the twins,” Jennifer said, walking over to get her coat.

  “Kiss my babies for me, please,” Renee said, looking over at the uneaten food. “I’ve got to re-heat my pizza.”

  Jennifer slipped on her coat before giving her sister one final hug. “I’ll call you later on.”

  “Please let me know what happens.”

  Jennifer smiled, standing at the door. “I will.”

  As she walked down the hallway to the elevator, Jennifer thought about Simeon. She hated being at someone else’s mercy, but in this case there was no other way to get to the bottom of his reappearance.

  Chapter Eleven

  Fridays were always a busy day at Lavish Locks with many of their clients coming in to get fresh hairstyles and haircuts for weekend activities. This Friday wasn’t any different since. Sassy, their master braider, had been braiding a young woman’s hair for the last three hours, putting in micro-braids, and had two others waiting in the reception area. She never understood why she always scheduled folks so close together, only to have them out there waiting.

  Maxi always had a stream of clients, some who had been using her services for over twenty years. She had two under the dryer, one at the shampoo bowl. Giselle of course had been cutting hair since six o’clock in the morning and had men sitting patiently reading the newspaper, on their smart phones or talking trash while they waited for their turn in the barber chair.

  Jennifer noticed one woman waiting in the reception area with her plastic smock and wet hair raiding the lemon drop cookies they kept under the glass-domed cake stand. They had been ordering those homemade cookies from a bakery owned by one of Jennifer’s friends over in Gary, Indiana.

  April Goode had been making cookies and cakes for
years out of her kitchen and Jennifer wanted to give her some business. April even went so far as to deliver them herself every Monday morning. The delicious dessert had become so popular that even some of the clients would ask Jennifer to order a batch for them. She advised April to open her own bakery, but her friend told her that she didn’t feel she had enough customers to maintain one.

  With one hand filled with cookies, the other with a cup of special roast coffee, the heavyset woman left a wet trail from her dripping hair. Jennifer shook her head because she knew right away that the woman was one of Kimber’s clients. Kimber was a pro at taking care of chemically treated hair, but she didn’t know how to enforce the salon rules with her clients.

  Lavish Locks only asked that the clientele treat the salon with respect as they would their own home. Jennifer hoped the woman didn’t walk around her house eating and dropping crumbs everywhere, but you never know.

  Most women didn’t like spending their whole Saturday in the hair salon, so they came on Friday. Jennifer didn’t blame them, but sometimes beauty took time and some visits, you have to stay longer. Without fail, Jennifer always had a stable flow of people during the day on Friday, but the evening hours could get hectic for her.

  Before she had the twins, she never had a problem with staying as late as she needed to keep her clients satisfied. Now, she still cared for her clients in the same way and did her job as manager of the salon, but she made sure she left early. She didn’t like her concentration split between her clients and her children. Thankfully, she had a lot of regular customers and they knew she needed to be out of the shop at least by eight-thirty to pick up her kids. When she couldn’t, her parents would substitute for her.

  Today, Jennifer had two ladies under the dryer, one having her hair colored and the other ready to be styled. Jennifer walked over to Carla Terry, one of her weekly customers, and lifted the edge of the plastic cap and the strip of cotton around her head to make sure the color was coming out right. She had just lowered the dryer lid when Mimi, the salon receptionist, called her to the phone.

  Jennifer hurried over figuring it was a hair emergency. She never wanted to take a chance with Mimi at the switchboard because she could be talking on the phone with someone and texting on her personal phone at the same time. She’d even caught the young woman trying a new nail color, leaving calls on hold and not telling the operators that someone was holding for them.

  Jennifer would have gotten rid of her a long time ago, but she was Danny’s youngest daughter, so there was nothing she could do.

  “Who is it?” Jennifer asked, watching Mimi file her nails.

  Jennifer looked down at the console and the blinking red call light.

  Picking up the phone, Mimi held her hand over the mouthpiece. “I don’t know. But I can tell you that he has a sexy, raspy voice,” Mimi whispered, then winked at her.

  Jennifer rolled her eyes and reached for the phone, waiting for the receptionist to connect her. “Press line one for me, please, Mimi.”

  Jennifer hated to have to tell her things over and over again. She knew that Mimi had already picked up where she’d left off, trying to get the bottle of gold glitter on her nails.

  Shaking her head, Jennifer placed the receiver to her ear. “This is Jennifer,” she said in a pleasant tone of voice.

  “Jennifer, this is Simeon calling.”

  “Hi, Simeon,” Jennifer said, her tone pleasant. She really couldn’t say that she was surprised to hear from him. It was inevitable. “What can I do for you?”

  “How are you today?” he asked.

  “I’m doing well and yourself?” she asked, not knowing what she should say to him next.

  “I would like to take you out to dinner tonight.”

  “I have to work late. But if you let me know where you’d like to go, I can meet you there.” She wasn’t going to have him come to her house after he appeared out of the blue only a few days ago. If she were going out with him, she would get there on her own accord.

  “Why don’t you choose, then?”

  “There is this little restaurant on Michigan Avenue called Bandera’s.”

  “I’ve heard of it. They play amazing Jazz on Friday nights.”

  “Yes, why don’t we meet there,” she suggested.

  “Sounds like a date,” he said.

  Nervous knots clenched Jennifer’s stomach after she hung up the phone. She went back to her station, retrieved her cell phone, and walked to the office. She needed to see if Faith could watch her children. She was glad that she’d already apologized for blowing up at her and hanging up the phone the other day. It felt good to know that they never stayed angry at each other for long.

  Although Faith’s words were true, they’d hurt because Jennifer knew her children deserved to know their father. She still didn’t feel that Simeon deserved them, but as her Aunt Francis always said, “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”

  Shutting the door behind her, Jennifer sat down at the desk and hit the icon that held her top five favorite numbers and pressed Faith’s name. She waited for her to answer.

  “Hey, girlie,” Jennifer said.

  “What’s up?”

  “Can you keep Micah and Mariah for me tonight? I have a date,” Jennifer said.

  “A date? With who?” Faith wanted to know.

  “Simeon.”

  The silence between the two was deafening until Jennifer spoke again. “Well, you told me to give him a chance.”

  “I’m not complaining. I think it’s a great idea. Don’t forget to push your personal feelings aside, Jenn,” Faith replied.

  “So, will you keep the babies for me?” Jennifer asked, ignoring the last part of her sister’s statement. She didn’t want to make any promises, but would do her best to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  “Of course. What time do you want me to pick them up?”

  “No, I’ll drop them off at your place around eight o’clock.”

  “I’ll see you then,” Faith said.

  “Thanks so much. I’d better get out there, I need to get finished so I can go and get my babies.”

  Jennifer ended the call and went back to work. She promised herself that she was going to keep the bitterness she felt for Simeon at bay, because she needed to find out what he was up to.

  Jennifer was running late meeting Simeon, but that was a mother’s life. The unexpected always happened and tonight Micah was having a mommy moment. Every time she tried to give him to Faith, he clung to Jennifer’s clothes. He didn’t want to stay, so she had to feed him, then rock him to sleep before she could sneak out of her sister’s house. Then she had to go home and change her clothes so she could at least look presentable when she saw Simeon.

  This dinner was very important and could help her understand Simeon better. She wanted to change her opinion of him because so far her thoughts were conflicted. This was contrary to what she’d believed when they first met. She thought he was attentive, charming, good looking and had an easygoing manner. All those things attracted her to him and she loved that he was focused and smart.

  Simeon was always complimentary, such a gentleman opening doors, pulling out chairs, walking her to her door. All those good qualities had been spoiled by his recent actions. Maybe something would change tonight and he would confess to her that he did receive the messages and just wasn’t ready to be a dad. At least that’s what she was hoping for.

  As soon as she stepped inside Bandera’s restaurant, she shrugged out of her coat, adjusted her clothes as she scanned the room looking for him. Finally, she spotted him sitting near the back looking at his watch. He probably thought she was going to stand him up, but Jennifer wasn’t going to miss this for she’d made up her mind to figure out what was going on.

  Rounding the other tables to make her way to where he sat, Jennifer put on her best sm
ile as she approached him. Just as before, he stood up when she got to the table, pulling out her chair and assisting with her coat.

  “I’m so sorry I’m late,” Jennifer said as she smoothed out the back of her brown skirt before taking her seat.

  Simeon placed her coat on the back of her chair. “No problem, you had already told me that Fridays were your late night,” he said as he sat down. “I’m just happy to see you and as usual, you look stunning.”

  Jennifer appreciated the compliment, but she didn’t feel stunning. After wrestling with Micah, she was tired. But instead she smiled and said, “Thanks, Simeon.” He’d just reminded her of how he only had nice things to say about her.

  Jennifer picked up a menu, scanning it. “Have you decided what you’re going to have? I’m sure you’ve probably read through the whole thing waiting for me.”

  Simeon chuckled. “Yes, I think I’m going to have the salmon.”

  “Hmm. Well, I guess I’ll have the Macho Salad.” She closed the large trifold brochure and laid it to the side.

  The waitress came back to take their order and Simeon handed her the menus.

  “Jennifer, I’ve never stopped thinking about you,” Simeon said.

  Jennifer’s eyes widened, then she frowned before she could catch herself. Here we go again with this bull, she thought to herself. If she had to sit and listen to him with the same crap, she was going to leave.

  “Even though we only spent a short time together, you’ve never been too far from my thoughts,” he continued.

  When she first got back from vacation, she thought about Simeon constantly. The few times she spoke to him were always pleasant and she couldn’t wait until the next time. Looking back on it now, she wondered if it was all just a ruse and he was waiting to find out if she was pregnant or not. Once he got the answer he was looking for, he hadn’t planned on contacting her again.

  “Listen, Simeon, I know I said it before but I still want you to know that I’m not the kind of woman that just sleeps around.”