Double the Love

by Taggart, Molly

  Daniel glances back toward the van. "Got the kids in there. Eden had some seminar today. I'll just wait out there with them."

  Aaron sees that both sides of the van are open, and inside sit two young mocha-skinned boys in booster seats, slapping each other with one hand while shooting space-aged red and silver toy guns with the other. The guns make a high pitched blasting sound Aaron can hear all the way from the threshold of the house. Clearly this is going to be a fun drive.

  When Aaron is dressed and has swallowed two aspirin and sixteen ounces of water, he comes back out to find the boys loosed from the van and chasing each other in the front yard. "Othello!" Daniel yells, "Cory, come on!"

  "Othello?" Aaron asks. "Like the play?"

  "Yeah. I lost that argument with Eden. And can you guess what Cory is short for?"

  Aaron shakes his head.

  "Coriolanus. You don't read Shakespeare, do you?"

  Aaron shakes his head again.

  "Well, neither did I, at least not outside of high school, before I met Eden, but I've seen pretty much every play now. Twice. Othello! Cory! Get in the van!"

  As they drive, Daniel apologizes for letting Aaron drink so much. "I mean, you're a mess. I'm sorry. I just assumed…Georgia man…soccer coach…and you're a decent-sized guy. I just thought you'd have a higher tolerance than that."

  "How many scotches did I have?"

  "Not that many. Well, I guess you don't come from a long line of highly functional alcoholics. That requires an elite upbringing like mine."

  Aaron glances around the van. He observes the pile of random papers and the empty McDonald's bag that Daniel scooped off the front seat and threw in the back before they got in. "Elite upbringing?"

  "Yeah, well, I went to prep school and Harvard and all that corresponding jazz."

  Aaron shouldn't be surprised. He knows Daniel was a successful business man, and he certainly seems smart, if a little peculiar. He just isn’t the sort of man Aaron prejudicially associates with East Coast ivy league schools.

  "Oh," Daniel chuckles, "my parents would be so very proud to see me now."

  Aaron runs a hand across his forehead, leans against the window, and closes his eyes. He wishes those kids would stop shooting those damn blasters. Daniel observes his pain and orders, "Boys, stop making that noise. If I hear those guns go off again, they're going in the trash can at the next gas station."

  The sound stops instantly. Daniel must be a man who carries through on his threats. "So y'all don't go to church yourselves?" Aaron asks.

  "I find most Jews aren't that interested in going to church, don't you?"

  Aaron slides his hand away from his head and glances at Daniel. "You're Jewish?"

  "I was raised Jewish but I’m not sure I even believe in God. Eden’s Episcopalian, in name anyway. You know the joke? About the Episcopal priest and how he got rid of the bats in the belfry?” When Aaron shakes his head, Daniel continues, “He just baptized and confirmed them and they never came back. Anyway, we celebrate some of the Christian holidays and some of the Jewish ones, and we teach the kids the stories...the ethics…that sort of thing."

  "Can we have some blues?" one of the kids, Aaron doesn’t know which, asks.

  "I don't think Coach Mitchell wants any music right now."

  Aaron rubs the bridge of his nose. "If they want music, it's a'ight."

  Daniel reaches down to grab the iPod he has sitting in the coffee cup holder. It’s attached to some cord that disappears inside the tape player. How old is this van that it actually still has a tape player? They haven’t made tape players in years. When Daniel turns it on, Aaron immediately cringes at the volume. "Sorry." Daniel turns the music down. "The boys and I like to crank it up."

  There’s a squealing guitar and pounding drums. Aaron can see in the rearview mirror the twin boys jerking their heads vigorously up and down to the music. One is playing air guitar. At least they aren’t shooting their blasters anymore.

  Aaron rests his head back against the window.

  "Seriously," Daniel says, "sorry I didn't cut you off sooner. I hope your wife isn't mad at you."

  Aaron hopes so too. Last night, he went from being angry at her when he walked in the door to being a little bit frightened of her when he woke up at 2 AM and saw her sleeping on the far edge of the bed, curled up in a sort of protective ball as though she didn't want to be anywhere near him. He got up because of the heartburn from the pub food, waited to see if he still felt nauseous, drunk a glass of milk, and half watched some soccer before crawling back into bed at 4 AM. He isn’t sure what’s going to be in store for him when Janice gets back from church.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Janice doesn’t return from church until two. Normally they’re home for lunch by 12:30, so Aaron has kept checking his cell phone for messages. When he hears the door open, he switches off the plasma television and sits expectantly on the couch. Janice walks in by herself. "Where are the girls?" he asks.

  "We ate lunch over at the Dempseys'. They kept Sophie and Emily. They're going to bring them back here at five." Janice sits down in the armchair, deliberately distant from him, and drops her black and brown leather purse to the floor. She looks absolutely gorgeous in her Sunday best. They should take advantage of their three hours to themselves, he thinks. Leisurely, uninterrupted Sunday sex…now that’s a rarity.

  "I volunteered you to teach the next four weeks of Sunday school," she says. “Seventh grade boys.”

  “Seventh grade? There’s a reason I coach high school and not junior high, you know.”

  “Seventh grade,” she repeats. “Four weeks.”

  "That's harsh, honey."

  "I don't think you're in a position to complain about that right now. I mean, if you had been at church with me, you could have protested. But since you weren't…"

  "Harsh."

  "So," she says, leveling her serious green eyes at him, "What were you insinuating last night?"

  Now he begins to feel a little bit angry again. "Is it true," he asks, "that you’re planning to go back to college?"

  "Who told you that?"

  "Daniel. He said Eden told him."

  Janice shrugs. "Maybe."

  "Why didn't you tell me? When do you think you’re going to have time for that? How are you going to fit that all in on top of everything else? What gets pushed to the wayside?" Me? he wonders, though he doesn’t ask it.

  "I didn't tell you because I didn’t want you to freak out," Janice answers. "which is exactly what you're doing.”

  Aaron leans forward. "So were you just going to sneak off to classes without telling me?”

  “It’s not as if I’ve enrolled. I’m just thinking about it. I don’t know if or when I’ll actually do it, but I can see I’m not going to have your support. So why would I tell you?”

  She stands up from the couch and strides off toward their bedroom. He lowers his forehead into his hand and winces. Her footsteps sound strangely loud, even on the carpet.

  So much for makeup sex.

  *

  Two days later, Aaron invites the Harris family over for dinner. He knows Janice likes Eden, and he hopes the company will be a nice distraction from the tension that still hangs like a heavy curtain between him and his wife.

  When the Harrises enter the house, Daniel extends his hand to the littlest Mitchell. "You must be Sophie." At first, Sophie clings to Janice's leg, but when Daniel does not lower his hand, she eventually reaches out and shakes it firmly. When she lets go, he says, "I'm Mr. Harris," he points to his wife, "and this is Dr. Harris."

  "You're a doctor?" says a wide-eyed Sophie. "A girl doctor? Cool!"

  Eden smiles. "No, not that kind of doctor."

  "She nurses books," Daniel explains. "Operates on written words, dissects them, cuts them up into little pieces."

  Janice glances at Aaron and tilts her head toward Daniel, as though to say, See, your friend has no problem with an educated wife.

  After dinne
r, Emily retreats to her own room with a favorite book, while Cory, Othello, and Sophie play in the basement. As Aaron comes into the kitchen with a stack of dessert plates, he overhears his wife saying, "Oh, Daniel, honey, you don't have to wash those."

  Daniel whisks the circular brush around a plate. A stray spray of water from the sink mists his thinning hair. "No, no, Janice. You cooked Eden and I a lovely meal, so let me."

  Aaron sets the dessert plates on the countertop. "I'll do it. I appreciate my wife's cooking too. I'll do the washing up."

  "I got it," Daniel says. "I'm already here."

  Aaron muscles him aside and begins washing the dishes.

  Daniel laughs, pats him on the shoulder, and says, "Okay, then. Show her how it's done" as he walks back out to the table.

  Aaron smiles at Janice, but she’s tight lipped.

  “He volunteered without me even asking,” she tells him.

  “So did I.”

  “You volunteered because he was doing it. You know, I work full-time now, just like you, and you’ve taken on maybe two chores.”

  “That’s not fair, Janice. I’ve stepped up more than that.”

  Her reddish-brown bangs float up beneath the scoffing puff of air that escapes her mouth. “No wonder you don’t want me to ever go back to college. Then you might have to do the dishes every night.”

  “Come on, Janice. I never said I don’t ever want you to go back. But you just took over this catering business. You just—”

  “—I didn’t say I was going back to college tomorrow! It’s something I’m looking at down the road. A little support would be nice.” She tosses a towel on the counter and strides back to the dining room.

  When Aaron finishes the dishes and rejoins the party, there are three board games resting on the brown wood table and Janice is asking Daniel, "How did you talk Aaron into agreeing to play board games?"

  "I promised him I'd bring the good scotch if he played." Daniel gestures at the bottle he's set on the dining room hutch.

  "We don't really have any other friends to play with," Eden explains. "We don't really have any other couple friends. It gets hard to find the time, and it's even harder to find people like you two who are intelligent but who aren't snobs, you know?"

  "It's not that hard outside of the university," Daniel mumbles.

  "Daniel, except for Aaron, all your friends ever talk about is guns. Nothing. But. Guns. It's nice to have other topics of conversation for a change."

  "Like soccer?" Aaron asks with a smirk. He grabs the scotch off the hutch, sets out glasses for Daniel and himself, and pours while Daniel unpacks the Taboo game.

  Janice fills her glass with the Kosher wine she bought when she learned the Harrises would be coming.

  “Daniel isn’t practicing,” Aaron told her when she came home with the bottles.

  “It’s best to be safe,” she replied.

  "How can wine not be Kosher?" he muttered. "I mean, it's grapes."

  Janice, with that cute, sardonic smile he loves, said, "Maybe they wrap the grapes in bacon first." She ran her tongue over her lips and murmured, "Mhmmmm…bacon and wine. That sounds good."

  Aaron snorted and replied, "You are so white trash, honey."

  "Oh come on now," Janice drawled in return, "You love it. You love it when I wear those cut-off short shorts and that skanky tank top…"

  His eyebrow shot up. "Hey, where are those by the way? Haven't seen them since the move."

  She smiled back, but then her smile faltered, as if she’d suddenly remembered she was still angry with him and that they weren’t supposed to be getting along.

  *

  Janice has just called Aaron into the kitchen to help her with the corkscrew. She's gotten it stuck somehow. When he pops the cork from the bottle, she says, "Come on. We've got a game to play."

  He pulls her in with one arm and tries to kiss her, but she dances out of his grasp. He frowns. "Janice, do I really have to go back out there and play Taboo?" Aaron’s never been a board game kind of guy. He’ll play Chutes and Ladders with Sophie, but only because she sprung from his loins.

  "Come on, now. Daniel's your friend, and he wants to play."

  "No, Eden wants to play. Daniel’s humoring her because he'd like to get laid tonight."

  "Hmmmm…Well, at least he has some idea how to go about doing that, doesn’t he?” Her hips sway as she grabs the open wine bottle and begins to strut out of the kitchen.

  "I don't think it's fair that you have this sex bargaining chip,” he calls after her, and she stops and turns in the open doorway. “When I don't have any chips."

  "You have chips," she says dryly.

  "What chips? I have no chips. I am without chips."

  "Please usually works pretty well. Please organize the team cook out. Please help me talk to the boosters. Please watch this soccer game with me." She gives him that all-too-familiar look, the look that warns he has just stirred up a hive. "What's not fair, really, Aaron, is that please doesn't work for me. I can't just say, please play Taboo with your new best friend and his wife, who might happens to become my best friend, and be nice about it."

  "Okay," he throws up his hands.

  She shakes her head and, as she walks out of the kitchen, commands, “Check on the kids in the basement first. Bring them some popcorn.”

  *

  Daniel slides a Taboo card over and says, "Professor Laroche thinks mine phallic."

  "Gun. Firearm. Rifle," Eden lists in rapid succession.

  Daniel nods and turns over the next card.

  "Time's up!" Janice announces.

  Daniel looks at the small stack of cards that are face up on the dining room table. "We earned seven this round." He glances at Janice and Aaron's pile. "How many did you guys get? Because from here, it looks as if you've gathered…precisely two." He laughs. "What's that? One for every seven years you’ve been together? You should really know one another better by now."

  "We know each other perfectly well," Aaron grumbles.

  "Aaron, friend, if you had let Janice move onto the next clue instead of trying to convince her that you really did not go someplace on some date, you might have gotten more cards."

  Aaron shakes his head. "We'll catch up. I just need more scotch." He pours himself another and takes the plastic card holder that Daniel slides his way. He’s now the clue giver for Janice. Aaron turns over the first card, and Daniel leans close with the buzzer.

  "Oh hell!" Aaron complains. "Oh come on now! How in the hell am I supposed to get her to guess that!"

  Daniel presses down on the red button of the buzzer so that it let out a long wail. "Sorry, but you can't say the word guess."

  As Aaron is determined to be a handicap, Janice suggests the next game should be boys against girls. She switches seats with Daniel so that each woman is now next to her man. Eden takes the cardholder, slides up a card, and says to Janice, "The thing you told me you like most about Aaron."

  "His gorgeous eyes," Janice replies immediately.

  "No."

  "His muscular arms?"

  "No—"

  "What?" Creases appeared in Janice's brow. "His ass?"

  A whistling sound emerges from around the rim of Daniel's scotch glass, because he begins to laugh just as he’s about to sip.

  "No," Eden says with a light smile. "I don't mean something superficial."

  Janice appears confused. Aaron glances across the table at Daniel and with an unsteady flourish of his hands outlines his own form. "She only cares about my body," he says with a mock expression of hurt. "I'm just a hunk of meat to her."

  Janice puts a hand on Aaron's shoulder and shoves, but she’s smiling. Damn if she isn’t smiling. Maybe it’s the wine, or maybe she’s being reminded that he’s not a complete loss for a husband. He leans slightly to his left and smiles back.

  "His big heart?" she guesses.

  "Yes. Heart," Eden agreed. "The word was heart. You were telling me yesterday that he’s a good fat
her and a good coach with a big heart for his players. That he really cares about those boys, more than he cares about winning."

  Aaron glances at his wife, some strange feeling swelling in his chest. Her admiration moves him, as it always has, but why didn’t she say that to him? Why can she tell Eden she’s thinking about college, Eden she admires him as a coach, but not tell him?

  When time is up, the women have only scored two. Eden languidly pushes the cardholder toward Aaron. "Let's see you do better, Coach Mitchell."

  Janice leans close to her husband, her head on his shoulder, and readies the buzzer. Eden reaches forward and turns over the timer.

  Aaron struggles to give clues for the first card, though Daniel finally guesses correctly. After some stuttering, Aaron passes on the next and turns over another card. "I…hmmm…." He squints at the words. "I don't know how to…" Aaron scratches his head. "I can't say…" Daniel points to the nearly finished timer. "Oh, I know!" Aaron exclaimed. "Janice is mine!"

  "Time's up!" Janice announces triumphantly.

  Aaron tosses the card on the table. "It was wife," he mutters.

  Daniel asks levelly, "And it took you almost the entire time to recall that Janice is yours?"

  "He just takes me for granted," Janice says, sliding the card holder away from him.

  Aaron can’t quite tell if she’s joking. "Well," he shoots back, "at least when you ask me what my favorite thing about you is, the first three things that come to my mind aren't all body parts."

  "Oh yeah," Janice asks, straightening her back and turning to her husband, "what are the first three things?"

  "Uh...ummm..."

  "Aaron, you might want to avert your eyes," Daniel suggests.

  "Don't be a traitor now," Aaron says, dragging his eyes from where they’ve instinctively fallen and waving a finger at his friend. "You're on my side."

  "Three things, Aaron," Janice repeats.

  "Your fantastic cooking," he says confidently. "Your amazin' back rubs. The way you can organize cook out for the soccer team and stay on top of everything. "