BOMAW 7-9

by Mercedes Keyes

  "Whoa! That's harsh." Crystal gasped surprised.

  "I don't care! She did this shit to them! To Benjamin! If he does turn out to be Shawn's, I'm going to give her a damn good piece of my mind! Jake worked his ass off for those boys, Benjamin included! He may not have been a perfect father but when she called for anything, he provided, no questions asked!" She was so angry she was red with tears in her eyes. "I know to you Sylvia - he's nothing but a loser, but he's my brother! I love him! I didn't know things had gone this far with Benjamin, I mean getting tested! Does Jake know he's getting tested? I doubt it." She couldn't say anymore, with tears of anger running. She turned from them and swiped at her wet cheeks.

  "Calm down, calm down. Look, I don't think he's a loser."

  "You do Sylvia! You only tolerate him. Okay, I know what he tried to do with you was wrong - I know that. But I wish that people would just realize that he's a human being with feelings! Everyone dead and live on this earth has made mistakes and all of us are human with a reason for doing the things we do, no matter how bad. This - when he finds out - is going to hurt him. I don't like any of my family, my brother's being hurt... period. No matter who thinks he deserves it!"

  Sylvia shook her head and sighed, heading for a Wendy's as all within the vehicle grew quiet.

  In the back seat, she overheard Angela whispering to Crystal, "Does that mean we shouldn't throw Benjamin a party if he's my dads?"

  Chapter 210

  Benjamin's stomach was doing all sorts of flip flops. Nerves had his gut gripped like a victim in the jaws of a crocodile. They'd just pulled up to Sylvia's house, parking on the curb not to block the driveway. Benjamin could see Shawn across the road at the building site talking to the men that were constructing his new studio, they had the entire framework for it up, inside and out and were now putting on the roof to get it covered, tiled and shingled so they could work within using it for shelter incase of rain.

  "What's going on over there?" Gail asked, following suit as Benjamin opened the door to step from the vehicle, walking around, he opened hers for her.

  "Shawn is building a brand new home and that's, his studio, his office where he'll be working all the time, instead of out of a room in the house."

  "Ah, so who lives here in this house?"

  "This is Sylvia's house, his wife. They were neighbors. He lived over there, house is gone now, they tore it down to build what you see happening now. When it's all done, her house is going to be a bed and breakfast for tourists."

  "Good idea!" She exclaimed.

  No sooner had the words left her mouth that Shawn turned and noticed them there, smiling, he waved them over.

  "Well, there he is. Come on, I'll introduce you." Benjamin alerted her as her eyes finally focused on Shawn.

  "Oh my god! Benjamin... holy cow, that is - your father, no doubt about it." She whispered out the side of her mouth at him, unable to take her eyes off of Shawn. The moment he looked at her and smiled, she saw Benjamin through and through.

  "I'm not gonna bet my life savings on it, the test will tell for sure." He mumbled back low for her ears only before they made it across the road.

  "Back already? I thought you'd be packing? And who is this lovely young woman?" Shawn asked, looking from Benjamin to Gail.

  "Hey, yeah well - since we'll be gone for two weeks, I thought to spend the day with - uh, my girl."

  Gail could have sworn she heard him hesitating to introduce her as his girlfriend. She looked up at him with eyes of suspicion and then back to Shawn, smiling. "Hi sir, nice to meet you."

  "Nice to meet you," Shawn held his hand out to shake hers, "Introduce us Ben." He encouraged looking her over. She so reminded him of Deidre, young pretty face. Glorious head of gleaming blonde hair, not quite as tall as Deidre but a very similar carriage and grace about her.

  "Sure, Gail this is Shawn, Shawn - Gail."

  "Again, nice meeting you." Shawn turned her hand loose looking back towards Benjamin. "Just to let you know, we leave Saturday night for Madison, our flight's first thing Sunday morning. I'd like us to get a couple of rooms not far from the airport, that way we catch a shuttle bus right over there."

  "Saturday night huh? You'll need to get ready pretty soon." Gail stated, with wide eyes to Benjamin.

  "No problem, I'll be ready." Benjamin stated, relieved that this was the case, now Gail wouldn't be bringing up going with again, she would never be ready so soon. She turned to Shawn with a smile, going on to ask, "If you don't mind me asking, what all do you have planned here?" looking at the structure for the studio and offices. Smiling Shawn turned to give them a tour, explaining in detail. As they walked around the perimeter of the property, Benjamin was trying to think of a way of ending this quickly. Refusing to question his motives, he wanted to get Gail out of their. They were walking around the foundation of the house. It was going to be massive. What some might describe as a baby mansion, if 4,850 square feet could be considered that. Of course as Shawn explained this to them, his wife didn't have the absolute full significance of what was being built nor it's cost. It was his dream and once it was built, he'd worry about the rest then. Needless to say, Gail and Benjamin were impressed. The scale of the concrete basement foundation, alone gave them an idea of what was going up. A three level home, basement, first floor, second floor. Five bedrooms, five and a half baths, one kitchen and kitchenette, a great room, living-room, dining-room, den/office, 2 laundry rooms, upstairs and downstairs, front foyer, game room, mud-room, as well guest-room with a conservatory off the back. Next to it, attached, a two car garage with an apartment above it. Two bedrooms in that, small kitchen, laundry room, living-room.

  "My goodness it's going to be amazing. Planning to rent out the garage apartment?" Gail joked.

  "My daughter will be living there with her two sons." Shawn explained now that they were circling back around to the front.

  "Your daughter? The one that's married?"

  "Not for long, she's in the middle of a divorce I'm afraid." Shawn stated.

  Gail's mouth froze open a spell, her mind steady ticking over. She looked at Ben but all she could see was his back. Had she seen his face right then, she would have seen it blush red then wash clean away. "Oh, that's unfortunate." Gail recovered enough to say.

  "No matter, he wasn't good enough for her anyway. Good riddance."

  Benjamin sure wished he hadn't said that, it didn't matter at that point anyway, because coming down the road was the SUV, it pulled over at Shanna's place, all doors opening. Shanna was getting out, grabbing bags. Their voices could be heard from where they stood. Nothing could be understood, but they were laughing about something. A car pulled into Shanna's driveway from behind them, a man. A blonde with curly hair. Angela was running inside Shanna's, looking like she had to use the bathroom and really bad. Benjamin sighed.

  "Here comes my wife now, you'll get to meet her." Shawn stated smiling, heading back across the road with a reluctant Benjamin and his on guard girlfriend. The SUV pulled in up to the garage door. Again the doors came open. Shawn was at the drivers side when Sylvia stepped out.

  "You guys get everything you need?" He asked right away, kissing Sylvia's forehead.

  "Sure did, we are set." She announced happily looking up into his eyes and then aside at Benjamin, his girlfriend, she smiled. "Hello?" She called in greeting to her.

  Gail smiled, surprised to see that just like Jake, Shawn too was in a relationship with a black woman. She wondered what were the odds of that happening all in one family. She knew that Derrick's wife was Spanish, Puerto Rican in fact. She'd met Jake's new fiancée, who was black. Very dark in complexion and very proper, inner city, business like, the professional type. Now once again, this time the oldest of the three, was married to a black woman. She shook his wife's hand, as he introduced them and complimented her on her home and congratulating her on the one being built.

  "I bet you're excited! Just think, a brand new home to decorate and fill. I can't wait t
o see what you do with it."

  "Thank you Gail. To be honest, I'm not all that anxious, I believe its going to be more work and a pain in the butt than fun and certainly more money to fill than I'm probably going to be willing to spend." Sylvia simpered.

  "Let's change the subject, no sense in us getting into a deep discussion about it. Crystal? Where are you honey?" Shawn wanted to get off of the house right away.

  "Over here unloading these bags." She called out. She'd wanted to grab a hold of everything and get into the house before she was introduced to his girlfriend. She'd seen her through the windows of the SUV and couldn't explain her need to avoid the introduction. However, now that Shawn called her over, she had no choice. With a smile on her face she walked around to the back of the vehicle, looking straight at Gail with a bright white smile.

  "Whoa! Look - at - you!" Shawn whooped with wide eyes.

  "I know! Doesn't she look great? She was feeling uncomfortable with having her hair cut but I think the style suits her perfectly." Sylvia encouraged.

  "You are absolutely stunning! I'm going to have to beat the guys away from my door when we get there!"

  Feeling self-conscious and a bit embarrassed, Crystal fussed with her hair, "If you say so." She responded shyly. Then felt silly for not wanting to meet Benjamin's girlfriend. She looked from Shawn back to her, "It's nice to meet you...?" She hung waiting for her name.

  "Gail." Gail stated, shaking her hand, going pale.

  "Gail, well it's nice to meet you, I'm Crystal as you've heard. Why don't you come on inside?" She asked, trying to recover from her earlier feelings.

  "Nooo, we better get going." Benjamin jumped in to finally say.

  "You sure? We don't mind, you two can hang around here for the day if you want. You still haven't met Mundo Gail, or my daughter." Shawn invited, stating the latter.

  "Maybe next time, when you all get back from your trip. It was nice to meet you all. Have a safe trip to L.A."

  She and Ben backed away smiling and as soon as they turned around, the smile slid right off of Gail's face. She climbed into the car and slammed the door; looking straight forward. Ben drug his feet getting in; once he was in, started the car and made a U-turn, heading up the road she spoke her mind.

  "You go to L.A. with them and you are going to jeopardize our relationship. You can spend, "quality time"..." She gestured with air quotation marks, "...with him when he returns. I think you need to explain that something came up and you had to back out at the last minute."

  "I'm going - on this trip with him. This has nothing - to do - with her."

  "I don't believe you. You don't even believe you. And if you thought that I believed you, in your eyes that would make me a fool. I'm not going to be a fool for you Benjamin. After three and a half years together, either I mean enough to you to back out, or I don't."

  "You are totally over-reacting!"

  "You said she was married!"

  "She is!"

  "She's getting - a divorce! A divorce Benjamin! That means she's free."

  "She's still in love with her husband for your information."

  "How do you know that?"

  "Because I know!"

  "How do you know?" She fired the question at him.

  "Through idle conversation."

  "So the two of you have had a lengthy conversation huh?"

  "Gail this is my car, not a courtroom. You're learning to be a social worker, not a lawyer. Leave off cross examining me."

  "Fine! Are you still going to L.A.?"

  "Gail - yes, I am."

  "You can take me home then."

  "You're that insecure Gail? I thought you were a more confident woman than that, that you would let silly suspicion founded on nothing come between us! You want me to take you home, fine, I'll take you home. The choice is yours. Just remember that whatever happens from here on out started with this."

  "Why do you need to go to L.A. with them?"

  "I was invited! I've never gone and if I go, it would be nice to go with someone I know. I hadn't expected to spend this day arguing with you. I wanted to have a good time with you before I went. If I were so interested in being with Crystal, I wouldn't be here with you now. I could have just stayed away and hung with them for the day and for that matter, through the night until we left here. I didn't have to call you. I didn't have to come by your house. We're not engaged yet, we're not married yet. So you've got a choice, if I take you home, we might as well forget it. Or, you can drop this nonsense and get on with our day. If I'd been worried, I didn't have to bring you here. Again, the choice is yours."

  * * *

  In Chicago...

  Lucky for Vivian it turned out to be one of those days at the bank, where everything was done on auto-pilot because she was so busy. She didn't have time to think. She figured she'd put in at least eight miles of walking that day having been called from one situation to another. She'd even ended up working through her lunch. That wasn't a big deal, in fact, she was glad for it. Saved her from having to answer a bunch of questions. As it was, Dean and Stephanie were forever looking for her, making eye contact with two questions.

  "Have you called him?"

  A shake of her head was the answer.

  "Has he called you?"

  Again the shake.

  They were both at her office at the end of the day.

  "Come on, you done work your butt off today. Probably ready to faint, I'm gone have to hold you all the way home. Some fine ass man gone think you my woman!" Dean griped resentfully making Vivian smile and wink at him.

  "Don't get no ideas! You cute and all that but I don't want you."

  Vivian and Stephanie laughed at him, leaving her office, one on each side of him. Janna was at the elevator, looking to see them as they approached. "Feeling better I see."

  Vivian smiled, "Yeah, I do. Been so busy today, haven't had much time to think about anything."

  "That's just as well. Better things are coming for you than him."

  "Don't start Janna, let's not go there okay?" Vivian advised as the elevator doors closed.

  "I know, I'm sorry - he's probably on his way home to wherever he came from and here you are, left to feel like shit. Wanna come by my place, spend the evening?" She asked.

  "No Janna, I'll be fine." Vivian answered with her two companions in the background making faces at Janna's back.

  Now that they were off work, Vivian could feel her stomach start up, thanks to her brain that it was now engaged. Here she must face another evening, another moment of regret for the night before. Not one call the entire day from him. She couldn't help but wonder when she finally made it home would she spend the evening in tears? She had to get through the entire weekend, it was going to be hell if the way she was feeling right then had anything to do with it. After a few more moments the elevator doors opened and already Vivian was feeling a bit short of breath. She didn't want company right now. If she were alone, she'd ride the rails and next the bus, looking out the window at the passing city scenery, letting the tears that were starting to gather in her throat, rise and then, roll. Because she wasn't alone, she couldn't very well do that. She had to swallow them back and play it off.

  They made their way from the elevator to the three huge rotating doors, taking their turn. Vivian could barely hear, her mind so jammed with scenes from the night before. Jammed with a bleak vision of the weekend to come. Janna, Dean and Stephanie were talking around her, she couldn't be bothered to ask again what they said knowing they'd said it to her. Her chest was aching right then, feeling a hard large knot forming there; she supposed it was the build up from pushing back true feelings.

  When her turn came to enter the doors, to walk through them on the circular pod, she came out the other side with the sun glaring right into her eyes. Blinking, she moved forward to hear distinctly, Dean exclaim a jubilant, "Yes!" Beside her, and further, "He's here! He's here! Look he's here! I knew it!"

  Vivian lifted her hand to shie
ld her eyes and sure enough, standing at the curb, one helluva cowboy.

  A lump grew in her throat and tears came to her eyes. Several blinks were needed to fully clear them as she slowly walked towards him.

  Dean and Stephanie followed.

  Janna disappeared.

  Jake couldn't help himself.

  Pride be damned.

  Yes, she'd been mean the night before, even so, it made no sense to try and walk away. Made no sense to try and leave her alone. Made no sense to even consider driving back home. He'd done all of that before. Every time, he had found himself right back there, where he was - looking for her. His mother wanted her. His father adored her. Shawn thought the world of her. She was Sylvia's best friend. His total opposite while they were so much the same. She was, as deep inside of him, as he had been inside of her. That was the reason, he was there. She was inside of him, apart of him. His little girl.

  Looking at her now, seeing her feelings for him clear in her soft, watery eyes, he knew; was certain they were in for one hell of a road ahead. No matter, long as on that road, she stayed by his side. He tore his eyes from her to look at Dean and Stephanie.

  "Dean, Stephanie, you guys still need a ride? Get an early start on partying for the weekend?" He asked them, smiling.

  "Yes please! If you don't mind?" They both responded.

  Jake smiled and opened the door to his truck, pushing the back seat forward. "Let's get going."

  They were quick to climb in, both went in through the same door, Stephanie moving all the way to the other side. Jake dropped the seat back and then handed Vivian in. "Buckle up." He entreated them softly, his eyes on her. She glanced up with a gentle smile, doing as he instructed. He closed them in and made his way to the drivers side, jumping in and soon they were off. Jake drove with the radio on, considerate of them, he chose a station he thought they'd like to hear.