by DW Cee
“Hi.” I stood there and waited for him to say something, anything, but he didn’t, so I walked away.
Donovan walked in looking sharp as usual and gunned straight for Max. Jake also headed that way and so did Nick, Josh, and Garret when they saw what was happening. Too nervous to watch, I went upstairs to help Emily bring down JR for his big day.
The ceremony was quick and sweet and seeing as how Max and Donovan were still standing in the same room, I assumed their talk was also quick—though maybe not as sweet. Lunch was a crazy affair with so many people in and out of Jake’s house. During this time, I also saw Emily on her iPad and James in front of her happily kissing the iPad. I walked over to see what the excitement was all about and he was “talking” to Laney. She had called to be a part of the celebration. Uncle Henry and Aunt Babs talked to her, and she even said a brief hello to me, before I ran off to get Donovan.
“Hey.” I rushed over to him. I could see Max’s eyes on me as they were sitting at the same lunch table. “Get your ass in the kitchen. James is skyping with Laney.” That’s all it took for this man to practically mow me down and run into the kitchen. Josh, too, made a mad dash into the kitchen.
Gimpy walked over and talked to me further about New York and Max feigned an interest in our conversation, but in all honesty, I didn’t think he cared anymore. After seeing his apathy and feeling his detachment, I thought perhaps moving to New York wasn’t a bad idea.
“There’s a partners’ meeting on Monday.” Gimpy said. “Donovan and I are headed to New York, tonight. Why don’t you come with us? You can see what happens at these meetings.”
“Maybe, Gimpy. I’ll think about it.”
Emily came out with JR and told Max and me that we needed to go see the photographer. She handed JR to Max and pointed in the direction we were to go.
“How are you?” Max asked while we walked with the baby.
“Busy. Work is keeping me busy. How are you? Do you get a break at all?”
“I’ve got a break till late August.”
“What have you been doing? And what will you do till then?”
“This whole week was just time to get my life back in order here—answering mail, catching up on sleep, getting better acquainted with my parents—and I’m considering going to Europe with Josh for a couple of weeks to help him get settled out there.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I kept my lips pursed and just nodded my head.
“You didn’t have to move out.” He added after a few minutes of silence. “That’s not what I wanted...that’s not what I thought...you would do...” The confession caught me off guard and made my heart break for the both of us. How had we gone so wrong and so far off track?
“I didn’t know what else to do. I told you how I felt about you, and about us. And you pretty much told me how you felt about us when you let me leave Mexico. You didn’t give me too many choices.”
“What happens now?” Was he seriously asking me this question?
I was a bit pissed. “The last words I said to you were ‘I love you’ and you had no response to that except to kick me out of your tent. I don’t think you have any right to wonder what happens next. You are in the driver’s seat.” Why the hell had I given him so much power to this relationship, or non-relationship? “If you’re going to throw this whole Donovan incident back in my face every time we get into an argument, then I don’t want to get back together. Think about that while you’re wondering what happens now.”
JR’s christening pictures probably looked like two pissed off people holding a baby. As soon as pictures were done, I told Gimpy I wasn’t ready to leave with them today, but I’d leave on Sunday and join them for their Monday meeting in New York.
“If you haven’t hired a driver yet, I’ll take you to the airport, Gimpy.”
My grandfather was one wise man. He knew I was desperate to get out of this backyard and away from Max. “All right. We’ll leave in fifteen minutes?”
Jake and Emily also understood why I didn’t want to be here any longer and they, too, were fine with me leaving the party early.
“Your Max wasn’t too pissed with me anymore,” Donovan said while driving the car. “Did you two make up?”
“He’s still pissed with me. I don’t know what to think. I moved out of his place the other day and I’m trying to figure out what to do with myself.”
“Roland mentioned you might want to move back to New York?”
I nodded yes.
“Don’t do that, Jane. You’re in love with Max and you hated life in the New York office. You’ll only work yourself to death. You’ll end up an old spinster with cats, next time I visit you.” Donovan and Gimpy both laughed.
“What about you?” I turned the tables on him.
“Hell if I know. I’ll end up an aging playboy with young women all around me, while you’re with your cats.” Donovan and Gimpy laughed even harder.
“You get to skype with Laney earlier today?”
“Nope! She conveniently had to go, according to Emily.”
“Bummer. Maybe I’ll hop over to London after the Monday meeting. I think I have a bit of apologizing to do to my cousin. You think she’ll be in when I decide to visit?”
“Who the hell knows with her!”
The phone rang as we exited the freeway and Jake told Donovan he needed to speak with him privately. After a bunch of “got its,” he hung up.
“What was that all about?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why’d you have to speak to him in private?”
“Damn, woman. Don’t be so nosy.” He chuckled. “Jake just gave me a grocery list of things to buy for Emily while out in New York.” That was enough to satisfy my curiosity.
“Gawd! He’s become such a family man. It’s beautiful to see and yet sickening all the same. I never ever thought I’d want a man just like my brother—someone whose entire focus is only his family.”
“Jake always had it in him to be a good husband and father. He was always good to Kelley when they dated.”
“He was never this devoted to anyone. Emily and the kids are the fuel to his fire. He’d never survive without his family.”
“I agree. But, he’s good to the entire family, and not just Emily and the kids. Your brother always has your best interest at heart as well, Jane.”
“Whatever,” I answered. “Hey, why are you parking? I thought I was dropping you off?”
“I need someone to carry my bags in for me,” Donovan said with a chuckle. “Walk in with us. You’ve got nothing better to do.”
That was true. I walked a few steps behind the two men and wondered what my life would be like to be married to a man who thought I walked on water, and to be a mother to three children. Then, I thought about how I’d do all that and still be an equity partner of the firm. Too many conflicting thoughts ran through my mind, so I decided to drop those thoughts for now and join the two men ahead of me.
“Why are we hanging out in front of check-in? Is the plane not ready?” Then I thought about how stupid I was for going tomorrow when there was a private plane available for me, today. “Shoot! I’m such a moron. I should’ve just left with you today. Why the hell am I flying with the masses? Are there just two of you on the plane, today?”
“Yep.” Donovan grinned. “You can still come with us. You have nothing left in your New York apartment?”
“I do have some clothes and supplies left to last me a few days...” I started weighing my options.
“This is New York we are talking about. You have everything at your disposal.”
Donovan was right. The only reason I was going to fly out tomorrow was because I hadn’t packed. How stupid was I? “All right. Let’s go. I’ll buy whatever I need tomorrow.”
Gimpy and Donovan looked at each other, looked outside, stalled for a bit, then had no choice but to get on the plane. Whatever was going on, they weren’t about to share it with me. The three of us walked ou
t of the waiting room to the short walkway that led to the steps of the plane when I thought I heard my name. Deciding there was no way anyone here knew me, I kept pace with the men.
“Jane!” I heard again. This time I knew I wasn’t wrong. My name was being called. All three of us stopped when we heard, “Jane” again. “Hello!” We all heard the voice trying to stop us from getting on the plane, and turned around. I turned to see a frantic Max waving his arms, stopping us from getting on the plane. Donovan and Gimpy were at the top of the steps, I was a few steps short of the top, and Max caught up with us at the bottom.
We met halfway and there was this weird sense of movie-scene déjà vu, but I couldn’t figure out which one.
“Don’t go.” Max pleaded. “Don’t move. Don’t leave me again. I’m sorry, Gem. I know I took my time licking my wounds. I love you and can’t live without you.” He was now begging me. Where the hell did he think I was moving to? “We belong together. You are my other half. I am completely lost without you.”
Then the light bulb went off and I had no choice but to say, “Shut up. Just shut up. You had me at hello.”
July 29, 2013 Contents of a Certain Black Box
Max ended up on the plane with us, and as much as we needed to talk, it was impossible with Donovan—the man who caused much of our grief, and Gimpy—my grandfather who didn’t need to know about our stupid-ass ménage à trois, on the plane with us. They did their best to sit as far away from us as possible, but there’s only so much privacy you can have when there are only four passengers, and three flight crew on board.
“Max, tell us about your trip.” We ended up joining Gimpy and Donovan in the four seats facing one another, for dinner.
“To say that it was an eye-opener would be an understatement. There’s so much poverty, and ignorance, and crime down there—and those poor kids are stuck in the middle.”
“Do you think you’d want to go and stay there indefinitely to help?” Seeing as how it looked like we were on our way to reconciling, Gimpy sounded like he was scoping out Max’s thoughts.
Max looked over to me before answering my grandfather. “Definitely, I’ll go back from time to time for short periods, but it all depends upon on Jane and our future together.” He gave a 10+ answer on a scale from 1-10.
“So if Jane were to move to another city, then you’d move with her?” I tried to give Gimpy a warning but he didn’t care to look my way. Max and I had so much to work through at this moment. The last thing I needed was to add my work to our list of unresolved problems.
“If she were to move before I decided on a hospital for residency, then yes. I’d be willing to relocate. Once I start residency, that’ll be hard to do. But, we could do it after those four years.”
“Gimpy...” I pleaded.
“If you want to move back to New York, I’ll ask the Chief to help me get a residency out there. I’m okay with that. What I don’t want is for us to have a long distance relationship.” Max voiced quietly. I saw Donovan purposely engage Gimpy in a separate conversation. “I don’t want to be apart anymore.”
“Let’s talk when we get to the apartment.” I squeezed his hand and stopped this conversation before it got any heavier with two spectators.
Once we landed in New York, we took a cab into Soho, while Donovan and Gimpy went off to their hotel. Between the five and a half hour flight plus the addition of three hours, it was quite late. Or better stated, it was very early in the morning Sunday morning.
“You want to sleep or do you want to talk?” Max asked.
Truth be told, I’m embarrassed to say I wanted to have sex with him. We were alone, it looked like we were back together, and we had a bed at our disposal. It had been an awful long time since we did anything of a naughty nature. Was I being a total slut for wanting to get it on with Max before any conversation happened? Probably. At this point the wisest thing to do would be to talk it out, get back together, then have sex the rest of Sunday.
“Why don’t we talk first.”
“When Roland ask me about New York…”
“Before we get into that,” I interrupted his thoughts, “what did you mean when you said back at the airport for me not to move?”
“Jake told me that you were moving to New York.”
“What? Why would he tell you that?”
“Jake told me that you were moving to New York today, and if I didn’t stop you from going, I would lose you forever. He said he had no idea when you might come back.”
My wheels started turning, and I thought back to what Donovan said to me on the ride to the airport and the cryptic conversation he and Jake had. I picked up the phone and called Donovan right away.
“What was said between you and Jake during the conversation when we were driving to the airport?”
“Jane, it’s almost 1 o’clock in the morning. Can a guy get some sleep?”
“No! I need some answers from you.”
“Don’t you and Max have better things to do right now than call me?”
“You spill the beans right now and I’ll tell you about Emily’s conversation with Laney earlier this morning.”
“Did I ever tell you you’re scary when you want something? Damn, Max better watch out,” Donovan chuckled. “Jake called to tell me that he told Max that you were moving to New York forever.”
“I knew it! What did he need to do that for?”
“To quote your brother, he said, you were both ‘being dumbasses’ and you both ‘needed a wake-up call.’ Now you spill the beans Jane Sydney Reid. What’s going on with Delaney?”
“I wasn’t going to tell you this because I didn’t want you to be upset, but I overheard Emily and Laney talking this morning, and Emily was cautioning her against going away with Michael to his grandfather’s summer home for a month.”
“What the fuck? Who the hell is Michael and why is she going away with another guy?”
“Don’t you remember that British guy...? Remember from the hospital?”
I heard Max clearing his throat, getting a bit annoyed with me. “Hey Donovan, let’s meet up and talk about this a little later. I need to finish my conversation with Max.”
“Sure, now that you have your information, hang up on me why don’t you.”
All I said before hanging up was, “You’re a great friend Donovan.” Then I hung up before he could rebut.
“So Jake kind of told you a little lie. To his knowledge I am not moving. What he doesn’t know is… Before I tell you this complicated story, let me just ask you point blank. Are we reconciling? Are we actually getting back together or are we just clearing the air and going our separate ways?”
“Gem, didn’t you hear me before we got on the plane? I love you and I don’t want to separate from you ever again. You are what makes my heart beat and my soul have life. Our time away gave me a clearer perspective on my life without you—and I didn’t like what I foresaw.”
“So tell me all that’s on your mind concerning me, Donovan, us—don’t hold anything back. Let’s get everything out. Let’s be completely honest with one another and if possible, let’s start again.”
“The morning of your birthday, I came to give you this.” He pulled out the wrapped box I threw at him. “Open it.” He urged.
