Candy Dishes and Chocolate

"What do you mean it won't do?"

"It's too small for the three of us."

"The three of us?"

"You, me and Janet. You have a lease?"

"No, it is month to month."

"Good. No problem then in getting you moved out."

"Move out?"

"I intend to keep the house in the divorce. Rory might have other ideas, but I'm sure the courts will realize that I need a home where I can raise my child. As soon as the divorce is final we will move you in."

"We will? Don't I have any say in it?"

"Of course you do and by the time it is time to do it I'm sure that I will have you convinced that saying yes is the smart thing to do."

I just stood there and stared at her. I had no idea of what to say. The situation was just too, too way out for me.

"Come on" Jennifer said, "Let's get your chores done so we can do what I want to do."

"And that would be?"

"Silly man. Show me to your bedroom. I want to see if the bed is strong enough."

When I dropped her at her house that night she gave me a passionate kiss and then said:

"I'm sure about it baby. I'm going to be putting on a full court press. It is right and I think you know it. You just have to accept it. See you tomorrow?"

I told her I would and I headed on back to my apartment. I did think about her and what she was proposing and the more I thought about it the more that I thought that it might work. I did enjoy the hell out of being around her and I loved the way she felt when I woke up next to her. The idea had much going for it and like Jennifer had said, "It just feels right." But that was the problem. Annie had "felt right" and look how that had turned out. It had "felt right" right up till the day I found her in our bed with her boss. I couldn't believe that the stupid cunt had tried to make it my fault for coming home when I wasn't supposed to. So no, "It just feels right" wasn't going to be enough for me.

+++++

The phone pulled me out of a deep slumber and as I struggled awake and reached for the phone I saw that it was 3:10 AM. It was Jennifer and there was panic in her voice.

"Bob, my water just broke and I can't reach my in-laws. Can you take me to the hospital?"

I told her I was on the way and I hurriedly dressed and drove to her place. I helped her into my truck and then we took off for the hospital. On the way she told me she had called the hospital and her doctor and had tried several more times to get her in-laws.

"I'm not due until the day after tomorrow and I guess they weren't expecting me to call this early."

"Give me their number and I'll keep trying to reach them. Do you have a number for your husband? He should know."

"To hell with him. He is probably shacked up with that slut secretary of his."

"Still, he is the baby's father and he should be given the chance to be there."

Jen wrote some numbers on a piece of paper and gave it to me. "The top number is the number for Rory's parents and the bottom number is Rory's cell phone."

I pulled up at the entrance to the emergency room and minutes later Jennifer was on a gurney and had been trundled away. I tried the in-laws number with no luck so I called the number she had given me for her husband. He answered on the seventh ring and I told him who I was and that I'd just delivered Jennifer to the hospital.

"So why are you waking me up to tell me this?"

"It's your child. I thought you might like to be here."

"She says it is mine, but I don't happen to believe it" and he disconnected. Well, Jen had said he was an asshole.

I debated on heading home and going back to bed, but then decided that someone needed to be there for Jen so I asked for directions to the maternity ward waiting room and then headed there to wait. After that, things were kind of anti-climactic. The doctor said it was an easy delivery and mother and child were doing fine. Janet was a healthy eight pounds and seven ounces and she came with a full compliment of fingers and toes.

I finally reached the grandparents and they were all apologetic.

"We didn't expect her to go for two more days. We were out of town visiting friends. Guess we need to break down and get one of them cell phones."

A half hour later Marge and Ralph were there looking through the window at the baby and arguing good naturedly about who she most favored. Rory never did come to the hospital.

When Jennifer was released on Christmas Eve I swung by her house on the way to pick her up and turned on the tree lights so the tree would be lit when Janet was carried in. I took Jennifer and Janet home and helped them inside. Marge was already there to help her so I kissed her cheek and told her I would see her later. Jennifer clutched my sleeve in her hand and said:

"Please be here tomorrow."

I told her I would be there and I left her in the hands of her mother in law and I went on home to my apartment.

+++++

I was going through my mail and there was a Christmas card with familiar writing on it and I opened it. It was from Annalise and it was your standard "Peace on Earth" card, but on the left side she had written:

"Wish you were here or that I was there. Please call me Bobby."

It made absolutely no sense, but that card from my ex triggered something in my head and as I dropped it in the trash with the rest of the junk mail I knew what I was going to do.

+++++

Jennifer was sitting on the couch, holding Janet and crooning to her. I watched mother and child and I knew that what I was going to do was right. Jennifer saw me looking at her and saw the way I was looking at her and she asked:

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Trying to figure out how to do this."

"Do what?"

"I couldn't figure out how to go about sliding an engagement ring on the finger of a woman who is still wearing her wedding rings. Then I realized how silly it would be to propose to a married woman in the first place. I decided that before I could propose you needed to be divorced, but some married women have been known to have boyfriends, steady boyfriends, and so I decided to ask you if you would like to go steady until you are divorced."

I knelt in front of her and took my hand out of my pocket and handed her a chain with my class ring on it. "How about it Jen, want to be my steady girl?"

"Silly man, you have to ask? Put the chain around my neck and kiss me."

I did and then I sat down next to her on the couch, put my arm around her and we sat and looked at the lit Christmas tree.