Fantasy Man Pt. 09

And then too she told Morgan about the easy fall into loving Corbin. About how she realized, just weeks into knowing him, that he was the most special man of her life. About their silly fight, and how afterwards they realized how they fit together, not apart, that the game teaching him to become a fantasy man was no longer such a game at all.

"He sounds wonderful," Morgan said.

Jessica by that point was holding Morgan and Lionel's infant, cradling him to her chest. Soon she'd be doing this to her own baby, she thought warmly. "I didn't think I'd ever find anyone as wonderful as Lionel. But the very week, Corbin walks into my life. He's gentle, Morgan. The sweetest soul I've ever met."

"Then he's exactly who you deserve," Morgan said. "Jess, I'll admit, I was mad about you trying to take Corbin from me. I felt betrayed. We are friends. You could have come to me and we could have talked about all this."

"I know that now," Jessica said. "It's the biggest regret of my life. I knew how Lionel felt about me, and he was always careful never to give me any false hope. That was all on me. But what hurts me the most is betraying my friends. You, Sarah, London, Dakota, all of them. Every day, that guilt hurts so much."

"They said they had a fun time with you back around Sarah's birthday," Morgan said, amused.

"Oh yes. That was something. Sarah actually had Corbin at knifepoint." They laughed about that, and Jessica stared down at the carpet. "I apologized to them. And I'm here to make things right with you. I was hoping..." She drew a deep breath. "I was actually hoping..."

A vehicle pulled into the driveway, the engine cutting out. A door slammed. Lionel. Home.

* * *

There she was. Jessica Nakamura, my son's favorite bygone babysitter and one of my favorite fantasies.

She looked so natural holding Caleb. Then again, that wasn't a surprise, considering how good she was at her job, but it still sent a pang of regret through me. Not that I would change anything. Jessica was great, and Isaac loved her, but I never felt the strong connection between us like with Morgan and our girlfriends. I don't really know why that was, but I did know I hurt her, even if I didn't mean to.

"Hello, Lionel," she said, starting to rise.

"No, don't," I said, smiling easily. "Do that and he'll probably wake up."

Instead, I came to her, setting aside my coffee and Morgan's smoothie, and gave Jessica a squeeze of the shoulder. I came to Morgan next and leaned in for a brush of her lips, my hand going instinctively to her stomach. It was as reflexive as my hand at her back when we were walking together or in the middle of a crowd. She didn't like anyone else touching her belly at random times, save for me and the girlfriends. With me, she said it made her feel safe. Protected.

I just liked knowing there was more life coming.

Jessica apologized. It was sweet, and filled with tears, and halfway through it, I realized I'd already forgiven her months ago. When I told her so, she cried some more, waking the baby, who decided to join in on the fun. Morgan took him and quieted him with a plastic set of keys.

"I was telling Morgan about my new man," Jessica said, holding up her hand with the ring on it. It was modest but beautifully picked. She told me a story, an abbreviated one, I'd find out later from Morgan. A beautiful story about a guy standing up for her, about a guy who she tried to mold into her perfect man. A guy who she fell in love with, and who fell in love with her.

"Is he good to you?" I asked her.

"Yes. He's gentle, except when I don't want him to be," Jessica said, smiling to herself. I knew plenty what she meant by that. "But it's more than that. He's good, Lionel. I'd really love for the two of you to meet him sometime."

"We'll have to do dinner. All of us."

Morgan gave me a wide smile. I'd done something right, and didn't know what it was. I'm guessing she wanted Jessica and this Corbin guy in our life too, at least as friends.

"And you were going to ask me for a favor," Morgan said quietly.

"Yes. I was," Jessica said. "Morgan, if you say no, I completely get it. I'd certainly deserve it. But I wanted to ask you... would you be my matron of honor?"

Morgan's chest hitched. She held out Caleb to me and I took our little man so she could rise up and hug Jessica. The pair of them clung together for a long while.

And of course Morgan said yes.

When the tears died down, Jessica held both Morgan's shoulder and mine. "You're the first ones to get an invite," she said.

"Jessica, if it's too weird, me being there," I started.

"No. Corbin and I talked about it. You were a big part of my life. You and Morgan and everyone. We would love to have you there."

"Good," I said. "And you know Isaac's going to want to do some Fortnite dances with you at the reception."

She burst out laughing and nodded. Her hands finally fell away. "Thank you. Both of you."

Isaac came back after I texted him, and she asked him if he'd like to be their ring bearer. My little guy, perhaps predictably, launched into half a dozen Lord of the Rings quotes, but eventually bounced his way to a yes.

Jessica left not too long after that. We promised to make plans to meet Corbin, even if I did feel a tiny pang of old residual jealous energy. Jessica deserved to be happy. I was proud of her for finding the right way back to us.

* * *

Lionel and Corbin pulled down the sliding door of the trailer, and Corbin snapped the locks into place. Together, as one, they went to clap each other's shoulders, a gesture so old by that point it was comical. The two had always gotten along since the day they first met. It had been strange, for sure, but Lionel was impressed the-then teenager wanted to learn more about home repair, and Corbin liked Lionel's no-bullshit attitude.

"Reminds me a lot of how this started out for Isaac and me," Lionel said, contemplating the moving truck. "After my divorce. That was the first road trip we ever took together, come to think of it."

"You'll have to take some more up in our direction," Corbin said. He was a physical trainer now, cut, powerful. He wasn't as bulky as Lionel was, but could outlast the other man on the treadmill by several miles. Lionel was his first client as a trainer once he graduated and got a job at a great local gym, and the last one Corbin saw before he handed in his keys to the manager.

"We'd love that," Lionel said. He held out his hand, and Corbin shook. "Take care of your family."

"You too. Thanks for the loan and... just everything. I've learned a lot from you."

Lionel was fronting the down payment on Jessica's new office. It was a pretty safe investment, though. Jessica had graduated with honors, and her doctorate, though not a breeze by any means, came with effort and time.

"Hey. You're both going to do amazing. Send me pictures when you get it decorated."

"Will do."

They headed inside. Nothing was left of Jessica and Corbin's life in their first home together, save a bunch of folding chairs and a card table, all of which belonged to Lionel and Morgan. Seated around the table was the whole crew. Isaac had grown like a weed, nearly six feet tall now, but he still had that boyish smile and wide-eyed innocence, even if he was already a budding heartbreaker. He held Jessica and Corbin's oldest daughter Mona on his lap, playing trucks with her.

Beside him was Morgan, holding Corbin and Jessica's other daughter, Hayley. The two-year old's face was stained with juices from a quickly melting freezer pop. Corbin grinned at the sight. Morgan herself looked radiant and as beautiful as the first day Corbin met her. Their children, aside from Isaac, were back home, being watched over by a babysitter.

Victoria sat next to her, a padded cushion helping make her more comfortable. She was just weeks from giving birth to her first child. She held hands with Sarah, who had, for once, dressed in something vaguely approaching decency to help with the move. And of course Jenna and Yvonne held hands too. They bucked tradition and wore their gold bands on opposite hands so when they held them, their rings were together. Their marriage had been a gorgeous extravaganza on a beach in the Bahamas, and one of Corbin's all-time favorite vacations with Jessica. Victoria and Sarah were just starting to ramp up plans for their own wedding. They wanted to do it right there in the city, with a bigger reception maybe over the holidays in Colorado or Las Vegas.

London and Dakota bookended Brooke and Sasha. The four of them formed something of a mini-group of their own. Corbin and Jessica stopped sleeping around with other people around the birth of their second child, but by that point, Brooke and Sasha were regulars with the twins. The pair of college friends found something in each other, something to help Brooke move on from her obvious heartache over Corbin, and it had been years since Corbin last felt Brooke's hurt eyes linger on him.

Pamela Windsor had moved on from Agramonte to a tiny college town in Florida, a place rumored to be even more of an unabashed sexfest for students and educators alike. Dr. Madison still taught locally, and frequently invited Jessica and Corbin's family over for dinner. That's all it was anymore, dinner, but occasionally they talked about their pair of crazy hookups and laughed well into the night.

Speaking of absences, Sam and Mary both got a happy ending as well. They married their junior year, and Mary had her first - and so far, only - child their senior year. She took that last semester off but brought her A-game that fall, and after they graduated, they moved west, where Sam got a programming job with an up-and-coming small games studio. Mary made some sideways moves and now worked Q&A for a big tech site out there. They made crazy money, though the cost of living was just as nutty. But Corbin's best friend and best man was happy, and that was all that mattered to him.

And finally, at the head of the table, just starting to show with their third child, Jessica. It was the pregnancy that set this move in motion. It brought out a memory for Jessica, of tears one Thanksgiving night and a guilt that had never quite healed. She and Corbin thought at first they'd live forever in their two-story rental in Agramonte, and had even begun talking about buying it. But plans change. Life changes. And a new, beautiful route began to form in their minds when they found just the right office.

She rose, and came to Corbin and Lionel, first to hug Lionel, and then wrap her arm around Corbin's waist. He kissed her head.

"Is it time?" Sarah asked dully. Of all of Jessica's friends, she'd been the most emotional about this. Sarah was still batshit crazy in a lot of ways, some of them fun, some of them as dangerous as a match to gasoline, but above all else, she was loyal to the people she loved, and that included Jessica, even platonically.

"It is," Corbin murmured. Louder, he said, "I wanted to thank everybody for helping out. This... this means a lot."

"The world," Jessica said. "And you know you're all expected and welcomed up at our new place."

"We've been talking about maybe Easter," Morgan said, smiling. "If we can wait that long."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Corbin said, and Jessica nodded, sniffing.

Everybody stood up, and one by one they came to the couple. Hugs were long and plentiful, and more than a few kisses were less than chaste. Brooke trembled when she hugged Corbin, and broke out into sobs when he kissed her cheek. Sasha cried for the first time either Jessica or Corbin could remember.

It was sweet Isaac's tears that set Jessica off the hardest. The child she used to babysit was now growing quickly into a man, and she held him and rocked with him, her tears dampening his chest until finally he pulled away, wiping at his own face. And only at the last did he hand over Mona, now crying too, mostly because everyone else was.

"Take care of my little thug," he said, holding out his fist for Mona to bump. She did, and giggled through her tears as Isaac made as though his fist exploded.

Morgan handed over Hayley too. Corbin didn't realize it at the time, but it was just the four adults and the two little girls. Everyone else had meandered outside next to the truck. Lionel reached out for Corbin's hand, and they shook before Lionel pulled the young man in for a ferocious hug.

"It was always you she was meant to be with," he said. "Never take that for granted."

"No, sir," Corbin said. He kissed Morgan's cheek. "We'll miss you both."

Jessica hugged and kissed Morgan. "Thank you for the last few years," she said. "I still can't believe you welcomed me back into your life. It... meant the world to me."

"Call all the time," Morgan said, her voice thick with emotion.

"We will." And then it was Jessica and Lionel. He smiled fondly down at her, and she hugged him tight. He kissed her forehead. There were no words between them. There didn't need to be.

They loaded the girls in the backseat of Jessica's car and checked everything one more time with the truck. Through a wall of tears, Jessica waved goodbye to her old life, to the house and the people she loved, and in the rearview mirror, her man followed her, waving too.

* * *

Kimberley shrugged on the coat her husband offered her, not knowing what was going on. She hoped his playfulness meant one of the children was coming for a surprise visit. If it was Andrew, he would have just drove, considering he went to college only an hour away. That meant Jessica and Corbin.

The closeness she felt with her daughter since Jessica fell in love with Corbin astounded Kimberley. Every day they talked, even if it was just for five minutes. When Jessica first left for college Kimberley was lucky if she heard from Jessica every two weeks.

She hoped they were flying in, though it was such an odd time to do it. Sunday, and no major holidays were coming. No, no, this was probably something else, some other surprise. Oliver was taking her to dinner, or maybe dancing. They had taken that up now that Andrew was out of the house, feeling like old silly fools in a class of people twenty years younger than they were. But it brought them closer, and she loved it so much.

"Where to?" she asked Oliver as he led her out to the car.

"Not yet, not yet," he said, grinning as wide as she'd ever seen. He opened her door for her like they were young again, and she thrilled to it, smiling warmly up at him even as her guts writhed with hope and the knowledge that she should keep her expectations down.

He dialed a number, and said simply, "We're on our way."

Oliver drove, but not all that far. Just a few blocks away, they turned onto a quiet street, full of small, recently built homes. His hand shot for hers, and she squeezed it. He didn't let go until they pulled to a stop behind a big moving truck.

"No," Kimberley whispered.

Out the front door of the house came two children, two of the loveliest human beings on Earth, who Kimberley could not have loved more if she wanted to. It had only been months since she seen them last but her heart swelled so much it felt as though it could burst. She was out the car and running to them, mindless of the dirt for once in her life.

"Grandma, Grandma!" Mona shouted.

"Ranma! Ranma!" Hayley echoed her.

Mona turned and pointed at the small house. "See our new house?"

"Wh... what did you say?" Kimberley whispered.

Corbin stepped out. "Hello, Mom," he said, holding the door for her.

"Corbin, I... what is this?" Kimberley asked.

"Come on in and find out," Corbin said. He leaned down to kiss her cheek before she could pass through, but she barely noticed, tapping his chest distractedly as she stared at her daughter, standing in the living room, hand on her growing belly.

"You said you were worried you'd wake up someday and find out you missed everything," Jessica said, hoarse with emotion. "Well... now you won't miss a single day of the rest of the girls' lives, if you don't want to." She tapped her stomach, smiling. "And it is girls."

Kimberley rushed to her.