Flowers in the Park Ch. 11

Even in the darkness of the late afternoon twilight, Alex could see that Wes was crying. Alex reached out for his hand, and Wes grabbed it and squeezed.

Softly, Alex asked, "Baby, what's wrong?"

Without looking away from the front windshield, Wes said in a broken voice, "They're moving...once Janelle and Dennis get married, they are moving to Memphis. They're taking my son away from me...instead of twenty minutes away, he's now going to be seven hours away from me. What am I going to do, Alex?

******

Alex knew whatever it was would be bad, but she wasn't prepared to hear what he said. She searched for words to say to Wes that would help him in his despair, but nothing came to mind right away. She continued holding his hand as his gaze through the windshield persisted. She knew this couldn't have been easy for Janelle to tell him, so there must have been a very important reason why she would put Wes through this kind of grief.

"Did she say why they were moving?"

"Dennis got what's basically a training promotion in his job. He'll more than likely spend two years in a hands-on managerial position closer to the headquarters of the company where he works, and then would be able to come back to this area after his training is over."

Alex squeezed his hand again and asked, "Did she say when this was going to happen?"

He hung his head as he replied, "They're getting married in three weeks, and then will take a one-week honeymoon. They'll move the following week sometime; they're still ironing out all the details."

The silence in the car was interrupted only by Wes' sobs. It was breaking Alex's heart to see him like this, but she certainly understood why he was feeling this way, and she suddenly realized that not having Wesley around was going to be hard on her as well, especially after the weekend they had just spent together.

"Wes, what else did she say?"

"She was upset. She told me that this was the last thing she wanted to do since she knew I was a good father and loved Wesley so much, but they felt that for the good of his career, they needed to take this step. Of course, I lost it, and said some pretty bad things that didn't help the situation any. Alex, I wasn't prepared for the shock of what she had to say, and I didn't handle it very well. But this was about the worst news she could ever give me. She's taking my son away from me!"

Alex leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, tasting the saltiness where his tears had run. There were another few moments of silence, but during that time, Alex started having some thought about how they could make this work. She put her hand on his cheek and said, "Will you let me help you through this? I don't think I can fix it completely, but maybe we can figure out some things that will make better than it looks now."

For the first time since coming back to the car, Wes turned and looked at his girlfriend. "I need your help, Alex, because right now I can't really get past the rage and sorrow I'm feeling."

"That's perfectly understandable. Let's try to look at what our options are. What solutions do we have that might make this better?"

Wes looked back to the windshield again. He collected his emotions a little bit, and replied softly, "The first option that comes to mind is to quit my job here and get an engineering job in Memphis so I could be there with them. I don't think it would be too difficult to find a position there."

A stab of fear tore through Alex's heart when he said that. She hadn't thought of that possibility before, but now Wes was suggestion leaving her to be closer to his son. She'd never been in a long-distance relationship before, but she didn't see how she could spend the next two years not being with him every day.

But she also knew that Wes had been a father for over three years, and she'd only been with him for two weeks, so it would make sense that his son would be more important to him than she was at this point in their relationship. Realizing this didn't make her feel any better.

Fortunately, Wes' next comment relieved her fears somewhat. "I don't want to leave my job here. I like working for the city, and while I might get paid a little more in the private sector, I'm getting great benefits, and I have a good crew with which I work."

Then he turned to face Alex again as he continued - "I'm not about to leave you behind, and it wouldn't be fair to expect you to move with me to Memphis if I were to go. That would be like choosing between Wesley and you, and I'm not willing to make that choice, so we'll have to try to figure out how this is going to work."

Alex knew that Wes loved her but hearing him say he didn't want to leave her behind made it that much more important to her to try to offer a reasonable solution.

"You say it's about a seven-hour drive between here and Memphis?

Wes nodded his head.

"Okay, I just had a thought, and I know it's not going to sound like a very realistic solution but hear me out. There's nothing that is keeping us here in town on the weekends, so theoretically, we could drive to Memphis when we get off work on Friday afternoon and come back home on Sunday. If we'd do that every other weekend, you'd get to see him the same amount of time you are now."

He shook his head. "I'm not going to make you ride with me in a car for fourteen hours per weekend to go see Wesley. That doesn't sound like much fun for you."

Alex quickly replied, "Neither does staying home without you on the weekends you go see your son. I know being in a car for fourteen hours over two and a half days doesn't sound like much fun. But being with you is always fun and given the choices of being with you in a car that long or being by myself in my apartment that long, you are going to win each and every time."

For the first time since hearing Janelle's terrible news, Wes smiled and turned his head to look at her. Seeing her smile back moved him to lean over the middle console and wrap her up in a hug, which they held for a minute.

Once the hug was over, Alex began to speak again. "There's a couple of other things to look at with this solution. One is that Janelle's parents are still living here, aren't they?"

Wes replied, "They are."

"And they're going to also be devasted to hear this news, since they have helped her raise him, I think you told me."

He nodded.

"There will be times that she will need to bring him back to see his grandparents, and while we might not get to see him for as long as we'd like on those weekends, I bet they'd give you at least some time with him."

Again, Wes nodded. "Yeah, I bet they'd want to see him at least once a month. If she'd bring him here, that would be a weekend we wouldn't have to drive."

Wes picked up Alex's hand and brought it to his mouth for a kiss, causing Alex to chuckle a little bit. "And there's one more opportunity for us in this. Since you work for the city and I work for the school district, we'll have many of the same three-day holiday weekends off at the same time, and that would be an extra day we could see Wesley in Memphis. Plus, I'm sure there are fun things for us to explore there when he's with his mom. We can look at it as a mini vacation."

Alex was smiling by the time she finished her suggestions. Not only was she trying to sell the plan to Wes, but she also realized she had sold herself on it as well. She knew it would take sacrifices on both their parts to make this new normal work, but she couldn't deny the fact that seeing Wesley was worth whatever effort it took.

Wes was still struggling, and Alex was running out of things to help him. But quickly she realized he was dealing with a new struggle.

He turned to her and said, "I really over-reacted to this. I was so blindsided that I said some things that I very much regret now, and by the time it had hit me what she was saying, my rage and grief was in control, and I never gave her any opportunity to try to work through this."

Alex replied softly, "I was watching, and I could see that in your actions, especially when she reached out to give you a hug and you didn't return it."

Wes hung his head and said, "I didn't, did I."

"Wes, nobody can fault you for the way you handled it after hearing such unexpected news. Even Janelle wouldn't be able to blame you, because she knows how much you love Wesley and would have to understand that solid love would lead to some solid anger and grief when you found out."

"I know, but I can't leave it like this. She has been so good about making sure Wesley knew who her father was and having me be an important part of his life. She opened up her house so I could spend holidays with them. Not many women in her situation would have done that. I can't leave here without apologizing to her and telling her that I support his opportunity to advance in his job."

Then he looked at Alex and said, "Thank you. If you hadn't been here when I found out about this, I'd still probably be so angry that I wouldn't have tried to look for ways to make this work. It was a selfish reaction on my part, but you stayed level-headed and helped bring me back down to earth so we could work on this. I love you for so many reasons, and this just got added to that list."

He leaned over and they kissed again. When they stopped, she whispered, "I love you too, Wes. We'll make this work, and I'll be with you every mile of the journey."

Wes reached for his phone and placed a call. "Janelle, we're still sitting out in front of your house....we've been talking about this, and Alex has helped me see this from a different attitude than the rage I was feeling....no, wait, can we come in and talk about this some more?.......okay, we'll be right up."

He looked at Alex and said, "Please come with me, I need your support as I talk to her."

They both got out of the car. Janelle had the door opened again and she allowed them in. Wesley and Dennis weren't visible, so they figured he was watching him again so they could talk without his interruptions.

Alex could tell that Janelle been crying as Wes spoke. "Janelle, first of all, I'm sorry. I realize now that this must have been as hard on you to tell me as it was for me to hear it, but at the time I was only thinking about myself and the anger and grief that had suddenly flooded me. I looked past your pain to concentrate on my own, and that was wrong. If you'd let me, I want to return the hug you gave me before."

Wes held out his arms and Janelle walked to him. She was crying again as she buried her head into Wes' shoulder. Alex could hear her say, "I'm sorry too, Wes. I knew you'd be upset, but I'm glad you see that it was upsetting to me also. If I could have figured a better way to tell you, I would have."

Janelle stepped back, and Wes turned to Alex. "It was Alex that helped me understand that. She's the reason that we're back in here to talk again."

Janelle smiled and turned to Alex. "Thank you. You're turning out to be a very important in our family!"

Alex smiled back at Janelle. "It's a very good family, and I'm glad to do my part."

Janelle turned back to Wes. "I'm glad you came back in because Dennis and I talked about this, and we both don't think this is fair to you, since we know Wesley loves you so much. So...we've decided that he's going to turn this down..."

Wes interrupted her. "Stop right there. That's NOT going to happen! He needs to take advantage of this opportunity he's been given, and I'm not about to let you decide otherwise. Alex has come up with some strategies that will help make this workable."

He proceeded to outline the plan Alex had suggested. Janelle listened intently, nodding in agreement from time to time as he told her about their travel plans and that Alex had agreed to come with him to share the driving and break up the monotony of a long road trip. Janelle even mentioned that her parents weren't too happy about them leaving either, but a once-a-month road trip to bring Wesley to see them was a good idea and she'd make sure that Wes would get some time with him on those weekends as well.

Then Janelle had another idea. "Since we're only going to be here for another month, what would you think if between now and then, I'd have Wesley spend an evening with you, say once a week? I could bring him to you and just hang out somewhere until it was time to bring him back home."

Alex suddenly had a smile on her face. "How about if I would come and pick him up from his daycare after school and bring him to us? I get off work earlier than Wes does so I could have him back by the time Wes got home. And then I imagine we could bring him back to you, Janelle. Then maybe you and Dennis could enjoy an evening by yourselves."

Janelle smiled. "I like that very much! I'll have to let the daycare know that you'll be picking him up, but that shouldn't be a problem."

Alex replied, "Wes, I could drive your car to work those days so his car seat will already be in there and we won't have to worry about moving it from car to car."

Wes laughed, "You...drive my car? Uhhh.....I'm kidding! That sounds amazing, and getting extra time with Wesley will be great! Although it will more than likely Alex getting more time with him, since this weekend I was just a simple follower and photographer while he dragged Alex all over the place."

They all laughed. Janelle turned back to Wes and said, "Do you mind if I go get Dennis and Wesley and bring them out here before you leave? I want him to know what you've said about his job. He's going to be pleased!"

Wes and Alex both nodded, and Janelle headed down the hallway in her house. In less than a minute, they heard the high-energy footsteps of a three-year-old who was excited to find out his new best friend was in the house.

"ALEX!!!!!"

He ran over to her and gave her a big hug, completely ignoring his father. Janelle and Dennis came and joined them, and Janelle laughed as she realized what Wes had said about their weekend was true. Alex knelt to return Wesley's hug.

Janelle turned to Dennis and said, "Honey, Wes isn't going to let you turn down your promotion. They've figured out how we can all make this work so Wesley will still be able to see everyone, including my parents.

Dennis turned to Wes with a surprised look on his face. "Are you sure? I could tell you were really upset when she came back inside. I feel guilty for taking your son so far away from you and I didn't blame you for being upset."

Wes replied, "We'll make it work. It will mean some road time for me and Alex, but it's worth it, and I don't want to stand in the way of this opportunity you've been given."

Dennis reached out to shake Wes' hand, but then muttering, "Oh, what the hell..." wrapped him up in a hug, which Wes returned.

Dennis stepped back and said, "Thank you. You don't know how much this means to me!"

They talked for a few more minutes, with Wesley clinging to Alex the entire time. Finally they left, and as they walked out to their car, Wes hugged Alex, stopping to kiss her before opening her door.

Once inside the car, Wes turned to Alex. "I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. But I'm still up for the Burger Shack if you are."

Alex smiled. "Of course - have to keep the tradition going, even though it's going to pause for a while now, it seems like."

"Thanks again, Alex - without you, I'd still be raging and could never have figured this out by myself. I'm not sure how I'll pay you back, but I hope to spend the rest of my life trying."

Alex blushed. "Wes, just seeing you relieved is payment enough, but no payment is necessary...unless you want to get our burgers to go and take them with us. Then maybe we could start on the payment plan a little earlier, if you know what I mean!"

"If that's how I'm going to repay you, then I'll double it!"

After the burgers and an intense session of passionate sex, they were laying in bed winding down before going to sleep. Wes turned to Alex and said, "You know, people are going to think you are crazy when they find out what you're going for me so we can go see Wesley."

"Why are they going to think I'm crazy?"

He laughed. "They won't believe someone would willingly allow themselves to be cooped up in a car with me for 14 hours over two days, without any way of escaping!"

Alex rolled over to face him and gave him a kiss. "If that's the definition of crazy, then lock me up and throw away the key. I want that kind of crazy for a long time!"

Alex rolled back over and spooned herself into his body. As they lay there together, he began to sing to her - "Yeah I don't want easy, I want crazy. Are you with me, baby, let's be crazy."

Alex whispered back, "Yes, let's be crazy...."