Chapter 19

JADE

Time is such a funny thing. It comes and goes as it pleases, totally unaware as to how it affects the people who design their lives around it. On one hand, whenever I spend a couple of hours with Asher time flies by so fast. If I didn’t know any better I’d swear it was working against us and speeding up when I’m not looking. On the other hand, those same two hours spent doing anything else, whether it’s cooking, cleaning or being otherwise occupied with Jacob, seem to work at a complete standstill as time creeps by at a snail’s pace.

I used to stay home on my days off reading books and doing unnecessary housework, but after meeting Asher, I prefer to spend all my free time with him. One thing I truly love is the fact that there’s never a dull moment with him. Even the dates we’ve spent at his place cuddling, sipping wine and watching TV have been eventful. We have been out together several times now, and luckily no two evenings are the same. I thought my life was pretty good before, but I can wholeheartedly say Asher is the cherry on top.

I glance down into the stroller at a sleeping Jacob. He’s been napping since we got in the car to begin our adventure for the day. I love our weekly outings because they help give us both a needed change of scenery, but this little trip to the zoo is turning out to be a major fail. I thought this would be fun for us, and more importantly it would help keep my mind off Asher for a little while, but it’s turning out to be useless. Jacob’s extended nap has put a damper on my plans, and so far all I’ve done is push him around the crowded zoo. I could have just taken him to the park if he was going to be such a sleepyhead.

I’ll wake him up when we get close to the elephant exhibit. I know he’ll perk up once he sees his favorite toy alive and moving about.

Imaging the way his eyes will light up brings a smile to my lips. Just then, my cell phone vibrates in my pocket, interrupting my happy moment, and I reach for it, hoping it’s Asher.

I wonder if he can get free for an hour or two and come to the zoo for a little impromptu date.

Unfortunately, it’s not Asher, and the disappointment makes my heart sink a little. Rachel’s name flashes across the screen and I debate answering her at all. I know she’s going to be upset that we haven’t talked in a while.

“Hello?”

“Oh my God, Jade! I was just about to hang up and call your parents,” says Rachel.

I walk over to a covered bench and take a seat. Anything dealing with Rachel is a “sit-down” type of conversation.

“Why on Earth would you call them?” I ask, turning the stroller around to face me so I can watch Jacob, who’s still snoring peacefully without a care in the world.

“I thought you were dead or something,” she says. “I haven’t heard from you in weeks and we haven’t seen each other in over two months!”

I laugh and shake my head at her theatrics. My schedule has always been busy, but with Asher stealing away all my free time I guess my best friend has gotten the shaft a little more than usual as of lately. After years of knowing her, I certainly don’t expect anything less than her exaggeration.

“Well, here I am, alive and well, so there’s no need to call in the cavalry. Go ahead and fill me in on everything. What’s been going on with you lately?”

“Oh no, I didn’t call so we could talk about me. You tell me what’s been going on with you. What’s got you pulling a disappearing act on me? You’ve got something going on, I just know it. You’ve seen my texts and missed calls, don’t tell me you haven’t.”

She’s right, I did see all her calls and messages, but Rachel is worse than a veteran police detective searching for the missing piece to an unsolved mystery. She knows when someone is hiding something from her and I don’t want to be subjected to the third degree. I’m not very good at lying. I can do it, but I really don’t like to. Plus, I’m not sure what to say about Asher and what we have going on just yet. I haven’t even worked through how I feel so I’m not ready to share anything with Rachel.

“I’ve just been busy,” I say, skirting around the question, while silently reminding myself that is the truth. “You know, the older Jacob gets, the busier he gets, so I spend a lot more time chasing after him.”

“Yeah sure,” says Rachel, her voice thick with disbelief. “That accounts for some of the time, but not all of it. I used to be a nanny, I know exactly how active kids his age can be. A busy baby isn’t taking up that much time, so spill it.”

I sigh, and decide to go ahead and tell her. She has an uncanny way of chipping away the layers of a person until they relent and give in to her demands. I’d rather break the news myself than be tricked into revealing too much.

“Well, there’s this guy,” I begin.

“What!” she screams. “You met a guy and didn’t tell me? I thought I was your best friend and you’re over there keeping secrets!”

“It’s not like you think,” I say. “I haven’t been seeing him very long, so there’s really not much to tell. We’re still getting to know each other, you know how that goes. Slow and steady wins the race, right?”

“Bullshit,” Rachel huffs. “Don’t you dare think you’re going to blow smoke up my ass and downplay this situation. I’ve known you long enough to know when there’s more to a story than that. For whatever reason, you always start avoiding me when you really like someone. It’s not like I’m going to run a background check on him or something.”

I roll my eyes and find a comfortable storytelling position. “Right, like you did the last time?”

“In my defense,” Rachel begins, “Eric was awful and he deserved to have someone poking around in his background. You should be thanking me for helping you dodge that bullet.”

“Thank you,” I say with sarcasm. “I don’t think that will be necessary with this one, though.”

“Go on,” she says intrigued. “Tell me everything.”

“Well, I met this guy outside my building and he asked me out. I figured I’d give it a shot and go on a date instead of staying home reading. So far, all the dates have been great and I’m just having a little fun.”

There. Short, sweet and to the point. I didn’t even have to lie. I was just very selective about which details were necessary.

“Nope,” says Rachel. “That’s not enough backstory. I know there’s more. What’s his name? Where does he work? Does he have kids? Send me a picture, I know you have one.”

There’s the Rachel I know and love. This is exactly what I have been avoiding, and a small part of me feels justified in my decision to keep the details under wraps.

“His name is Asher, he owns his own business, he doesn’t have kids and I absolutely will not send you a picture of him,” I say, carefully measuring everything I say so as not to reveal too much.

“Damn it, Jade,” she snaps. “None of that is interesting. Where are the juicy bits? Why all the secrecy? Oh my goodness… is he married? That’s it, isn’t it? You’re keeping a low profile because he’s married, aren’t you? I totally understand, but c’mon, you can tell me, you know I won’t say anything, and I certainly won’t judge you.”

I groan loudly into the phone. “He is not married, and you know me well enough to know I’d never share a man,” I remind her. “I’m not being secretive, I’m being private for the time being. If we get serious, I promise you’ll be the first person I call.”

“Fine,” she finally says. “I’m going to hold you to that, but based on your behavior and the fact that you have completely blown me off for this guy for weeks, I’d say you’re heading to serious street.”

“Right now we’re just circling the block and having a little fun,” I say.

Jacob squirms around in his seat and I know that’s the beginning stage of his waking up process.

“Listen, I’m at the zoo with Jacob and there are a few more exhibits I want to see before we head back home.”

“All right, Jade. You take care of yourself and don’t scare me with another disappearing act. The very least you can do is respond to my text messages,” says Rachel. “Or next time I’ll show up with the SWAT team at that swanky place you live.”

“I promise to do better about returning your calls, especially since I know you’re serious about the SWAT team,” I giggle. “Talk to you later, bye.”

I end the call and shove the phone back into my pocket. Jacob is awake and squirming now, staring at me with those intense green eyes of his.

“Why hello, sleepyhead,” I say, rising to my feet. “Now that you’re up, let’s go see some animals before it gets too dark.”

I ruffle his hair and head to the elephant exhibit. As soon as I turn the corner, the beautiful animals come into view. I pull the stroller to the fenced-in compound and kneel next to Jacob.

“Let’s get you out of this thing so you can see, buddy,” I say, unhooking his straps.

Hoisting him into the air, I hold him against my hip. “Look Jacob,” I say, pointing to the elephants through the fence.

He excitedly blows spit bubbles and bounces up and down as soon as he spots them.

I’m lucky he’s such a good baby. It doesn’t take much to keep this kid happy, and that smile is the greatest reward.

My phone rings again and I reach into my pocket to grab it.

I need to assign Asher a special ringtone so I can stop getting my hopes up for nothing.

“It’s your mommy calling, let’s see what she wants.”

“Hello?”

While I’m sure it’s Magdalene’s voice on the other end of the line, I can’t make out what she’s saying. I ease Jacob back into the stroller so I can free up my other hand, and give my undivided attention to the phone call.

“Slow down, Magdalene, I can’t understand you,” I say.

What I do understand is that she’s sobbing and completely incoherent.

“Take a few deep breaths,” I coach her.

There’s a break in the crying for a moment and I try yet again to figure out what’s going on.

“Now, slowly, tell me what’s wrong. Why are you so upset?”

“Heath and I just had a fight,” says Magdalene.

Okay, what else is new? You could have waited for me to come home to tell me that.

“Is everything okay?” I ask, feigning interest and concern.

“He threatened to take the condo away. I’m going to lose everything and be out on the street!” she cries, starting to sob again.

Shit. Things must have gotten heated for him to threaten to take the condo away. He usually doesn’t go that far.

“Wow! What happened to make him say something like that?”

“That’s just it,” she says. “Nothing happened. One minute everything was fine and the next he was trying to pick a fight with me for no reason. I think he wants to put me out just so he can move another woman in here. I’m not sure if I told you, but I found lipstick on his collar a few days ago.”

Here we go again. Of course, you found lipstick on his collar. You would probably find lipstick on all his collars if he brought you around more often.

“I’m sure it’s not that,” I say, trying to soften the blow. “He wouldn’t take away the only home Jacob has ever known. He was probably just upset and saying things out of anger.”

Magdalene wails into the phone, becoming incoherent again.

“You don’t understand,” she says. “I think this is it. I think he’s looking for a way to end things with me. I can’t lose Heath, he’s all I have left, and I can’t make it without him. Jade, what am I going to do?”

I am the wrong person to ask about this kind of thing, but how can I tell my boss I’m useless?

“Um,” I consider instead. “Well, first things first, I think you should calm down. Next, you should talk to Heath and try to get some clarification about what happened. If I don’t know anything else, I know Heath loves Jacob and wouldn’t have him in an unstable situation.”

Magdalene sniffles for a few seconds before responding. “You’re right. I’m going to get dressed and go over there.”

That is NOT what I said.

“Okay, well, we’re still at the zoo, but we’ll be home shortly,” I say.

“That sounds fine,” she says. “Give Jacob my love.”

We end the call and I’m left staring at my phone in disbelief. Watching Magdalene go through hell is what makes me regularly second guess my relationship with Asher. I feel bad for her. Actually, I feel bad that her self-esteem is so low that she thinks she deserves to be treated this way. I’m confident she’s not all that concerned about losing the relationship, and is instead more upset at the possibility of losing her lifestyle.

Heath’s money offers a level of comfort that most men won’t be able to match, but maybe she’ll finally be able to find somebody who truly likes her. I know that Heath usually means what he says, and he probably will end up taking the condo away if she’s not careful.

I’m going to end up on the streets and without a job all because those two are completely dysfunctional. I wouldn’t be surprised if Heath gives her an eviction notice and sends over a moving truck.

If he does put Magdalene out and ends up firing me, I’ll just use this as the push I need to go to culinary school. I guess that’s the upside to all the madness.

Jacob coos loudly, banging on the tray in front him. He’s the real victim in this whole situation. Stuck in the middle of two parents and the chaos that comes along with them. He’s an innocent baby held hostage by their immaturity.

“Poor kid,” I whisper to myself.

I sigh and begin walking to the exit trying to mentally prepare myself for whatever the ultimate outcome is. I stretch my arms wide, loosening my muscles before taking another deep breath. Magdalene popping up on Heath, especially when he didn’t send for her, never ends well. In fact, that may be what tips him over the edge enough to make good on his threat.

Working for these people is stressing me out.

What I need is a good release, and nothing does that better than an evening with Asher. Hopefully we can get together soon, because I need to vent, and then afterwards he can work his magic and take my mind off things.

I pull out my phone so I can call the driver to return us home.

Magdalene is going to get her heart smashed into tiny pieces and I’ll be there to soothe her with grilled sandwiches, chocolate and lots and lots of wine.

Maybe I should dust off my resume… just in case.