Chapter 14

2003

“I am dropping you at your daddy David’s, right?” said Stacey.

“Yes, yes, Mom, I’m willing to see his complaintmanship this weekend. He’s taking me to the movies. At least I get to choose. Not much fun, but better than sitting around waiting for him to complain or ask stupid questions all the time,” said Jenna.

“Jenna, don’t be that way. It’ll be relaxing for you. You could use a little of that, time to relax. You and those friends of yours are gone too much these days,” said Stacey.

“Okay, Mom, okay,” said Jenna.

“You’re calling him dad now aren’t you?” asked Stacey. “You know like me and Daddy Ron asked you too.”

“Yes, yes, I’m calling him dad. He acts more like a kid brother though. Can I call him kid!” said Jenna, laughing at her own attempt at humor. Her mother gave her a look.

“Jenna, stop it. If you’re having problems with your unc—dad, tell him what’s on your mind. But for godssake stop all of the nonsense. Okay?” said Stacey.

“Okay, okay,” said Jenna. “I was only kidding.”

“Okay, get your stuff together; we’ll be leaving in half an hour,” said Stacey.

I saw her pull into the lot in front of my apartment building. That was usual whenever she delivered Jenna. What was not usual was the fact that she was getting out and following Jenna up to my place. Usually she just dropped her and waited till Jenna got to my door before she pulled out and away. Well heck, that’s fair for sure because that’s pretty much what I did too.

“Hello, David,” she said. I looked at her. I didn’t scowl.

“Hello,” I said. “Something wrong?”

“No, I just thought I’d come up and say hello, maybe sit down with you for little bit,” she said.

“Huh? Sit down with me?” I said. “I mean our little lunch at Denny’s, not so long ago, didn’t work out so well. Why would you want to continue the game?”

“No good reason. Just thought it might be a good idea, and that was then this is now,” she said. She glanced over at Jenna.

“Dad, talk to mom, okay,” said Jenna. I nodded and stood back from the open door to allow them in. I did note that Jenna calling me dad did not seem to grate on my ex; I wondered about that.

The woman had never been inside my place before and only a few times as far as the door. I wasn’t exactly ashamed of my digs, but I knew they suffered majorly in comparison to where she was living now.

“Nice place,” she said.

“Have a seat,” I said. “Want a cup of coffee, a soft drink?”

“Coffee would be nice,” she said. “I mean if it’s already made. I don’t want to be a bother.”

“No bother, I said. I was playing this little tableau by ear. She and I had not had a civil, or at best, a barely civil word to say to each other in quite a while. But this, now...

Jenna disappeared down the hall. Putting away her stuff, I supposed. I headed into the kitchen. I did have to make a new pot of coffee. I started it perking and went back in to her.

“How have you been, David?” she said, as I reemerged. I had a really hinky feeling with her being so, something.

“Okay. The coffee will be a few minutes. I made a new pot,” I said.

“Dave, I know this may seem a little strange me being here, sitting here, given everything. But, I just wanted to see you, talk to you a little bit. It was a spur of the moment decision; I made it in the car on the way over.

“I have to say; I was afraid, well anyway, I decided to risk it,” she said. I had to smile.

“Really,” I said.

“You’re smiling can I count that as a good thing?” she said.

“I guess. But...”

“Yeah me either,” she said, reading my mind. “I mean I’m not sure how to act either.”

Yep, she was reading my mind. Well we had been married a long time. I guess she knew me even if, in the final analysis, that I hadn’t really known her.

“You’re going to the movies?” she said.

“Yeah, Jenna likes ‘em, I try to do things she likes when I can,” I said.

“Oh, okay,” she said. “Good.”

We talked for some little time. And yes, I did remember the coffee, and we did have a cup. Nothing we talked about was of any importance, but it was the first time in a long time that we’d communicated. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. But, point for her team, I guess. She’d gotten me to not go off on her. It had to have been maybe twenty minutes before we said our goodbyes and she left. Jenna appeared not ten seconds later.

“You and mom talked,” said Jenna, emerging from the back room, her room, for the first time since she’d, they’d, arrived. I had the thought that she’d hung back and listened in, but I didn’t ask or push it.

“Yes, a little, as you saw, I’m sure. Was that your idea?” I said.

“No. I was kinda surprised too, I guess,” said Jenna. I nodded.

Strange, the whole scene had been strange. Was there a thaw in our relations? Not really, it was kind of like opposing armies having a Christmas grog together but then going back to their respective trenches to continue the fight.

What was not so strange, though it would have been in the old days, was Jenna’s attitude toward money and the things that money could buy. Anymore, she was always showing up with some new trinket, machine, wardrobe item, something; “always” being the operative term. I couldn’t match the two cheaters’ financial resources, but I did try to do things with Jenna that she liked. I knew she especially liked chick-flicks so we saw a lot of them. Boring for me, but her thing, so we went to see them.

The one thing that bugged me was that damn phone Jenna had. It was state of the art of course, and almost always in use. I wanted to toss the thing into the deep blue sea, but it was the one thing that had almost religious appeal to her. And, her conversations with her friends were all but endless, secretive, and generally hilarious in content if the giggling and outright hysterics I was witness to on Jenna’s end were any indication. And, when I say I witnessed such demonstrations, I mean that I witnessed her hilarity in the kitchen while she was confabbing in her room; she was that loud. Well, at least she was happy when she was with me; I counted that as a good thing. Well, I had until five minutes ago.