Chapter 20

As I followed Beth into the great room, my worst nightmare was becoming reality. Beth and Jennifer would be in the same room. I now so much regretted not telling Jen the truth about Beth and I. Although I had no contact with Beth after I had met Jennifer, I still felt guilty.

Jennifer was still in the kitchen preparing food, when we entered the great room. I offered Beth a seat and went into the kitchen to prepare Jen.

“My sister-in-law is here, we better fix an extra plate, Jen.” I told her.

“Oh ok then, just give me a few seconds.” she replied.

I walked back into the great room as Jen finished up in the kitchen. I grabbed another tray from the locker and placed it by Beth. She had come straight from work, I could tell by her clothing. A red silk blouse, short black skirt, high heels and stockings. I sat back down in my chair, just as Jen entered with the food.

“Hi Jennifer. How are you?” Beth asked.

“I’m great, Beth and you?” Jen responded.

“I’m ok, thanks.” Beth answered.

I could see Beth eyeing up Jennifer, taking in I am guessing, what she felt was her competition, although I had never made it seem that way. Beth and Jennifer struck up a conversation about family, which I stayed out of. I let the two of them catch up, but I also was ready to intervene in the conversation, in case it took a bad turn. Every time Jen would look down to get a bite of food, I noticed Beth would glance my way. I tried not to look in her direction as much as possible, feeling extremely awkward. Finally the family conversation ended, which was what I feared.

“So Jen, how are you and Jeff getting along?” Beth asked coyly.

“Pretty good, but we are taking it really slow.” she replied.

Beth smiled at the response, I am not sure why. Maybe it’s because it was the exact same answer I had given her days before. Maybe it was the uncertainty in Jen’s voice as she said it. Whatever the reason, it appeared to go over well with Beth.

“I guess you know, I have been having problems with Lance.”

“No, I had no idea. I’m so sorry.” Jen responded with care in her voice.

“Jeff didn’t tell you?” Beth asked in amazement.

“No, we really haven’t talked much about family.” she replied.

Beth looked down into her plate with a disturbed look on her face. I was beginning to worry that this conversation was going to be bad news. I needed a distraction, anything.

Beth went on to tell Jennifer about the events that led up to the separation and the recent getting back together of her and Lance. She basically repeated most of what she had confided to me over the past year. Jen listened intently, although I could not tell if she really was interested or just being polite. Beth went on to ask Jen, what the two of us had been doing lately. I was really relieved when Jen told her that mostly we just hung out on the weekends, not going out much. They went back and forth for a while, when I noticed Beth look at her watch.

“Well, I have to go.” she said standing up, “It’s getting late.”

I was relieved as hell and started walking her to the door. I opened the door, she stepped out, I followed her on the porch and closed the door behind me. She turned to face me.

“I really wanted to talk to you alone.” she told me. “Maybe later.”

With that she turned, walked to her car and got in. I breathed a sigh of relief as I opened the door and stepped back in. I re-joined Jen in the great room and sat back down to eat. A few moments passed and finally Jen spoke up.

“Jeff, I hope you know, she cares about you?” she asked me.

“What? ... Well, we are family.” I stuttered.

“No, not like family, she was looking at you like I do.” Jen continued, “It’s not hard for another woman to see it.”

I just shook my head trying to get out of this conversation as quickly as possible. I did make a silent resolution that the first time the moment seemed right, I was going to confess to Jen, lay it all out there. I had to.

We spent the entire weekend together enjoying each other’s company, sleeping late and making love several times a day. The more time I spent with Jen, the more comfortable I was becoming with her. I decided that next weekend, I would take her someplace really nice and when the moment was right, confess to her about Beth. As I entered the new work week, all that was on my mind, was how I was going to tell her about it. What words should I use?

The week passed quickly and soon I was looking at the clock, late Friday afternoon. I called Jen’s office and Tiffany answered, telling me Jen had just finished up in court and was heading back to the office. She told me she would have her call me as soon as she got in. I thanked her and hung up. Maybe fifteen minutes later, Jen called.

“Hey sweetie, how are you?” she asked.

“I’m fine, just waiting on you as usual.” I laughed.

“I’m sorry Jeff, I have to work tonight, I have to prepare a motion for Monday morning at nine in the morning.” she replied.

“It’s ok, I understand. Maybe tomorrow?” I asked.

“Definitely, I will call you when I get up.” she responded.

I was getting used to having Jen sleep in my bed over the weekends. It felt cold and lonely without her and I fell asleep early just wanting the night to be over. I woke up to the sound of rain beating on the roof, it was a real down pour, New Orleans style. I got up, walked to the front and looked out. Apparently it had been raining a while, everything was drenched. I looked at the clock and it was seven thirty. I made a pot of coffee and sat down in front of the TV. About an hour later the phone rang, it was Jen.

“Hey Jeff, I am so sorry, we couldn’t finish last night, we are back in the office again today, we will be most of the day.” she informed me.

“Oh well, it’s a bad day to do anything, anyway.” I replied with disappointment, “What time do you think you will be done?”

“I’m guessing maybe four or five this evening.” she replied, “How about you come pick me up for dinner about five?”

“Sure, sounds great.” I shot back, happy that we would be together later.

I passed the day running errands, grocery shopping, washing and drying laundry among other things. I took a long hot shower, dressed in jeans and a tee shirt, left to go pickup Jen from downtown. I called Jen when I was close so she could come down and meet me. It was always a hassle to park in the city no matter what time it was. As I pulled in front of her building, she was waiting on the bench sitting there talking to Tiffany. I pulled up, reached over and opened the door.

“Hey, we have a guest for dinner, if that’s ok with you. Neither of us have our cars, we rode in with someone else today to avoid the parking.”

“Sure, no problem.” I responded, “Hop in.”

Jen pulled the seat back and Tiffany climbed in the back seat. She was wearing a tight pair of jeans, a pull over top and sneakers. Jen was dressed basically the same, with jeans and a tee shirt. Both of them looked incredible and I saw a few envious stares from men passing by, as they both entered my car. We pulled away and I asked the ladies where did they want to eat at. Jen replied that they had discussed it and they wanted to go to a seafood and hamburger restaurant that was close to my house. It’s well known and very good, we eat there regularly. I listened to the two of them talk about all the work they had put in on this motion and how they hoped it would be successful. Soon we were pulling into the parking lot and getting out of the vehicle. We entered the restaurant and surprisingly it was not crowded, which is rare for a Saturday night. The waitress seated us and took our orders. Jen ordered wine, as did Tiffany, stating that they had a rough day and wanted to unwind.

As usual the food was very good, and the ladies were having a good time. They each had several more glasses of wine as they ate and chatted. The topic kept coming back to how hard they had worked both today and the night before. They both agreed they were not going to do a thing on Sunday but lounge around. That sounded good to me, a whole day alone with Jen. The girls ordered one last glass of wine, as we finished up.

We walked out of the restaurant and toward my car, when I had the realization I had no clue where Tiffany lived at. I could have to drive back across the river, then back, something I did not want to do. I decided I had better ask.

“Tiffany, where do you live honey?” I asked.

“Not far from Jen’s.” she replied.

We pulled out of the parking lot and Tiffany gave me directions to her place. I knew exactly where it was, Susan and I had rented a condo in that area when we were first married, though I hadn’t thought of it in years. I turned into the entrance to the buildings and noticed a lot of people out in the court yards and a few utility trucks as well. I pulled up to Tiffany’s building and parked. I walked around, opened the door and let her out. About that time, a young woman, who I found out was her neighbour approached her and told her a gas line had broke in the area, the building had no gas service. That meant no one had any hot water, nor could they cook or dry clothes. She added that it would probably be late Sunday evening before the line would be repaired. As the two women were talking, Jen got out of the car and walked over to Tiffany. She told Tiffany that she could spend the night at her place and stay until the gas line was repaired. Tiffany thought a while and finally agreed, going up to her place to pack a few things for the overnight stay. We got back in the car and waited for Tiffany to return.