Good Enough(44)

“You’re home awfully early.” I heard Jameson say.

“Well, the people were boring. I brought a piece of cheesecake home though. I gotta put it in the fridge before I forget.”

“Hi Marcie.”

“Hello Hillary. Why are you hiding in the kitchen?”

“I’m not hiding. I was doing the dishes from dinner.” I say as I dry my hands off on a towel.

“Oh no, dear. Not that towel.” She says as she grabs it out of my hand. “That towel isn’t for hands.”

“But it was next to the sink I just assumed–”

“No.” She says cutting me off. “It’s for drying dishes.”

“Then what is the towel on the dish rack for?” I ask.

She doesn’t answer me. She rips off two paper towels that are on the counter, hands them to me and walks away. I stood there completely dumbfounded. It took all my strength not to mention to her that she had her sneakers on and forgot to take them off before walking in to the apartment. It’s hard keeping my inner smart ass in check.

As I was stepping out of the kitchen to see if Jameson heard any of that, he was already there. He doesn’t say anything. He has his head tilted to the side a bit and his bottom lip pursed out. His face has the apology for the words that cannot come out. I’m sorry my mom is crazy is what I would like to hear him say. I follow his lead and don’t utter a word myself. I just give him a simple grin, wrap my arms around his waist and we just stand there for a moment. He releases our hug, grabs my hand, ushers us towards his bedroom and closes the door.





THE SUNDAY MORNING NEWSPAPER has everything. It has world news, state news, sports, comics, job opportunities, stock market and most importantly house listings. After our romantic dinner date at the apartment was cut short on Friday, it gave us a lot to talk about on Saturday, our own place. We decided that just looking in the paper to see what was out there and for how much wouldn’t hurt anything. We weren’t signing any papers, and we weren’t going to the open houses. We were just looking.

Another quiet breakfast at the dining room table just the three of us. Marcie had the newspaper in front of her. As soon as Jameson sat down with his coffee she handed him the comics because he always read that first.

“I’ll read the comics later mom. I’m actually looking for the real estate section.” He says to her.

“The what? The real estate section? For what?” She says, with a surprised look on her face.

“Because we want to see what’s out there for houses.” Jameson replies.

“Why so soon?”

“Mom, things like this take time. We’re not going to just buy the first house we see. We need to start looking now. We went through our finances already. We know what we can and cannot afford. We know our prequalified amount.”

“So you’re moving out just like that?” She asks angrily.

“Mom, Hillary and I are engaged to be married. Did you think I was going to live here until the night before my wedding?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. I tried to hold it in but I couldn’t. Marcie gave me such a nasty look. One of those if looks could kill looks. “Sorry, I thought that was funny.” I admit. Jameson laughs and gives me a wink so show support.

“Well, no. I just thought… I thought you’d be more focused on the wedding first. That’s all.”

“We are focused on the wedding but it’s a while from now. We have time. We want to be settled in a house together before the wedding.” Jameson tells her.

“What do you mean it’s a while from now? You set a date?”

“Yes we did.” I chime in. “July 5, 2003.” I tell her.

“That’s a long engagement. Well over a year.” She responds.

“We want it to be just right, and for something like that it takes time.” I tell her.

She nods as if she understands. I’m not entirely sure though.

“Well, this morning has been quite eventful.” Marcie says as she stands up from the table, taking her plate in to the kitchen. “I must get moving. I have errands to run. I also need to go grocery shopping before the stores get crowded.”

I give Jameson the biggest, most devilish grin. My face saying it all… we have the place to ourselves. We are etting’ busy!

By the time Marcie got dressed, brushed her teeth and did her hair it was a good hour before she left. She said she’d be gone for at least two hours. When she left the apartment I went in to the bathroom to freshen up. Jameson looked out the window the make sure she drove out of the parking lot and didn’t possibly forget something and come back in. As I finished up in the bathroom I made my way across the hall to Jameson’s room. He was already there waiting for me.