Good Enough(50)

“Jameson is coming over so I thought I’d wait down here for him and visit with you.” As if on cue, Jameson pulls into the driveway. He gets out of his car and starts walking toward us in the garage. He makes it about ten feet and his cell phone starts ringing. He pauses a moment, looks at it to see whose calling and answers it. He sees me looking at him, so he holds up his pointer finger at me to tell me to hang on a moment.

About five minutes later I see him trotting back towards us in the garage. I kind of tilt my head giving him the ‘what was that call all about look.’ He stares at me and as he rolls his eyes he says “It was my mother.”

“Didn’t you just leave your place?” I ask.

“Yup.”

“Was there an emergency?” I wonder.

“Nope. She called because she wanted to know where I was because she went grocery shopping and had a few too many bags and wanted help.” He tells us.

It’s beginning to get to the point that every time I hear about this woman, my nerves are on edge and my frustration level rises. “You’re kidding me, right? The woman who brags about being independent and not needing anyone’s help called you to help her with a couple of grocery bags? So I guess that kind of gives me a look in to how well your talk with her went.”

“Let’s just say I had to take aspirin before I left. And I told her I was coming here, so I don’t know why she pretended to not know where I was. Whatever.” He shrugs it off and turns to my dad.

“Mr. Nowal, how’s it going sir?”

“Not bad, Jameson. Looks like you could use a beer. They’re in the fridge right over there. Help yourself.”

“Absolutely. Thank you.” Jameson replies.

I follow him over to the refrigerator that my dad always keeps fully stocked with his favorite Busch beer. “Did you find my ring?” The strained look in his eyes has me worried.

“I did,” he says, putting his hand in right jean pocket taking it out and handing it to me.

“Oh, thank God!” I exclaim. “Where was it?”

“Yeah, about that. When I looked all around and couldn’t find it I took a break. I was putting away laundry and found it in my mother’s dresser drawer. When I asked her about it she said you must have put it there trying to set her up.”

I am shocked. I am speechless. I’m standing there like a statue with my mouth dropped open. It feels like my jaw is at my knees. “Are you fucking kidding me right now with this shit?”

Jameson takes my hands in his but I pull away. “Hillary, I don’t believe you are trying to set up my mother but I don’t know why she would take your ring and hide it either. I was just chalking it up to a weird fucking freak thing.”

“Jameson, I don’t know what to think anymore. This is really starting to upset me more and more. Your mom clearly has it out for me for some reason I don’t know how much longer I can put up with it because I think part of you is in denial.”

With his hands on his hips he drops his head and lets out an incredibly long breath. Slightly shaking his head he looks back up to me. “I am in denial. You’re right. I just want to go one night without having to think about it. Is that okay?” He looks so hurt. I can’t deny him his simple request.

“Get your asses over here, drama club,” my dad shouts breaking the tension. We can’t help but laugh.

The three of us all pulled up five gallon buckets to sit on, because my dad never had chairs down there. It was the garage. He and my mom parked their cars in there. When my dad had a project to work on he pulled his vehicle out in to the driveway. We sat in the garage with my dad for about an hour just “shootin the shit” as my dad would say when we could hear my mom making her way down the stairs.

“Well hello my future son-in-law. I was wondering when you were going to come upstairs and say hello but I see that probably isn’t going to happen.”

“Hi. I’m sorry. We got wrapped up in some conversations. I was going to come up eventually to say hello.”

“I’m just giving you a hard time. I was actually going to ask if you two were staying here or going out. I was going to offer to buy pizza if you wanted to stay.” She tells us.

I look at Jameson and just shrug my shoulders, letting him know I’m cool either way. He does the same and we tell her sure. My dad is not one to show emotion but I could see the smile on his face when we said we’d stay. I know I’m not home a lot lately and I know he’s enjoying this time with Jameson and I in the garage. I’m enjoying it too.





PIZZA, BEER AND TWO MOVIES later everyone is yawning. I ask Jameson if he wants to crash here. He starts laughing and making jokes about the two of us sleeping in my twin bed with springs trying to push through the material. I can’t blame him for not wanting to stay. My bed is small and painful for me too, but I don’t want him to leave just yet either because we still hadn’t had a chance yet to talk about his conversation with his mom.