“I’m not whining, I’m informing,” Jim corrected with a sardonic grin.
Anne laughed.
It didn’t take the three of them long to eat. Anne stood carefully, wanting to be certain her ankle would hold her weight. “Well, thank you for keeping me company, gentleman” she said, looking at the men. “It was nice meeting you.”
“Nice meeting you,” Jim said shaking her hand briefly. Merle nodded to her politely.
Whatever possessed him to ask her if she wanted a ride, he’d never know. Maybe it was her obvious limp, or the pain she tried to hide when she stepped on her injured ankle, but Merle instantly offered her a ride in Jim’s truck. Jim raised his eyebrows in surprise, but said nothing. Merle wasn’t a mean guy, but he didn’t generally offer small services to strangers. Merle ignored Jim’s look as they walked out to the truck. Anne climbed in the middle, trying to give Jim and Merle as much room as possible. She wasn’t thin, so it wasn’t much space, but she felt better for having tried.
By the time they reached her office, she almost had Merle convinced to come donate blood. He wasn’t quite ready, but she was pretty sure that given a little more time he’d try it, at least once. Anne went back to making her calls when she got in the office. It took her the rest of the day to finish the calls, and there were still two pages of names and numbers she’d have to try to reach tomorrow because there were no answering machines. Anne sighed. She was exhausted, and she still had to walk to pick up her car. When her boss offered her a ride, Anne couldn’t refuse. It would have been too painful to walk more.
Anne drove home in silence, not bothering to turn on the radio. She’d called the insurance company this morning, so most of the bill was covered. She paid a hundred, knowing the insurance wouldn’t cover the entire cost. The garage would bill her later, they always did.
The house was just as empty as when she left. No messages. No letters: just bills and a small white envelope addressed delicately to Ms. Anne Stafford. She shook her head. Who would have sent her a card? Anne opened the envelope curiously. She withdrew the invitation, looking at the subtle wedding bells decorating the top. The invitation read:
You are invited to join us for the wedding shower of
Alexia Charity Loyd
On Saturday November 15
th
From 11a.m. – 2p.m.
at
Michael and Kelly’s house
4859 West State Street
Please call Kelly to RSVP by Wednesday November 12
th
Anne didn’t know what to think. Were they offering her the olive branch? She found it hard to believe that they were trying to fix things so soon after the little tiff at the restaurant. Then again, it could just be an accident. It wasn’t like Jason to be so forgiving. He held a grudge with the best of them. She seriously doubted that they really wanted her to come; but if she refused to come when they went out of their way to invite her, it would cause friction. It was just too pitiful. Anne didn’t know what do. She didn’t like Alexia, and she didn’t want to celebrate her son’s imminent marriage to her. Should she call Jason? Of course, if she tried to call Jason there was a chance Alexia would answer again. Alexia was the last person in the world she wanted to talk to. Anne debated her options. Maybe it would be better to wait and see what happened. If Jason called to apologize then she’d go for his sake. If he didn’t call her to apologize then she wouldn’t go. She shook her head; she didn’t want to think about Jason and Alexia right now, she wanted to relax and pretend none of it had ever happened.
Anne decided to take a hot bubble bath, something she hadn’t done in quite some time. She grabbed a book, one she’d been trying to read for months, and started running the water. It would be a nice change to sit at home and read in the bathtub. It might even help her ankle.
Chapter Eight
Rose refused to answer the phone. It was her mother. Rose didn’t want to talk to her mother, didn’t want to see her, in fact. She couldn’t believe how her mother had treated Alex and Jason. It was ridiculous. Alex was pregnant, and clearly delicate. She was normally a pretty sturdy girl, but the pregnancy was difficult on her, and her hormones were everywhere. When Jason and Alex showed up on her door step a couple days after Halloween, Rose was flabbergasted. It was clear that Alex had been crying, and as Rose led her inside to the dining room table
,
she started crying anew; completely devastated by Anne’s behavior towards her. Bishop and Robyn were playing on the floor, looking at Alex in surprise. They liked Alex and couldn’t figure out why she was so upset. Rose spent the better part of the day trying to get Alex to relax and convince Jason to calm down, for Alex’s sake if nothing else. It was hours before she felt as if she’d made any progress, and even then she knew the damage her Mother had caused would last for quite a while.
Three days later, her phone was still ringing. But this time it was Kelly calling and Rose picked up the phone without hesitation. Everyone was trying to make Alex feel better, like she was welcome in the family. After their Mom’s behavior Rose wasn’t sure it was possible, but they were all trying. Rose was throwing her a baby shower when she was further along, and Michael’s wife, Kelly, was planning the wedding shower. She’d already sent out invitations. The shower would be two weeks before the wedding, so they didn’t really have a lot of time to get everything around, but they would manage.
“Hello?”
“Rose, it’s Kelly, I think I know the answer, but I wasn’t supposed to send an invitation to your Mom, was I?”
“No.”
“Uh oh. Well, I’ve been planning this since they announced it, before the whole catastrophe with your mother, and I think Michael mailed out her invitation.”
“Oh my God.” Rose couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It would be horrible if her mother showed up for the shower. She doubted Alex would be able to handle it. She was already stressed, feeling like she was forcing Jason to marry her. They’d tried to tell her that Jason had been planning on marrying her for months, but she wasn’t convinced. The seed of doubt that their mother had planted in Alex’s mind was firmly taking root, and they were having a hard time getting it out of her head. “Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure; almost positive, really. What do I do?” Kelly asked, afraid to hear the answer.
“I don’t know, Kelly.” Rose looked upstairs. The kids were playing in the hallway, throwing a ball around and being silly. “You could call Mom and tell her she’s not invited,” she suggested, half serious, half joking.
“I hope you’re kidding,” Kelly said, sounding horrified. “I know I made a mistake, but does it really warrant torture?” Kelly could already hear Anne screeching at her in that high pitched maniacal voice she used whenever she felt betrayed and overwrought.
“Well, that’s up to Alex.” Rose teased. Alex was laid back, and she would understand the mistake. It would still be difficult for her, though. “I think we should be certain Mom isn’t coming, one way or another.”
“How do you suggest we do that?”
“No idea, really. Good luck with that.” Rose wasn’t entirely sure they could find out if Mom was coming or not. She always waited until the last minute to share her plans as it was. Something like this would give her great pleasure. She’d know everyone would be on edge about her attendance, and she’d leave them all thus.
“Thanks, so much,” Kelly said, irritably. “What am I going to tell Alex? She doesn’t need the stress.”
“Tell her the truth, she’ll understand. Even with her preggers hormones she’s not as bad as Mom,” Rose reasoned. “Besides, maybe she’ll have an idea. When should the invitations come in?”
“It should be there today or tomorrow at the latest. I don’t know; it might be there already!”
“I think you should warn Alex. Mom might even try calling there, and the last thing she needs is to talk to Mom on the phone.”
“Yeah. It’s not Alex I’m afraid to tell. It’s Jason. He’s going to be irate. You know he will. He doesn’t want anything to do with her, and he’s convinced she doesn’t need to see the baby, either.”
“Oh, good point. Well, Alex will probably volunteer to tell him. She’s good about that stuff, right? I mean, there’s a reason we all like her.” Alex knew Jason wouldn’t be as angry with her, so she would generally volunteer to tell him bad news for the girls.
“I guess, but I hate doing that.”
“I don’t. I love it. Jason is constantly telling Brandon bad news so I don’t get the chance to yell at him,” Rose forced a laugh.
“Alright, well I better call Alex. Jason will probably call you to complain, because I’m not answering the phone. I never meant for this to happen.”
“Okay,” Rose said, “let me know how it goes with Alex. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Talk to you later,” Kelly said, hanging up.
Rose watched the kids playing for a while, thinking about Alex. It must be horrible for her, to have someone that was so cruel unintentionally invited to her wedding shower. She hoped they could figure out what to do with Mom. Rose didn’t want to be mean to her, but she didn’t know what else to do. Mom would make the entire affair completely miserable for everyone. She wasn’t particularly surprised when the phone rang again thirty minutes later; she resigned herself to a lengthy conversation as she sat down on the couch and answered the phone.
Chapter Nine
Jason walked in the door to hear Alex crying. “Alex?” he called, worriedly. Alex didn’t cry. She was more emotional than usual, granted, but he’d rarely seen her cry. “Honey, where are you? What’s wrong?” He said, walking through the house, looking for her in the kitchen, living room, and dining room. Her crying didn’t cease, and Jason was terrified that something was going wrong with the baby when he saw her lying in bed, curled into a tight ball. “Alex, what’s wrong?” he asked, afraid, as he climbed into bed beside her, rubbing her back gently. “Did the doctor say something was wrong?” he asked, hesitantly. He prayed nothing was wrong with Alex or the baby.
Alex shook her head.
Jason continued rubbing her back, both relieved and even more worried. If there was nothing wrong with the baby, then what was going on? “Alex, tell me what happened,” he said, easing her into his arms so he could hold her while she cried.
“There was an accident,” she sobbed, trying to regain control of herself. She was being a ninny, she thought fleetingly as she attempted to wipe her eyes.
Jason thought of Alex’s parents. “Is everyone okay?” he asked, trying to decipher what was going on. Alex was speaking, but it was so high-pitched and weepy he couldn’t understand a word she was saying. “Lexi, I know it’s difficult, but I can’t understand you. What’s happened?” he asked, pulling her away from him enough to see her face. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying.
“Michael…he sent out the shower invitations,” Alex said, forcing herself to slow down and breathe evenly.
Jason’s heart skipped a beat when he heard his brother’s name, but then slowed again as Alex finished her sentence. Wow, her hormones were really out of whack if it bothered her this much that the invitations went out early. He choked back a laugh. “Okay…I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm. But, it’s okay. The invitations have the date of the shower on them; it doesn’t matter if they went out a few days early. It’ll just give everyone more time to prepare.”
“No. One went to your mother. We planned on inviting her, but after what happened on Halloween, we weren’t going to. But Kelly, she forgot to take the invitation out, and Michael, he didn’t know, and he mailed them, and she’s probably gotten it already,” Alex cried harder.
“What?”