Next Door Neighbors (14 page)

              Both of them chuckled.

              “Oh, hey, is this the picture your mom told me about at her birthday dinner?” Jill asked.

              She pointed at a picture of Brian in his high chair, spaghetti all over his face and in his hair. There was one noodle hanging off his chin, and the look he had in the picture made Jill think he made the mess on purpose.

              “Hmm, I’m not sure. Boy was I a mess.”

              “It’s adorable though.”

              Jill skimmed through a few more pages, coming to the end of another album. Putting it beside her, she grabbed another. “This one will be my last, I promise.”

              “Doesn’t matter to me. As long as you come across nothing embarrassing, you can look at as many of these pictures as you want.”

              In this album Brian was older yet. It amazed Jill as to how well-organized Elena was in keeping all the pictures in the exact order they were taken. Halfway through the album Jill stopped and analyzed a picture. “What’s going on here?” she questioned.

              “Let me see.”

              Brian took a look at what she was referring to and tried to remember what it was. In the photograph was Elena and Ricky and then a young girl.

              “Is that actually you?” Jill laughed.

             
Well, this is slightly embarrassing,
Brian thought.

              “Yeah,” he sighed.

              “What’s going on here?”

              “I wanted to be a girl for Halloween one year.”

              Jill laughed louder, “You
what?
Why?”

              “I don’t know, but, hey, I was only like five or so!”

              When Jill continued laughing, Brian reached for the photo album and threatened to take it away.

              “Okay, okay, okay. I’m sorry,” she said more calmly. “Please let me continue to look.”

              Brian released his grip on the book so Jill could continue her journey through his life. He decided to skootch closer and enjoy the trip with her.

              Both of them turned page after page together, Brian offering explanations on some things, both laughing on other things. Brian was holding nothing back, allowing Jill to know the real him from the very humble beginning.

              In the midst of Brian photos popped up a photo without Brian as the star.

              “This must have been a picture I took one time,” Brian informed her. “I used to love taking pictures.”

              The photo was a side shot of both Elena and her husband, Ricky. The two of them were facing each other in an embrace, Ricky tenderly kissing his wife’s forehead. She had a smile on her face, and both of them had their eyes closed as if savoring the moment.

              Jill studied the photo. “That’s a really good picture of the both of them. They look so happy and deeply in love,” she remarked.

              “They were very madly in love with one another.”

              “Yeah?”

              “Oh, yeah,” Brian began, shifting his focus towards Jill’s face. Gazing into her eyes, he explained the ways the both of them showed each other their love. “They both did so much for each other. I remember my dad bringing my mom flowers all the time.”

              “Doesn’t that mean they fought a lot?” Jill joked. “You know how guys tend to do that after an argument.”

              Brian chuckled. “No, he just knew what my mom really liked.” Then he continued on, “He also surprised her a lot with jewelry and taking time off work. A spur of the moment vacation wasn’t rare in our house.”
              “Wow, so you guys got around, huh?”
              “We did. They did their own vacations too, of course, but again, my mom liked to travel and my dad loved giving her what she liked.”

              “Your dad sounds amazing.”

              “He was. He was definitely a giver, but there was more to his love than that. For instance, not once did I ever hear him say something bad about my mom. Even when they fought, which was seldom, he never spoke down on her. And then whenever she was sick, he made sure she was cared for. He’d stay by her side and help her with whatever she needed.”

              “I wish there were more guys like him around,” Jill mentioned quietly to herself, as she looked back at the picture.

              Brian let the comment slide. He knew how great of an example his father was and that one day he would strive to make his father proud by being just like him. However, he didn’t feel it was something to boast about. He wanted to prove it by his actions. So to say he was a great guy was out of the question.

              Instead, he began to list the ways his mom displayed her love for his dad. “My mom showed her love to my dad in numerous ways as well. She made his lunch every single day he had to go to work. She got up in the morning with him, had breakfast with him and then made his lunch while he got ready. She’d watch him leave, and then she would be waiting for him when he got back home. And then she always made sure that when different house chores were done that they were done just the way my dad liked it, no matter how ridiculous it might have been.”

              Brian lightly laughed. “For example, my dad wanted the washcloth at the kitchen sink to be draped over the section in the middle instead of over the faucet or folded next to the faucet.”

              More seriously he added, “And she would just do it. No questions asked and no complaining.”

              “I can see Elena being like that,” Jill replied.

              “Both of them just had a love like no other. It’s definitely not something you encounter every day.”

              “Wow,” Jill exhaled.

              The two of them sat next to each other in silence, contemplating Elena’s and Ricky’s love for one another while looking at the photo. It was too precious of a picture for Jill to want to move on.

              That kind of love was what she wanted, what she thought she had before. It was the kind of love that almost seemed impossible or unreal to her. So many thoughts went through her head that she decided to let them out. “You know, there was a time when I used to think I had what your parents had.”

              “Yeah?” Brian asked.

              Jill looked over at him and said, “Yeah, but boy was I wrong.”

              “What do you mean?”

              “Things just didn’t end up the way that I thought they would.”

              Brian realized that this may be his chance to finally get his questions answered and figure out why Jill was the way she was. Instead of letting her statement go as is, he took the opportunity to encourage her to go further. With concern and sincerity in his eyes and tone of voice, he placed his hand on Jill’s knee, looked directly at her and said, “Jill, tell me what happened.”

              At first Jill hesitated, but the way Brian looked at her, deep into her soul, she knew she could trust him and thus began her story. “It all started when I was ten years old. I remember coming back home from a friend’s house and my mom was just sitting on the couch crying.”

              Brian listened intently as Jill pieced together the puzzle of her past.

              As she stared off to memories of her childhood, she continued, “Apparently my dad had been cheating on my mom for a while. She never told me how long, but any amount of time is long enough I suppose. Anyway, he ended up divorcing my mom. It was a very hard time for her…well, for us both.”

              “I’m sure it was,” Brian agreed.

              “To see her hurt so badly, I made a pact with myself to stay away from men.”

              “At ten?” Brian snickered.

              “Yeah, but it didn’t last long,” Jill admitted.

              She then moved on in her timeline, “I think I was about fifteen years old when I met Mark.”

              “So who’s this Mark guy?” Brian asked curiously.

              “He started off as the twin brother of one of my friends so we hung out on occasion. Then when we were juniors in high school he asked me out. I did have a crush on him so of course I said yes. We just really hit it off. The relationship kept growing and the pact I made at ten was long gone. Memories of how bad falling out of love can feel, completely forgotten.”

              As Jill continued her story, Brian could tell that the further along she went, the harder it became to tell.

              “When we graduated high school, he was accepted into a college closer to this side of the state and would be moving. He didn’t want to live without me, and begged for me to come with him. I remember him showing me how good the nursing program was and how affordable living could be. At first I didn’t want to go because that meant I’d be far away from my parents and in a place I knew absolutely no one.”

              “Let me guess, you went anyway?” Brian gathered.

              “I did. He proposed to me in such a beautiful, romantic way. I couldn’t say no!”

              Jill turned to Brian and added, “I really thought that what we had was different than my parents. We were so close and being with him felt right. Knowing he wanted me to marry him made having to move easier.”

              Brian gave a look of understanding and allowed Jill to keep sharing.

              Looking back out in space, Jill said, “We decided to get married once we graduated, and four years later, having graduated and both landing excellent jobs, we tied the knot. We bought our first house together and things were going so well.”

              Jill took a deep sigh as she relived her haunting past. “But then I don’t know. After a couple of years we started to drift. We were both working a lot so maybe that had something to do with it, but I’m not sure.”

              She brushed a strand of hair away from her face, and Brian noticed the pain in her eyes.

              “One day I decided to come home early and surprise him, you know, to maybe spice things up a little bit. Pulling into the driveway I noticed my college roommate’s car was there. I never thought twice about it because she had stopped by a few times before, being a mutual friend and everything.”

              Jill’s voice trembled as she came to the pinnacle of her story. “Then when I walked into our bedroom to change out of my scrubs, there they were.”

              Brian saw a few tears drop from Jill’s watery eyes, as she delved into the details.

              “They were in our bed of all places, his hands all over her body the way they used to be all over me.”

              Turning to Brian she asked, “And do you know what the worst part is?”

              Not knowing what could be worse than a spouse cheating on you right in your own marriage bed, he asked, “What?”

              Jill wept, “He wasn’t even sorry. He yelled at me to get out because he was busy.”

              Brian didn’t know Mark from the next guy, but he hated him. He hated him for what he did, but more than that, he hated the fact he did it to Jill.

              “Even after they were through and she left, he never once apologized or gave an excuse. He acted like nothing wrong ever happened.”

              Jill sniffled and wiped her eyes, again looking away from Brian. “I tried talking to him about it, but he wouldn’t let me. And a few weeks later he said I needed to move out, that he wanted a divorce.”

              “Why did you have to be the one to leave?” Brian wondered angrily. “The way I see it, he wanted to leave you so he should have packed up his bags and left.”

              “Because everything was in his name. The house was in his name only. Our bank accounts were in his name, except for one smaller checking account. I legally had no right to anything I once called ours.”

              Explaining her misfortune, she informed Brian that she had been so blinded by love that he convinced her that everything being in his name was no big deal. “I seriously thought what we had would last forever. How could I have been so stupid?”

              “Jill, you’re not stupid. What happened had nothing to do with you, but had everything to do with that sorry excuse for a man who tricked and used you for his own gain,” Brian blatantly said.

              “All I was left with was my personal belongings, one older vehicle, my job,” she began. Then looking up into Brian’s eyes she finished, “And your mom.”

              Brian’s lips grew wide in a grin, contemplating how admirable his mom was.

              “Your mom was my lifesaver. She helped me get the place next door and get my feet back on the ground. I just can’t thank her enough for not only providing for me, but being there for me emotionally as well. The two of us have had many talks the last couple of years, and I can seriously say she is the best friend I’ve ever had.”

              Brian pulled Jill in for a hug. He held her tight enough to show he cared, that he hated the pain Jill faced. “I’m so sorry, Jill, that you had to go through that. Mark is such a jerk for doing what he did to you. No one, especially you, deserves to be cheated on.”