Tightening the Knot (25 page)

Meredith reread the older message to refresh her anger at Mercy.
 
Then she scowled slightly and logged out.
 
She finished her lunch and prepared to walk her class down the hall.
 
Ellen began to line up her class nearby.
 
Meredith’s first impulse was to grab the French braid at the back of her neck and yank it really hard.
 
Instead, she went with her second instinct and offered Ellen a broad, knowing smile.
 
This clearly made her uncomfortable and neither woman said anything as they led the parade of students.
 
But as Meredith stopped at her door, she sweetly called, “Have a nice day,” to her co-worker’s back.
 
She wasn’t sure this exactly qualified as being the bigger person.
 
True growth could not be rushed, after all.

The afternoon was relatively painless.
 
One little boy burst into tears while cutting out a project and caused her a moment of panic.
 
Meredith relaxed when she discovered that he was not harmed, that the damage could be repaired with a simple piece of tape.

The next and slightly longer moment of panic came when Meredith managed to leave for the day at the same moment Gavin was passing her classroom on his way to the door.
 
When he offered to walk out with her, she thought seriously of pretending to have forgotten something.
 
She would have gone through with it if not for the fear that he would be nice enough to wait for her.

She tried very hard to remain calm on the short walk and stick to safe subjects.
 
When Gavin held the door for her she said, “Greg, my husband, always gets the door, too.”
 
She realized how not calm she was at the same point she realized it was the third time in two minutes that she had followed the word Greg with “my husband.”

Gavin gave her a funny look that seemed to say, “I figured out who Greg was the first time.”

“I’m sorry.”
 
Meredith could tell that he had no idea why she was acting nuts and she was able to get a grip on herself.
 
“Greg’s been out of town on business and gets back today.
 
I’m just a little excited to see him.”

“That’s nice.
 
That he’s coming home, I mean.”

They finished the sidewalk in returned normalcy and parted ways at the edge of the parking lot.

Meredith
blared
the radio a bit on the ride home, her head feeling nearly all better.
 
As the garage door opened to reveal Greg’s car, she felt suddenly very nervous.
 
So far, the fallout from Mercy’s interference had been primarily restrained to Meredith’s sleep debt.
 
Would that still be true the next morning?

Greg was sitting at the table with newspapers spread in front of him.
 
He looked up as she came in, smiled and said, “Hi.”
 
She put her bag down and moved to take off her coat, fumbling a little with the buttons.
 
By the time she got it on the hook, Greg was standing next to her.
 
Was he watching for signs of guilt?

He simply held out his arms for a hug and she fell into them.

“Should we go out for dinner?” he asked into her hair.

“Okay.”
 
He wasn’t even going to bring it up.
 
Of course not, she thought.
 
It wasn’t worth it.
 
They both knew it couldn’t be true and there was no need to suffer through an unnecessary conversation.
 
She reached out to put her coat back on, and froze.
 
This was taking the easy way out.
 
She knew
,
she
knew,
that she could never again be afraid to talk to her husband.
 
She turned and looked him in the eye.
 
“So I suppose you know that I’m not speaking to Mercy.”

He exhaled deeply.
 
“I can’t believe she did that.”

“Me neither, and,” she pulled out a little more courage here, “and what she said, you don’t believe that either?”

“Never.”
 
He hugged her again.
 
“Oh,
Mer
, even when we were fighting about lint I knew the problems were entirely between the two of us.”

Meredith laughed in spite of the tension.
 
They had actually argued about lint once.

“You didn’t really think I’d believe you capable of that?”

“No, but… it was just hard that you weren’t here and I just thought that… that even something that didn’t need to be said, should be said.”

He nodded.
 
“And you know
I
sent the flowers.”

Now she nodded.
 
“Thank you, by the way.”

He leaned in and kissed the top of her head and they both heard his stomach growl.
 
“So about dinner?
 
We can go to that Mexican place you like.”

“No, I think we should get pizza, since that’s something we both like.”

He smiled.
 
“Now
that
is a great plan.”

╣ Epilogue ╠

           
“I’m a whale.”

           
“You’re not a whale.
 
You’re a beautiful mom-to-be.”
 
Jenna had only recently begun to complain about her pregnant size so Meredith could be very patient.
 
But the baby was not due for nearly two months.

           
“I
am
a whale.
 
A sperm whale.”

           
Meredith had a good laugh at the exaggeration.
 
She and Jenna were enjoying a quiet afternoon on Jenna’s day off.
 
She was still working full time, but had, since the start of her third trimester, switched to teaching water aerobics for lower impact.
 
She looked momentarily confused at Meredith’s laughter.

           
“The sperm whale is the biggest one, right?”

           
“I thought the blue whale was the biggest.”

           
“Oh, well.
 
It’s still appropriate.”

           
Meredith decided not to argue.
 
Jenna sat quietly for a moment and then appeared to be leaving the analogy aside for a topic that would generate more sympathy.
 
“I just hope George stops sharing when I go back to my usual size.”

           
“What’d he say now?”

           
George attended Jenna’s class at least twice a week and had recently acquired his first great-grandchild.
 
He had actually been in the delivery room for the birth and constantly marveled at how different things were nowadays.
 
Jenna’s work stories contained the word “nowadays” quite a bit more frequently since the average age of her clients had gone up about forty years.
 
George mostly remarked about how much more open people were when talking about childbirth and related matters.
 
He was always in danger of crossing the line between open and creepy.
 

           
“I told you about the nipple thing, didn’t I?”

           
“Yeah.”
 
Meredith was uncomfortable just thinking about it.
 
George had talked the previous week about his granddaughter’s inverted nipples and the problems they had given her when starting breastfeeding.
 
Though Jenna was not as private as Meredith, talking to a random 80-year-old man about nipples still fell outside her comfort zone.
 
Especially given the fact that she couldn’t help feel the conversation had been sparked by that day’s particularly cold water.

           
“Well, yesterday he said, ‘
Do
you think you could tell if your water broke while you were in the water?’”

           
“
Eww
!”

           
“I know
,
it’s like a double
eww
.
 
Eww
the thought of it happening there and
eww
that he’s apparently considered my… fluids.
 
Shawn thinks I should invite him to the birth to freak
him
out for a change, but I think he’d say ‘yes.’”

           
“That would be bad.”

           
“It would be bad and it would be more
eww
.
 
Mostly it would be just plain weird.”

           
“There does seem to be something about you that attracts weirdoes.”

           
Jenna couldn’t resist the jab.
 
“That explains
you
anyway.”
  

           
Meredith poked her friend and they sat in happy silence for a moment before Meredith got the impression that Jenna was about to ask if there was something to eat.
 
She had always had a fantastic appetite, considering all the calories she burned at work, and now that she was eating for two she seemed to be hungry more or less all the time.
 
Meredith was going to offer a snack when a cry filled the room and the baby monitor on the counter lit up to enhance the urgency.
 

           
“I guess your little one is up.”

           
“Yeah,” Meredith smiled.
 
“She’ll probably want something to eat, too.”

           
Jenna understood the “too” and Meredith truly couldn’t be happier with all the mouths to feed.

Dear Jane Letters

Dear Jane Letters is a light-hearted look into the life of
Raina Lane
, author of a local advice column titled Dear Jane. Raina has a close family who loves and entertains her at every encounter. She lives with her best friend, Vicki, who is about to get married and is anxious to see Raina paired up as well. She looks for romance between Raina and just about anyone with whom they come into contact, including a blind date and the old friend who has recently reentered
Raina's
life. Despite her roommate's constant vigilance, when Raina does find love, it still catches her by surprise.