Promises

I’m a really, really bad girlfriend. When I woke up this morning I didn’t want to let Josh out of bed, I kept coming up with things to talk about or when that failed I would kiss or touch him and he would forget about the time for a while. Although finally I had to relent, he promised me that he would call me after he got home to talk about anything I could think of between this morning and tonight.

Reluctantly I let him go have a shower by himself even though I really wanted to join him; I quickly threw together some breakfast for him so I wouldn’t be as tempted to go join him anyway. He took the time to sit with me for a few minutes and eat before he ran off to get dressed and can I say something? The women he works with are so damn lucky that they get to spend all day with him, five days a week, nine months our of the year; he was looking so damn fine in his school sweats that I tried to talk him back out of them. I, of course failed, but I have a rain check for tonight. Yay!

I walked Josh to his car and made a big deal out of kissing him good bye in the street. I think he was getting a little embarrassed by my public displays of affection but I didn’t care, I loved him and was wearing two very special symbols of his love and devotion and when I pointed that out to him, he pulled me into his arms and kissed me so passionately I thought the neighbors would scream ‘get a room’ out of their windows.

I sat in my car, watched him drive away and then I felt lonely. Starting my car I tried to figure out what to do, I thought about going home but Jordan would still be sleeping and I wanted to tell someone about last night. I put the car in drive and as I drove through town I found myself making all the right turns to head out of town, out to Zach’s house.

When I arrived at Zach’s I was happy to see that he was home still, I wanted to talk to him about Phil and see if he knew why they would be so worried about him.

“Hello?” I called as I looked around the empty living room. It was the first time in a long time that Zach’s house was completely silent, it was a little creepy.

“Zach!” I heard Mary laugh; it came from the direction of the kitchen, so I made my way down the hall.

“Hey guys,” I said as I pushed my way through the swinging door. “Can I – OH MY GOD!” I screamed, covering my eyes as I quickly returned to the hallway. Standing back on to the door, mentally shaking myself, I tried to get the image of what I just saw out of my head. Opening my eyes, I looked up at Zach who was standing in front of me, tucking his shirt into his pants.

“Hey sis,” Zach grinned, “So how you doing?”

I shook my head, “Warn a person!”

He laughed, “Well I didn’t think I had to, in my own house.”

I stared at him, my jaw dropped. “You mean you do that when…the girls…oh lord, I think I’m going to be sick.” I held my hand over my mouth and walked towards the bathroom.

“Oh Anna don’t be so melodramatic, of course we don’t do that when the girls are up.” I glanced over my shoulder at him and he was laughing. “When there’s no one around I think I have the right to do whatever I want with my wife, anywhere in this house!”

Mary came out of the kitchen as he finished that statement, her cheeks were bright red. “We didn't know you were coming over.” She said as she looked everywhere but at me or my brother.

“I needed to talk to you guys about something, something important.” Zach nodded, and started to head for the kitchen, where most of the serious talks took place. “But not in there,” I cringed, “I don’t think I can handle that right now.”

“Oh come on, it’s not like we had sex on the kitchen table! I barely had time to cop a feel before you interrupted us.”

“Zach!” Mary hit him on the arm as she turned two shades redder.

Zach pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly on the lips, “I love you Darling, and I don’t care who knows it.”

I smiled as I watched the two of them.

I was 2 years old when Zach and I ran into Mary, literally. It was the year that he turned 16. Mom had asked him to watch me for a few hours that day while she went to various appointments but he didn’t want to; it was his first day of summer vacation and he wanted to spend it at the beach with his friends. Of course, mom told him that he could take me to the beach, that I would love it.

At that time I didn’t get to spend much time with him because he thought hanging out with his baby sister was so not cool. Just getting to go to the beach with him, even though he told me I wasn’t allowed to do anything but sit there, was a huge deal for me.

We arrived at the beach, he sees his friends and starts to walk quickly towards them but I couldn’t keep up with him, even though I was running. He stopped and scooped me up muttering under his breath about the injustice of it all. When he turned around, he walked into the girl that was passing by, knocking her off balance and she fell to the ground.

“Why don’t you –” Mary looked up at him about ready to rip a strip of him when her eyes slid over me. Zach held out his hand to help her up, which she took. She looked from Zach, to me and back again. “You have a daughter?”

I giggled, threw my arms around Zach’s neck and wetly kissed his cheek. “Zachy!”

Zach turned three shades of red as he wiped my slobber off his cheek, “This is my baby sister, Anna.”

I looked at her shyly and said hello. Mary smiled and told Zach I was cute, to which he replied ‘only because you don’t know her.’ That’s when Mary looked him dead in the eye and said, “Then I’ll get to know her and prove you wrong.”

Brother, the smooth operator that he thought he was, almost choked on his own salvia when she said that, and he started coughing. Luckily for him, Mary still stuck around. I found out later that Mary’s family had just moved to town a month before school ended, she didn’t know too many people and she thought my brother was cute but never thought he’d give her the time of day.

This year will be their 18th wedding anniversary.

“Anna?” Zach frowned as he snapped his fingers in front of my face. “You ok?”

I nodded, “Yeah I was just remembering the first time we met Mary.”

Zach rolled his eyes, “You don’t remember it. You just know what Mary told you. I was not that uncool!”

Mary laughed and kissed him, “You can keep telling yourself that Sweetheart.”

“I was not,” he mumbled under his breath as he went into the kitchen. “So what did you want to talk about?” He asked as we joined him at the kitchen table.

“Well,” I said as pulled out a chair and sat down. “When I left the restaurant yesterday I went to Josh’s,” I grinned. “Which I’m sure you know already.” I went on to tell them about Carol coming to pick Jess up early, Jesse’s reaction and the aftermath, including the conversation about Zach. “Do you know Phil?”

Zach shook his head, “I know of him of course, mainly through the situation with Josh but I don’t know him professionally.”

I then told him about the second conversation I had with Carol and her comments about Zach possibly causing Phil problems as he runs for office. “Do you have any idea what that’s about?”

“No, I don’t.” Zach said as he jumped up from the table and went to the fridge. “Did you have anything to eat this morning sis? Did you want something to drink?”

“You can’t just change the subject like that Zach and think that I will believe that you don’t know something!” I joined him at the fridge. “Do you know something about Phil that could help Josh get full custody of Jesse?”

“Anna,” Zach grabbed hold of my shoulders. “You know that anything I work on is off limits for discussion. I told Josh I would look into the possibility of abuse at their house but I can’t jeopardize my family or my career by making false allegations without proof.”

“So there is something going on with Phil.”

“I didn’t say that!”

I nodded, “I know you didn’t Zach but it’s apparent that there’s something there if he’s worried that Josh knows you and you are acting a little weird right now.”

“Anna just drop it ok? Everything will turn out in the end, Josh will get full custody of Jesse, I promise you.”