When The Cat Is Away

“She said that?” I was shocked to say the least. It was a hard place for me to be actually. I didn’t want to see Hank hurt but I knew that in the back of Jordan’s mind he has always held onto the hope that Heather would be back and they would get back together. “Did she say she was still interested in Jordan?”

Hank shook his head, “No she didn’t say it. But you didn’t see her last night when she came home. At first she was really mad that I told him about Jenna. I tried to explain that I didn’t tell him, you did when you figured it out. That only seemed to make her madder though, hearing that you had some part in it. She asked me if you two were dating, when I told her that you were dating Josh, you should’ve seen the look on her face.” He looked so hurt. “I don’t think she’s over him as much as she claims to be.”

As he was saying this, the only thought going through my mind besides, if she hurts him again, I’ll kill her, was this doesn’t make any sense. She left him, why did she leave? I wanted to ask Hank about it but I could already see that he had his own issues to deal with when it came to Heather.

“So is she at work right now?”

He shook his head, “No she’s at her parents’ house. She stormed out when I asked her if she still loved him.”

We sat there in silence for a while, I wanted to ask him so many questions but I wasn’t sure if I should. Just ask him, if he doesn’t want you to know something, he will tell you. I glanced up at him; he was leaning against the back of the couch with his eyes closed. “Not falling asleep on me, are you?” I tried to lighten the mood and managed to get a smile out of him.

“No, I’m just thinking.”

“What are you thinking about?”

He didn’t move or say anything at first; his eyes remained closed so I figured he wasn’t going to tell me anything. Finally he sighed and opened his eyes, “I’m thinking about the past couple months, how Heather’s attitude towards me has changed since we decided to move back here. At first I thought it was because she was excited about the move and unsure of how everything would go. But now I’m starting to wonder if it wasn’t her way of putting some space between us, to make it easier to break away when she thought the time was right.”

“Hank I’m sure that’s not what she was doing.”

Shrugging, he gave me a half grin. “You are just trying to make me feel better.”

I smiled, “Well yes, I don’t want you to feel like crap. Listen Hank, why don’t we get out of here and go do something? Maybe a change in scenery will cheer you up.”

“No,” He sighed. “I think I’ll just watch some TV. Wait and see if Heather is going to come home before her shift starts today.”

Folding my arms across my chest, I gave him my most stern looking look. “Listen here Mister; you aren’t going to sit around feeling sorry for yourself!” I jumped up and stood in front of him, holding out my hands. “Come on, get up.” He just laughed at me. I rolled my eyes, “I said come on!” When he didn’t move, I grabbed his hands and pulled. “One of two things is going to happen right now,” I told him as I tugged again. “You are either going to get up or I’m going to hurt myself trying to pull you up.”

“Anna, I said I didn’t want too go out.” He tried to get his hands from mine but I held tight.

“Come on Hank. If you won’t do it for you, do it for me. I have nothing to do today and I’ve decided you are going to be blessed with my presence.” I laughed, I was kidding.

“Oh really?” He lifted a brow slightly. “You don’t give up, do you?”

I shook my head, “No I’m just that annoying. Now come on!” I tugged hard on the ‘on’ and he got up. “Oh wow, I’m stronger than I – ahhh!” When he stood up, because we were so close, he smacked against me and bounced backwards. He fell onto the couch and pulled me down with him.

I tried to get off him and he tried to help me but we were laughing so hard and that made it difficult. We tried to calm down and then move but we would glance at each other and bust out laughing again.

“Oh…ok, ok.” I tried to calm myself again. “I’m going to slide off, right now.” He went to say something and I covered his mouth. “Shhhhh, I’m getting off right now.” I went to move but found I didn’t have to put much effort into it; the hand on my arm was helping a lot.

“What the hell is going on here?” Heather shrieked as she pushed me to the floor. “Keep your slutty paws off my boyfriend!”

I tried to get up and I made the mistake of looking up at Heather, just having her standing over me, with her hands on her hips was bad enough but when I saw Jenna out of the corner of my eye, standing the same way, I started laughing all over again.

Heather glared at me, “What is she doing here Hank? Why is she in my house?”

Hank glanced at me, I was rolling on the floor laughing at Jenna still, she was now staring at me with this amused look on her tiny face, she looks so much like Jordy. I held out my hand to her and she came running over. “Anna was worried about me, so she came to see if I was ok after last night.”

Heather turned to him, “Why? What happened last night?” She closed the distance between them; her hands went to his chest. “Are you ok?”

He nodded, “Anna and her boyfriend made sure I got home safely.”

Concern was written all over Heather’s face, I wasn’t sure why but that surprised me. In fact, I half expected her to start yelling at him for me being there. I was starting to wonder if Hank was telling me the truth about her or if he was up to something. “Safely? Why wouldn’t you get home safely?”

Hank turned away from her and walked out into the kitchen. “No reason,” he muttered.

Heather stood there as if she was trying to figure out what was going on. She turned to me, “Tell me what happened last night.”

I looked passed her at Hank, he was leaning against the counter watching us. “Hank showed up at work and wanted to talk. When Josh came down, he said to forget it and walked away, we went after him because he wasn’t in any shape to drive.”

When I said that Heather went white, she turned to Hank. “You were drinking?” She said it slowly, as if she didn’t believe she was asking the question. Hank just nodded and Heather ran out to him and started to punch him in the chest and arms. “You promised me you wouldn’t! You promised you quit! You lied!”

I was frozen in place, I found myself staring at them. What the hell?

It wasn’t until Jenna started to cry that I snapped out of it. “Guys!” I held Jenna close and went out in the kitchen. “Heather stop it!” I grabbed her arm and ripped her away from Hank.

“You lied to me!” Heather kept repeating over and over again.

‘Are you two crazy? You have a little girl here who doesn’t need to see this!” Jenna was holding on to me tightly. “Now what the hell is going on?”

Hank, who didn’t try to defend himself against Heather’s attack, was studying the floor tiles. “I haven’t had a drink since the night before Jenna was born.” He looked up at me, “I’m an alcoholic Anna.”