You Can Never Have Too Many Friends

For some reason it didn’t surprise me to see Hank standing there, I had expected to run into him sometime that week at work. I just thought it would’ve been earlier than this.

“I’m not stalking you,” he said. “Heather sent me here to pick up some stuff. I have a list!” He pulled out a piece of paper and held it out to me, “See, she needs…” he looked at the list and blushed. “Well, she needs personal women things.”

“Women things?” I chuckled as he stuffed the list back in his pocket. “And she sent you for them?”

Hank nodded, “She’s umm….not feeling good.”

“Ahh, I see. Well I guess we should let you grab those things and get home again.” I started to leave but Hank stopped me.

“Anna, about the other day, I ­–”

“Hank, don’t ok.” I held up my hand to him, “You don’t have to apologize or make excuses or try to explain. It’s really none of my business what you do, I’m sorry I reacted like I did.”

“Wait, come on.” Hank was searching for something in my expression, I wasn’t sure what it was but it was weird. “I would like to be friends with you; I hope I haven’t blown that.”

I sighed, “No Hank, you haven’t. I just don’t know how to act around you now. And it’s not only because of the drinking.” I looked down at Jenna, “You have been in her life since she’s been born, something that my best friend, her father, hasn’t been able to do, and he would’ve wanted too.”

“I didn’t keep him out Anna, I honestly thought he knew about her and wasn’t interested in being her dad.”

“But he didn’t and he is interested. I’m not sure how to be around you,” I knew I was repeating myself but it was true. Would being friends with Hank jeopardize my friendship with Jordan. I don’t even know how Jordan feels about Hank being there. I knew that my opinion of Hank shouldn’t change because of what Jordan thinks or feels but we all know that who your friends are can influence who you do and don’t talk too.

I was watching Jesse as I had all these thoughts running through my head. He had reached out and grabbed hold of Hank’s cart to pull it so he was aligned with Jenna. “Hey baby,” he said, leaning over the side of the cart. “I Jesse.”

I chuckled when he said ‘hey baby’, it reminded me of Jordan and how he always called me ‘babe’. I glanced up at Hank; he had a smile on his face as he watched Jesse and Jenna.

“Who are you?” Jesse asked Jenna, but Jenna didn’t answer, instead she pointed to Mister Bear. Jess looked down, “That Mis’er Bear.” He held him up so Jenna could get a good look at him. “See?”

Jenna leaned closer, she dropped the cookie she had in her hands and she grabbed Mister Bear away from Jess. Then as quickly as she could, she turned away from Jess and started to bounce Mister Bear on the handle of the cart.

Jess stared at her; his little eyes were wide with shock. “Hey! Mis’er Bear Jesse’s!” He turned to me, “Ama, Baby took Mis’er Bear!” He folded his arms over his chest, he seemed a little miffed that I didn’t do anything about Jenna taking the bear.

Hank leaned against the handle of the cart, getting in the way of the bouncing stolen bear he got hit in the face. Jenna stopped bouncing the bear immediately and stared at Hank, her mouth had formed an ‘o’ as she lifted one hand to it. “Owie?” She tried to get up out of her cart to see if she hurt Hank.

“Yes,” Hank told her. “Owie,” he pointed to his chin and moved closer to her. Jenna dropped Mister Bear and reached for Hank’s chin, puckering her lips.

“Muah!” She giggled as Hank moved back. “Owie bye bye.”

“Yes Jenna, owie is gone bye bye.”

When he stood up straight again, he glanced over at me and blushed. “Heather got her into kissing things better, if I don’t let her do it, she’ll cry.” He explained even though he didn’t need too.

I nodded, “You really care about her, don’t you?”

Hank smiled, “Jenna is the most amazing little girl,” he reached out and brushed the side of her face with his fingers. “I’m blessed that I get to be apart of her life.”

I don’t know why that seemed to surprise me but it did. I knew that Hank had kind of slipped into the role of ‘daddy’ because he was seeing Heather but I never stopped to think of how Jordan’s appearance in Jenna’s life would affect Hank’s life. Could Hank and Jordan put aside their insecurities and do the right thing for Jenna?

“Ama!” Jess tugged at my sleeve, “Mis’er Bear?”

I turned to Jenna who wrapped her arms around the bear when Jesse said his name. “Hey Jenna, do you think that Jesse could have his bear back?”

Jenna’s eyes flicked to me momentarily before she shook her head, “No.”

I glanced at Jess, he was leaning over the cart, reaching out his arms to Mister Bear but Jenna turned away from him and giggled. “Please baby Mis’er Bear Jesse.”

I tried to reason with Jenna but everything I said to her only made her hug the bear tighter and say, ‘no’. I was running out of ideas, I was starting to get frustrated, I was about to threaten to call her dad when Hank started to dig around in the diaper bag. “Hey Jenna, look what I got,” he pulled out a doll. No, he pulled out –

“Do’a!” Jenna squealed and dropped Mister Bear in her attempt to grab the Dora doll that Hank was holding.

“Give Jess back Mister Bear first,” Hank told Jenna.

“’Kay,” Jenna quickly picked Mister Bear up and pushed him towards Jesse, who grabbed him and held him tight.

With both kids holding their toys, Hank turned to me. “I don’t know what kind of power Dora has, but she always seems to work.”

“I guess that’s a good thing for Jess,” I laughed. “We have to go,” I told him.

He nodded, “Yeah we should go get the stuff on Heather’s list. I’ll see you around?” He smiled when I told him that I would see him later. “That’s great. Bye Jesse,” he touched Mister Bear’s arm. “It was nice meeting you and your bear.” He turned back to me, ‘Bye Anna.”

And that’s when he did something I wasn’t expecting.

After he said ‘bye’, Hank bent down and pressed his lips against my cheek and before I could even react, he was gone.