Old And The New

He smiled over the heads of the handful of people who were acting as a barrier between us, even if they didn’t realize it. “Anna,” he said once again as he started forward.

I was frozen, I didn’t think I would ever see him again, let alone in the middle of a liquor store on Canada Day. I wanted to ignore him, to move along as if I didn’t see him but it was way too late for that.

“Anna, hey!” Wade slid up next to me; his hand gently touched my elbow. “Wow, you look good.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled as I grabbed another flat out of the cooler.

“Are you…?” He motioned towards the cart.

“Having a party? Yeah, something like that,” I threw over my shoulder while moving on for the next thing on Zack’s list.

“Why are you so cold to me baby?”

Rolling my eyes I turned to him, “I’m not your baby and frankly I think I’m just the right temperature for someone who’s not interested in you.”
“That’s not fair,” he told me as I started to walk away. “You didn’t even give me half a chance to prove that I could be interesting to you.”

Sighing, I crossed my arms over my chest and turned around to face him, “Well Wade, you never gave me a reason to want to give you a chance, you were a dick towards me from the moment we met - accusing me of stabbing Bella in the back - do you think I would just fall at your feet?”

“Ok,” he nodded sheepishly. “I’ll give you that one, I was a little rude in the beginning but what would you do if your sister told you the best friend she had, ever, kissed her boyfriend?”

“At the beginning?” I scoffed, “If you weren’t rude, you were being a jerk. A big pushy jerk and I don’t like that, I don’t like it at all.”

“I’m sorry, I really am,” he gave me a helpless look. “I just wanted to get to know you better and Bella said that -”

“Bella lied,” I cut in. “And speaking of her, where is she? I haven’t seen her since she left for holidays.”

“Yeah,” he ran a hand through his hair. “She’s doing ok, working mainly evenings now - except on the weekends.”

“Oh? Why is that? I thought she liked working during the daytime?”

“She just thought it would be better, they needed people for the evenings and after everything with Jordan -”

“You mean how she lied to him about you?”

Wade rolled his eyes, “The guy sees a picture of Bella and me at her wedding a few years ago and he thinks she lied about me being her brother?” Shaking his head, he called Jordan a moron. “Bella is my sister, Anna.”

“I have things to do Wade.”

“Anna, I’m serious, she’s my sister.”

“That’s good,” I patted his arm and smiled. “I’m happy for you.” I started to walk away.

“Are you serious?” He called after me. “Anna this isn’t fair, why punish me for Bella and Jordan’s failed relationship?”

Spinning around, I ignored the people who stopped to stare at us. “I’m not punishing you for anything Wade, seriously. I just don’t think you have what it takes for me to give you a chance, and I know that may seem like I’m being a bitch but Wade -”

He held up his hand in surrender, “Ok, Ok. I get it; I’m not good enough for you. I’ll leave you alone,” he moved in to kiss my cheek before I could react. “I’ll see you around Anna.”

I felt bad for what I said to him but he had to know that I felt that way about him, I never once let him think that there would be a chance for ‘us’. As I finished up at the liquor store, I wondered if there was a better way to let him down; did he even deserve to be let down easy after all he said to me?

I decided I wasn’t even going to worry about it; it wasn’t like I was going to be running into him often.

After the liquor store, I quickly ran into the grocery store to grab a few things and much to my surprise, I managed to find a decent bouquet of flowers there for Zack to give Mary.

I was about five minutes from home when my cell rang; it was Zack wanting to know if I was coming home that day or not. “I’ll be there shortly,” I told him. “And guess what? I found the nicest bouquet of flowers for you.”

“That’s great, just get home now,” he told me. “Mary is freaking out, the girls are upset and I don’t know what the hell is going on, none of them are talking to me. When did I become the bad guy Anna?”

“You aren’t the bad guy Zack. Mary is probably freaking because of the stuff she’s got to do still and the girls aren’t all that familiar with the way she wants it done, I’m the one who always helps her out, we have a system.”

I pulled into the driveway as I finished speaking; Zack was outside on the steps with his cell phone. When he saw me he flipped the phone close and jogged over to my car. “Just go into the house, I’ll grab this stuff.”

Without arguing, I ran towards the house. The second I walked in Mary screamed from the kitchen, “I swear to God Zack, if you come in here once more and ask how things are going, we’re through!”

I didn’t bother to stop to take off my shoes; I just hurried to the kitchen where I found Mary sitting at the table crying. “Mary what’s wrong?” I pulled out a chair to sit down. “Where are the girls?”

“I can’t do it,” she told me tearfully. “I can’t…”

“Sure you can Mary, I’ll help. We’ll get everything done in time for the party.”

“No,” she shook her head.

“Yes we will, I’ll even get the girls to help, they want to help Mary.” I looked around. “Where are they?”

“You aren’t listening to me Anna!” Mary snapped, “God sometimes you are just like your brother!”

“Zack? What did he do while I was gone to tick you off this badly?”

“He just irritates me,” she told me. “He thinks he’s all that and I just want to kick him.” She stared at me, “How come he gets off scott free and I’m the one who ends up doing all the work? I didn’t want this, we talked about it and we were done with this.”

“What?” I frowned, “When did you guys decide not to throw anymore parties?” This was news to me.

“No Anna! Not the stupid party! Babies! We said we were done having babies but he just kept putting of going for that stupid surgery and now,” she laughed manically. “I’m pregnant! And I’m not in the mood to deal with all this…” she waved around at the food she had pulled out of the fridge and cup boards. “I don’t feel well,” she groaned while jumping to her feet.

“Mary does Zack know?” I yelled after her as she hurried out of the room.

“No,” she cried as the door swung close.

My shoulders slumped, I went to drop my head into my hands but it slipped through and smacked against the table. “Just great,” I groaned. “Just what we needed today.”

I didn’t sit for long, there was way too much stuff to do for the party and since Mary wasn’t feeling up to it, it fell to me to make sure the stuff got done. With determination in every step, I marched towards the stairs, “Cassie, Lindsay and Natalie!” I yelled up them. “I need you down in the kitchen pronto!” I listened, and heard Lindsay call out that their mom grounded them. “Well,” I yelled back, “Being grounded means doing things around here you don’t want to do, now get down here now!”

When I heard them shuffling around upstairs, I marched towards the front door and yanked it open, surprising Zack as he was about to enter the house with the bags from the grocery store. “Drop those in the kitchen,” I told him. “And then go upstairs and talk to your wife.”

“Upstairs?” He glanced over my shoulder, a worried look on his face. “She’s not packing is she? She’s been threatening to leave me all day.”

“No Zack,” I grabbed the bags from him, “She’s just really upset with you and seems a little scared too. Go talk to her, she really needs you right now.”

The girls came running down the stairs as Zack went up. “What’s up Aunt Anna?” Cassie asked when he was out of sight.

“Your mom isn’t feeling well,” I told the three of them. “I know this may seem like a lot to ask but I need you three to help me prepare the food for the party.”

“Like mommy always does?” Natalie asked, wide eyed.

“Yes,” I smiled. “Like mommy does.”

The girls looked at each other, whispered amongst themselves before finally agreeing to help me out. “We’ll make mom proud,” Lindsay stated as we all walked into the kitchen.

Although it took a couple hours longer than it normally would, I had a lot of fun with the girls as we prepared for the party. During the time it took us to prepare everything, I didn’t hear or see Zack or Mary once. It wouldn’t be until a half hour after we were finished and the girls were upstairs cleaning up, that I saw Zack. He walked into the kitchen and took his seat at the head of the table. “I’m going to be a daddy again,” he said slowly as he rubbed his hand over his face.

“I heard,” I joined him at the table. “Is Mary feeling better?”

He nodded, “She said she wasn’t leaving me after all,” he smiled, “She said I was a great dad and she loves me; even though I irritated the hell out of her.”

I was happy to hear I was going to be an aunt again, for the seventh time, but finding out about Mary’s pregnancy so soon after breaking up with Josh because of his little one night stand pregnancy was almost too much to take. I felt a little empty and depressed as I wondered why everyone else in the world seemed to be coming parents while I seemed to be getting shafted.