Reliving The Past

When Jordan and I first started dating, I was worried about how he would react to me being friends with other men. Sure, he’s been my best friend my entire life and has been around throughout all my relationships so he knew what it was like to be the guy that everyone was nice too but always weary about. One of the things he told me after we decided to see where our chemistry took us was that he will not treat any male friend I have like he had been treated over the years.

“I know you have a life outside of our relationship,” he told me. “You can have the male friends you want Babe, I don’t care about who they are because I know I’m your only ‘boyfriend’.”

So you would think that it would be wrong of him to be all pouty and whatnot as he sat in the driver’s seat tapping his fingers against the steering wheel in time to the song that was playing lowly on his stereo.

As I held my cell phone to my ear and watched Jordan, I started to get a little ticked off. I was thinking, how dare he call me and ask where I was? I didn’t have to answer to him anymore. He didn’t have the right to make me feel like I was doing something wrong by spending time with my boyfriend or enjoying the weekend away.

“Would you like to try that again?” I asked him.

There was an auditable pause on his end. “What do you mean?” He asked hesitantly.

“Would you like to change your demanding, accusing ‘where are you’ to a friendly ‘hello, how are you’ or something that won’t make me want to kick your butt?” Beside me Jordan chuckled and shook his head.

I know it sounds bitchy but I was seriously joking – I couldn’t kick his butt if I tried, he would overpower me in a second and he knew it.

Josh laughed. “Sorry,” he apologized and then told me he was in over his head with the show. “None of the parent volunteers showed and there are about a hundred kids here all wanting to do something with the show. I wasn’t expecting this but I should’ve known - Cassie and her friends were a little too convincing when they went out to see who would like to be a part of this show.”

I nodded; Cassie was like her mom in that sense. Mary could get anyone to do anything she asked, even if they didn’t initially want to get involved. “Cassie was supposed to tell you, I had made plans for this weekend long before she asked me to help out.”

“Plans with Jordan?” If you could hear the sound of eye rolling, it would’ve sounded like Josh did when he spoke just now.

“Yes.” I didn’t say anything else because I didn’t think I needed to remind him that Jordan was my boyfriend or that we would be doing stuff together.

“Plans that mean you can’t swing by? Even just for a few minutes?”

I shook my head. “No Josh, I couldn’t just ‘swing by’. Even if I was in town, I wouldn’t. Sorry.”

“Out of town?” He sounded a little hurt as he told me that he had planned a romantic weekend away for us when we were still together. “Didn’t happen though, we broke up the weekend before.”

I didn’t say anything; there wasn’t anything I could say to that. I wasn’t about to feel bad that Josh and I didn’t get a weekend away or anything else. I was very happy with Jordan and there wasn’t time or place for regrets or ‘what if’.

“I’m sorry,” he said finally after realizing that I wasn’t going to reply. “I shouldn’t live in the past, I know, mom tells me that all the time. She says, ‘Joshua, I know you have deep feelings for Anna and you wanted things to work but they didn’t and you need to accept it and move on; she wasn’t the woman for you’.”

I nodded. “Your mom is right Josh.”

“Is she?” He asked but didn’t give me a chance to respond before jumping in with a quick ‘gotta run’ before hanging up abruptly.

Shaking my head, I snapped my phone closed and tossed it into the back seat. Turning towards Jordan, I smiled. “So what’s next?”

Jordan looked me over and shrugged. “Did you have something else planned for this weekend Anna? Did you make plans to spend it with Josh?”

I raised a brow.

“Yeah, when I answered the phone he said, ‘I should’ve known you are the reason Anna isn’t with me this weekend’.”

I snorted. “Yeah, him and a hundred kids apparently.” When he shot me a questioning look, I shrugged. “Jordan I told you about Cassie’s show and how she asked me to volunteer…” he nodded slowly. “Well Josh is the teacher who’s overlooking the whole thing which she didn’t tell me about until after I volunteered.”

“Oh.”

“They are meeting today and tomorrow to see who can do what and go from there. I told Cassie I couldn’t go when she told me because we had talked about getting away. When Nick told me that you were doing the guy’s night with your brothers, I figured that I might as well go there and see what’s going on. That’s all, I swear.”

“So why didn’t you tell me about Josh being involved with the project as well?”

“I was waiting for the right time?” I said slowly as I shrugged. “I didn’t know how you would react because he’s an ex and I would have to work with him to some sense.”

“I can understand that,” he told me simply. “But Anna we had this talk before, I’m not worried about other men, I trust you to be true to me and our relationship.”

I grinned. “You’re right, I was being silly.”

Leaning over, he kissed me. “Yes, you were.” Sitting back in his seat, he slipped the truck into reverse. “So I was thinking, we should grab some food at the hotel and then relax in our room before meeting up with Scott in the lounge. How does that sound to you?”

It sounded like a great plan, I was so ready to go back to the hotel after spending most of the day out at the over crowded mall.

After making a stop at our room to drop off our purchases and have quick showers, Jordan and I walked into the hotel restaurant. We were waiting for a waitress to be free to come seat us when Scott appeared in front of us. “Could be a while,” he told us. “Unless you would like to join me?”

Jordan and I looked at each other. “Sure.” He smiled at Scott. “That would be great. Thanks man.”

“No problem,” Scott threw over his shoulder as he led us through the restaurant to a booth in the back where a pretty little redhead was sitting by herself. As we greeted her, Scott introduced her as his girlfriend, Kim.

“Wow,” I reached across the table again to shake her hand. “It’s so nice to meet you.”

“You too,” she smiled shyly as she tucked hair behind her ear. “Scott has been telling me about you guys meeting us for drinks later and there you were. It’s crazy!”

From what I could tell from just spending the first few minutes listening to her and watching her with Scott, they seemed really happy together. But it got a little weird when it came time to order.

After Jordan and I told the waitress what we would like, she turned to Scott and he ordered for both of them. Not really a big deal right? Men order for women all the time, or they just tell the waitress what their female companion wants. But that’s not what he did, he said ‘I would like…’ and listed off what he decided on and what Kim decided on.

When the waitress turned to Kim, Kim told her that she wasn’t having anything.

Once the waitress left, Kim must’ve seen my expression because she told me she wasn’t crazy. “I just refuse to order food for myself here, not after what I heard.”

I glanced at Scott. “What did you hear?”

“There’s nothing wrong with the food,” Scott told us before turning to Kim. “There’s no proof the rumours are true Kim.”

“Maybe not,” she replied. “But I’m not taking chances.” With that said, she turned back to Jordan and me. She told me that she knew Scott through her best friend who worked in the hotel. “When we started to see each other Karen told me to be careful whenever I come here with him to eat.”
I frowned. “Why?”

“Because of Tessa –“

“There’s no proof Kim,” Scott repeated.

“Scott I know but I’m not taking that chance. She’s been nothing but rude to me when you aren’t around and I don’t trust her at all. She would be the type to do something mean and spiteful like that.”

“Like what?” I was curious.

“Well,” Kim leaned over the table. “Rumour has it that Tessa is crazy. Scott doesn’t think it’s a big deal, but she’s obsessed with him and apparently isn’t afraid to do something if some other female takes his attention away from her.”

While she was telling us this, Scott was sitting back, shaking his head. You could tell that he didn’t believe it and wasn’t about to either.

“Karen told me that a couple months ago Scott met a chick here and Tessa flipped out. The morning she was checking out, she had breakfast and Tessa tampered with it, crushing prescription sleeping pills up into the food.”

“When was this?” I asked as my heart started to pound as I started to think about my last trip to the hotel. It can’t be, I thought.

“I’m not sure,” Kim replied. “I just know that she was staying in the hotel this summer with her nieces and –­”

I felt the blood run from my face. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

Jordan, who knew about the whole not waking up after coming back from staying at the hotel with the girls, jumped up. “Which one is she?” He asked as he looked around the restaurant.

Scott asked him what his problem was.

Kim clued in right away. “Oh my God! It was you!”

Shopping

“I don’t understand it.” Jordan stood with his hands on his hips and stared off into the distance. Just moments before I had released my ‘favourite’ bowling ball of the day, a cloudy black ball that just ‘felt right’ when I used it, and watched it rolled confidently down the lane, knocking over every single pin that stood in its way.

“It’s just luck,” he tried to blow my victory off as nothing.

“Luck?” I snorted as I turned around to face him. “I got lucky six times in a row?”

“Yeah,” he crinkled his nose as he glared at the pins that just reset at the end of the lane. “The air came on or –“

“Jordy!” I went to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. Looking up adoringly at him, I squeezed him tight. “The air didn’t come on nor did anything else happen that wasn’t going on when you were up.”

“Come on Anna, six in a row? Tell me that’s not lucky.”

“Could be luck,” I agreed. “Or it could be the time I’ve spent playing Wii Play Bowling with Natalie – I rock that game!”

“Ohhh,” he chuckled, his arms slipping around my waist. “I see; you’ve been practising.”

I tilted my head back and grinned. “Yeah well you could –”

“I love you,” he blurted out.

I actually stumbled over what I was in the middle of saying when it clued in what he said to me. As if it was the first time he said those words to me, I felt this warmth start in my chest and spread outwards. “I love you too.”
I was still smiling like a young girl in love a half hour later as we strolled through the mall, hand in hand. At every couple store windows, Jordan would stop and point to something but we didn’t go into any of the stores until we came to Kidz Threadz.

“That dress is pretty,” he said as he pulled me towards the entrance. “Do you think it’s pretty enough for a Christmas dress for Jenna? I want her to look her best when -” He stopped and cursed. “I almost forgot that I wanted to buy a camcorder, the one I have finally crapped out a couple weeks ago.”

We walked into the store and he immediately headed towards the dress in the window. The dress in question was a rich scarlet red silk dress with little pink flowers under the bust and the same shade of pink used as a neck line and cuffs. It was a pretty little dress but once he was up close to it, he screwed up his nose. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s cute,” I told him. “But maybe you should see what else they have in stock and maybe check out other stores before buying it if you aren’t 100% sure that you like it Jordy.”

“Yeah but Babe, what do you think?”

“I told you, it’s cute.”

He looked at me. “But?”

“But…” I shrugged. “You didn’t look too impressed with it so I think you should check around before you buy so that you are happy with the dress when you get it home and put it on your pretty little girl.”

Slowly, we made our way through the store. As we went Jordan stopped to look at all the girl clothing as well as the baby boy clothes. He picked up a couple cute outfits for Jenna and Bradley. “Amy will tell me I didn’t have too but he’s my nephew and Godson, I have double the right to spoil him rotten.”

“Mmmhmm,” I nodded absently as I checked out a cute little baby blue dress.

“It’s pretty.” He reached around me and fingered the soft material. “For Jenna?”

Smiling, I glanced at him over my shoulder and felt a familiar tug in my chest.

After we showered that morning, he stood in front of the mirror, staring at himself while rubbing his hand over his jaw. “I should probably shave.” It only took me telling him that he looked super hot all scruffy for him to forget about that idea.

“Yes, it is. I thought this would be a good time to think about buying Christmas presents for those on my list this year. It’s just over a month until the day, you know.”

“I know but I was thinking that instead of worrying about that on this trip, we could come back in a month and then work on our list.”

I started to tell him that it sounded like a plan when he asked me if I was doing the Christmas shopping trip with the girls again this year. “Yeah, they had a blast when we did it last year and they’ve already been hinting that they wanted to do it again.” I told him that he should come with us.

“Nah,” he shook his head. “That’s their time with you, I wouldn’t want to get in the way. And besides, how can you all buy me the coolest gift if I’m hanging over your shoulder?”

I laughed, “Good point!”

On that note, we moved away from the rack, with the dress I picked out and wandered to the back of the store. Jordan didn’t find the dress he was looking for in that store. It would take a half hour more and a couple stores later before he exclaimed, “I found it!”

“You did?” I quickly dropped the clothing I was looking at and hurried to his side. “Oh my! That’s it. Jenna will look so adorable in that.”

That was a long sleeved teal velvet dress with beading in the shape of flowers on the bodice and around the bottom of the skirt with a lighter green ribbon just under the bodice. Under the green velvet there was a layer of silver satin that just added to the beauty of the dress.

“I’m getting it,” he told me as he spun around and damn near ran to the cashier.

With one item scratched off his list we headed towards an electronics store. Once we found a camcorder he liked, we strolled through the mall, hand in hand, as we headed towards the exit.

Just as I was putting our shopping bags into the back seat of his truck, my cell phone, which was in Jordan’s pocket, rang.

“Want me to get it?”

“Sure,” I shrugged. “It’s probably just Zack calling to see how things are going.”

On the third ring, Jordan flipped the phone open and said hello. Two seconds later my phone was shoved in front of my face and Jordan walked around the front of his truck muttering something under his breath.
I frowned as I watched him climb up into the driver’s seat. “Hello?”

“Where are you?”

It took me a moment but I finally recognized the voice. “Josh?”

Day Away

The first night in the hotel with Jordan was just perfect. From the moment I walked out of the bathroom until I drifted off to sleep, he told, showed, or helped me feel how much he loved me. I was enjoying being wrapped up in us so much that I didn’t want to even leave the room the next morning when he sleepily suggested that we get up and go find some breakfast.

“But the hotel has room service Jordy.” I snuggled closer to him. “Can’t we just order something and stay in?” While I was hoping that he would say yes, I knew he wouldn’t, I had a feeling he had plans for us that involved going out of the hotel.

“We could,” he smiled down at me. “But we won’t.”

I asked him what was so important that we had to leave the room and he gave me a funny look. “Babe,” he sat up and turned to pull me into a sitting position beside him. “Don’t take this the wrong way but this weekend isn’t all about getting you naked.” His eyes travelled down to the blankets that just barely covered my bare chest. “Although I really love it when we are naked together, that’s not why I brought you here.”

“Oh,” I glanced away from him. “I thought that’s why we were here.”

“Anna if it were only about sex, why even bother to leave home?” He chuckled softly. “This weekend is about us, and I like to think there is so much more to us than how we are together sexually.”

“Good thoughts,” I smiled at him. “So what are we doing today?”

Reaching around my back, Jordan slapped my butt. “Get up and you’ll see Babe.”

We didn’t exactly leave the hotel room right away, after he smacked my butt, he went to get out of bed and I attempted to get him back. He quickly rolled back onto his butt, trapping my hand under him as he reached for my sides and just started to tickle me. Every time I tried to turn the tables on him, he let me think I was about to do it but then he overpowered me and resumed his ‘attack’ until I was curled up in the fetal position begging for mercy.

“Ok, Ok,” he moved to my side and grinned down at me. “I wouldn’t want you to pee on me!” When he turned to get off the bed, I moved into position to slap his butt because I just couldn’t let it go. I didn’t think he saw me but just as he stood up and I made the move to slap, he spun around and grabbed my hand. “Gotta be faster Babe,” he smirked as he turned me onto my side and spanked me again.

“Where are you going?” I called after him as he hurried away from the bed, not caring that he was completely naked. And I couldn’t help but check him out as he made his way to the bathroom.

“Going to shower,” he threw over his shoulder. “Wanna join me?”

He didn’t need to ask me twice, I was off the bed and at his side in no time at all. As he laughed, I took his hand and pulled him into the bathroom.

An hour after we disappeared into the bathroom, Jordan opened the hotel room door. “Hello,” he nodded to the cleaning lady who was just about to knock on our door. “That’s pretty good timing,” he smiled at her. “Great timing, the room is all yours.”

As we walked away, I noticed the lady checking him out. “Hey Jordy?”

He looked at me and I nodded back to the lady. He didn’t even glance back as he told me that he wasn’t interested in even knowing.

We left the hotel and went straight to the nearest restaurant for breakfast and then made our way to the mall.

It seemed like we spent forever in the mall. We started out in the rec room playing air hockey and pool then headed off to the restaurant part of the place to grab burgers and fries.

“I’m going to ask Heather if I can have Jenna over Christmas,” he blurted out between a bite of his cheeseburger and a sip of his Pepsi. “She probably won’t let me have her then, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask, I haven’t had Jenna over any holidays yet and this is my first Christmas with her.”

“Christmas?” I raised a brow. “Wow Babe that’s great. I don’t see why Heather wouldn’t agree to that – she seems to really want you and Jenna to become closer.” A couple weeks before, I was with Jordan when Heather picked up Jenna; one of the first questions that Heather asked Jenna was if she had a great time with her daddy.

“You love being with daddy, don’t you?” Jenna nodded enthusiastically and reached for Jordan; Heather let him take Jenna in his arms once again. “A couple more minutes,” she told Jenna as she turned to me. “I’m gonna talk to Anna for a minute, if that’s ok?” She directed that question to Jordan.

“Of course,” he smiled. “We’re gonna play in the living room,” he told us and then gave me a kiss before disappearing into the house.

“So how are you doing?” I asked her once we were seated in Jordan’s kitchen. “How’s Hank?”

She grinned. “He’s great, I’m great. But I wanted to talk about Jordan and you.” Her eyes lit up. “I can’t believe it finally happened! It’s been what? A couple months?”

I nodded, “It’ll be four months in a couple days. Trust me; I can’t even believe it some days. You know people always talk about finding your soul mate – someone who is like your best friend –”

Heather leaned in over the table. “I’m so happy for you two; Jordan has been so happy lately, it’s great to see.” She went on to tell me that she was worried for the longest time that Jordan was going to try to get back with her. “As much as I loved Jordan, it’s nothing like the feelings I have for Hank – despite the issues we had in the beginning.”

“Yeah Heather has been great with giving me time with Jenna but I’m afraid that she won’t let me have her for Christmas.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I reached out and squeezed his hand. “I don’t see Heather stopping you from seeing her over Christmas but –” I stopped short.

“What?” Jordan looked at me. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I shook my head slightly. “Just that – well…” I frowned. “I just realized that Christmas as we knew it is done.” He shot me a questioning look. “I mean, the days of Nick, Amy and us hanging out together Christmas Eve and having breakfast together are pretty much gone. Nick and Amy are going to be doing their own thing with Bradley this year and you, well, you are going to want to spend time with Jenna.”

He started to say something but I stopped him. “No, it’s ok Jordy, that’s the next step in the whole growing up thing, spending important holidays with family.”

“Babe…”

“Come on,” I tugged on his hand and motioned towards the bowling lanes in the other room. “Ready to get your butt whooped?”

Getting Ready To Begin

Jordan stood back and held the door open for me to pass before he entered the room that would be ours for the next two nights. From the quick glimpse that I got of the room before Jordan twirled me around, I knew that it wasn’t an ordinary room. The king size bed alone told me that.

“Hey,” he said when I was facing him. “You know what?”

I shook my head. “No, what?”

“Well,” he glanced at the floor and sighed.

“Jordy what’s wrong?”

With another sigh, he faced me. “The thing is Babe, this morning I woke up with a feeling. I didn’t know how to deal with so I decided to myself; I’d hide it to myself.”

I frowned, “What feeling Jordy?” I reached for him, worried that he had kept something from me.

“I don’t know what I’m up against, Babe. I don’t know what it’s all about. I got so much to think about.”

I shook my head in confusion. “I don’t know what you are talking about Jordan!” I gripped his shirt and demanded that he tell me what was going on. “Tell me now!”

His hands slipped over mine. “Believe me; you really don’t have to worry –”

“Well you are freaking me out!”

“I only want to make you happy –” He paused to bring my hands to his mouth. After pressing his lips against the back of my hand, he smiled at me. “And if you say ‘hey go way I will’.”

“What?” I pulled back from him. “Jordan why on earth ­–”

“But I think better still, I’d better stay around and love you. Do you think I have a case? Let me ask you to your face, do you think you love me?”

I felt like a complete moron. “You jerk!” I swatted at him. “It’s a song! I thought –”

“I think I love you,” he sang as he came towards me, his arms wide opened. “Isn’t that what love is made of?”

I turned and walked further into the room. “You are a jerk,” I threw over my shoulder as I plopped onto the sofa in the ‘sitting room’.

“I think I love you,” he continued as he joined me. “Do you think you love me?”

Rolling my eyes, I turned away from him.

“Oh Babe, don’t pout.” He moved my hair from my shoulder and kissed my skin. “Even though you look hot when you pout.” His lips travelled along my shoulder to that spot at where my neck and shoulder meet.

“I thought there was something wrong Jordan.” He stopped kissing my shoulder and looked up when I glanced over my shoulder.

“I’m sorry Babe; I didn’t mean to worry you.” Wrapping his arms around me, he rested his chin on my shoulder and sighed. “I heard that song this morning and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head.”

“Jordy,” I turned in his arms and faced him. “Things are going so great with us, I’m so worried that something will go wrong.”

“Don’t think like that,” he told me. “Just enjoy being with me Anna, just like I’m enjoying being with you.”

I stared at him for the longest time.

“Are you going to say something? Or should I leave you alone for little?”

I chuckled and he asked what it was for. “I can’t believe you think I would want you to leave me alone when I haven’t seen you in forever?”

With a grin, he told me that he knew I really wanted to jump his bones.

“How did you know?” I exclaimed as I did exactly what he said I wanted.

Jordan and I were getting busy on the sofa, his shirt had disappeared along with mine and he was working on my pants when he leaned too far to the right and toppled over the edge.

“Oh!” My hand jumped to cover my mouth as I stared wide eyed down at him lying on the floor with his eyes closed. “Honey are you ok?”

Jordan groaned as he rolled onto his side and pushed himself into a half sitting position on the floor in front of the sofa. “Yes,” he sounded a little surprised. “I’m better than I’ve ever been.” He motioned for me to sit up while he crawled up next to me. “Come curl up with me Anna.”

I waited until he was lying comfortably before I moved beside him and wrapped myself around him.

“You called me ‘honey’,” he said in amazement. “You never called me anything but ‘Jordy’ or ‘Babe’.”

“I’m sorry?”

“No, no,” he shifted until he was almost nose to nose with me. “I’ve listen to you call your ex boyfriends ‘honey’ and I thought it was the dumbest thing ever but now – I think it’s one word I want to hear you say.”

“You were jealous!”

“I was not!”

I snorted. “You were! That’s why you didn’t like to hear me call someone else ‘honey’!”

“You know what?” Jordan started to push me up off the couch. “You stink, I think you should go shower.”

“Whatever!” I grabbed a cushion and whacked him with it. “If I stink, you are rancid!”

We cuddled on the sofa a few more minutes before he talked me into going to take a shower. “Are you going to join me?”

“I would love to but I’m going to give you a couple minutes to yourself because, Sweetheart, this weekend you won’t have a minute without me! So enjoy it while you can.”

I pretended that I was eager to get to my alone time – I grabbed my overnight bag and ran from the sitting area into the bathroom. As I closed the door behind me, I heard Jordan laughing. “You’re mine in ten Babe!”

Moments That Matter

It seemed like the hallway Jordan was leading me down went on forever; at one point I asked him if he booked a room on the rooftop. With a smile, he told me that he never thought about asking if they had rooms up there as he came to a stop in front of room 820.

Turning towards him, I waited until he placed our bags on the floor and reached into his pocket for the room keycards before I wrapped my arms around his waist. “This is exciting,” I told him with a smile. “I don’t think I’ve ever gone out of town with a boyfriend before – you’re my first!”

“That’s not quite true,” he informed me. “There was Will.”

Rolling my eyes, I told him that Will didn’t count. “And besides,” I stretched up to plant a kiss on his cheek. “I believe I ended up in your arms that time, so it worked out great for me!”

With a snort, he told me that he hoped this time went a lot better than last. “As much as I enjoyed holding you that night, the tears weren’t really a good thing.” He pressed his lips against my temple. “Neither was the self loathing.”

“Well, I can’t promise there won’t be tears Jordy but I can promise I won’t hate myself at all this weekend.”

He was quite for a moment, his fingers flicking the keycard in this hand. When he spoke, his words came out slowly. “I suppose tears would be ok – as long as they are happy ones!”

“What else would they be?” I asked him. “I mean,” I moved in front of him and gazed up into his eyes. “I’m here with you, why would I be sad?”

He shrugged.

“That’s what I thought!” I chuckled. “So?” I pointed to the door. “Can we go in?”

“Nah,” he wrapped his arms around me and grinned. “I thought we’d stay out here and stare at the door for a while. Romantic, isn’t it?”

“Oh very,” I laughed.

“Oh ok,” he pouted. “If you insist, we’ll go in.”

I couldn’t wait to get into our room. Since the moment I saw that we were at the hotel, all I could think of was being alone with him for the weekend. It was getting later and I was hungry but the idea of curling up with Jordan anywhere almost pushed those other thoughts out of my head.

Jordan swiped the keycard through the slot. Nothing happened. “What the -?” He swiped the card again and once again, nothing happened. I watched him frown at the card slot and turn the card over in his hand, studying it for a moment before trying it again. Again, nothing. “Is this even the right door?” He glanced at the number and then searched his pockets. “Babe, where is the paper the chick gave me at the front desk?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Right,” he nodded his head. “You were talking to Scott.”

His tone was snippy but I was unable to see his expression because he dipped down to riffle through the zippered pocket on his overnight bag. “Are you mad at me?” I could’ve pretended that what he said didn’t bother me but if I did, I knew it would ruin our weekend if I was pouting. I didn’t want anything bad to happen at all.

Jordan took a deep breath and let it out slowly before he turned his head to gaze up at me from his crouching position on the floor. “Babe…”

My heart sunk. I shifted my gaze from him to the floor.

“No, no, no!” He grabbed my pants and tugged gently. When I looked at him, he shook his head. “Babe, you know I’m not mad at you.”

“But you don’t like that I was talking to Scott.”

With a chuckle, he rose to stand in front of me. “If I didn’t like it Anna, I wouldn’t have suggested that we meet with him tomorrow for drinks. You know I trust you.”

I was a little confused. “Then what was with the tone when you said I was talking to Scott?”

“Tone?” He raised a brow. “There was a tone?”

“Yes.” I stared at him. “There was, at least I thought there was. I just –”

“Babe,” he flashed me his trademark smile. “I’m not that guy. I’m not going to flip just because you talk to another man.” He reached out and gripped my arms. “I trust you.”

I don’t know why I needed to hear him say it. I knew he trusted me, you didn’t spend your life being someone’s friend if you don’t trust them with everything you have.

“Ah ha!” He waved a piece of paper in front of my face. “This is the right room!” He flashed me the keycard. “This doesn’t work!”

While he went down the hallway to the guest phone to call down to the front desk about the key, I stood by the door, watching him. I can’t tell you how happy I was at that moment. It had everything to do with being able to be who I am while loving a man who loved me just for that. When I look back on my indecision to start dating, I can’t believe that I even doubted how good we would be together.

“They are sending someone up with another keycard,” Jordan told me when he came back from the phone.

As we waited, Jordan leaned back against the wall and motioned for me to come stand in front of him. When Chelsea appeared with our new keycard, we were wrapped up in each other’s arms just whispering about everything – but the being together was the special part.

“Thanks so much,” Jordan smiled at Chelsea and then turned to me. “Come on Babe, let’s go make out.”

Better Than I Thought

“Ignore it,” Jordan whispered over my shoulder as I returned Tessa’s frosty glare. “She’s just jealous.”

“Of what?” I asked as I glanced over my shoulder.

When Jordan and I started to date, one of the first questions that he asked was about Scott. From the night that we were at the bar with his brothers and their other halves – since the moment he heard me on the phone with him – he’s been dropping hints that he wanted to know more about Scott. So a couple weeks after we got together, he finally asked me about Scott and my level of involvement with him.

I thought about just brushing it off but since I was still chatting with Scott at the time, I felt that I had to be honest with him. So I told him how I met Scott at the hotel when I checked in. I told him that he was interested in me and he tried, a few times, to get me to spend some time with him while I was staying there. He heard about the breakfast that we shared with my nieces and how bitchy Tessa was to me because I talked to Scott.

“Like you don’t know,” Jordan chuckled. “Come on Babe, let’s check in and I’ll explain, in detail, all the reasons she would have to be jealous of you.”

I just smiled as he slipped his hand into mine and led me towards the front desk, where I recognized someone else, Chelsea. She was busy with another guest but the other lady that she was working with was free, so Jordan went to her.

As Jordan checked us in, I wandered into the seated section of the lobby where they had done some new interior design since the last time I was there – instead of a light summer look, they had changed into a fall motive and it was really beautiful.

A door to the right of the front desk opened just as I turned around to return to Jordan’s side. I stopped short as Scott appeared from office and looked around the lobby until his eyes landed on me. His face lit up as his mouth turned up in a big grin. “Anna!”

At the sound of my name, Jordan turned around in time to see Scott hurry across the hotel lobby to stand in front of me. For a moment, he hesitated and then he surprised me by giving me a bear hug. “I can’t believe you are here, I was thinking about you just yesterday, wondering what you were doing.” He released me. “I was going to try calling you tonight,” he laughed. “This is crazy!”

About a month or so after Jordan and I started dating, I kind of lost touch with Scott – the hotel became crazy busy and I was all over the place with everything I had going on.

“Hey Scott,” I smiled at him. “It’s good to see you. How have you been?”

“That’s what I was going to call you about,” he seemed so excited about something, it was curious. “Do you have time tonight to meet me in the lounge for a drink?” He bit his lip and then looked around. Frowning, he turned back to me. “Where are the girls? Or…” he suddenly looked very hopeful. “Are you here by yourself?”

“No –”

“You should’ve called me,” he cut me off. “I could’ve given you a great deal on a really awesome room.”

“That’s very nice of you to offer,” Jordan appeared at my side, his arm slipped around my waist as he moved in to brush his lips against my temple.

For a split second, Scott looked surprised but he hid it quickly. “Oh,” he held out his hand to Jordan. “You must be…” he glanced at me. “The boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” Jordan took Scott’s hand and shook it firmly. “I’m the boyfriend. You must be Scott.” They dropped their hands back to their sides. “Anna mentioned that you worked here.”

“Actually,” he smirked. “I don’t work here anymore.” Turning to be, he told me that he was really going to call me. “I have something exciting to tell you.”

I asked him what it was but he told me that he would tell me later. “You are here with your boyfriend, I don’t want to ruin your evening.”

Despite the fact that I was curious about what was doing on with him, about what he wanted to tell me, I was eager to go up to the room and relax with Jordan. “It was good to see you again.” I moved away from Jordan to give Scott a hug.

“Yeah,” Jordan agreed. “Maybe, if you are around tomorrow, we could get a drink and chat.”

Jordan’s suggestion surprised me. In fact, his whole coolness about running into Scott surprised me, I was so used to Josh flipping out, I expected that from Jordan as well.

I slipped my arm around his back and grinned. “That sounds like a good idea Jordy.” Turning to Scott, I asked what he thought. “Would you be interested in meeting up with us tomorrow evening?”

“Sure,” he flashed us both a smile and suggested a time. We agreed on a time and then said goodnight.

After we parted ways with Scott, Jordan and I made our way up to our room. In the elevator, Jordan dropped our bags and pulled me into his arms; it was so unexpected, I actually chuckled. Instead of kissing me, which would be the expected thing to do, Jordan rested his chin against my forehead and just held me close.

When the elevator dinged on our floor, I felt him sigh. “Want to take that ride again?” He asked me as his arms tightened around me. “I don’t wanna let you go.”

“Then don’t,” I tilted my head back so I could see him. “We could continue this in our room.”

“Mmm,” he grinned. “Yes, yes we could.”

As quickly as he could, he grabbed our bags and led me down the hallway towards our room. When he arrived at the room, he fumbled with the key card as if he was nervous. But what did he have to be nervous about? It wasn’t the first time that we had ever been alone together.

Turning to me, he smiled. “So were you giving up food to cuddle with me?”

“Hello no!” I exclaimed with a laugh. “I want food and you, what do you say about that?”

“I’d say that tonight is your lucky night my love – all your dreams can come true.”

Let The Fun Begin!

The last thing I remembered was Jordan shifting into drive and easing out of his driveway. I took his suggestion and sunk into the passenger seat and closed my eyes.

It seemed like I had only just closed my eyes when I felt movement beside me. Opening my eyes just a little, I managed to make out Jordan’s outline as he came to rest beside me after having lifted the center console back up and sliding across the bench seat of his truck.

He didn’t say a word as his hands moved to my hip, fumbling with my seatbelt. Once the seatbelt click open and started to slide back to its home, Jordan leaned down and pressed his lips against my cheek. “Wakey, wakey,” he said softly.

“Nooo,” I whined as I turned towards him. “I’m sleepy Babe.”

“I know!” He pulled me into his arms. “You were snoring!”

Snuggling up to him, I sighed happily. “Can we just go home?”

“Ahhh…” he chuckled. “Sorry Babe, we can’t.”

“Oh.” I pouted. “We can grab something to eat at your place.” I offered but he still said we couldn’t go back to his place. Frowning, I pushed away from him. “Why not?”

Instead of saying anything, his fingers curled around my chin and he carefully turned my head so that I could see out the windshield. “That’s why Babe. I’m not driving back home tonight.”

“Where…?” I glanced around, looking through the windshield out at the brilliantly lit hotel that towered over us as we sat in the parking lot. “But Nick said…”

Jordan’s mouth was on my cheek again. “Do you really think I would give up a weekend with my girl to spend a couple hours with my brothers?”

“Nick lied to me?”

“Not really,” he pulled back and looked down with me. “They did want to plan something for tomorrow and I told them I would hang out with them – if I didn’t have this hot girlfriend that I’m jonesing for.”

With a snort, I asked him if he thought that he was getting some action this weekend. “Because, you know, you’ll have to spend some serious dough to get me in the sack Babe.”

“Good thing I got paid today then,” he replied with a grin. “Now, get outta my truck and into that hotel room before I take you here, in my back seat!”

“Pff, get your butt out and open the door for me. I’m high class, don’t you know?”

As he turned to open his door, he mumbled, “Oh you’re in a class of your own, I know that.” If he wasn’t smiling like a fool when he walked around to open my door, I would’ve thought my joking around upset him, but we have always joked around like this. That was one of the things I loved about dating him, I could be myself and he loved it.

When he opened my door, the cool air of the night rushed in and made me shiver. “It’s certainly cooling off,” I commented unnecessarily. “Winter is around the corner.” I wasn’t looking forward to winter.

“Yes,” he took a deep breath. “It’s wonderful, isn’t it? The snow, the ice. The hockey, skiing, skidooing –”

“I get it,” I slipped out of his truck. “You love winter, crazy man.”

“You should to Babe, winter is your season.”

I scoffed. “Winter is so not my season.”

With a slight shrug, he pulled me away from the truck so that he could close the door. “Maybe this winter will be something special.”

I asked him what he meant but he just said that we never know what will happen in the future as he grabbed our bags from the back seat of his truck.

“Did you pack my bag?”

“Nope,” he reached for my hand and motioned towards the hotel entrance. “Mary took care of it for me. I wanted this to be a surprise for you Babe. You’ve been working hard and not taking the time to think about yourself for the last couple months.”

I threw my arms around his neck. “Thank you Jordy, you have no idea how much I’ve been looking forward to this.”

As we made our way to the hotel, he told me that he thought this would be the best place to go because I raved about how awesome the rooms were the last time I was there with my nieces. “Of course, I didn’t get a room with two queen beds but I don’t think you’ll be too disappointed.”

“Oh? What room did you get then? Hopefully one with a bed.”

“Ha ha!” He shook his head. “No, I asked for a conference room. How do you feel about doing it on a table?”

“I’m not sleeping with you,” I smirked as I let go of his hand and walked ahead of him into the lobby of the hotel.

“That’s what you think,” he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “You’ll be sleeping with me Babe, even if you don’t sleep with me.”

Turning in his arms, I smiled. “I love you so much.”

“Love you too Babe.” He pressed his lips against mine briefly. “Now, let’s check in.”

The first person I saw when I turned around was Tessa. She greeted me with her trademark frosty look.

Something's Up

I managed to make it to my car without exploding. It was a good thing Jordan wasn’t near me at the time because I would’ve bitten his head off and probably stomped away from him. I was looking forward to the weekend. I wanted to get out of town and get away from everyone. But most importantly, I wanted to spend a whole two days wrapped up with him.

Resisting the urge to scream, I jabbed my key into the door lock and opened my door. “It’s ok,” I told myself. “It’s not like there isn’t something for me to do this weekend.” I sighed. I was putting it off. I knew I was putting it off but who could really blame me?

When Cassie came to me a couple days before with an idea for a fundraiser at her school, I was impressed that she was getting involved and helping out. I felt like I had an influence on that. And then she told me what she wanted. “I need a parent volunteer Anna.”

“I’m not your parent,” I replied.

She rolled her eyes at me. “They say ‘parent’ but you know that it doesn’t have to be a parent Aunt Anna! It just has to be a responsible adult.”

I laughed.

“Aunt Anna! Be serious! I need you to supervise and help out with the show. Dad can’t do it because he’s working like crazy now. Mom isn’t feeling that great, she’s in the bathroom getting sick most of the time. You are the only one I can ask, and we need volunteers otherwise we are going to have to do something boring to fundraise.” Her face screwed up as if she had just smelt something horrible. “We want to do a talent show.”

“Fine.” I figured it wouldn’t be too difficult to help out with the show, they were high school kids, and they didn’t need to be supervised every second.

“Good,” she jumped up off my bed where she has plopped when she started telling me the idea. As she ran out the door, she yelled over her shoulder. “You have to meet with Coach Baker Monday after school!”

“Get back here!” I ran after her. I chased her up the stairs, around the living room and up to her bedroom before she finally stopped running. “Why do I have to meet with Josh?”

“Don’t hate me,” she pleaded. “But he’s the teacher assigned to the show.”

“And you couldn’t tell me that before you talked me into helping out?”

“What’s the problem?” She looked confused. “You are happy with Uncle Jordy and you said that one day you would probably be friends with Coach Baker. Why would this be a problem?”

“Well…”

She gasped, her hand clamping on my arm. “OhmyGod! Do you think Uncle Jordy would have a problem with you working with Coach Baker?” She pulled her arm away and tapped her bottom lip with her finger. “I never thought about that.” With a sigh, she told me that it would be ok if I couldn’t help her out.

Even though I wasn’t one hundred percent sure, I told her it would be ok. I mean, sooner or later, I would see him around and have to talk to him. It wasn’t that either one of us did anything wrong, we just didn’t work out.

I had told Cassie I would give Josh a call after work, before I went out of town with Jordan. Now that Jordan had made plans with his brothers, I figured that there was nothing stopping me from meeting up with Josh and the kids over the weekend to work on the show. They were supposed to be meeting at the school both Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

I sat in my car, staring at my phone, for the longest time. I didn’t know what to say to him.

While I was debating the best way to start a conversation with Josh – ‘hey Cassie roped me into working this show, what do I do?’ or ‘hey josh, how’s it going?’ Both sucked, to be honest. One was too harsh and the other almost too friendly.

Ring.

“Oh shit!” I jumped in my seat – almost dropping my phone.

Ring. Ring.

I didn’t have time to check the caller id before it would go to voice mail. “Hello?”

“Hey Babe, whatcha doing?” I forgot all about Cassie, Josh and the play the moment I heard Jordan’s voice.

Trying not to let my previous pissy mood sound through in my voice, I told him I was sitting in my car. “What are you doing? Slow day at work?”

“Nah Babe, I’m not at work.” He lowered his voice and jokingly said. “I’m playing hooky. Wanna come play with me?”

I closed my eyes and squeezed them tight. It was difficult to resist him when he used that sexy voice on me. “I don’t know,” I chewed on my bottom lip. “I still have to contact the teacher for Cassie’s talent show production.”

“Baby come on,” he groaned. “I haven’t seen you in forever and it doesn’t feel right. I miss you Anna.”

“I didn’t go anywhere.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. I wished that I knew what he was thinking but, of course, I wouldn’t ask.

“Will you come over? We could go out for dinner and have a relaxing evening together. What do you say?”

Despite how upset I was that our weekend wasn’t happening, I couldn’t say no. I wanted to see him. I hated not seeing him for days at a time, it wasn’t how we did things – except for the one month that I was stupid and stopped talking to him.

When I pulled into his driveway ten minutes after I hung up with him, he was standing by his truck, waiting for me. “Hey baby,” he greeted me when I got out of my car. I didn’t even get a word out before his arms wrapped around me and he held me tight.

“Everything ok Jordy?” My hands trailed over his back as I pulled back to look at him. He met my eyes and held them. For the longest time, he just stared into my eyes without saying anything.

“What?” I chuckled nervously.

“Nothing.” He motioned towards the passenger door of his truck. “Are you hungry?”

When I nodded, he opened the door for me and helped me in. Just before he closed the door, he leaned in, gave me a kiss and then hurried around to his door. Once he climbed up into the driver’s seat, he leaned over again and kissed my cheek.

“Are you ok?” I was starting to get suspicious – but about what? There was something up, I could feel it.

“Yes, I’m wonderful.” He gave me a kiss again. As he settled back into his seat, he suggested that I get comfortable. “We aren’t eating in town tonight Babe. I’m taking you somewhere special.”

Summer Faded Into The Fall

And Jordan was like a missing person – I barely saw him at all.

It didn’t bug me at first, not seeing Jordan all the time. I knew he had lots of stuff going on with his daughter, his brother moving back into town and his dad finally spending the time with him that he should have years ago.

In fact, all the last minute cancellations on our ‘dates’ didn’t even faze me because I knew he wasn’t out banging some other chick or running around on me. I trusted Jordan more than I ever trusted anyone else and I knew that was due to the fact that we were best friends before we started to date.

While Jordan was spending time with Jenna, or helping Mike get settled, or bonding with his dad over some old car or new woodworking project – I wasn’t sitting around staring at the walls waiting for him to call me out of the blue and want to hang out. No, I was actually out making new friends and helping out the community.

The end of August was a busy week for me at work, along with all the MOD changes I had to do, the district manager was visiting and all the management in the store was in a panic. The last time the DM came to visit, he wasn’t too impressed with a lot of little things and this time we were hoping he was in a better mood.

“You haven’t seen Linda, have you?” I asked Barb as she ran through my department checking to make sure everything was prefect for the DM’s visit.

“No, sorry Anna, I haven’t seen her yet.” Barb started to walk away and as she went she told me that she would check to see is Linda called in.

Linda was a hard worker and she was very friendly towards all the customers, no matter how bitchy they were to her. If I wasn’t feeling that great, she would do something to cheer me up. When Josh and I broke up, Linda gathered all the books and magazines from stationary that featured some activity that you could do on our own, or some club that you could join to make friends and have a good time. When I told her that Jordan and I were giving it a shot, she gave me the biggest hug and, through her tears, she told me that she was happy for me.

“It’s almost like this is happening to me,” she bawled. “I remember feeling the same way when my Randy asked me out for the first time.”

When Barb paged me a few minutes later to come to the front office immediately, I was very worried. I ran towards the front, if there it wasn’t something important Barb would’ve called my phone in Infants or paged me to call her. I knew this wasn’t a good sign.

“What’s going on?”

With a grim look on her face, Barb handed me her manger phone and told me Linda was on the phone. I wanted to ask what was going on but Barb walked out of the office and closed the door behind her.

I stood there in the quite office, staring at the phone in my hand as everyone went about her business outside the door. I took a deep breath and brought the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

All I heard were tears.

“Linda?” I grabbed a chair and sat down. “What’s wrong?”

A couple heart wrenching sobs came over the line before she tried to speak. It took her a while and as she spoke it felt like my whole world was falling apart along with hers as she told me how the father of her kids, the main bread winner, fell thirty feet to his death on a construction site. She asked what she should tell her kids, she asked how she was supposed to give them everything they needed. She told me that Randy was her heart and soul, she didn’t know if she could go on without him.

It was the hardest call I ever received. There wasn’t a damn thing I could’ve said to her to help her through this so I did all I could do – I cried along with her and promised her that everything will be ok. “If you need me to do anything, just let me know, I’ll do whatever I can.”

She asked me if I could come and sit with her. Then, in the next breath, she mentioned the DM visit and said it was ok.

I knew I couldn’t leave work, but for a moment, I really didn’t care what happened if I did. She needed someone, she was all alone at the house – her family only moved to the community a couple months before and they didn’t have any family around.

“I’ll call someone,” I told her but she told me she would be fine.

When we hung up, I immediately dialed Chad’s number; Mary and Susan were spending the day together. “I need a huge favor,” I told Susan as soon as I got the ‘how are you’ out of the way.

I don’t think Susan was too thrilled that I was asking for something until I told her what was going on. “Oh my God!” She gasped. “That poor woman, of course we’ll stop by and see how she’s doing.”

After thanking her, I told her I would call Linda and tell her – to see if she would mind someone coming over for her. She didn’t mind, in fact, she cried and thanked me. “I didn’t want to sit here alone,” she told me before asking for Susan’s number.

I sat in the office for a long time after I hung up from talking to Linda again. It was in that time that I came up with some ideas of how I could help her out. I walked out of the office and at the morning meeting, I shared with everyone (Linda had asked me to let everyone know) what was going on and my plans to help her out.

This was the start of what would become a drive for me, to help those who needed it as much as I could. And I managed to get my family and the people in the community that I knew involved with my project.

My charity work kept me pretty busy when I wasn’t doing my day job but I still managed to hang out with my friend and family, and go on dates with Jordan when he was free.

It was great. Life was good but I was tired all the time. Getting up early for work and not getting to bed until midnight or later most nights was taking its toll on my system. Something had to change. I knew it but I didn’t make any steps to change it.

The first Friday of November finally rolled around. It was one I was looking forward too for a long time, Jordan didn’t have Jenna that weekend and he made some mention about us going out of town for the weekend. It would be the first time we got to spend any real time together in months.

I was in the lunch room, packing up my stuff so I could go home when Nick come waltzing in for his shift. “Hey Trouble,” he greeted me like always. It was fun to have him working as an unloader at the store. I got to see him everyday I worked and for a moment or two, it was nice to be around him without his family.

He walked into the locker room as I was saying ‘hello’. “Don’t go anywhere,” he called out. “I wanted to thank you for tomorrow night; I’ve been looking forward to it all week.”

“What?” I wandered back into the locker room. “What about tomorrow night?”

“You know,” he pulled his locker door open and dropped his keys into it. “The guy’s night that we are having tomorrow night; Jordan said you were ok with giving him up for the night.”

It was probably a good thing Nick wasn’t looking at me; my look would’ve struck him down.

“Anna?” Nick turned slowly to look over his shoulder at me. “Jordan did talk to you about it, right?”

I forced a smile. “Sure,” I shrugged. “I must’ve forgotten.”