Unexpected

My talk with Josh didn’t go the way I wanted. In fact, it didn’t happen at all. It wasn’t because I chickened out nor was it because he got ticked and left. No, it didn’t happen because forces beyond my control took matters out of my hands.

Forces in the form of my boyfriend’s ex girlfriend.

It was midafternoon, Linda and I were going through the various carts of recovery that we picked up from customer service moments before. As we sorted through the carts, separating it out into aisles, Linda told me about the issues she was having with the woman who looked after her youngest son.

“Apparently, Peter has developed a ‘behaviour’ issue; she told me so in the many letters she has sent home with him.” With a frustrated groan, Linda looked at me helplessly. “I want to take him out of there but I can’t really afford to put him in anywhere else – child care is so expensive. If he was a year older, he could go to preschool and I wouldn’t have to worry about it so much.”

“What about programs like, ‘Now I’m Three’ and ‘Kiddies Korner’? Doesn’t he qualify to go to those?”

Linda nodded. “But it’s not all day, every day. I would’ve –” Her face fell – a sign that she was thinking about her husband. I reached out to place my hand on her shoulder. “No,” she shook her head. “It’s ok, I’m ok but I miss him so much. The boys miss him so much.” Despite saying she was ok, she started to tear up. “I can’t do it myself.”

“Of course you can!” I dropped the sippy cup I was holding. “It may not be easy but you can totally do this, you have been doing this since Randy’s death.” She started to protest. “Come on Linda, I saw the boys, they seemed really happy – they wouldn’t be, if you weren’t doing a great job.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” She turned her attention back to the carts. “But…”

“What?”

“Concern for the boys isn’t the only reason I miss Randy.” With a glance around, she told me that she missed him. “Both of our families keep telling me that it would be ok if I started to date again but…” She shrugged. “Do you have any idea how much it sucks to even think about dating? I had the man of my dreams, I have my boys. I thought I was over with the whole dating scene.”

“Linda, if you don’t want to date, you don’t have too. I mean, it’s only been three months since it happened. Don’t rush into dating or anything else until you are ready. You have to think about what you want and what’s good for the boys.”

“Yeah.” She flashed me a smile. “But I could use a little attention, you know what I mean?”

“Anna parked call on 886. Anna, from Infants, parked call on 886.”

“Hold that thought.”

As I made my way through the department, towards the phone, I wondered who could possibly be calling me at work. Picking up the phone, I immediately heard crying. “Hello?” I couldn’t help the worried feeling that came over me.

“Anna, hi, it’s – Jenna! Mommy said no!”

“Heather?” I frowned. “What’s going on? Why’s Jenna crying?”

Before Heather could reply, I heard Hank’s voice in the background. “Heather, what did I do with my – nevermind, I got it. Who are you talking too? Did you get hold of Jordan yet?”

“Jordan?” I questioned. “Why do you need to talk to him?”

“Listen Anna, I don’t have much time, we got a call a half hour ago that Hank’s grandmother is in the hospital, they don’t think she’ll make it through the night. Hank, obviously wants to go see her but he doesn’t think that it’s the right place for Jenna to be. My parents said they would watch her but I thought that Jordan, seeing he is her father, would like the chance to –”

“Yes!” I exclaimed. “Oh my God! Jordan will love to spend more time with Jenna!”

She chuckled. “You would too by the sounds of it.”

I grinned. “Heather, knowing how happy it’ll make Jordan, how could I not be excited about it?” I asked her when she would be dropping Jenna off to him.

“That’s the thing,” she sighed. “I’ve been calling him all day at work but they keep telling me that he’s busy or out. I told them to tell him that I really needed to talk to him but I still haven’t heard back; Hank wants to leave as soon as possible.”

“Well…” I glanced at my watch. “I have an hour before I can go but…” It wasn’t all that busy and Linda was there. “I’m sure; I can leave now, if you want to drop her off here on your way out of town.”

“I was hoping you would say that.” Heather told Jenna that she was going to spend some time with me while her daddy was still working. “She’s excited,” she told me when she spoke again. “We’ll see you in a half hour?”

As soon as I hung up the phone, I called the duty manager and explained the situation. Thankfully it didn’t take much convincing to get them to understand why it was important for me to leave early for Jenna.

After I told Linda what was going on, I made my way to Layaway to use that phone to call outside of the store. Like Heather, when I called the garage, I was told that Jordan was super busy. “I’ll tell him you called Anna but he’s elbows deep into the work order on a couple cop cars – he probably won’t take a break for another hour or so.”

Knowing Jordan the way I do, I knew that he wouldn’t stop until he finished the job, unless it was an emergency, which this wasn’t, not really. Doing the math in my head, I realized that by the time Jordan would possibly be free, I would be in the middle of meeting with the kids about the play. “Ok, when he comes up for air, tell him that I have a big surprise for him when he gets home.”

“Ohhhho!” Tony chuckled. “Is our boy getting lucky tonight?”

Rolling my eyes, I laughed and sarcastically replied, “Yes, that’s exactly what it is.”

It wasn’t until I headed into the back, after hanging up with Tony, that I realized I would have Jenna, so I couldn’t really talk to Josh about his actions. “Great,” I sighed. “Not only do I have to put this off but he’ll probably be a jerk because I have Jenna.”

When I pulled out of the parking lot, with Jenna securely snapped into the car seat in the back, just over an hour later, I was dreading seeing Josh but excited about seeing Jordan.

Glancing in the rear view mirror, I told Jenna that we would see daddy in a couple hours. “But first, we get to visit with Cassie and Lindsay.”

Jenna looked up with a crooked grin, one I’ve seen on Jordan so many times, it was so adorable.