Chapter 24
“Daddy, why can’t we go see Jody?” Ezra questioned.
“Because,” Taylor answered carefully, “Jody doesn’t feel good and doesn’t want to get you sick.”
“Oh.” Ezra seemed to think that over for a while. “Can we see if she’s at the store anyway?”
Taylor sighed. “No, Ezra, we can’t.”
There was a pause.
“I miss her.”
“I know you do little man,” Taylor said as he ruffled his son’s hair.
“Do you miss her?” Ezra’s eyes were big as he peered up.
“Now why do you ask that?” Taylor questioned as he knelt down next to Ezra.
Ezra shrugged in response.
Tucking Ezra into bed that night was no easier. Natalie had elected to spend the night with Taylor instead of at her own apartment and was sipping some tea in the kitchen upstairs when Ezra padded up the stairs.
“What’s wrong?” Natalie questioned the boy as he rubbed his eye gently. When Ezra didn’t respond, she looked to Taylor who was standing in the doorway.
Taylor cleared his throat. “I think that, uh, Ezra has a special request.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
Ezra still wasn’t responding.
Taylor walked toward her, grateful that Natalie was sitting down. “He wants Jody to read him a story.”
Natalie’s face showed her innate surprise.
“Yeah,” Taylor said, “that was my reaction too.”
“What are you gonna do?” Natalie questioned after a moment.
Taylor sighed and reached for his cell phone which was on the counter. “Do I really have a choice?”
Natalie sighed. Maybe Taylor wasn’t all hers just yet. She hated that idea.
Jody stared absently at the television screen as she just as absently reached for a tissue. The garbage can next to her desk was overflowing with tissues already as Jody threw her used tissue toward the pile. She missed. She didn’t even notice.
A familiar ring from her cell phone startled Jody back into reality. It was Taylor’s ring. Just as she had grown to love the ring, she had learned to loathe it as well. Her finger was on the Ignore button when fresh tears welled up in her eyes. This was ridiculous. They needed to talk this out.
“Come on, Jode. Pick up your phone,” Taylor coaxed into his phone as Ezra sat in his lap.
Jody continued to stare at her phone. Reluctantly, and after nearly too many rings, she picked up and attempted to steady her voice.
“Hello?”
Taylor was surprised at how she sounded. Her voice was gravelly and her small sniffle gave away the fact that she had been crying.
“Hello?” Jody asked again. She paused. “Taylor, I know you’re there.” There was another silence. “OK, fine. Maybe you called me by accident. Bye.”
“Jody wait!” Taylor said in a panicked tone.
There was something about his voice that made Jody not hang up.
“Yeah?”
There was another silence. It was more than awkward for both of them.
“Um, listen,” Taylor began. “I know that things weren’t great the last time we spoke, but, uh, I have a small favor to ask.”
Jody scoffed. “A favor? After all you’re putting me through, you call and ask for a favor? What kind of idiot do you think I am, Taylor?”
Yeah, Taylor deserved that one and he knew it.
“It’s Ezra,” he persisted sincerely.
Jody’s head perked up. “Is he OK?”
Even in her anger, Jody still cared. It was a trait Taylor knew he’d never get over.
“Yeah, he’s fine, but, uh, I think he wants to ask you something. Can you talk to him?”
“Of course,” Jody said as she ran a tired hand through her hair.
“Thanks,” Taylor said as she heard the small commotion in transferring the phone.
“Hello?” a sleepy, 4 year-old voice said.
“Hi sweetheart,” Jody greeted with a smile.
“Jody!” he exclaimed excitedly. “Daddy, it’s Jody!” she heard him report.
“I know. Why don’t you talk to her?” she was able to hear Taylor coax.
“Hi Jody.”
“Hi Ezra.” There was a small pause. “Your dad said that you wanted to ask me something.”
“Uh huh.”
“Well what’s going on?” she questioned gently.
“Can you read me a story?” Ezra asked shyly.
Jody checked the clock. It was close to 9 already and by the time she made it to Taylor’s, it would be close to 10:30. That was entirely too late for Ezra to stay up.
“Um, I don’t know about reading you a story because it’s past my bedtime as well.”
“Oh,” the disappointment in his voice was heartbreaking.
“But I can tell you a story if you’d like.”
“OK.”
“But you have to promise me something.”
“What?”
“That you’ll be in bed when I tell you the story. It’ll be more real that way.”
“OK,” Ezra said excitedly. “Daddy, Jody says that I have to be in bed when she tells me a story.” Jody could picture the boy jumping off the chair, taking his father’s hand, and all but pulling him down the stairs.
“That sounds good. Let’s go,” she heard Taylor respond as she heard some commotion. “Is Jody still on the phone?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I talk to her until we get you downstairs?”
“Here.”
“Thank you.” Taylor put the phone to his ear. “You still there, Jode?”
Jody smiled in spite of the situation. “Yeah, still here.”
“Just making sure. We haven’t exactly covered how to use the phone yet.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Before long, Jody was put on speaker phone and she was telling the tale of Peter Pan to a very sleepy little boy whose eyes were struggling to stay open.
“I think he’s asleep,” Taylor said into the phone as he clicked it off speaker. Indeed, Ezra was sound asleep with his favorite stuffed animal tucked in his arms. Taylor gently got off the bed, closed the door to the room, and went around the corner to take a seat on the stairs. “I can’t thank you enough for this, Jody.”
She shrugged out of habit. “Just glad I could help.”
There was a silence over the both of them.
“Listen, Jode, I, uh...” Taylor stammered. He had no idea how to approach this.
“Yeah?”
“We should talk.”
Jody’s heart sank. Not exactly the response she was hoping for, but it was a start.
“We should.”
Another silence. “When are you free?”
“Oh, um, well,” she sputtered. “I’m working tomorrow, but I’m out after 3 if you’d like to get together then.”
Taylor bit his lip. “What about the next day?” He wasn’t exactly about to tell Jody that he had plans with Natalie.
“Same thing- I’m out at 3.”
“You want me to meet you at work and we’ll walk around for a little bit?”
“Um, yeah, I guess. Sure.”
“So, um, I’ll see you then.”
“Sounds good.”
“OK.”
More silence. As if this wasn’t awkward enough...
“Oh, and Jode?”
“Hmm?” Her eyes had welled up with tears in the brief pause. Their conversations used to be so fluid. They never had pauses like this. It hurt Jody to think that their relationship had decomposed so much.
“Thanks again for helping with Ezra. You were all he could talk about today.”
“He’s a special kid.”
Another pause.
“I should get going,” Taylor said quietly.
“Yeah, same here.”
“Thanks again, Jode. You really bailed us out.”
He said ‘us.’ It nearly broke Jody in half thinking that it was not in reference to her and Taylor.
“No problem. G’night Taylor.”
“Night Jode.”
Jody hung up the phone and dissolved into tears once again. Just hearing his voice was enough to break her down completely.
Taylor, too, stared at his phone. How was it that he could screw things up so badly and have Jody be so nice after all the emotional carnage? Taylor knew that he had to choose between Jody and Natalie, but there were aspects of both of them that he loved and knew he couldn’t live without. Making this decision was going to be one of the most difficult things he would ever have to do.
Chapter 25
Index
Email: BunchOfFrogs@aol.com
