A Life Less Ordinary (17 page)

She
wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out at him.

“Cary
Grant, twelve feet high,” she sighed, and wandered out of his room.

~~~~~

Zeke
sighed as he picked up the thick program booklet.  “Four days of classic
movies, twelve hours a day, isn’t exactly my idea of a good time.”

“Oh,
come on,” TJ urged, “there has to be something you’ll enjoy watching.”

“Oh,
sure,” Zeke replied sarcastically, switching his glower from the program to his
cell phone, even though TJ couldn’t see it, “but it’s not like I’m going to get
Auntie Em to watch any of them!”

“It
does sound like she’s planning on dying from multiple Cary Or-grant-asms.”

Zeke
stalled, blinking, then said with great feeling, “Ew!”

“Ew? 
What ‘ew’?  I’m sure she thinks that wouldn’t be a bad way to go.”

“That’s
disgusting for many reasons – not least of which is thinking of Manny with any
kind of sex drive!”

“Well,
I’ll bet you anything she’s not going to those movies for the plots!”

“She
has been going on about seeing Cary Grant twelve feet high,” Zeke admitted
thoughtfully.

“
Anyway, is she
insisting you go to every movie with her?”

“
Well...no.”

“
Okay then.  What else
is playing?”

Zeke
heaved a long-suffering sigh and flipped through the program.

“Well,
besides romantic comedies, there are thrillers, mysteries, sci-fi and horror.”

“That’s
quite the combo.  Mostly geared towards the male audience, huh?”

“Probably
to make up for all the Cary Grant,” Zeke replied drily.

TJ
laughed.  “So?  Go to a couple of movies with her, then go to a few you want to
see – or don’t go to any of them.  She seems pretty laid back.”

“Oh,
she’ll agree, but then she’ll give me her disappointed maiden aunt look, and
I’ll cave.”

TJ
laughed.  “How’s it going otherwise?  You don’t seem quite so – uh -”

“Vitriolic?”

“That’s
a good way of putting it,” TJ agreed.

“She’s
a nice person,” Zeke conceded, “and while I want to make fun of her actions and
words, I don’t want to make fun of
her
.  She’s pretty funny sometimes.”

“And
fun?”

“
Yeah,” Zeke agreed
grudgingly, “and fun.  When she relaxes and forgets herself.” 

He
grinned at the sudden memory of the card games at Leila’s bed and breakfast in
San Francisco.  He shook off the memory.

“What
about you, TJ?  How are you and Leah doing?”

“We’re
good – although it’s beginning to feel like we’ve spent every minute of every
day for the last month talking about fertility treatments and options and what
steps we need to take in order to have a baby.”

“Have
you guys made some decisions about that?”

“Yeah,
we’ve decided on a course of action.  I’m just waiting to hear back from my
doctor – I went for a second opinion and a full physical a couple weeks ago;
they should be getting the results of all my tests any day now.”

“
You think the best
clinic in town made a mistake?” Zeke asked skeptically.

TJ
laughed.  “Now you sound like Leah!  No, I don’t think they made a mistake –
but my old man always said to never trust just one doctor when they told you
bad news.”

“Your
old man never said that!  He said never trust
any
doctor!”

“That,
too.”

“Well,
good luck with all of that, man.  Let me know what happens, okay?”

“You’ll
be the first to know,” TJ promised.  “Enjoy the movie festival.  Who knows? 
Cary Grant might grow on you.”

Zeke
simply groaned.

* * * * *

Leah
heaved a sigh of relief as she walked in the door and tossed her purse on the
hallway table beside her keys.

“TJ?”
she called as she toed off her shoes.

“In
here,” he replied.

She
padded into the living room and raised an eyebrow when she saw he hadn’t yet
turned on any lights in the room. 

She
gave him a kiss hello then teased with a grin, “Too lazy to turn on the
lights?”

She
reached over to switch on the lamp beside him, but he quickly captured her
hand.

“I
need you to sit down, sweetheart.”

Leah
felt the blood drain from her face, both from TJ’s gentle tone and the
endearment.  She turned her hand so she could grip his, a thousand thoughts
racing through her mind, wondering who had died or been injured, wondering if
something had happened to Zeke.  She slowly lowered herself to sit beside him,
her eyes desperately searching his in the dimness of the room.

“What?”
she asked reluctantly, terrified at what he needed to say.

TJ
hesitated, his gaze dropping to the floor as he said slowly, “My doctor
called.  There’s something strange in my blood tests.  Some anomalies.  He
wants me to go for further tests.”

“Something
strange?  What strange?  What did he find?”

TJ
shrugged helplessly.  “He said something about my blood count being low, that
it’s going somewhere.”

“Like
where?” Leah winced at her strident tone and struggled to calm herself. 
“Like...there’s internal bleeding or something?”

TJ
took a deep breath and resolutely met her eyes.  “He suspects a tumor – most
likely in the colon, but it could be anywhere.  With any luck, it’s nothing,
but...he wants me to get it checked out.  I’m going in tomorrow to get the
necessary paperwork, see what I have to do to get these tests done.”

Leah
stared, her dark eyes huge in her face.  She gripped his hand so tightly she
felt his bones grind together, but he never winced and his eyes never wavered
away from her face.

“Oh
God,” was all she could think to say.

* * * * *

Daisy
laughed as Manny went into raptures on the other end of the phone about the
first day of Cary Grant movies.

“So,
well worth the price of admission?” she teased when Manny took a breath.

“And
then some,” Manny sighed with pleasure.  “And of course there are all the other
movies, too.  Too bad you -” she stopped abruptly.  “Oh, shit – I’m sorry,
Daisy!  I forgot -”

“
That’s okay – I tend to
forget, too.  Hey – it’s only been two weeks, and Hub’s still here in the house
until the end of the month when he moves into his new apartment.”

“
How are Jakob and
Janika doing?  I know you keep telling me they’re okay, but...tell me
honestly.”

Daisy
sighed, and bit her lip.  “They’re...not happy.  Naturally.  Jakob’s even
angrier since he’s finished with sports for the rest of the year, although
apparently all the girls flocking around to give him tea and sympathy do help a
little.”

“Are
they blaming you?”

“They’re
blaming their father.  They’re pretty grounded kids; uncannily grounded.  Half
the time I wonder if they were switched at birth because they’re so mature. 
Remember us at those ages?”

“Well,
we were definitely flightier, but we were also helping Rebecca with Jaime
around those ages, so we had to be a little bit more mature.”

“Until
university, anyway.”

“
Oh, yeah,” Manny
grinned.  “Those were some fun days, weren’t they?”

“
Sure were.  And to
think, out of all those men who flocked around in those days, I chose Hub.” 
She ruefully shook her head.  “If I only knew then what I know now...”

“
But you got two great
kids out of it,” Manny reminded her, “and you had some good times, right?”

Daisy
pulled the phone away from her ear and blinked at it before she replaced it and
said, “Manny?  Are you trying to find the good things that came out of my
relationship with Hub?  You never liked him!”

Manny
bit her lip, then said, “You loved him.  What I thought about him was moot.  I
just thought – you know, your personalities were so different.  Hub never was
all that...um...”

“Fun?”
Daisy asked drily.

“Yes! 
And I have to say, finding out he’s having an affair surprised me.  He’s never
been very spontaneous, either.”

“Oh,
I doubt very much this was spontaneous.  I suspect he weighed the pros and cons
and made a very informed choice.”

“Except
he decided it was worth risking everything he had with you and the kids to be
with this woman.  That almost sounds like...I don’t know...”

“
Love?” Daisy’s voice
broke on the word.

“
Oh, God – I’m sorry!  I
didn’t mean -”

Daisy
sniffed and wiped her eyes.  “No, it’s okay.  Really.  I just – it’s still hard
to believe, you know?  That he’s been having this affair for a while; that he
was willing to lose his children and his home.  And...it just
hurts
.”

“Oh,
Daisy,” Manny groaned in sympathy.  “Are you sure you don’t want me to come
home?”

Daisy
chuckled wetly.  “Definitely not!  I’m living vicariously through you – and I’m
still planning on meeting you somewhere one of these days.  Maybe once Jakob’s
out of his cast.”

“But
the kids are doing okay with everything that’s happening?”

“Yeah. 
Really, honestly, truly – they’re doing okay.”

“And
what about you, Daisy?  How are you set financially?”

Daisy
hesitated.

“I
know you’ve been going to the casino more often than is good for you,” Manny
blurted into the silence.  “I also know you couldn’t be winning all the time. 
Are you in trouble?”

Daisy
bit her lip and said, “Nothing I can’t handle.”

Manny
hesitated, not sure if she should believe her sister or not.

“You’ll
let me know if you need help, right?” she finally said.

“You’ll
be the first to know.  I promise.”

“
All right,” Manny
sighed.  “If you need me, call and I’ll get home as soon as I can.”

Daisy
chuckled.  “I know.  But I’d hate to have you cut your trip short just to come
back and hold my hand.  Besides, then you wouldn’t see Zeke anymore.”

Manny
laughed.  “That doesn’t even come into the equation!”

“Too
bad,” Daisy sighed.

“Oh,
God – that’s my cue to say good-night, Daisy.”

Daisy
laughed.  “Good-night.  And thanks.”

“Anytime,”
Manny said, and smiled as she ended the call.

* * * * *

Zeke
hated to admit it, but he’d actually enjoyed the movie festival.  Manny hadn’t
forced him to go to every single Cary Grant movie – although it had been
close.  Zeke hadn’t realized just how long and diverse the man’s career had
been, and as far as he could tell, there hadn’t been a truly awful movie in the
entire bunch.  At least, according to Manny anyway.

After
the first day, he and Manny had worked out a fairly equitable approach and
between the two of them managed to take in something from every genre
presented.  His next blog would show him eating some crow, but he figured it
was probably about time.  He’d been pretty sarcastic in most of the blogs he’d
posted over the last month and a half, and he ran the risk of coming across as
too pigheaded to be kind.

He
could tell from the number of hits, the types of comments, and from what Leah
told him, that his reading public was still fascinated by his opinions about
and experiences with Manny and her journey.  If anything, the traffic to his
blog posts was steadily increasing.  The possibility that it would stay this
popular until their journey was over was highly unlikely, so Zeke was
determined to milk this small piece of notoriety for all it was worth.

Of
course, online notoriety was a bit of a misnomer, since no one other than TJ
and Leah – and Dixie – knew that Zeke Powell and the snarkily sarcastic blogger
named Zeep were one and the same.

He
grinned as he pulled a chair up to his desk and opened his laptop.

This
one should get the comments flying, he thought gleefully, even it was going to
be at his expense rather than Manny’s.  For a change.

He
began to type.

~~~~~

Manny
padded out of her bathroom, wrapped in a thick bathrobe, rosy from her bath. 
Her hair was piled on top of her head, long tendrils hanging damply on either
side of her face.

She
undid her hair, letting it tumble down her back, then laid down on the bed, her
arms stretched above her head.  She grinned as she thought of the last four
days.