Sweet Beginning (7 page)

 I smile and think what a gentleman.

"Thanks for taking all my presents out, I really
appreciate it."

 "No problem," he replies. 

We walk up to my car, and I turn to him. God I would love to
run my fingers through his hair. He breaks into my thoughts.

"It was great to see you again. I hope you don't think
me strange, but here is my number." He hands me a small piece of paper.

I take it from him and look at him in shock. Is he asking me
out? I start to get excited, then panic. I am not ready for this, what am I
thinking? I have to make him understand, without upseting him.

"Look, Wyatt. I think you are a great guy, but I'm not
even divorced yet.  and...."

He shakes his head and interupts me, "No you
misunderstood me. I wanted to give it to you as a friend. In case you needed
someone to talk to about your divorce. Or just need something."

God, I feel like such an ass.  Has it been that long? I
completely miss read what was happening. I feel so stupid. I need to get out of
here. 

"Sorry, umm thanks,"  I reply, and stuff the paper
into my purse. "Look have a safe drive home tomorrow. Merry
Christmas." 

I open the car and get in, as fast as I can.

"Thanks and Merry Christmas to you too," he says,
looking confused.

"Thanks, bye."

I close the door as quickly as I can. As I drive, I look in
my rearview mirror. I see Wyatt watching me drive away.

I sit on the couch and check my phone. It looks like I got
home just in time. The gifts are all tucked away in my room. I recieve a text
from Kyle that they are on their way. I lean my head back on the couch. God I
feel stupid. I shouldn't have automatically thought he was asking me out. I
guess I was hoping just a little, that he was asking me out. 

I hear the girls running up the stairs and saving me from my
thoughts. I walk into the kitchenn and see Kyle walk in behind them.

"Hi Anne."

I haven't seen him in so long, I almost didn't recognize
him. I shake myself, "Hi.  Hello ladies."  I smile at them. They run
up to me and hug me.

"Mama we had so much fun at Daddy's. We had our
Christmas morning today and then went to grandma and papa's house." they
chimed together. 

Kyle walks up to me, "I hope you don't mind, but the
girls wanted me to come up with them." I look at the girls and they are
smiling at me. 

"No problem, how are you?"

The girls run into their room to drop off all their stuff.
He looks over at me.

 "I'm okay. I wanted to thank you for the gift, you
didn't have to do that."

"It know, but the girls really wanted to shop for
you." I explain. 

Katie and Shannon run out, "Daddy come see our new
room." 

He looks over at me to see if it's okay. I nod and he
follows them to their room. I see him looking over the apartment on his way. I
go into the living room to wait for them to be done. Kyle walks out and smiles
at me. 

"Well I better head out. The place looks really nice,
Anne."

 I smile, "Thanks. I hope you have a nice
Christmas."

He walks over to me and gives me a kiss on the cheek. 
"You to." 

The girls run out to say goodbye. They walk Kyle to the
door, he turns. He smiles and winks. I laugh, its nice to be able to laugh with
him in the room.

It takes me forever to get the girls settled down. We set
out cookies and milk for Santa, then read "The Night Before
Christmas." I finally get them tucked into bed.

Wow, what an evening this was. First with Wyatt, then the
surprise visit from Kyle. I sit on the couch to watch my favorite Christmas
movie "White Christmas." When its over, it should be safe to lay out
the presents.

~~~

Wyatt

As I watch Anne drive away, I think....what a jackass. I
can't believe I made her feel that way. She couldn't get away from me fast
enough. I get into my pick up and drive the short distance to my one bedroom
house. It's not much, but it's on five acres of property, which is mostly
woods. I love walking through the woods, it always brings me peace. It's a nice
house, just small. Since it is only me, it works out perfect. 

Mr. Nolan was so glad I said yes, when he showed it to me.
He told me it had been empty for almost six months.  He is in his early
seventies and reminded me of my grandfather. We hit it off right away, which
works out nice for both of us. I take care of the property and house, Mr. Nolan
gets an income.

I pull into my drive and turn off the truck. I sit there for
a bit. I think about what happened, she isn't ready for any kind of
relationship. For that matter, neither am I. I get out of the truck, walk into
the house. I need to get some sleep, I have a long drive in the morning.

~~~

Anne

The morning went by in a wrapping paper blur. I woke up to
the girls jumping on my bed and yelling at me to come see all their gifts. I
love watching Katie and Shannon on Christmas morning, every year. This is what
makes everything worth it.

I have the girls call my mom and Stan to wish them a Merry
Christmas.  I waited for my dad to come, to call my brother, Jack.  I know my
brother and dad are not real close, like mom and me. It's to bad that things
aren't different. But sometimes things work out the way they are supposed to
be, no matter what we think or do.

I get everything cleaned up from brunch. I wish my dad would
go with us to Jaylah's parents. I never understand why he says no. He plays
horse shoes with Jaylah's dad Mike, once a week in the summer. They play Euchre
every month all year long, plus they have talked about trying a dart league
together. Maybe because its a holiday, I'm not sure.

I get Katie and Shannon dressed and finish getting myself
ready. I told them they could pick one toy to take with them. It's always hard
to leave the house on Christmas day.

~~~

We arrive at Papa Mike and Nana Stella's house, as my girls
call them.  How lucky that my girls have so many sets of grandparents, that
truely love them. We pull up to the house and Jaylah is on the deck having a
cigarette. Katie and Shannon wave to her, then run into the house to play with
the rest of the kids. I walk up to the deck and look at Jaylah.

"Join me in the garage, toots." she says as she
grabs my arm. I laugh, because I know this means spill time. As we step in the
garage, Jaylah looks at me and says, "Spill!" 

I laugh at her.  "Spill what?  Whateva do you mean,
JayJay?" If looks could kill, I would have been dead.

"Don't mess with me, woman. We don't have lots of
time.....SPILL!" she yells at me. 

I smile, "Not much to tell. He came over for dinner, we
talked a little and he helped me carry all my presents out to my car.
He
gave me his phone number."
I whispered the last part, in hopes that
she really didn't hear it.

"WHAT???  Did he ask you out?"

I roll my eyes and sigh. "No.  I thought he was. As I
was explaining to him that I wasn't divorced yet, he interupted me to tell he
wasn't asking me out.  He was giving it to me as a friend, in case I needed
someone to talk to about my divorce." She looks at me with a confused look
and then mad.

"What?"

"He got divorced six months ago." I say in way of
explanation. 

She looks at me and shakes her head.  "What did you
do?"

I smile, "I wished him a Merry Christmas, got in my car
as fast as I could.  I already felt like an ass, no reason to stick
around."

 We both laughed, "Hey, I would have thought the same
thing.  I keep telling you that men are douche's! You need to get rid of asshat
first, before you even think of letting another one in. Come on, we better get
in the house, Mom will be looking for us."

We walk into the house. Jazmin is at the counter helping
with the food, she looks over at us as we walk in.

"How are you doing?" she asks.

"I'm fine, thanks."

She gives me a quick hug and goes back to work. We always
looked up to Jazmin, she is four years older than Jaylah and me. We always
tried to do our hair like her and dress like her. She was always so great about
it and would give us tips on fashion. We could always go to her about boys and
our problems.

She has been married to Don for sixteen years. They have two
daughters as well, Angel is twelve and Alex is ten. My girls love to play with
them, they are like cousins.

 Don walks up to me and wraps his arm around my shoulders
and squeezes.  "Hey girl, how is it going?"

"I'm okay."

"If you need anything, you let us know."

I nod my head, he grabs a beer and goes back to the living
room. That's alot of emotion from Don. He has never been a big talker, but he's
a great guy. I smile to myself.

"What can I do to help?" I ask Stella.

"You and Jay go set the table," she smiles at me.

As we are setting the table, I am thinking about last night.
Not only about Wyatt, but Kyle as well.

"So....Kyle came up to the apartment last night."

Jaylah's eyes get big, "You are only telling me this
now. What the hell Anne?"

"I know, sorry. The girls wanted him to see their
room."

"Yeah and how did that go?"

"It was actually nice. He gave me a kiss on the cheek
before he left, it was sweet."

She shakes her head at me, but doesn't say anything. I can only imagine
what she is thinking. I hope things can stay civil between Kyle and I. Maybe
one day Jay and him will be better as well.

~~~

After dinner and everything is all cleaned up. We all go
into the living room to open up gifts. The kids tear into their gifts and
wrapping paper is every where. I hand Jaylah her gift, I am so giddy to see her
reaction. She rips into her gift and I see the realization hit her. 

"You
bitch
!  I can't believe you did this!
" she comes over and gives me a huge hug.  "This is to much Anne,
especially with what's going on."

"Bullshit, JayJay. That's more of a reason for us to go
and enjoy ourselves. Everything is already set at work. We are going to have so
much fun!"  I say.

"Damn you woman. I love you" she says, as her eyes
tear up.

I am excited about our trip this weekend.  Kyle has the
girls this week. Jaylah has talked me into going out tonight for New Year's
Eve. This is the first time since I had Katie. We have gone to friends houses,
or hosted parties. It should be a fun night out and start of our vacation.

I start packing my stuff, since there will be no time
tonight. I think about how this year has ended. This time last year, nobody
could have told me this was going to happen. I would have laughed at them. Kyle
and I getting divorced, no way. We had our problems, but I always thought we
could work them out. 

With my suitcase packed, I take it out to my car. I get in
the car and head to Jaylah's. We decided I would spend the night at her house,
then drive out tomorrow.

I pull up to Jaylah's and park in front. I sit there for a
bit and lean my head on the steering wheel. I am not sure about tonight.  I
know I'm being stupid, but it's the first time going out single. Well almost
single, at least I know Jaylah has my back. I have to keep telling myself to
relax and have a good time.

~~~

Wyatt

I drove home yesterday, to avoid the snow storm they are
getting. It was nice to see everyone, especially my baby brother Emmett. We
have always been very close. When we were kids, where there was one, there was
always the other. We are only a year apart, so people use to mistake us for
twins.

We celebrated Emmett's thirty-fourth and my thirty-fifth
birthday while I was home. His birthday is Christmas Eve and mine is the day
after Christmas, which we hated as kids. When we got a little older, our
parents let us have half birthdays in the summer with our friends.

I was glad that I didn't run into Lynn. Being a small town,
I was worried we would. I haven't seen her at all since I've moved. I was glad
not to have that headache and enjoy my short vacation.

On my way home, Sue called me and asked me to go out for New
Year's Eve. I met her one night at, "The Buffalo Bar" as the local's
call it. I'm told that for many years the owner had several buffalo's in the
back. When the new owners took over, they got rid of them. That hasn't stopped
people from still calling it the buffalo bar, when its real name is
"Emil's Bar".

We've gone out twice, Sue is nice enough. I don't see us
going very far, I think she realizes it as well. But that doesn't mean that
either of us needs to be alone.  We enjoy each other. I told her I will pick
her  up at around nine. We plan on going to the buffalo bar.

~~~

Anne

Jaylah decided that we should go to the buffalo bar. I
haven't been here since the new owners took over. I heard that they fixed it up
nice, it was pretty run down. We left the house around nine-thirty. There are
alot of people here already. We have some of our other friends meeting us here.
It will be nice to see everyone, it's been a long time. 

We open the door to a blast of music and we look for our
friends. We have known Josie and Sarah, since high school. As I look around and
realize I know the majority of the people here.

 We find them in front by the stage. Josie has been divorced
for a couple of years now and never had any kids. Sarah has been married for
fourteen years, she left Rodger at home with the kids. He went to school with
us too and Sarah always had him wrapped around her finger. 

Thank god Josie and Sarah got here earlier, so we have a
table. The bar is doing karaoke, it's one of Jaylah's favorite things. Which is
why she decided to come here tonight. Jaylah goes up to add us to the list and
pick out our songs. I go to the bar to get us a couple of drinks. I look over
to see Sue, another friend from high school.

"Hey Sue, how are you?  Haven't seen you in
awhile."

"Good Anne, sorry to hear about you and Kyle. I
couldn't believe it when I heard it." she says.

That's another problem with small towns everyone knows your
business. "Thanks.  Happy New Year, talk to ya later." I grab the
drinks and head back to the table.

All night they rotate between the DJ and karaoke. Jaylah has
already gone up and sang her favorite song "Reign O'er Me" by The
Who. I have to drink more before I get up there to sing. We dance and sing
along with all the songs.

They call our group of four up to sing "Seven" by
Prince. I down the rest of my drink and follow them up on stage. Thankfully we
are all going up. As the song starts up, I scan the faces in the bar. Lots of
people are singing along, the dance floor is full. 

I am still looking around as I sing, I do a double take. Is
that who I think it is? Is that Kyle? Can't be, that guy has his hands all over
that redhead. The redhead laughs, then starts kissing the guy.

Kyle has the girls this weekend, or did he tell me he was
going out. I rack my brain to remember the conversation we had. I think he said
his parents were going to have a little party at their house with Katie and
Shannon. 

I keep singing the song, I look over at Jaylah. She raises
her eyebrow at me in question. I smile weakly at her, then look back at the
couple. Then the man turns. HOLY SHIT, it is Kyle! Are you fucking kidding me!
Who the fuck is he kissing. 

I stop singing and drop the mic. Jaylah follows my line of
sight and sees what I am looking at. Thankfully the song ends as I walk off the
stage. Josie and Sarah, look over at Jaylah confused.

"Kyle is in the back with another woman, fucking
asshat!" Jaylah tells them, behind me.

I walk until I am in front of Kyle. I can tell by the look
on his face that he doesn't know what to do or say. I guess he was so busy with
this tramp that he didn't notice I was even here. I am so furious, that I can't
speak. He looks like he is about to say something, I won't give him the
satifaction of the first word.

"Who the fuck is this, Kyle! We aren't even divorced
yet and you are here with
her
!" I scream. 

"Look Anne, our divorce will be final in a couple of
weeks, let's not make a scene, okay." he tries to whisper. 

Before I can say anything, Jaylah starts yelling, "Are
you Fucking kidding Kyle, you are such an Asshole. Who is she?" 

The women puts her arm around his waist. With a smirk on her
face, "You must be Anne, nice to finally put a face to a name. I'm
Tessa."

Really,
REALLY
!!! I look from Kyle to Tessa, then
back to Kyle.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Tessa, the same person we
use to fight about. The one you told me was only a "friend" and would
text you ALL the time. That same Tessa, Kyle?"

"Its not like that, Anne.  We were only friends"
he starts to say.

I smack him across the face.  "You are such a fucking
liar. Sooo, how long have you been cheating on me?"

"It wasn't like that." he tries to explain. I see
Tessa looking at me with that smirk on her face.

"You think I believe anything that comes out of your
mouth! She lives in Memphis, right?" I see the realization of that come
across his face.

"That's what I thought. Did you have fun while you were
down there?  You know what? Don't bother answering that, because I don't
fucking care anymore." I spit at him. 

Tessa grabs Kyle, then laughs at me. I look over to see
Jaylah start to lose it. I am about to stop her, when she lunges at Tessa. I
start to go after her and I feel someone gently push me aside.

~~~

Wyatt

Sue and I sat towards the back of the bar, for most of the
night. She was talking to alot of her friends around us. She knows most of the
people here, which shouldn't surprise me because she grew up here. I hear the
DJ call up "Jaylah's group" and I wonder how common of a name that
is. I look towards the stage to see Anne get up there to sing.  I smile, wow
she looks great.

I watch her with her friends, having a good time. It's nice
to see her smile like that. She looks around the crowd of people. Being in the
back I hadn't noticed she was here.

Towards the end of the song, I see Anne's view lock on
someone towards the back of the bar. I follow her gaze to a guy that is all
over this redhead. They start kissing. I look back towards Anne and see her
face go white. She drops the mic and looks over at Jaylah. She storms off
stage, as the song ends. 

I watch as she runs up to this guy screaming. 

"Oh shit, that's Anne's husband, Kyle." I hear Sue
say next to me.

I look back at Anne to see her slap him across the face.
Once I see the redhead laugh at Anne, I know this isn't going to be good. I
reach them in time to help get Jaylah off of this woman. 

"Let me go! I am going to kill this
bitch
!"
Jaylah turns back at me and yells.

Anne stands next to me, "JayJay, they aren't fucking
worth it! Come on let's just go." she yells over the music.

Jaylah finally calms down enough for me to let her go. I see
Kyle walk up to Anne and say something. Kyle and the redhead grab their stuff
and leave the bar. 

"Hey Wyatt, thanks for stopping me from killing that
bitch!" Jaylah says. 

I nod my head and she walks over to the bar. I see Sue
looking at me from our table, as Anne walks up to me. 

"Thanks for that."

I can tell that she is embarrassed about what happened. I
feel Sue come stand next to me. 

"Hey Anne, that was crazy, you okay?" Sue asks
her.

Anne looks from me to Sue and says, "Yeah I'm fine. I
was thanking Wyatt, for helping out. You guys have a good New Year's." She
looks at me one more time and follows Jaylah to the bar.

~~~

Anne

I walk up to the bar, where Jaylah is slamming a shot. 

"Two more shots, please."  I tell the bartender.

He delivers our shots and we slam them. 

"Can you fucking believe the balls on that
douche
nozzle
?" Jaylah says to me, "And that fucking slut with him! I
thought I was going to kill her when she had the
fucking nerve to laugh at
you
!"

I know we should probably get out of here. We are both
upset. I order two more shots for us.

We go back to the table to let Josie and Sarah know that we
are leaving. Just then the DJ starts the countdown for the New Year. 

Everyone is yelling....FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE.....HAPPY
NEW YEAR!!!! 

I look towards the back, I catch Sue kissing Wyatt. I turn
away, "Jaylah lets go to the bathroom and get out of here." She nods
and follows me. 

We reach the bathroom and I see a guy walking towards us. I
hear Jaylah whisper "
oh shit
." I don't know who this guy is.
He walks up to us.

"Hey Jay, how are you?" He looks around me,
"Where's Ben?"  

She looks at him, "He's not here. Happy New Year,
John." Jaylah grabs my arm and pulls me into the bathroom.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah Anne, I'm fine. This turning out to be a crazy
fucking night. Let's get out of here."

I nod, I can tell she doesn't want to talk about that guy.
She obviously knows him, he called her Jay and asked about Ben. That is never a
good thing. This weekend can't come fast enough.