Chapter 4 #2
“At a bar,” Jed said. They’d decided to share the same story that she’d told her family.
“I’m surprised it wasn’t one of those dating apps,” Mrs. Marsh said. “All the kids seem to be on them these days. Did you ever try one?” she asked Alissa.
“Me?” Her voice was still hoarse from all the coughing. “No, not really. I haven’t had a lot of time to date, really.”
“Until now?” Mr. Marsh asked.
“Jed’s different,” Alissa said, flushing. “He’s not like dating.”
Jed squeezed her knee.
“I don’t understand,” Mrs. Marsh said.
“She means because it’s so easy between us,” Jed said. “It’s not work.”
“That’s great, son,” Mr. Marsh said, finishing the last of his champagne. “Alissa, Jed tells us you’re from a big family.”
“That’s correct.” She explained about her parents passing away, and how Maddie took her in, as well as her sisters. “We were a family that didn’t start out together, but we’ll stay together until the end.”
“What a stellar person she must be,” Mrs. Marsh said.
“She is. But also, she lost her husband and daughter in a car accident. She needed us as much as we needed her.”
“How tragic,” Mrs. Marsh said.
“Yes, it was. She knew my parents because her husband was a professor at the same university where my dad taught. When she heard what happened, she asked if she could foster me.” Alissa stopped before she teared up.
The last thing she wanted was to get emotional.
All she needed after almost choking to death was to start crying.
“A professor?” Mrs. Marsh asked. “In what?”
“English literature,” Alissa said. “My mother worked part-time at the college as an adjunct professor so she could spend time with me. ”
“And you’re a kindergarten teacher. I suppose it makes sense,” Mrs. Marsh said.
Alissa had no idea what that meant but wasn’t about to ask for clarification.
“What brought you to Seattle?” Mr. Marsh asked.
“College. Then, I was offered a teaching position. It all worked out for me to stay.”
For the next fifteen minutes, Jed’s parents continued to ask questions. From what she could tell, they wanted to know every detail of her life before now. She felt like she was at a job interview, doing the best to answer, but certain she was failing this test miserably.
After dinner, Alissa grabbed her handbag from where she’d left it on the foyer table and used the bathroom before she and Jed left for home.
She looked at herself in the mirror, appalled to see that her makeup had smeared during her coughing fit.
Oh well. The night couldn’t have gone any worse.
Could it be up from here? Usually people liked her.
However, she was pretty sure Mr. and Mrs. Marsh were not on Team Alissa.
She wiped her hands and cleaned her face, then applied lip gloss.
It was only eight but felt like midnight.
Earlier in the day, Jed had asked if he could stay with her at her apartment.
He’d even brought a change of clothes and some toiletries, so he could go to work in the morning.
The thought of him there all night cheered her as she moved down the hallway toward the kitchen to say good night to the Marshes.
Voices stopped her just outside the kitchen door.
“Not a kindergarten teacher from the foster care system. A little mouse,” Mrs. Marsh said. “Scared of her own shadow.”
Alissa clutched her purse to her chest as the contents of her stomach lurched. A mouse? She wasn’t a mouse. Simply polite and quiet. Like Jed.
“Not her, Jed. She’s not the woman for my son.”
“I love her and she’s going to be my wife.”
“Your father and I can cut you off. You know that, don’t you? Is she really worth it?”
“I don’t care. I’m done with you controlling my life. She’s my life now.” His footsteps were loud as he headed her direction. When he appeared in the hallway, his face had drained of color and his eyes glittered with rage. He froze when he saw her standing there. “You heard?”
“I heard.”
“Listen to me.” He cupped her face with his hands. “Nothing matters but you.”
“Can we go?” More than anything, she just wanted out of this awful house. How could anything so large be so stifling?
“Yes, let’s go.”
He took her by the hand and led her out of the house and into the car. “Let’s go somewhere to talk,” he said, as he backed out of the driveway. “I’m not ready to go home yet.”
Sensing that he needed a moment to gather his thoughts, she didn’t press him to talk and, instead, looked out the window at the mansions. Were the families that lived in them as dysfunctional as the one she’d just witnessed?
They drove north on 405 and took the exit for downtown Kirkland. The sun had set, leaving behind a pink sky over Lake Washington. He parked on the street in front of a waterfront park. “Take a walk with me?”
“Sure.”
They crossed a patch of grass to a long pier built over the water.
In the summer months, children jumped into the lake from here, but tonight it was empty.
She shivered in her dress and light sweater, and Jed shrugged out of his sports jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders.
They reached the end of the pier and sat side by side with their legs dangling over the water.
The last of the light faded from the sky.
“I need you to know something,” he said. “I love you.”
“You do?”
“Yes. These weeks with you have been the happiest of my life.”
“I love you too.” She’d had to hold her tongue so many times over the last few weeks to keep the words from slipping out of her mouth.
He kissed her softly before withdrawing to gaze into her eyes. “I need you to understand that you’re first in my life. My mother’s trying to control me, but it’s not going to work. She can threaten to cut me off all she wants. I’m not giving you up.”
“Are you sure? They’re your family.”
“Nothing matters except that I love you.”
“What if they kick you out of the company?” she asked.
“They won’t. My mother’s bluffing. Dad won’t let her do it anyway.”
“I’m sorry. I wish I was what she wanted for you.
” She couldn’t help but feel like she’d failed him.
“I tried, but I can see she hates me. I mean, before I heard her say it, I knew I was a disaster.” Tonight had been a test, and she’d gotten a big, fat F.
“I’m mortified over the coughing. That cracker just got stuck in there. ” A giggle escaped.
He laughed too, which made her laugh harder. Soon, they were practically hysterical. Tears streamed down her face as she reached for him, talking and laughing at the same time. “Stop, this is not funny.”
“I’m sorry.” He wiped his eyes. “You’re right. Choking from dry crackers and paté is not funny.”
“Promise me I’ll never have to eat that liver paté thing ever again.”
“I promise,” he said. “I want you exactly how you are. I’ll never ask you to change. Not for my mother. Not for me. You stay exactly you, Alissa Mann, and I’ll be happy.”
A week later, after not hearing from his mother, and with his father communicating to him only at work, Alissa and Jed were curled up on his couch, talking.
“Your dad really hasn’t said a word to you all week?” she asked.
“Other than a few sentences of email, no,” Jed said. “It’s not like we talk that much. He allows me to run my department how I wish. But he’s definitely making his displeasure known. My mom might act like the bad guy but they’re a united front.”
“Do you think they’ll fire you?” she asked.
“I had my lawyer look at my contract this week. In no place does it say anything about the business being handed down to me after his retirement. I have a regular employee contract. So, they could.”
“How does that make you feel?” Alissa asked, remembering from therapy when she was a kid that open-ended questions were a great way to get people to talk.
“I don’t know. This whole thing is weird.”
She wrapped her arms around her middle. “I wish I knew what to do to make her like me.”
“That’s just it—this has nothing to do with you.” He sighed and pressed his hands into his thighs. “She’ll either come around or she won’t.”
Alissa jumped when the doorbell rang.
“Who could that be?” he asked. “It’s almost eight.” Jed uncurled from the couch and went to the spy camera that hung over the front door, then cursed under his breath. “Speak of the devil, it’s my mother.”
Alissa’s heart leapt to her throat. She sat up straighter. Wearing only a pair of black leggings and a sweatshirt with no bra, she wasn’t exactly ready for company. Earlier, they’d messed around in front of the fireplace. In fact, her bra was somewhere in this room, having been tossed away by Jed.
“Should I ignore her?” he asked.
“No, that wouldn’t be nice. Maybe she’s come to apologize.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I doubt it.”
The doorbell rang again.
“For heaven’s sake, I may as well let her in, or we’ll never get rid of her.”
“Um, do you see my bra anywhere?”
He chuckled. “Yes, here it is.” He reached under the coffee table and held up the lacy pink undergarment.
“I’ll freshen up in the powder room.” She scurried over to the small bathroom off the living room. Once inside, she brushed her hair and put on some lip gloss and her bra. Did the flush on her cheeks give away the hot sex they’d had like twenty minutes ago?
By the time she returned, Mrs. Marsh was already seated in one of the easy chairs. Jed was in the kitchen opening wine.
“Hi, Mrs. Marsh,” Alissa said.
“Hi there. Nice to see you.” Mrs. Marsh crossed one slender leg over the other. She wore black slacks, a yellow sweater and four-inch pumps.
Jed brought a glass of the wine to his mother. “Sweetie, do you want a glass?”
“No, thanks,” Alissa said as she took a seat on one end of the sectional.
Jed went back for a glass for himself, then sat next to Alissa. “What’s up, Mom?”
“I wanted to come and say hello,” Mrs. Marsh said. “I didn’t realize you’d have company.”
“We’re together, Mom. You can expect to see her if you want to see me. ”
“Right, yes. So you indicated the other night,” Mrs. Marsh said.