50. Chapter 50
Chapter 50
A week later, David rented another U-Haul truck and enlisted the reluctant help of Evan, who had worked until 3 a.m.
“I don’t know why I’m doing this,” he muttered, as he watched David punch in the code to open the door to the storage unit. “You’re not even that good of a friend.”
David let the insult skip right off him like a flat rock on water.
Evan wasn’t through, though. “Jesus, didn’t I just help you move?”
“That was different.”
“Not really. Moving shit is moving shit.”
“Quit your fucking whining. I bought you coffee, didn’t I?”
“Let it be known your generosity knows no bounds.”
“It was a large coffee,” David pointed out, just to aggravate Evan some more.
“Fuck you and your large coffee.”
Once the door was open, Evan looked at the 8x10 room that was literally packed floor to ceiling with furniture. “So what are we taking?”
“All of it.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Evan sputtered, only to groan loudly and grab his head with his hands. “Of course you’re not fucking kidding. You’re such an asshole.”
“How am I an asshole?”
“You told me we were moving ‘some things’, not that we were moving a ‘shit ton of things’.”
David shrugged. “In my defense, I didn’t know how much was in here. There does seem to be a lot, though.”
“How did you not know? Isn’t this your stuff?”
“Yes and no. It was my stuff.”
“Who’s is it now?”
“My ex-wife’s.”
“Your ex-wife’s? And you’re taking it all?”
“Yes.”
“Does she know this?”
David laughed. “She’s the one who gave me the lock combination and told me to help myself. Now, let’s get busy. We’ve got a shit ton of things to move.”
“Seriously. You’re such an asshole.”
“For God’s sake, if you quit whining, I’ll buy you dinner.”
“You’ll buy me dinner, no matter what,” Evan told him, then added, “In my next life, I’m going to have better friends. Which won’t be hard to do, since you’ve set the bar really low.”
They managed to get everything loaded into the U-Haul and over to the loft, where they unloaded everything in record time. After returning the truck, they picked up Jacob from preschool, and grabbed two pepperoni pizzas before returning to the loft.
When Jacob walked in and saw the large sectional in the living room, he ran over and immediately jumped on it.
“Dibs,” he called out.
“Nope,” David countered, setting the pizza boxes on the table. “You didn’t pick it out, or pay for it, or move it … so nope. And no jumping. That’s a finely crafted piece of furniture.”
“Give the kid a break,” Evan chided. “He’s just excited to have something other than the floor to sit on while he watches TV. When you get a TV, that is.”
“What’s … crafted?” Jacob asked.
“It means expensive,” Evan answered.
Almost at the same time, David said, “Never mind. Go wash your hands for dinner.”
Jacob jumped off the couch and dashed down the hall.
“And use soap!” David called after him.
Evan sat down at the table. “You’re such a curmudgeon.”
At what sounded like an obvious Word-of-the-Day, David gave him a look that was the opposite of amused as he poured a glass of milk for Jacob and then grabbed three paper plates before joining Evan at the table.
“Jesus, man, you don’t have real plates?”
“I do.” David pointed to a stack of boxes in the corner of the kitchen. “Somewhere in there. If you want to look for them, be my guest.”
“Paper plates are fine.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“You know,” Evan mused as he glanced around, “when you said you were moving in here, I had some doubts about it. But I can see the potential for it to be great, especially with the new furniture.”
“I had a few doubts, too, but living here is working out better than I thought it would. And Jacob really likes it so far.”
“He seems to be doing okay. Does he miss Ashley?”
David shook his head. “I hate to say it, but no. Not that I can really tell, anyway. He’s hardly mentioned her since the separation and I don’t know if I should be sad about that, or relieved.”
“I’d go with relieved,” Evan said, then asked, “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Do you miss her? And I don’t just mean the regular sex you had with her because I’m sure you miss that.”
“No, I don’t miss her. Or the regular sex, either.”
Evan made a You’re full of shit face. “Everyone misses regular sex.”
“Well, maybe I’ll be missing it down the road, but for now, I’m not. And I’m not missing much about our life together, because life without her isn’t much different from life with her. We didn’t split the housework, the expenses, or the parenting, as you often pointed out to me. We weren’t truly partners and all the regular sex in the world doesn’t make up for that.” David tilted his head. “Plus, now Jacob and I can eat meat. I made bacon for breakfast the other day and I almost cried, it was so good.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that bacon is back in your life.”
“Me too, Dick. Me, too. The reunion was very sweet.”
“Speaking of sweet … have you had any more sex dreams?”
David glanced down the hall. He could hear the faucet running in the bathroom, but that didn’t always mean Jacob was in there; sometimes he’d leave and forget to turn the water off.
“Relax, man. He’s still washing his hands,” Evan said. “So, have you had any more?”
David lowered his voice. “Even if I have, I’m not telling you about them.”
“Which means you have.”
David shrugged, then looked down the hall again. “Jacob!”
A few seconds later, Jacob poked his head out from his bedroom, making David sigh and Evan crack up.
“Turn off the water and come eat,” David called down the hall.
Jacob ducked back into the bathroom and the sound of the water cut off. Then he was running down the hall to the kitchen, and as he started to climb onto his booster seat, David noticed that the little boy’s hands were still dirty. “Did you wash your hands?”
Jacob shook his head.
“Go wash your hands,” David told him.
Jacob made a face and semi-stomped back to the bathroom, where the water began running again. After almost a minute, Evan said, “That seems to be taking a long time again. Although, this time I think he’s actually still in there.”
“They teach them in preschool to wash for thirty seconds, but yeah, it’s taking longer than it should.” David sighed before yelling, “Jacob, that’s enough!”
The water turned off and then Jacob appeared in the hall with wet hands, water running down his arms and dripping on the floor. “There’s no towels.”
Evan cracked up again.
“Shut the fuck up,” David muttered under his breath in Evan’s direction, then instructed Jacob, “Just use your shirt.”
Jacob darted into his room.
“I meant the one you’re—” David broke off with a sigh before finishing with, “—wearing.”
Evan scratched his head, still amused. “Parenting in real life is a lot different than what they show on TV.”
“No shit?”
“Ashley’s going to have her hands full.”
“Probably.”
“You worried about that?”
David paused. “Let’s just say I’m a little apprehensive.”
“When is his first visitation with her?”
“This weekend. I thought it would be better to not start in the middle of the week and it gave Ashley some time to move into her new place. She wants me to spend Friday night, to make the transition easier for him.”
“Are you going to?”
David nodded. “I can’t just drop him off at a new place and leave.”
“Where will you be sleeping?”
“On the couch. Ashley made it clear I could sleep with her, but I declined.”
Evan gave the pizza box a longing look, then opened the top and grabbed a slice. “I’m done waiting on the kid. I’m eating.”
David watched him eat for a few moments, then called out, “Jacob!”
Jacob came out in the hall. “I’m looking for a shirt—”
“Never mind. Just come eat.”
After Jacob was settled in his booster seat with a piece of pizza, Evan reached over and ‘ruffled’ Jacob’s inch-long hair. “What was the name of the girl that put glue in your hair? Kaley? Kelly?”
The question was directed at Jacob, but because he’d just taken a large bite of his pizza, David answered. “Kelsey.”
“That’s right,” Evan said, before raising his eyebrows and asking, “Is Kelsey cute?”
Even though he was still chewing, Jacob managed to frown, looking like he didn’t understand the question. Then, with his mouth full, he said, “I don’t like her.”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” David immediately chastised him.
“Because she put glue in your hair?” Evan asked.
Jacob nodded.
“Well, I think you might like her if you look at this a different way,” Evan told him, only to be rewarded with wide-eyed disbelief from the little boy. “Hear me out. See, if it weren’t for her and her glue, you wouldn’t be rocking this new look, which is seriously cool. So, the next time you see Kelsey, you should thank her, because she actually did you a favor, Little Man. It might be time for a trim, though,” he added, with another ‘ruffle’ to Jacob’s crewcut. “Your hair’s getting a little long on top.”
Jacob looked a little alarmed at that news, making David inwardly groan. Ever since he had taken the clippers to Jacob’s hair following the ‘glue incident’, Jacob had been militant about keeping it short. Which meant a haircut almost every other week.
“Thanks,” David told Evan, waving a hand toward the unpacked boxes again. “It’s not like I don’t have enough to do already and now I’ll be giving him a haircut tonight. After I find the clippers.”
Evan, totally unrepentant, winked at Jacob. “A man’s got to look good. Right?”
Jacob nodded, chewing on another bite of pizza.
Across the table, David gave Evan a dirty look, then for good measure, mouthed the word, “Asshole.”
An hour later, after Evan left and Jacob got his hair trimmed, David took a few pictures of the furniture in the loft and then texted them to Paige.
DAVID: Thank you!!
PAIGE: You’re welcome. It looks good!
DAVID: Your storage unit is EMPTY.
PAIGE: I’m glad everything is being put to use.
DAVID: It definitely is.
DAVID: So, I was wondering if you were free this Wednesday night?
PAIGE: I’m free after 5 p.m. Why?
DAVID: I thought we could get together and you could tell me about your recovery.
PAIGE: You REALLY want to hear about that?
DAVID: Absolutely.
PAIGE: All right.
PAIGE: Why don’t you come to my place around 6 p.m.?
DAVID: I can do that. And I’ll take care of dinner this time.
David watched the three dots appear, then disappear, then re-appear.
PAIGE: I appreciate the offer, but I was thinking I’d make shrimp tacos, instead.
DAVID: Are you sure? That sounds great, but I don’t want you to go to any trouble.
PAIGE: I’m sure. And it’s no trouble.
DAVID: Okay. See you Wednesday at 6 p.m.