Jack and Angie

Chapter 11


Angie woke up the next day as Sebastian bounced on the bed and excitedly told her about his visit with Daddy. Listening intently, she checked her watch as groaned. She had not been sleeping very well for the last week with everything going on and it was starting to take a toll.

Sebastian kept chattering away as she went and brushed her teeth. She listened intently as the subject moved from his trip with Aunt Camille to his visit with his father. He was just so excited about having his daddy finally with him that it caused a fresh wave of grief and pain flow through Angie as she clenched her toothbrush in her hand.

Jack had every right to hate her, she reminded herself as she made her way to the kitchen and poured Sebastian a bowl of cereal. She was nervous about what he would say or do when he got home. Thinking about his release, she looked outside to see Sofie’s car was not parked anywhere near the house. They must have already gone to get Jack.

After eating his cereal, Angie settled Sebastian in the living room with a Tom and Jerry video while she straightened up the kitchen. She then sat on the couch and fidgeted until she heard the car pull up outside. She crossed her arms and legs to keep them from visibly shaking as the back door opened and everyone came in the house,

“Daddy!” Sebastian cried as he jumped up and went to hug Jack, who was hobbling through the door with the aid of crutches and a grim looking Bobby.

“Hey little man!” Jack smiled warmly at his son who was hugging his leg. It was a good thing his leg was in a cast, or the force of the squeeze would have hurt like a bitch. When his eyes met Angie’s, they grew cold and distant.

He hated that she still looked like she would bust into tears any minute, but he couldn’t bring himself to forgive her. He had admitted to himself in the hospital that he still loved her. He didn’t think anything would ever change that, but he couldn’t get over the fact that she had robbed him of the chance to be there. To feel Sebastian move in her belly, to see him born. He even felt cheated out of two am feedings and changing diapers. He had a son that he knew next to nothing about, all because she had decided to make decisions about what would be best for him without talking to him about it first.

Without speaking to her, he turned to Sebastian and said, “Come on Sebastian. Take this upstairs and put it on my bed.” He handed the boy a small bag of stuff that everyone had brought him at the hospital the day before, like his brush and some clothes.

Sebastian rocketed upstairs with the bag as Jack made his way to his room after him. He stayed in his room for most of the afternoon with Sebastian, who informed the rest of the house that his Daddy was teaching him to play the guitar. Angie was downcast all day and hardly said a word as she and Sofie shaped burgers to go with the hot dogs that Bobby was going to grill out on the porch. Sofie gave up trying to get Angie to talk as they sliced lettuce and tomatoes as well as putting together the potato salad Sofie had started making earlier.

After they were done, Sofie called for everyone to come eat and they all sat down at the table. Angel helped Jack to the table as Angie fixed Sebastian a plate. Bobby led them to say grace and soon, the sound of forks on plates and muttered; “Please pass the mustard.” filled the room.

Angie kept her eyes on her plate as Sebastian, oblivious to the tension in the room, chattered away to everyone with the occasional question being answered by someone. Throughout the meal, Jack and Angie studiously avoided the other’s eyes even though they sat across from each other.

When everyone was finished, Angie went into the kitchen to do the dishes while Sofie collected the dirty plates and left over food. Bobby and Angel helped Jack into the living room and onto the couch to watch TV. When finished with the kitchen, Angie and Sofie went to join the boy’s. Angie sat quietly in the chair across the room furthest from the television while Sofie parked herself in Angel’s lap.

Soon Sebastian, who had been sitting next to his daddy, announced that he was tired. Angie made a move as if to take him, but Jack said snottily, “Bobby, I’m gonna go get my son ready for bed.” As he levered himself up with the crutches.

Angie followed the two with her eyes as they left the room while her face burned with embarrassment. Clenching her jaw together, she announced that she was going to go get some stuff from her house and walked out of the room into the kitchen where she grabbed her coat off the back of the chair and her keys from the table. She heard Bobby call her name as she rushed out the door and into the cold winter night.

Practically running around the corner to her house, she let herself in the backdoor and turned on the light. It was a mess. She stared open mouthed at the destruction around her. The layout of her house was the same as that of the Mercer place with the exception of the enclosed front porch. The washing machine and the dryer were overturned and clothes and laundry soap littered the floor in the back room while all of the cupboards in the kitchen were wide open and their contents scattered all over the room and into the dining room. The table and chairs were splintered as if the intruders had smashed them against the walls.

The mess did not lessen as she moved through the house. All of the pictures and knickknacks she had decorated the house with had been smashed and the sheets and towels in the linen cupboard had been viciously ripped apart. The furniture in the living room had been slashed and stuffing littered the floor along with the glass and the broken TV and VCR.

Moving onto the upstairs, the rooms had been ransacked and the mattresses lay discarded among the debris of torn clothing and other personal items. Her room in particular looked as if someone had searched it before destroying everything. Thank God she did not keep her important papers in the house. Glad for once that she kept everything in a safety deposit box at the bank, she looked bleakly at the mess and went back downstairs.

She gave a jump and a startled yelp as she thudded into a solid someone as she got to the bottom of the stairs and made the turn into the living room.

“Hey, it’s only me!” Bobby said as he grabbed her arms to keep her from falling on her butt.

She gasped and steadied herself as she said, “Shit Bobby, are you trying to kill me?!”

Bobby winced as he said, “Sorry.” Looking around, he whistled and asked, “They really did a number here didn’t they?”

“Yeah. Its gonna take forever to fix everything.” She said sadly.

He flung an arm around her shoulders as he said comfortingly, “Don’t worry about it Pipsqueak. You know that Angel and I’ll get the furniture and stuff fixed up in no time, and Sofie will help you clean the place up. Until then, you know that you and Sebastian are always welcome to stay with us for as long as you want.”

Angie sighed as she said, “What about Jack?”

Bobby’s face grew serious as he said, “He would want that too, even if he won’t admit to it. Just hang in there kiddo.”

They locked the house up as best they could and walked back home. Angie told Bobby that she was going to bed as she made her way up the stairs with heavy footsteps. She saw that Jack’s bedroom door was open and she heard the soft sounds of his guitar. She paused by his room as she passed, but he didn’t acknowledge her presence in the open doorway. She let herself into her room and climbed carefully into the bed so as not to wake Sebastian, and laid there, completely miserable for most of the night.

Over the next few day’s, she spent most of her time at her house setting everything to rights while only going back to the Mercer’s to sleep, shower and change her clothes. Sebastian spent most of his time with Jack, learning guitar and watching cartoons. She and Jack only spoke once and that was when Angie had said something about hiring a babysitter for Sebastian while she worked on her house and at the bar. Jack had informed her coldly that his son was fine staying with him, while making a perfectly snide comment about how he had been cheated out of spending time with the boy already.

After a tearful looking Angie had left to go to her house, Sofie took one look at Bobby’s face and hustled Sebastian out the door to go buy him some candy at the market so that he wouldn’t hear the screaming match that Bobby and Jack got into. It only ended when Bobby shouted that if it wasn’t for the fact that Jack was still recovering from the shoot-out, Bobby would shoot him again just for his being a stupid fucker as he stormed out.

A week later, Angie came home after everyone had gone to bed. As she trudged her way to her own bed, Jack came out of his room to go to the bathroom. She meant to slip by him without stopping, but he grabbed her arm and said, “We have to talk.”

She nodded wordlessly and waited for him in the hall as he went to take a piss. When he came out, he went back into his room and motioned for her to sit down on the chair. He looked as though he didn’t know how to say what he had to say.

Clearing his throat, he finally said, “We should talk about a custody arrangement. I will be staying in town now, maybe start up another band. Now that the business with Sweet is over, Jerry got his loan and he said he’ll give me a job for as long as I need one.”

He went on talking about paying Angie child support and shit, but Angie didn’t register another word. Her mind had gone blank until it seemed as if someone else had stepped into her body and said, “So that’s it? What about us Jack?”

Jack sighed loudly as he said in an impatient tone, “There is no ‘us’ anymore Angie. There is just Sebastian. You lied to me. You robbed me of some of the most important times in my child’s life.” Looking at her with hard eyes, he said with a white knuckled grip on the edge of the bed where he sat, “That is something that can’t be given back and can’t be fixed Angie. I thought you would realize this when I ask for you to move your shit out of my room.”

Angie stared at him stonily as he went on to say that he would remain living in his mom’s house and he would like to see Sebastian as much as possible. When it looked as if he was finished she simply said, “Okay.” And walked out of the room. She was completely numb. She didn’t think she would be so calm, but Jack seemed to be able to pull the plug on their relationship as easily as he could unplug one of his guitars from an amplifier. Anger began to build in her, wiping out any trace of misery.

If he couldn’t forgive her for what she did, well then, fuck him. Angela Montgomery was through with the guilt trip. The next day, she went back to her regular schedule. She spent most of her time either with her son or fixing up her house, informing everyone that she and Sebastian would be moving back into it at the end of the week. She got another part-time job waitressing at a steak house not far from Jerry’s house, checked in with a few of her friends that she had been ignoring since Evelyn’s funeral and basically got on with her life.

Jack finally had the cast removed and got better with the help of the physical therapist, and went to work with Jerry. Angel and Sofie decided to get married in the fall and Sofie asked Angie to be her Maid of Honor while Bobby was going to be Angel’s Best Man. It wasn’t going to be a huge deal at first, but then Sofie’s mother almost had a heart attack at the mere idea that her little girl was going to be married at the county courthouse. Even Bobby winced at the level of the woman’s voice as she shouted in Spanish. Angie and Jack interacted rarely, but when they did, they were both painfully polite and didn’t waste time with chit chat. They each said what they had to say and that was that.

Before anyone knew it, a whole two months had passed. The only obvious change was the fact that if Jack was with any of his brothers when they went to Johnny G’s, Angie would have whatever waitress was working with her that night wait on their table. She avoided spending any time with Jack whatsoever.

Instead of feeling relieved that the break-up had not been a messy one for their son, Jack was far from being a happy camper. He realized quickly that he was not only punishing her, but himself as well. But he was too stubborn to do anything about it. She was the one that lied in the first place, she should be the one to come to him, he decided in a snit.

Then, on a night that Jerry had insisted Jack come home with him for dinner after having worked late, Jack was on his way back from the bathroom when he came up behind Camille talking on the phone. It didn’t take him long to figure out that she was talking to Angie and some perverse side of him made him stand there without making Camille aware of his presence in order to eavesdrop. Everyone had been remarkably silent on the subject of the end of his relationship with Angie, even Bobby, who simply shook his head and told his little brother that he was the stupidest fucker he knew and that was saying a lot.

He knew that she would be in Angel’s wedding and was in regular contact with everyone, but no one ever mentioned her in more than passing when he was in the room. The closest he had gotten was that day when Jerry had mentioned something and he had made a smart ass comment. Jerry had looked at him levelly and said that she had made a mistake and everyone did at one time or another. He had then changed the subject to the latest shipment of building materials that had arrived that day.

Jack felt as if someone tossed a bucket of ice-water over him as he heard Camille say, “Of course we’ll watch him so you can go Angie, don’t be silly. So, who is the guy and what time should I send Jerry to come and get Sebastian?”

He walked away as Camille was ironing out all the details and went and sat on the couch, where he and Jerry had been watching the game highlights on the news, his mind whirling. He didn’t really remember Jerry driving him home, be barely remembered going inside and climbing the stairs to his room. He sat on the edge of his bed and stared at the wall until Bobby knocked on the door to say goodnight.

Noticing Jack looked like a bomb just went off, Bobby asked, concerned at his lack of response, “You okay you fairy?”

Jack simply nodded before saying right out of the blue, “Did you know Angie had a date tomorrow night?”

Bobby’s eyebrows went up so far, they looked like his hairline as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorframe as he said casually, “Yeah. So?” Jack just shrugged so Bobby decided to push his buttons a little, “I think this is their…what was it…third date?” he acted as if he was trying to remember, “Or was it the fourth?”

Jack’s head snapped up as he asked, “They been out before?”

Bobby shrugged and said, “Couple of times in the last couple of weeks I guess.” He looked at his little brother, “Why do you care huh? She’s nothing to you anymore. Did you think that she wouldn’t find anyone else? ‘Cause let me tell you brother, there are plenty of guy’s in this city that would give their left nut just to be near her.” Leaving him with that little jewel, he walked out, leaving Jack to think.

Jack laid down, playing with his guitar without really paying attention to what he was doing as he thought about what Bobby said. He wasn’t jealous, he told himself. He was just concerned about the kind of man that was anywhere near his son, that’s all. The thought of Angie’s Third Date Rule didn’t have nothing to do with the sudden urge he had to smash his fist into something.

Nothing at all.

He remembered how long it had taken him to get into Angie’s pants. Hell, even he had only gotten a make-out session with their clothes on. She had definitely made him work for it. That had been one of the things that had made him fall in love with her. She was not like the other girls that had liked him because he was in a band, or because he played guitar, or because he was a Mercer and she was not a slut that would fuck any guy that wanted a piece of that delectable little ass. He had felt ten-feet tall and bullet proof when he had found out that she was a virgin and when she had given that to him, he had worn a goofy fucking smile for days until Bobby had threatened to smack it off before having him committed to the loony bin.

He scratched the next chord and groaned as the question of if the guy she was seeing was a better kisser than he was popped into his mind like a fucking cockroach. He started to think for the first time since he woke up in the hospital, really think without the anger controlling him. If he was honest with himself, she HAD tried to tell him. She had tried numerous times to get him to talk to her about that day. He had brushed her off. His mind to full of happiness that she was with him again, in his life and in his bed, plus all the shit about his Mom, that he had cut her off every single time.

So he started to think about how he was responsible for not knowing sooner. He could have called her from New York, hell, he could have even come home, but he didn’t. Just like he didn’t confront her that day he caught her with Derek. He had just beaten the guy and left without a word to her. If he had asked why she had done what he thought she did, she would not have been able to lie to him. Angie had never been that good of a liar anyway.

When his chest started to get tight and his heart started pounding so hard he thought anyone who came into the room would be able to hear it, he set his guitar down and sat up with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

What if she fell in love with this dude and they decided to get married or something? What if she got pregnant by him and had another baby? The image of Angie with a swollen belly wavered in his head making him want to scream. But the next image, one of how she looked during an orgasm made him want to commit a very gruesome murder.

He sprang up from his bed and started to pace the room as he thought about the bigger picture of his relationship with Angie. Something he hadn’t given any thought to, preferring to wallow in his feelings of anger and hurt. Jack was not stupid. He knew that there would be other guys that wanted Angie, but he had been naïve enough to think she would not take any of them. For some reason, he imagined her doing nothing but living alone raising their son for the rest of her life.

God, he was such a dickhead. He was fucking up the best thing that ever walked into his life and sashayed into his heart. Without really thinking, he grabbed his sweatshirt and gloves and left the house.

After the front door slammed, Bobby, Angel and Sofie all opened their bedroom doors, went into the hallway and poked their heads around the corner of the stairs where they had a clear view of the inside front door and Jack slamming the outer door. They all grinned at each other as Sofie whipped out her cell phone and punched redial.

After a moment, she said, “Camille? It’s Sofie. Tell Jerry that it worked. He’s on his way to Angie’s.”