The Families in Rossford

[ChrisGibson]

CHAPTER CONCLUSION



“So, you’re Jonah Layton!”
“You’ve heard of me?”
“Ah, yes,” said Shelley. “We’ve heard of you.”
They were in her kitchen, and Matty came to the table with a glass of tomato juice.
“Sean called a lot,” he said. “And for a long time you were part of his stories. I mean a big part. And then you were a quieter part.”
“What on earth does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” Sean said.
“It means you’ve been in the background of Sean’s life for years,” Shelley explained, “and I was always happy for him because he was always happy with you. And I don’t remember him having anyone. Anyone that made him happy,” Shelley amended.
“Shelley,” Matty said, “I think we should have a family get together. Your family,” he clarified.
“What’s that?”
“Bryant and Chad.”
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Sean said.
“I think it is,” Jonah said.
“Look, it’s not because my family is your family and I want us to all be together and all of that nonsense,” Jonah clarified.
“Oh, thanks,” Shelley said.
“That,” Jonah lifted a finger, “is not exactly what I meant. I meant,” he turned to Sean, “that it’s not about me. It’s about you. It’s about you and the relationship with your brother.”
“Jonah, I love you,” Sean said.
“I can sense a but in this.”
“But,” Sean said, “I don’t want to talk about this right now.”
“Oh,” Jonah said. Then, “Alright.”
“I mean it,” Sean said.
“I know you do,” Jonah told, nodding. “And I won’t bring it up again. I promise.”
Shelley turned away from them, back to cutting carrots for dinner. Because she had been devious for so long she could hear it in Jonah’s voice, and she knew that, though he probably would not bring the matter up again, it was far from over.

“Why do you sound so damn chipper?” Meg Callan said.
“Well, former light of my life, I’m just a chipper kind of man.”
“You are a strange kind of man, Charlie Palmer. When I bring the kids over, are you going to have that smug expression on your face you used to always wear?”
“I have a date if you must know.”
“Really?” Meg said.
“Yes.”
“Well, it’s about time.”
“Thanks, Meg.”
“Seriously, you need to get over me,” Meg said.
Before Charlie could open his mouth to protest this last, she said, “So, should I not bring the kids?”
“No, she knows I have children. She does too. Much younger children.”
“Alright,” Meg seemed to shrug. “Ed’s not going to be wild about having to baby sit tonight, though.”
“I’ll make it up to him. Come around seven. I’m meeting Meredith at eight.”
“Meredith,” Meg sounded the name out. “That is stylish.”
“Yeah, you know me and stylish ladies.”
“When do I get to meet her?”
“Gosh, Meg!”
Charlie laughed a long time until he stopped, looking at his ex wife, whose face had not changed expression the whole time he went on chuckling.
“Meg!”
“You thought I was joking?” Meg Callan said.
“I was totally serious.”

MORE TOMORROW NIGHT

 

[CharmedFan28]

I think there is going to be fireworks if this meeting of Bryant and Sean happens. I hope Charlie and Meredith's date goes well! That was some great writing and a great conclusion to the chapter! I look forward to more tomorrow! I hope you have had a good weekend!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Oh, there will be some sort of fireworks to come, and you may be surprised where they come from.

 

[ChrisGibson]

THE
THIRD
ACT

UNION








JONAH WAS STARTLED by a young man putting the brakes on his bike, right before him.
On the path in front of him he rested, good looking but bundled in sweatshirt and knit cap and gloves, and Jonah was bothered because he should have known him.
“Jonah?” said the man.
“Yes?”
“It’s me. Keith Redmond!”
Keith had left Sean asleep in his apartment after his friend had told him of the wonderful fellow he’d met the other afternoon and taken back to the hotel across the street from the college. Now Keith pulled off his cap, and in the misty morning his hair was silver grey. Jonah went a little hot because, not knowing him, he’d been more attracted to him than before.
“Good morning,” Jonah said. “I walk out here.”
“I like to ride here,” Keith explained. “Do you mind if I walk with you? I’ll just… tie my bike up.”
“I tied mine up on the other side of the lake,” Jonah said.
The quiet was everything, and he prized it. But Keith was something too. “Please. Let’s walk.”
Keith tied up his bike and they walked along a low hill to their left with geese trooping up its summit, the shore of the pond to their rights. Keith picked up on Jonah’s mood and said, “We don’t have to talk at all. I’m very good at being silent.”
Jonah chuckled.
“Thanks for that. But I’d feel rude. It would be too much like ignoring you, and if I wanted to ignore you, I guess I would just say go away.”
A smile split Keith’s face and he said, “I heard you’re a poet.”
“I guess. I mean, yes. I mean… I don’t try for it,” Jonah explained.
“Everybody wants to be something. Or someone. I don’t try for it. I just… Write things down. They fall into my head.”
“Maybe you’ll write a poem about me.”
Jonah looked at him.
“I was just joking,” Keith said, suddenly.
Jonah did not believe he was.



TEN



YOU AREN’T THE FIRST TO DO IT,
AND
YOU WOULDN’T BE THE LAST


Jonah Layton went up the steps and entered into the quiet of Saint Agatha’s Catholic Church. The noise of the street went out with the closing of the door, and was replaced by the music of the organ, the heavy silence of sanctity. There were few lights on in here, and the church was filled with shadow. This was an old place. It still had its communion rail before the ancient altar. Above it stood the crucifix, and Jonah thought of how beautiful churches were when nothing was going on in them.
But that was not why he had come.
He turned past the baptismal, and went up through the little door into the choir loft. It was a small, tight, twisting passage that brought him up to the place where a tall man, with grey in his dark hair, bent over the organ, playing. Jonah leaned against the wall, watching him and watching the whole of the church, aisles and rows beneath the high pillars that reached up into the elaborately patterned ceiling. Bryant played for some time before, stopping and turning around with a start.
“Are you Bryant Babcock?” Jonah said.
“Eh… yes,” he stood up, remembering himself, and came forward.
“I am Jonah Layton,” the younger man said, shaking his hand.
“I feel like I know that name.”
“You may,” Jonah allowed. “I am the love of your brother’s life.”
“Uh,” Bryant opened his mouth. “I…”
Jonah chuckled.
“A hell of a way to introduce yourself, right?” he said.
“Well, accurate enough,” Bryant said. “After Sean left we heard a lot about you.”
“But you didn’t want to ask too much because you weren’t too interested in your brother,” Jonah guessed. “You were glad to see the back of him.”
“I don’t know what he told you,” Bryant began.
“He told me enough,” said Jonah.
“Look, I’m no idiot who would defend Sean for what he did. It’s just that I’m going to be here a while, and Sean doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, and your neice is having a dinner, and we want you to be there. You and Chad, and I hope you say yes. And I hope you and your brother can be close again.”
“We were never close,” Bryant said, candidly.
Jonah shrugged, heading toward the door from which he’d come.
“Well, then maybe you can be close for the first time.”


When Meredith came over in the last days of February, in the first week of Lent when the sky was deep blue and the weather sunny though snow was still on the ground, she looked lighter than she had in a long time. She entered the basement apartment like Persephone come to the netherworld, and while she sat on the couch drinking a wine glass full of juice, Sheridan said, “Look at what Brendan has done.”
Brendan had been sitting at his desk, and now he turned around with a huge stack of papers.
“Is that a new case, or is it the book you’ve been working on?”
“It’s the beginning of the book I’ve been working on.”
“Do I get to read it?” Meredith said. “And seriously, I don’t want to be one of those tiresome bitches who asks to read something and then doesn’t read it, and then asks you if you can email it and then asks you to text it to my phone or something like that.”
“People do that?” Sheridan said.
Meredith nodded. “Layla had this friend—friend no longer—who was like, can I see your book, blah, blah, blah, and then she was like, well don’t print it. Email it, and then she was like email is so much trouble—”
“It sounds like she was so much trouble,” Brendan said.
“She was,” said Meredith. “But I promise I won’t be.”
“Well, even Sheridan hasn’t seen it—”
“That’s alright then,” Meredith began.
“But if you really want to,” Brendan pushed it forward. “Then there are the first two chapters.”
“Well,” Meredith smiled sharply. “That’s quite a coup! I promise I’ll have it read in a few days.”
“No, take your time.”
“I hate people who take their time,” Meredith said, grumpily, sitting back on the sofa as she commenced reading.
“So, Mere,” Sheridan settled down closer to her, “what about this guy of yours?”
“Oh,” Meredith turned from reading, “how am I ever going to get this story read if I talk about him? He’s really great, I don’t mean great as in impressive, I mean great and funny and sweet and…” Meredith sighed and shook her head. “The truth is I never thought I would be in love. And that’s strange to say for a woman who’s had three children.
“The only thing,” Meredith said, “is dating Charlie makes me want to have my own place. I can’t bring him where I am now with Nell and my father. And whoever else might show up. Like, I would love to have a dinner for him, and I can’t. It would just be too odd.”
“You can have it at my house,” Brendan said.
“What?”
“I’m not living there. Me and Kenny haven’t sorted anything out yet, but I can tell him to clear the hell out for a night. Yeah, do it at my house.”
Meredith put down the sheaf of papers that was Brendan’s story, got up and went to kiss him.
“I always knew you were wonderful,” she said. “But I didn’t know just how much!”

“The only way for you all to learn is to participate,” Todd whispered.
They sat in a small room with windows overlooking Overton Street, books lining a back wall, and a closed Ark before them.
“I agree,” Melanie said.
She wasn’t really whispering. No one was, and the room was only a little crowded.
“But I think this rabbi is a yutz,” Layla said sourly.
“Unfortunately,” Melanie Fromm said, “I agree with that too,—” the rabbi had entered the room. “—but this is the only synagogue aside from the Orthodox one that does daily minyan.”
The back door opened and Todd, Melanie, Maia and Layla, turned around, surprised to see Laurel Houghton and Alex. Laurel grabbed a book off the back shelf which proved she knew a little of what she was doing, and they snuck into the chairs behind their friends.
“What are you doing h—?” Maia whispered, but Laurel shook her head, waved it off and said, “Long story,” as the congregation launched into prayer. Melanie and Todd knew precisely what they were doing, and eventually Maia picked up. For her it wasn’t so much a problem of ignorance as uncertainty. Layla, between her friends, felt uncharmed and was comforted by Laurel and Alex’s silence. She heard the hatzi kaddish, which she remembered. Then began the most beautiful things she had ever heard. It was in her memory, but the words were never with her. She lifted the book and was frustrated by the Hebrew letters on one side, the English on the other that did not tell her how to make those beautiful sounds. There was a tap on her back and she turned around while Laurel held out a book to her. She took it from her neice. It was a different one, brown, leatherette and, most importantly, with the Hebrew written out in Latin letters.





Ba-ruch a-tah A-do-nai,
E-lo-hei-nu, Vei-lo-hei a-vo-tei-nu,
E-lo-hei Av-ra-ham, E-lo-hei Yitz-chak, Vei-lo-hei Ya-a-kov,
Ha-eil Ha-Ga-dol Ha-Gi-bor v'Ha-No-rah Eil Eil-yon,
go-meil cha-sa-dim to-vim
v'ko-nei ha-kol
v'zo-cheir chas-dei a-vot
u'mei-vi go-eil liv-nei v'nei-hem
l'ma-an sh'mo b'a-ha-vah,
Me-lech o-zeir u'mo-shi-a u-ma-gein
Ba-ruch a-tah A-do-nai,
ma-gein Av-ra-ham.

After that, they carried on, and it was so beautiful, it did not matter what they said, but there it was, readable to her in its sounds and in its translation.


A-tah gi-bur l'o-lam, A-do-nai m'chai-yei mei-tim a-ta rav l'ho-shi-a,
ma-shiv ha-ru-ach u-mo-rid ha-ga-shem

m'chal-keil cha-yim b'che-sed
m'cha-yei mei-tim b'ra-cha-mim ra-bim
so-meich no-f'lim v'ro-fei cho-lim
u-ma-tir a-su-rim
u-m'kai-yeim e-mu-na-to li-shei-nei a-far
mi cha-mo-cha ba-al g'vu-rot
u-mi do-me lach
me-lech mei-mit u-m'chai-ye u-matz-mi-ach y'shu-a,

v'ne-e-man a-tah l'ha-cha-yot mei-tim

Ba-ruch a-tah A-do-nai,
m'cha-yei ha-mei-tim.

On one side of her sang Melanie, and on the other, Todd. Maia’s voice was high and surprisingly sweet, and Tara trudged along to support her daughter. Layla flipped back to the beginning, backwards, she remembered, and looked at the top.
“Shimonei Ashrei,” she pronounced.
Once she remembered her great grandmother saying she had agreed to be Catholic because she fell in love with the old Gloria: Glória in excélsis Deo: et in terra pax homínibus bonae voluntátis. On such things as these, decisions were made. On the beauty of the Shimonei Ashrei, Layla decided that she would be a Jew.

“You know,” Edward was saying to Meredith, “I like you.”
“Well, I like you too, Ed,” Meredith said. “In fact, you look like someone I know.”
“Yeah, my dad.”
Meredith raised an eyebrow at the fifteen year old.
“I take it you mean someone else,” Edward Palmer said.
“A friend of the family,” Meredith explained. “Practically family.”
“Well, if things keep up then I will be family,” Edward said. “And that would be great as long as I didn’t have to call you Mom because, like, you’re only ten years older than me.”
“Well, I didn’t know your father was—”
“Father was what?” Charlie entered the living room, grinning with a beer for himself and one for Meredith.
“I believe Meredith was on the verge of saying such an old man,” Edward told his father.
“You’re a merciless little monster,” Charlie said, palming the boy’s head and messing his hair. “Now get up, so I can sit with Meredith.”
“I’m getting up,” Edward said, “and I’m going out.”
“Be back by ten,” Charlie shouted, “it’s a school night.”
“I will,” Edward shouted back. “I promise.”
The door closed.
“He reminds me of Dylan,” Meredith said.
“Who?”
“Sort of like a cousin, though I don’t think we’re really related at all. He looks like him. He even acts like him.”
“Small world,” Charlie said, wrapping an arm around her.
“So what’s this about you not knowing I was such an old man?”
“Firstly, I didn’t say that. And secondly, you’re not.”
“I’m forty-two.”
“Well, when you say it that way…”
Charlie laughed.
“You look like you’re thirty. Maybe.”
“You know that’s still too old for you.”
“Why don’t you let me decide what’s too old for me, Charlie Palmer.”
He grinned at her.
“You’re really cute that way,” she told him.
“Cute enough to kiss?”
She kissed him.
“That’s out first kiss,” he told her.
“So, Meg?”
“Yes?”
“Your ex wife.”
“I assumed.”
“You like her, she likes you. From what I’ve heard.”
“It was an amicable divorce.”
“See, that’s what I don’t get,” Meredith sat up. “If she was the bitch, I would trust you more, but is she’s not the bitch—”
“Then I must be the bastard?”
“Yes,” Meredith said. “Something like that.”
“I hope I wasn’t the bastard,” Charlie said. “I mean, I think it was just both of us wanted to be with someone when we met. Meg had lost her father, not that she really had him. He was sort of dirty and never around. She came here looking for him, but he was dead. I had gotten out of a relationship with an older woman. It didn’t work. Me and Meg both wanted someone. We wanted something simple. We got married.”
Charlie stopped and added, “I got her pregnant, and then we got married.”
Meredith nodded.
“I like to manufacture the image of a nice guy. I like to be a stand up guy. By the time I was in my mid or late twenties, I’d had two failed relationships, one strictly based on sex, and I had met a decent girl but certainly not one who was in love with me, and neither one of us had the sense to use protection. We were married and we didn’t seem any less happy than other people. It was the right thing to do. We went to church every Sunday. It would have gone on forever.”
“You didn’t feel… cheated? Or anything? You didn’t feel like you wished there was more?”
“No,” Charlie said, honestly. “Not anymore. I felt like I had the same life my dad and my brothers and every guy I knew had. And then Edward was born, named for Meg’s father. Then Charlie for me, and then Theresa cause we liked the name. No, I was okay with our life.”
Meredith shook her head.
“When I had an okay life I was so miserable,” she said.
“Well, that must be how women are,” Charlie guessed. “Because that’s why Meg ended it. She said she wanted to be happy. I wasn’t really happy either but I felt so hurt at the time, like I was a failure because she wouldn’t be happy with me. Maybe you think I’m a really nice guy, but I became a very bad man to live with for a time. After a while I realized we wouldn’t be happy together. We were friends after we divorced, but in the beginning I made it really difficult for her. I’m embarrassed about that now.
“So,” Charlie said. “That’s my story.”
Meredith touched his face.
“I’m glad I know it, now.”
“Does it make you like me better?” He gave her a doubtful smile.
“It makes me know you better,” she told him. “So you should know about me.”
“Will I regret this? Did you kill anyone?”
“Wouldn’t you feel horrible if it turned out I did?”
Charlie chuckled and caressed Meredith’s arm.
“I had a boyfriend for years, Mathan. And things had come to an end, but before the last hurrah, a few years ago, we just started this crazy affair, having sex in all of these places.”
“I can’t wait till we get to that place.”
“Shut up.” She slapped his knee.
“Anyway, I broke it off, and he was dating someone else. I mean it looked like they were going to be in a real serious relationship. And I was seeing someone who sort of looked like Mathan and who I sort of liked when I realized that I was pregnant with Mathan’s baby.”
“And so you married Mathan?”
“No,” Meredith said. “I married the guy I was seeing. I slept with him, told him I was pregnant, and married Max. I could have been okay with being a single mother if Mathan hadn’t found someone else and someone so close to home. It just made me look so pitiful. And Max was so into me. I thought it was what would work. This was so much worse than your marriage.”
“But when it ended?” Charlie said.
“Well, I had Elijah, and then I had our daughter right away so that Max would have a child. And then I was pregnant again.”
“What?”
“Around the new year, back in Chicago, I told Max the truth. He said none of the children were his and he left, and then I went into labor and our baby died.”
Charlie sat up straight.
“It’s alright,” Meredith told him. “Well, it’s not alright, but… It’s what it is.”
“Where is he now?” Charlie said.
“I guess in Chicago,” Meredith told him. “He just didn’t come back.”
“That son of a bitch,” Charlie Palmer muttered. “What a son of a bitch.”

MORE WEDNESDAY NIGHT

 

[CharmedFan28]

I am glad Charlie and Meredith are getting to know each other better. Hopefully they can last as I think they are good as a couple. Sounds like Bryant still doesn't like his brother. Hopefully he can get over what happened one day. Great writing and I look forward to more in a few days!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Well, you know, we can't like everyone and we can't even like all of our family... which seems like a theme for tonight. Meredith and Charlier are turning into something beautiful, and I feel like she deserves some happiness. Let's sit back and see what happens.

 

[ChrisGibson]

TONIGHT IN ROSSFORD, TEARS ARE GOING TO BE SHED... BUT WHAT ELSE IS NEW?


“Maggie, I love you, but this is some seriously weird shit,” Maris said as the sky was darkening.
“What do you mean?”
“Alright,” Maris said, “every time we’re with you, we pass this house, and we sit out here in front of it keeping vigil and—oh shit.”
“What?” Maggie said.
“That woman’s coming out of her house. She’s coming to the car.”
“Drive! Drive! Drive!” Lindsay said.
“We can’t just pull off and gun it down the street,” Maris told her.
“You’re right,” Maggie said and rolled down the window as, from the single storey white house with the slate roof and the dormers, Dena Affren approached.
“Can I help you?” Dena said.
“How’s that?” Maggie tried.
“Well, I couldn’t help but notice you are outside of my house, just sitting here everyday. I don’t mean to sound paranoid, but—”
“We just think you have a really pretty house,” Lindsay said, breathlessly.
“Yeah,” Maggie said. “I’ve always wanted something like that. So… sorry to scare you.”
“That’s alright,” Dena said, still sound suspicious. “It’s just, I have kids you know? I didn’t even know there were girls in here. It could have been anyone.”
“Right,” Maggie said, nodding and putting on a smile. “Well, you have a good night.”
“You too.”
Maggie twisted the key in the ignition, to signal for Dena to step away, and then pulled out, going down the street.
“Call him now,” Maggie said, more savagely than she meant.
“I guess it is time,” Maris took out her phone, sounding a little reluctant.
“Bennett,” she said. “You’re home? Good. I need to come by. I have something to tell you.”
She hung up and Maggie said, “I’ll take you over. We can even wait outside for you.”
“Are you sure about this?” Lindsay said.
“We’re all sure!” Maggie shouted.
“Ease up on the gas,” said Maris.
Maggie took a deep breath and breaked the car to a screech as they came to Demming.
Waiting for the light, Maggie muttered in a snarky voice, “That’s alright. It’s just I have kids.”
“Well, she does,” Lindsay allowed, but Maggie continued:
“What a bitch.”


In the middle of making out, Elias separated from Dylan and said, “We’re supposed to be studying.”
“I think we got a lot accomplished,” Dylan said. The two of them lay on his bed in Tom’s house, their clothes rumpled while Dylan’s hand went up and down Elias’s side. “Learning all about… chemistry. I think we make a pretty mean covalent bond.”
“You’re funny,” Elias said. “But I’m going to ace my English paper and you’re going to get a C on your test if we keep this up.”
Dylan sat up and grabbed his book. But before he opened it, he sucked on Elias’s neck again. It felt so good Elias closed his eyes. Dylan’s hands on him felt so good.
“I told you,” Dylan said between kisses, “when you get me heated up, it’s hard to cool down.”
“I know,” Elias said, using everything in him to resist. “But I would seriously hate myself if you didn’t do well. Here, cool off and take this test.”
“You made me a test?” Dylan blinked in surprise.
Elias got up and flipped on the light.
“I made you a test. I’m going to read this chapter about the Renaissance while you take it, and you tell me when you’re through.”
They sat on the floor on opposite sides of the bed, and though Elias never looked back to see Dylan, there was something about knowing his boyfriend—was that who Dylan was?—was right there. He was not distracted, in fact, he read the story with a little more knowledge of love, thinking of what it was like to be in Dylan’s arms, for them to be tight together, running their hands under each other’s tee shirts, and through each other’s hair. His mind strayed from Savanarola to the way Dylan smiled at him.
Toward the end of his chapter, a piece of paper landed on his head.
Without dignifying this by much of a response, Elias took it, read the quiz and said, “Fuck, Dylan!”
Dylan scrambled over the bed and hung over him.
“What?”
“You got a ninety-five. You’re awesome.”
“Maybe you’re awesome for teaching me.”
“Yeah,” Elias agreed. “Maybe I am.”
“So should we make out again?”
Elias sprang onto the bed and Dylan caught him, laughing.
“Yes,” Elias said.
All Dylan did was wrap his arms around Elias and hold him very close for a long while though.
“Dylan,” Elias said to him.
“Yes.”
“You know eventually I’m going to want us to sleep together. I’m going to want you to fuck me.”
Dylan’s arms went lose.
“I thought you liked the way we were.”
“I love the way we are,” Elias turned around and looked at him. “But… the way we are almost makes my body scream. I want us to be together.”
“Alright,” Dylan said, sitting up. “We can talk about it.”
“We are talking about it,” Elias said. “And, really, we’ve already done it anyway.”
“I know,” Dylan admitted. “But that was a by accident thing.”
“Not for me.”
“I always felt like it was one thing leading to another and me being out of control. You and your friend messing around in the dark isn’t the same thing as having sex with your boyfriend for the first time. I just wanted to get it right. I wanted to date you and all of that a little longer before anything happened. If anything happened.”
“I get it,” Elias said.
He was getting off the bed when Dylan grabbed his hand.
“If you want us to,” Dylan told him. “We can. If that’s what you want.”
Elias didn’t look at Dylan directly, at first. However Dylan had felt, Elias had loved that night, before Lance, when he had never been with anyone. It was what he’d always wanted with Dylan. He wanted it again.
“Yes,” Elias said. “It is.”

Dylan drove Elias back to his home almost in complete silence. When they reached the brick path that led up to the door, Dylan touched his hand.
“I’ll be right across the street,” he said.
Elias nodded. He leaned forward and Dylan kissed him on the cheek.
Dylan watched the boy go up the walk, shifting his bag up his shoulder. He shut off the car, got out and leaned over the top until Elias was inside, and then he turned toward Layla and Will’s.

“Am I late for dinner?” Elias asked, entering the kitchen.
Matthew, at the table, shook his head.
“What?” Elias demanded.
“No hello, no ‘how are you?’ Just: ‘am I late for dinner?’”
“He’s got a point,” Paul said.
“Where’s Dad?” Elias asked him, seeing Kirk was gone.
“He had to go over to your Aunt Sheila’s car lot. So everyone’s late for dinner—except Matthew,” Paul added before Matthew could say anything.
“What about Bennett?”
“Upstairs,” Matthew said, pointing to the ceiling. “He said he wasn’t hungry.”
“I’m sorry I ever learned to cook,” Paul lamented while Elias shook his head and went up to find his twin.
Though well lit enough, Elias felt something dark and forboding coming to the second floor. Quickly he knocked on his brother’s door.
Bennett did not speak for a while, and when he did it seemed he was trying to keep himself together.
“Not right now.”
“It’s me, Ben,” Elias said.
Only a few seconds later the door flew open and Bennett was looking at his twin, his eyes red and his face wet.
He pulled Elias in.
“What’s going on?” Elias demanded, closing the door behind him.
Bennett sat down on the edge of his bed, his face in his hands, and he just began sobbing.

The doorbell rang. Dena lifted her finger and told Milo, “Never mind, I’ve got it.”
She went out of the kitchen, down the hall to the front door and answered it, surprised to see the dark haired girl from today.
“Hello, Ma’am. Is Milo Affren here?”
“We just talked,” Dena said, suspiciously.
“I know. But is Milo Affren here?”
“Who is it?” Milo’s voice came from the kitchen.
“Is that him?” Maggie’s voice was excited.
“No one, babe!” Dena shouted back as she came outside and shut the door behind her.
“Look, little girl, I don’t know who you are, or what your deal is, but I’m seriously going to have to take action if you come around my house again asking for any member of my family. Is that understood?”
Maggie took a deep breath and then said, “I just want to see Milo Affren.”
“You need to leave,” Dena told her.
Maggie pressed on a smile, nodded, and then said, “Yes. You’re right. Good night. You won’t see my again.”
And then she went down the walk, got into her car, and was gone.

 

[CharmedFan28]

Poor Bennett! I wonder if he will ever find out that the baby isn't his? I was hoping Dena and Maggie might become friendly but it looks like that definitely won't happen anytime soon. Elias and Dylan are cute together. I hope we get more of them soon. Great writing and I look forward to more soon!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Poor Bennett! I wonder if he will ever find out that the baby isn't his? I was hoping Dena and Maggie might become friendly but it looks like that definitely won't happen anytime soon. Elias and Dylan are cute together. I hope we get more of them soon. Great writing and I look forward to more soon!

Well, I think Dena and Maggie are too damned alike to be friends is one problem. Dena has always been sort of rough around the edges and Maggie definitely is. Our friend Bennett is in a terrible place that's been unfolding since chapter one. Dylan, having experienced much madness, is finally settling down into the stable happiness of a relationship with Elias, and thats a good thing. Did you ever imagine when Paul first showed up, ygst he would have three sons with Kirk and one would be with baby Dylan?

 

[ChrisGibson]

AS WE WRAP UP THE WEEK WE TAKE SOME TIME WITH SEAN AND JONAH AND SEE WHERE THEIR LOVE IS GOING AND WHERE ITS BEEN

btw, Matt I did respond to your comments from last this morning when I got up.

“I’M GLAD everyone came,” Sean Babcock said. He rose as awkwardly as he had ever done anything in his life and said, “I would like to make a toast.”
Everyone looked around, and then Shelley looked to Jonah and Jonah nodded and they rose with their glasses.
“I want to make a toast to our family,” Sean said.
“I’m thinking about our parents,” he looked to Bryant, “about our sister Erin, Shelley’s mom. About those beautiful kids right over there, those little Andersons.”
“This is getting long,” Shelley told Sean, He frowned at her. She shrugged.
“And I am thinking about the people who have come into our lives to teach us love.
“Chad,” he nodded at Chad who smiled, awkwardly, “who makes my brother so happy. And Matty who is such a good husband to this girl right here. And my Jonah,” Sean wrapped an arm around him quickly in a squeeze, that given the quizzical look on Jonah’s face, seemed not to happen too often.
“I really want us to be a family,” Sean went on. “A happy family.”
“We are a family,” Bryant said tiredly, and raised his glass to toast. “So cheers—”
“No!” Sean interrupted the interruption.
“Maybe the kids don’t know, but we know,” Sean said, pointing from himself to Bryant. “We know. You and me. And I remember years ago, when he was still alive. Uncle Frank told me that I wasn’t really sorry for what I’d done, that I thought I was. But I wasn’t. He said that one day I would be. If you could know how sorry I am, Bryant. And you too, Chad. I did something horrible to you too.”
Chad turned away, not angry, but embarrassed.
“I didn’t respect what you had. I’m so sorry. So sorry.”
Sean had started to cry now, and Shelley found herself looking at Jonah with great admiration, for there was no discernable expression on his face as he led Sean away.
“Why is Uncle Sean—” Sinclair began, but Bryant moved around Chad and said, “I’ll be right back. Why don’t you guys start eating?”

“What are we going to do?” Elias said, finally.
“I don’t know,” Bennett said, wiping his eyes.
“I can’t raise a kid. I don’t know how. And… our parents will be so pissed. They’ll be so disappointed.”
Elias chose not to bring up something else, but just then Bennett brought it up himself.
“And Maia! That’s over.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do,” Bennett said, shaking his head.
Suddenly, Bennett looked at his brother.
“You’re thinking of something.”
“I’m glad to see you have faith in me like that.”
“But what are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking Maris is lying, and I’m thinking that bitch Maggie has something to do with it.”
“She couldn’t be lying,” Bennett said. “I had sex with her. I remember that.”
“You think you’re the first person she was with? She’s a slut,” Elias said, heartlessly. “And everyone knows she was fucking Hunter Matthews. If he was the father of my kid, I’d pass it off on you too.”
“You don’t know that,” Bennett said.
“I don’t know it,” Elias allowed, “but I wouldn’t be so quick to believe her.”
Elias sighed and touched his brother on the cheek.
“You know why I love you?”
“Cause you’re my brother and you have to?”
“Uh... part of that. But, I love you because you trust so much. You don’t suspect people. That’s why Maris seduced you. Don’t get too excited, I dunno. Maybe it is your baby, but you better get some proof, and before you ruin your reputation, you better not tell everyone you’re going to be a father. Just… wait.”
“You’re a good brother.”
“Thanks.”
Bennett sniffed and said, “We should… eat or something. Not worry too much.”
Now Elias nodded and Bennett said, “How are things with Dylan?”
“He dropped me off.”
“I know that.”
“I’m in love with him.”
“I knew that too.”
“No,” Elias shook his head. “Before I loved him. And I wanted him. And I did have him. And I didn’t know how he really felt about me.”
“I did. And I do now,” Bennett said. “He’s like Brendan with Sheridan. He didn’t think it was right to feel the way he did, but now he just… he’s totally in love with you.”
“You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for,” Elias said, wryly.
“What happens when I talk to Lance again? What happens with Lance when he’s back this summer?”
“You think Dylan would go back to him?”
“I don’t know,” Elias said, shaking his head. “I almost wish he would. I don’t want to be the one to fuck up his life. Or Lance’s. I love Lance. Lance loves me. I don’t know if that’s being in love. Lance is in love with Dylan, but afraid to be anything more than casual, and Dylan is in love with him and me, but I’m the one who’s here and…”
“Neither one of them knows you had sex with both of them,” Bennett said in a small voice.
Elias shook his head.
“Dylan knows he was my first, but he doesn’t know I was with Lance after that and… I don’t know what Lance thinks. He can’t believe I was a virgin. But if they knew that I’d been with them both, like back to back…” Elias shook his head.
Bennett sighed, and touching his brother on the shoulder said, “We’re both deep in it, aren’t we?”
“Yup,” Elias agreed, blowing out his cheeks. “Yes, we are.”

“I want to be close to you,” Bryant said.
They sat in the spare room that was supposed to be Matty’s office one day, but that had never reached that point.
“It’s my fault we aren’t,” Bryant told him. “For so long I wasn’t close with anyone. That’s what it is. When you were growing up I was already sealed off. Our troubles started a long time before Chad.
“And Chad is just embarrassed,” Bryant said. “He doesn’t hate you, but he doesn’t know how to deal with you. We never got past that place. You know, it took five years to get me and him back together anyway. I wasn’t ready. I was so angry, and so hurt.”
“I know and I’m—”
“Wait,” Bryant said, gently. “I’m not finished, yet.”
Sean nodded.
“But we’re not getting any younger, and Uncle Frank is gone. He’s been gone so long and it still feels like yesterday and now Grandma and Aunt Josephine don’t have a brother. And… And I am fifty years old. We don’t have forever. We can’t hold grudges.
“I think I was just afraid to spend time with you because I didn’t know if we could hit it off, if it could work. But we need to try. And you need to understand that I’m a much worse man than you’ll ever be.”
“What?”
“You—” Bryant stopped. “I didn’t deceive you, but I never got to tell you much about me. Before I met Chad, before he accepted me, I was a really broken person. I did the same thing you did. I fell in love with someone and I went after him when he was in a relationship.”
“He wasn’t your brother.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Bryant said. “And anyway, now the person I hurt is family to me. A best friend.”
“Not Todd?”
“No.”
“Fenn Houghton?”
“Yes,” Bryant said.
“I loved Tom. When I was twenty-five I thought he had no business with Fenn and I started up something with him. They ended because of that, but it didn’t make me penitent. I was sleeping with Tom for a good ten years after that and then, when Matty’s brother first came to town—”
“Paul. Claire’s brother?”
“Right. I started sleeping with him. I knew he’d started something with Kirk, but it didn’t matter. Until it did. I got so angry I really took revenge. It was something I almost didn’t come back from.”
“That’s why Claire couldn’t stand you!”
“For a long time,” Bryant nodded. “I couldn’t stand myself either, and what I’m saying is you didn’t know that. I can’t have you apologizing and feeling lower than me if you don’t know me, the things I did, the lows I hit. I once drove out to a Walmart and let a trucker ram me against his steering wheel because I wanted to feel something. The truth was he wasn’t a bad person. He was sort of beautiful. There was a lot of sadness in him, And loneliness. He wanted me to stay, but I got the hell out because being with him was like looking in a mirror. I started an affair with a married man who taught at my school, and once I even went into the old Video Store on Dorr and had sex with the boy behind the counter. Even though I know he was probably underage.”
Sean looked at his brother, while Bryant continued.
“I’m just… I’m not telling you this because confession’s good for the soul. I have no idea if it’s good for the soul. But I’m telling you because if you feel out of control, I know what it is to be out of control, to have no love for yourself. To be angry all the time, and have it burst out in crazy things you don’t understand and regret doing. And you need to know that I’m not angry at you, Sean. That I love you. Because you’re family, but also because I understand you. And that it’s time to be a family again.

“I have noticed that white, gay men, of a certain type,” Jonah began, “always look at me in this strange way. Like I might bite them. Like I’m about to strike.”
He looked at Chad, his face almost expressionless.
“It’s almost like they can’t decide if they want me to or not.”
“A gay white man of a certain type?” Chad said, trying to sound more courageous than he felt.
“Yes,” Jonah continued. “A type like you.”
Chad opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Jonah said:
“You want to ask how I can possibly know what a type like you is? People always want to be so like each other, until you tell one, you’re just like everyone else, and then all of a sudden they want to be original.”
“I really don’t know why you’re saying these things to me.”
“Because I don’t like the way you and your stuck up husband look at me,” Jonah said simply.
Chad looked like he was thinking of something to say but Jonah said, “You can’t think of anything to say. Well, I’ll tell you something. No matter how embarrassed you are about what happened with Sean, you can’t act like what happened is all his fault.”
“I don’t.”
“You do,” Jonah said. “Once you had your husband back, the two of you became a neat little unit against Sean.”
Jonah saw a fire flash through the other little man’s eyes.
“What am I supposed to do?” Chad demanded. “Open up my arms to the man I betrayed Bryant with? Say, oh, Bryant, let’s love him. Even though I cheated with him.”
“Yes,” Jonah said with the closest thing to heat that had come into his voice yet.
“That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do.”
Jonah got up and headed for the kitchen saying, “I guess that was what was on my mind.”
“Jonah,” Chad called before he left.
“Yes?”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight.”
“You seem a lot older. I’m thirty five.”
Jonah nodded.
“You don’t look a lot older,” Chad clarified. “You look like a kid. I just meant.”:
Then he said, “If I’m like Bryant and Bryant’s like Sean, then isn’t Sean the same type of person you say I am?”
“No, and if he was the same type of person as Bryant, would you ever have been seduced by him?”
Chad swallowed.
“Sean’s the dark prince,” Jonah said simply. “He was your age when I was twenty. You want to know how he got me?”
“Yes.”
“He was so sweet to me, and there was something in him that was in me. He was the same as me. There had been others, but there was something about him.”
“He got me the same way he got you,” Jonah said, at last.
“He seduced me.”


—HOW ARE YOU?

—I’m great. What about you?

—Good. Happy.

—How did whatever you had to go to last night turn out?

—It turned out great. Everything’s really great right now.

—Are you in class right now?

—I am between classes. I am heading to Eighteenth Century British lit in a moment.

—Oh, that’s good. I should have gotten more lit in my system.

—I really enjoyed yesterday. I’m glad it happened—Jonah typed quickly—We should get that out of the way, if you were wondering. I’ve actually been thinking it since it happened.

—Me too.

Then, a moment later:

—I haven’t been that free with someone in a long time. I keep thinking about it too.

—How much longer are you in town?

—I don’t know. I shouldn’t have been in town, anyway. I was headed to Pennsylvania.

—For?

—It’s a long story. I could tell it if you wanted to hear it.

—Do you want to get together again?

—Yes—Sean said—Only, I wasn’t sure if you would. Or how to ask. Or anything. But yes.

—When? And, I mean, you can’t go paying for hotel rooms all the time.

—Well, I’m staying with a friend, and he might not be here, but—

—No, I do know—Jonah wrote.
—My home.

—You don’t live alone. You can’t.

—No. I live with my father. But he should be keeping the store. And if anything unexpected happens, well then I’ll just have to make you climb out the window. You aren’t the first to do that, and you wouldn’t be the last.

“So you’re dating one guy,” Merrick said as he sped down Aaron Street, and then turned onto the street where Jonah lived, “and having an affair with another?”
“Yes.”
“That is impressive, Jonah. Is that a poet thing, or a Muslim thing?”
“I think it’s a me thing.”
“If I had ever known it was this exciting being gay…”
“Well, if our friendship ever gets to that place, and you’re still excited, I’ll be glad to coach. Now, you’re sure you don’t see my father?”
“No… But in that car? Is that the guy?”
“Yes.”
“He’s even older than Keith Redmond. He’s like a real grownup. How do you do it?”
“Shush. Keith isn’t old. And neither is Sean.”
“I’ll sit out here,” Merrick said, “and make sure you get him in safely. If anyone comes I’ll honk or something.”
Jonah nodded, pleased over the agreed arrangement, and climbed out of the car. He went up the steps to the porch and made a gesture. A moment later, a tall, dark haired professional looking man in silver grey slacks and white shirt crossed the street and climbed the porch. Jonah opened the door, let him in, and Merrick pulled away.
“That was your friend?” Sean said, breathlessly.
“Yes.”
“Good friend,” Sean said.
“I agree.”
They looked at each other for a time, and then Jonah brought Sean’s face to his and began kissing him, feeling Sean’s tongue thrust into his mouth, the stubble of Sean’s cheek. Jonah’s hands went into his hair, down his sides. Sean pulled him tight and through his thin slacks, Jonah felt the hardness of Sean’s penis.
“Come on,” Jonah’s voice was breathless. He dragged Sean through the front room, through the dining room, down the hall, and then into his bedroom where, kissing him again, he pushed Sean a little against the door, shut the door, and then locked it.

“I am always getting into trouble,” Sean said, stretching out on his stomach. “And now, to make matters worse, you’re getting me into trouble.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Jonah told him, He was kneeling beside Sean. Now he stretched out beside him and ran his hand over his shoudler blade, down the small of his back, over the softness and firmness of his ass.
Lazily, Sean turned and looked at him.
“Well, I mean, aside from the whole business about you ruining your brother’s love life by seducing his boyfriend and then coming here and finding me.”
“Do you know that I was in high school when you were born?”
“Does that bother you?” Jonah said.
“Well, yes. A little. Sometimes.”
“Um…” was all Jonah said.
Sean sat up. “Everything about this is just wrong.”
“But you’re smiling when you say that,” Jonah reminded him. “Breaking up the love of your brother’s life is wrong. This is just strange.”
“And what are you?” Sean went on. “You’re not a boyfriend.”
“No. I’m not.”
“You’re not, strictly speaking, just a friend. You’re—”
“You’re awfully concerned about titles and where things belong.”
“Well, where do you belong?” Sean demanded. “What are we? What are you?”
“I’m me.”
“You are very difficult.”
“No,” Jonah said laying his body over Sean’s and placing his mouth near Sean’s ear: “You make things more difficult than they have to be.”
. Sean’s arms went around Jonah, and he smelled of salt and earth and his breath was milky. He whispered into Jonah’s ear, “Don’t take this the wrong way—”
“That already sounds bad.”
“Please shut up,” he sighed.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but, even though I know I have to go in a few days, even though I can’t stay, even though I would never dream of holding onto you—”
“You wouldn’t? You wouldn’t even dream about it?”
“I’m going to ignore that, and finish saying what I’m trying to say, which is I hope we’ll always be good friends. I hope we’ll always be close like this.”
Jonah reached back so that his hand was in Sean’s thick hair, and he moved around Seans’ head and then bent back to kiss him on the scalp.
“You have to handle this situation,” Jonah said. “And I am telling you that because I am your friend. You need to go back to that town and deal with things. You’ve run far enough. You’ve got a job. No one in Pennsylvania can help you anyway.”
“You think so?”
“You really think otherwise?”
“You’ve got a point,” Sean said, still holding to him. “You’re like a good councilor, a good spouse, and the two of us, you and me; properly speaking we are not a relationship.”
“Of course we are,” Jonah said. “Maybe it’s just that you should be improperly speaking.”
Jonah rubbed himself against Sean. They turned around, facing each other, and the other man, touching his cheek, said, “I was going to talk about Chad and about the past, and whine about all my mistakes. But on so many levels, talking about another man while I’m in bed with another man is so unsexy.”
A small, predatory smile crossed Sean’s lips as his penis stiffened. He kissed Jonah lightly, and squeezed his hips.
“You wanna be sexy right now?”
“Yes,” said Jonah, turning to kiss him hard. “I wanna be sexy.”
“Good Lord,” Sean murmured as he placed one leg over Jonah and lay his body across the young man. “You have seduced me.”

Right now he didn’t want to tell anything to anyone. Sean made him so happy. They’d made love in his bed and talked and laughed and made love again until his father came home, and then, in hushed quickness, Sean dressed, and Jonah put him out of the window, kissing him on the mouth, touching his hair, and sending him away. If he were going to stay, if he weren’t—possibly—going to try to make this thing work with Chad, if there was no Keith Redmond, then all he would think of was Sean. All he could think of was Sean. Surely he had to come back. He could smell him in the sheets.
Falling in love was so easy to him. He loved so many people. He loved Sean as he heard the car engine start up.
He loved Keith Redmond.



SATURDAY NIGHT: DENA AFFREN GETS A BIG SURPRISE!

 

[CharmedFan28]

Thanks for responding earlier. Wow lots going on! I am still very much enjoying this story. I will have to read this a few times just to catch up. I am glad Bryant and Sean are at least talking. I am also glad that Bennett has realised he might not be the father of the baby. Great writing and I look forward to Dena's surprise in a few days!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Of course this is a double dose since there will be no posting tomorrow, so you've got all the time in the world to come back to it because there was a great deal tonight. Have an excellent weekend.

 

[ChrisGibson]

TONIGHT IN ROSSFORD, DENA HAS CAR TROUBLE

“EVERYONE’S HERE!” Dylan declared as he entered Layla’s house.
“Liam was telling me about London,” Rob said, coming up to Dylan. “You should listen, you might learn something.”
“Thank you, Rob,” Dylan nodded his head to the eight year old. “I think I’ll take you up on that.”
Brendan was in the living room with Sheridan and Meredith, and in the kitchen, Dylan could hear Claire and Layla.
Out of the kitchen, Liam on his shoulders, came Will, and he said, “It’s time for you to get down on the ground.”
“I agree,” the boy said, going toward the couch a little dizzily.
“Did you know Brendan was—” Meredith began, but Brendan cleared his throat loudly.
Dylan tilted his head and Brendan said:
“It’s nothing. It’s not big at all. I’m just working on a project and seeing if it turns out.”
“Brendan Miller: man of mystery,” Dylan whispered mysteriously.
The truth was he had his own mysteries to worry about, so he went into the kitchen to find Layla.
“I haven’t seen you in a while, cousin,” she told him, putting her cheek out to be kissed.
“I’ve been working, working, working.”
“From what I’ve heard you’ve been dating, dating, dating, Elias Anderson.”
“Heard from where?” Dylan looked a little alarmed.
“Don’t worry about it,” Layla, waved it off. “Fenn told me.”
“Really? Great, Dad. Put every horse in front of a cart.”
“Did he really?” Layla said. “Is the horse really in front of the cart?”
“Whaddo you mean?”
“I mean, are you dating the boy?”
“We’re just…” Dylan began, turning red and twisting a finger in his ear. Then he said, “Yeah. He’s my boyfriend.”
“That’s great!” Layla clapped her hands.
“And just to be clear,” Dylan said in a low voice, “I don’t mean I’m messing with him. I mean he’s like my real boyfriend. My first free and clear real boyfriend.”
Layla said, “Fenn hated Ruthven. He got used to Lance. But he would be happy with Elias.” Then she added, “Not that it matters. But I know he hopes for it.”
“What about Elias’s parents?”
“Paul and Kirk,” Layla dismissed them. “They don’t have a fucking clue.”
Dylan sat down at the island and he said, “Liam’s a neat kid.”
“Yes,” Layla said, “he is.
“I never wanted to be married,” she said. “But I do now. And I never wanted children. Even when I knew I couldn’t have them. Not until I lost the first one—”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I don’t talk about it,” Layla said. “But even then, I was sad. But I was okay. And I don’t really feel much like a mother.”
“I think you’ll be a good mother,” Dylan said.
“I do too,” Layla said. “And that’s because when I was your age now, Fenn got you and he wanted to be a father even less than I wanted to be a mother. That sounds terrible,” she realized.
“It’s okay.”
“No,” Layla said. “I have to explain. Fenn never wanted his own children. You were a complete surprise. He did not see you coming, and he didn’t think he would be any good at it. But look at how you turned out.”
“That,” Dylan said with consideration, “is really nice of you.”
Layla came around the table and touched Dylan on the cheek.
“It’s really true of me,” she said.

When Dylan got home he came in through Fenn and Todd’s kitchen, as usual, and then went up the back stair. Their bathroom was over the kitchen and he heard Todd in the shower. He could tell because Todd was a loud singer, or hummer, and he walked down the hall to the main entrance to the bedroom and saw Fenn sitting on the bed, glasses hanging from his face, with a ledger open on his lap.
“There’s my boy,” Fenn murmured, looking up and smiling. He closed the ledger.
“It’s been a very long few days,” Dylan said.
Fenn patted the bed.
“I don’t like not seeing you for days,” Fenn discovered. “Well, maybe on the weekends,” he began. “But not during the week. I like to have my boy around me.”
“Are we still going to Chicago this weekend?”
“We are!” Fenn said. “I thought you might have forgotten. Or had other things to do.”
“Of course I didn’t, and of course I don’t,” Dylan told him.
The shower stopped and Fenn, sitting up, shouted, “Dylan’s here, so you might want to think about just walking out totally naked.”
“We haven’t gone to the city since November,” Dylan went on, “and we’re supposed to take a trip once a month. And I’ve got a lot to talk about.”
“Well December and January were too loaded and this still counts as February, so… But yes, Saturday morning. And then I will be all ears.”
“You’ve always been all ears. Tell you what, Dad, when you’re really old I’ll do the same for you.”
The door opened and Todd, tall and thin, chest covered in black hair, came out with a great towel wrapped about his waist.
“That’s my cue to go,” Dylan said, while Todd turned around and brought out deodorant and lotion.
He kissed his father on the cheek.
“Love you, Dad.”
He kissed Todd too, and said, “Goodnight.”

When Dena came out of the grocery store with Cara, she had to stop herself from screaming at the sight of her car.
At first she couldn’t believe it, but then, as she walked around the entire car she saw it. Someone had methodically scraped keys all along the sides of it, and when she reached the passenger door, she nearly screamed.
Methodically written on the door, in block letters, was—without exclamation point—the word:

B I T C H

“Mama’s what’s that?”
“That,” Dena said, breathing heavily as she opened the door, and placing Cara in the child’s seat, “is a very bad person doing a very bad thing.”
Dena closed the door, loaded her groceries, and then, putting her cart to the side, climbed inside the car and started it.
“Shit!” she said as it heaved, weezed and stalled.
She started the car again, lights blinked on, it came to life. Then the car was dead.
“Shit,” Dena muttered. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”
“Mommy!”
“Not right now, Cara,” Dena shook her head. “Not right now.”

MORE TOMORROW NIGHT

 

[CharmedFan28]

I am glad Dylan considers Elias his boyfriend! Good for them! Dena had some car trouble alright, I wonder if Maggie was the one who keyed her car? I guess I will have to wait and see. Great writing and I look forward to more soon!

 

[ChrisGibson]

That Maggie's a girl you don't want to cross. I wouldn't put it past her. But what does Dena think? And what will Dena do? More tomorrow night for sure. Have a great afternoon.

 

[ChrisGibson]

“RECITE ME A POEM.”
“Right here in bed?”
“Yes?”
“Like Szheherazade?”
Sean leaned over him, pressing the palm of his hand against Jonah’s, wrapping a thigh about him.
“I don’t think Scheherazade told stories in the nude.”
“Maybe,” Jonah said.
In the darkness, Sean silenced him with a light kiss.
“I will,” Jonah said, his hands rubbing Sean’s arms, touching his hair, “remember a poem.
“For you.”

He quoted:

Not in bibles but in bed
and not in preaching
but reaching toward each other,
and this is wisdom
to know with the stiffness
and the thrill within
that like all loves
all spells
all blazing blazes
this:
the love of God is best
communicated over tongues,
mouth to blood red mouth

Sean kissed him with his blood red mouth and, rolling over, pulled Jonah onto him. Silently, in the darkness of their room, they made love.


ELEVEN



FAMILY/DINNER

In the semi darkness of her apartment he sat like he had been sitting several times now, in the wooden chair, his jeans around his ankles, moaning while she pulled on him. Her hand went to his stomach, and as Edward Palmer opened his mouth to whisper, “It’s happening,” Maggie Biggs moved her mouth and began to pull at him until, with a hard gasp and a leaning forward in one, two, three spurts, arcs of semen shot onto her floor.
She sucked him off a little more while he trembled under the control of her mouth, and then she moved away from him.
“I,” Edward began, starting to stand up and, overcome, sitting down again, “can clean that up.”
“Relax,” Maggie said, completely unfazed. “I got this.”
She disappeared, and a moment later came back with a wet cloth she used to wipe up the floor.
Edward was pulling up his pants and buckling his belt.
“I really appreciate it,” he said. “I mean… I like it.”
“I like it too,” Maggie said.
Edward always felt so stupid and unsophisticated next to her. She’d probably done everything and this was the most he’d ever done. He liked it. He felt rocketed out of himself. He felt strangely excited watching his penis in Maggie’s hand, under its control, the semen looping out of it as he swooned. He wished, but didn’t dare ask, that he could come in her mouth.
“Can I do something for you?” he said, timidly.
Maggie stopped and smiled.
“Not that,” she said. “I’m not really into that. But… there’s probably something you can do.”

Jonah lay on his back when he awoke, as if he could not believe he was awake, or accept the audacity of his bladder. He did not want to be up. He did not want to roll out of this bed. Beside him, mouth a little open, Sean snored.
“It’s not really cold, you know…” he heard the voice in his head. It was not Sean’s though. Even though their bed was full, it seemed, at moments like these, and only moments like these, when Sean was all his, when they were so very close, that someone was missing.
“Keith,” Jonah said.
He pushed himself out bed, and went to the bathroom, replaying one of his first conversations with Keith Redmond, after his last time with Sean when, and Jonah knew this now, Sean was actually Keith’s friend, and temporary roommate.

“…It’s not really cold, you know,” Keith said while the rain pitter pattered. “It’s that nice spring rain.”
Jonah nodded. “We could get our coffee and bring it out here.”
“I think I’d like that.”
Jonah touched Keith’s lapel.
“I can’t believe you wore a jacket?”
“Too much?”
“Well, a surprise at least. We’re not really a tie and jacket house. It looks nice though. I mean, you look nice.”
“Thank you.”
When this created an awkward moment, then Jonah, with a hand gesture, prompted, “Back into the house for coffee?”
“Yes,” Keith said, and followed him.
“I better get a jacket too. Or a sweater.”
“You can wear mine.”
“That’s very gallant, Mr. Redmond, but since we’re in my house I bet I can find one.”
Keith chuckled
“But it was gallant,” Jonah said, “you get points for that.”
“Points? Are we on a date?”
“Aren’t we?” Jonah said.
“I hadn’t thought of it.”
Jonah turned on the coffee pot, and soon the machine was brewing.
“You make me laugh, you know that?”
“You know what?” Jonah discovered. “I know it, and I like it. I think I come up with things just to make you laugh.
“I don’t have a hard time loving at all, and I don’t have a hard time with sex either. I’m not very shy about it. I love my lovers. But the one who is a partner, the one who will be there, and can be there, and who—”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” Keith told him. “He’s a hard one to find.
“I think you’re cute, and then you say something that’s… not what you look like, though that’s wonderful. You say something, and then I know you’re a lot more than cute. Cute’s… a baby or something. I don’t really know what I’m trying to say.”
“What’s your sex life like?”
“Huh?”
The coffee pot rumbled.
“What’s your sex life like? When’s the last time you had sex? Are you sleeping with someone? Do you have… I don’t know…”
“Fuck buddies?”
“Don’t ever say that again. That’s an awful term. And there never was such a thing. A buddy you can fuck? Someone you can watch football with, grab a beer and then blow? The fantasy of the reluctant homosexual who wants to believe that belching makes him straight. No,” Jonah said as Keith caught his breath and laughed. “Do you have lovers? Do you have, and this is a better word, paramours?”
“I don’t know if I want to answer that.”
“If you answered, then I would answer.”
“I don’t know that I want you to answer that either.”
“Do you want to pretend I’m a virgin?”
“No, but I don’t want to know about who you’ve slept with. And… I get uncomfortable talking about who I’ve been with. Can I get a cigarette?”
“You smoke?”
“Not really, but I kinda feel like it tonight.”
Jonah passed Keith a Marlboro and Keith said, “Now I have close friends. Well, really one close friend, who I used to fool around with. And there are people I like, guys I like and talk to, and we’ve been together a few times or whatever. And I have one serious ex who I do not talk to. Does that sort of answer your question?”
“Yes,” Jonah said. “Yes, I think it does.”
Jonah looked away from Keith.
“What?”
“Somehow I’m trying to get to us,” Jonah said. “All this talk is about us. I love my friends, and I love the friends I’ve shared a bed with, but when I saw you, I’m pretty sure I wanted to be in love.”
Keith smiled at him and bumped his shoulder into Jonah.
“Can I tell you something?”
Jonah nodded.
“And then this is the last time I’ll talk about stuff like this, but you asked. So here you go.
“Once, a few years back, there was this guy. Very hot. and I used to fuck him, like once a week, for a year. He would just come over and… it was hot, Jonah. It really was. But we didn’t talk. I didn’t talk to him. I didn’t need to either. We had very short conversations, but we weren’t there for that. We connected sexually. That was enough. I don’t feel cheap about it, or regret it… or any of that crap. It was great. It was even necessary. But with you, I get as excited about sitting here talking to you and drinking coffee as I did fucking that guy’s brains out. I get more excited in fact. In fact, I would trade it.
“Is that what you were trying to say earlier?”
“Yes, that’s exactly it.”
“And at this time I really don’t want to mix that excitement up with us doing anything more than talking,” Keith added.
“That’s… what I wanted to say too. Only, I didn’t know if it would make me sound like a hypocritical prude.”
“Well, then see, I’ve said it for you.” Keith said, and placed his hand, unconsciously, on Jonah’s knee.
Jonah was conscious of it, however, and he did not think of moving Keith’s hand.
Instead he said, “I walk at 5:25. Every morning. Will you be there tomorrow?”
Keith said, “I will.”


THIS HAPPENED RARELY. It happened with Sheridan sometimes, and it happened with that priest years ago. It was more likely with a client than a lover, though Logan had to be honest, Sheridan was the only actual lover he’d known. It was that right vibe, when you liked him and he liked you and it didn’t matter what happened and suddenly, you weren’t simply being paid to please him for freeing him from his inhibitions, all of your checked inhibitions were released as well.
Sweat dripped down Logan’s body, beaded on his brow, touched his eyelids, and ran down his face. A smile of ecstasy was on his face as the bed shuttled underneath Logan. Larry urged him on with his cries, with hands that were soft and dry, clutching to his arms, to his hands, holding his hips while Logan fucked him. Larry’s cries were louder, high sounds of a man pressed to the edge who demanded to be pressed further. The escort was always beautiful. The escort was always what someone wanted him to be. The work could be pleasant, but it was not pleasure, because he was never himself. Larry urged him to be himself.
“I’m—” Logan heard his voice rise, “coming.”
“Come,” Larry whispered. For such a gentle man, his voice was fierce. Sweat was all up and down his hairy body. “Come.”
Logan’s eyes rolled back in his head. He felt himself gasping. He felt like something was being pulled out of him. Sex was a miracle. That’s all it was. Why couldn’t people understand? His mouth opened and closed, opened and closed like something was going to come out of it. He knew what Larry liked. He came out of him, took off the condom. Grabbing himself he bent over, face frowning, balls aching, rope, after rope of semen, thick like syrup, hot as butter, shot over Larry, covering him in heat, taking strength out of Logan until, teetering, he lay across Larry.
The two of them, shaken from the place they had been, lay trembling and wet until finally, mouth dry, Logan turned on his back, drawing his knees up.
“I used to watch your movies,” Larry said. “You and Casey. I wasn’t stupid enough to be in love with an image, but there was something about you. Your eyes. And now you’re here. In my bed,” Larry shook his head.
“Unbelievable.”
Then he continued. “I know it’s for a price. I do get that. And it should be. It’s work. But… it’s one thing to have an escort once for a price, and another thing to have something good. Constantly. You know? You can pay for sex. You can’t pay for good sex with someone you like. You know? Or am I rambling? Am I saying silly things that make no sense?”
Logan turned to him, looking winded and exhausted. He touched his face with the back of his hand.
“I have been taking my clothes off for men since I was fifteen years old. Eventually, if you keep it up you become different from most people. You understand the sex isn’t about looks, or about age. Or even about if you paid for it or not.”
On his back, looking at the ceiling, Logan said, “You are the best lover I’ve ever had.”

MORE ROSSFORD TUESDAY NIGHT!

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a very interesting portion especially Jonah and Keith's conversation! I wonder if Logan and Larry will become something? I will have to wait and see what happens with them. I thought I might find out who keyed Dena's car but I guess that is still coming. Great writing and I look forward to more in a few days! I hope you had a great weekend!

 

[ChrisGibson]

You'll have to wait a bit for the car keying, but as we wind to the close of another Rossford story, everything is about to be revealed, so don't worry about that. In fact, there is much stat is still to come. There will be more in a few days and I hope the rest of your afternoon and your eening are great.

 

[ChrisGibson]

TONIGHT THERE'S A BIT OF A SURPRISE PARTY....

“So there’s a dinner tonight,” Meredith said, “and since it’s going to be at Brendan’s house, of course I want you guys to be there.”
“Yuppers,” Sheridan said.
“Where is Mr. Miller, anyway?” Meredith asked, heading to the refrigerator.
“Uh,” Sheridan began, gazing up, “if I’m any judge of feet, he’s right outside. Coming back home. He goes to Mass a lot. And today he’s off, so I’m sure that’s where he’s been.”
“I never see him at Saint Barbara’s. I thought he gave up the Church.”
Sheridan shook his hea.
“He just gave up Saint Barbara’s. He was really close to Father Malloy, and since he left it just isn’t the same. He goes to Saint Agatha’s when he’s here. Or Our Lady of Grace when he’s in Miller.”
“Um,” Meredith sat down on the side of the couch. “I never knew Brendan was religious like that. I used to be. Before I became a fuck up.”
As the door opened, Sheridan gave her a twisted smile and said, “I don’t think that’s the way it’s supposed to work, Mere.”
“Meredith down there?” Brendan called, coming into the apartment.
“Yes, I am,” Meredith told him, coming toward the blond man in his black winter coat, “and first I have to tell you—”
“We’re coming to her dinner party tonight,” Sheridan said.
“No, that’s second, actually,” Meredith said.
“First what I have to tell you,” she said, kissing Brendan, “is that you are a brilliant writer. I am so humbled to know you.”
“Humbled? Really.”
“Yes, Brendan,” Meredith said, earnestly. “I am.”
“Well, as long as you don’t bow down. I never did well with that kind of thing.”
“I promise. I’ll just give you a bigger helping of everything tonight.”
“Not this one,” Sheridan wrapped an arm around Brendan. “He’s all about vegetables, black coffee and…” Sheridan touched Brendan’s belly, “just being skinny.”
“You just like to make fun of me.”
“I just don’t want to be fatter than you.”
“That,” Brendan insisted, wrapping his hand around one of Sheridan’s wrists, “is in no danger of happening.”
“Well, while you manhandle each other and stuff, I have to go over to Dena’s,” Meredith told them, heading up the stairs. “Elijah’s over there, anyway, and I have to bring him back.”
Sheridan made to come forward, but Meredith shook her head.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I can let myself out.”

When Meredith had let herself out, Sheridan said, “There was something I almost brought up to Meredith, but thought I needed to discuss with you first.”
Brendan sat on the edge of the sofa, and placed his finger alongside Sheridan’s face.
“And that is, my love?”
“It was about the house. You and Kenny’s house and us living in this basement apartment.”
“Yes, we haven’t worked out that arrangement yet. You think all three of us should live in the house?”
“No,” Sheridan said.
Brendan looked at him.
“I remember a few years back, when you and Ken were living in Chicago and you came back for him. And I remember living there with Logan. I was glad to get back here. But, I’ve been thinking… I was glad because I didn’t want Logan’s life. And you were sad because Kenny wasn’t cut out for Chicago. But I remember going to see you there. You really loved it.”
“Sometimes,” Brendan put his hand out tentatively.
“I think if someone who wanted to be there was with you, then you would have loved it all the time.”
“You think we should move to Chicago,” Brendan said.
Sheridan nodded.
“Meredith still has that place she can’t get rid of. You’ve got a house here she likes. I love being in Chicago. You loved living there, and we love each other. Yeah,” Sheridan said, “I think we should move.”

When Meredith showed up at her sister’s house, Layla was also there, and they were in a heated discussion. Or rather Dena was heated, and Layla was sitting at the table with a day planner before her, listening.
“What’s going on, ladies?” Meredith greeted them.
“Your sister’s going berserk,” Layla commented without emotion.
“You’d be going berserk too if that bitch was torturing you,” Dena said.
“What is she talking about?” Meredith sat down.
“Some girl keyed up Dena’s car,” Layla said. “And apparently put sugar in her gas tank.”
“You saw the girl?” Meredith said.
“No,” Dena said, slamming a juice bottle down a little too forcefully in front of her sister. “I didn’t have to. She… She’s been sitting outside the house, staring at it with her friends. She said she just liked the house. Well, fine. But then the other day, no the other night, she came and knocked on the door and asked for Milo.”
“What did Milo say?”
“Nothing,” Dena told her. “I didn’t tell him about her. I told her to leave.”
“That might have been a mistake,” Meredith said.
“And then this: the other day. Car keyed up and sugar in the gas tank.”
“How do you know it was her?” Meredith said, and by the look on Dena’s face, she knew what Layla told her:
“Wrong thing to say.”
“It had to be her.”
“Did she do it last night?”
“No,” Dena said. “I went with Cara to the store—”
“In the middle of the day?”
“Yes. And when I came out there was the car. All fucked up!”
“How old is this woman?”
“Wait for it?” Layla said.
Dena looked at Layla now. But Layla shrugged.
“She’s in high school,” Dena said.
“She skipped high school to follow you around and fuck up your car?” Meredith said.
“Yes.”
“Look, Deen,” Meredith told her, opening her juice bottle. “I think you’re just upset because you haven’t talked to Milo about why a teenage girl would be looking for him, and because you threw her out.”
Dena opened her mouth, but Meredith put up her hand.
“I know, you’re going to be all upset, and that’s too bad. But I don’t think she did it. Can I use your restroom?”
“Use it,” Dena said, irritably.
Meredith put her coat over her chair and went away. When her shoes were out of hearing, and the bathroom door had closed, Dena said to her best friend:
“Are you going to tell me that too?”
“Nope,” Layla said placidly.
“I’m going to tell you to put a camera outside the house before you leave, and figure out what this bitch is about. I mean, you don’t even know her name.”

“Kenny, I just wanted to thank you for this. And Ruthven, I won’t even ask why you’re here,” Meredith said, laying out the table.
“You know Brendan and Sheridan are staying, so why don’t you all too?”
There was a knock at the door, and Sheridan said, “I’ll get that.”
He let Charlie into the house, and Charlie looked around at the walls and then around at the people, smiling pleasantly, and Meredith came forward and kissed him on the cheek.
“This was originally supposed to be me entertaining you,” Meredith said. “But I’ve let it snowball into a dinner party.”
“That’s the way it always turns out with the family,” Brendan said, cheerfully, and then put out his hand for Charlie. “Brendan Miller. Pleased to meet you.”
“I know you,” Charlie said. “You’re the attorney up in Miller who was in charge of that case for the people about to be put out of those government housing.”
“That’s right,” Brendan nodded.
“You do good work,” Charlie told him. “You’re the lawyer that’s going to go to heaven.”
“Me and Thomas More.”
“Um,” Meredith shook her head, “I never liked Thomas More. Too sure of himself.”
“Well, I’m a weatherman, not an historian, and I don’t know enough about Thomas More to have an opinion,” Charlie said, “But I know I’ll be glad to have dinner with Mr. Miller, here.”
“We’ll all make sure to leave by eight-thirty so the two of you really can have something like a private night,” Kenny told them.
“Kenny, that’s not necessary,” Meredith said. But Kenny and Brendan looked at each other before both saying, “Yes it is.”
“Kenny,” Brendan turned to him, “I want to discuss something with you.”
“Alright,” Kenny nodded, and moved into the kitchen where Ruthven was.
“I’m leaving right now,” Ruthven said. “You guys look like you need some private time.”
Ruthven went out the swinging door, and Brendan said, “I’d ask you to explain that to me except…” Brendan shook his head. “Whatever floats you.”
“He doesn’t float me,” Kenny said. “He fucks me. And quite well.”
“Anyway,” Brendan said, turning from that subject. “The house.”
“Yes, exactly.”
“I haven’t run it by Meredith yet, but Sheridan wants to go back to Chicago—”
“And of course you do too.”
“Whaddo you mean?”
“You practically pray five times a day toward the Sears Tower.”
“Willys.”
“What?”
“It’s the Willys Tower now,” Brendan said.
“My point,” Kenny pressed on, “is that it’s no surprise you want to go back.”
“We were thinking about taking Meredith’s house, and then she could move in here with you.”
While Kenny thought about this, Brendan said, “How the two of you would negotiate privacy or sex lives, I don’t know. But this is a big house that came at a cheap price so I bet you all can think of something.”
“You might be right. We can bring it up to Meredith.”
Brendan nodded.
“So you guys are really going to Chicago?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“You hated law in Chicago. Here you’ve been doing what you like.”
“That’s true, Kenny, but somehow I think there will be plenty of injustice in Cook County as well.”

“Well, I can get the door this time,” Charlie said, while Meredith was on her way to the kitchen.
“I’d appreciate,” Meredith told him. “And tell whoever it is to just sit down and wine’ll be out in a minute.”
Charlie opened the door with a bright smile on his face and then his jaw dropped.
Bill Affren put out his hand and said, “You must be Charlie.”
Picking up his jaw, Charlie shook the older man’s hand and said, “Yes.”
“Maybe we could come in?” Bill suggested.
“Yes. Of course.”
“This is my wife,” Bill said. “Meredith’s mother, Nell.”
Charlie Palmer looked at Nell Affren and Nell said, “I think I left something in the car,” before running back across the lawn.
“Um,” Bill murmured, looking after his wife as she shut herself in the car. “How strange.”

Adele was sitting at the dining room table in Caroline Houghton’s house when her phone rang.
“I thought you said you were going to start turning that thing off,” Simon said.
Adele reached into her purse and then said, “It’s Nell. This might be important.”
She took the phone into the old dining room that looked half like an antique shop and said, “Nell.”
“Oh, it’s terrible!”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m at Meredith’s party to meet her new boyfriend.”
“Is he worse than Max? I mean he can’t be.”
“That’s not the point,” Nell said.
“Okay… then why are you whispering in a panic into the phone?”
“Well, I just met him.”
“And?”

“Will you tell me one of your stories?”
“I sure will,” Layla told Liam, and she patted the seat on the sofa. The little boy climbed up next to her. He put his head on her thigh and she began.
“Once upon a time—”
“The phone is ringing.”
“That is for Will to pick up,” Layla told him. “Back to the story. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful little prince name Liam.”
“Like me?”
“Oh, exactly like you! And—”
Will came down the hall with his phone, and held it out to Layla.
“It’s Dena. She sounds like it’s really important.”
Layla sighed and shook her head.
“If it’s about that girl…”
“Hello,” she said into the phone.
“Layla!” Dena sounded completely animated. “I’m at Meredith’s party.”
“Okay?”
“You’ll never guess who her new man is.”
“No,” Layla decided. “I won’t.”
“Oh, you’re really no fun sometimes! It’s Charlie Palmer.”
“Charlie Palmer from the news? Charlie—oh, my God!”
“What?” Liam sat up.
“Liam you have to go play for a minute.”
“Is it grown up business?”
“I’m afraid it is,” Layla told him.
The landline rang and Will went to get it, and then motioned for Layla.
“Hold on,” Layla said, taking Dena in her hand. She took the kitchen phone and said, “Hello.”
“Layla!” Came Adele’s voice, “you’ll never guess who Meredith is dating!”
“Nell’s ex boyfriend,” Layla said, simply.
“You dirty ho. How did you know?”
“I’m on the other line!” Dena shouted from Layla’s phone.


“Dad, why is Nell still in the car?”
Bill opened his mouth to answer, and then admitted, “I really don’t know.”
“Maybe you should go and get her.”
“Maybe I should,” Dena said.
“You know what?” Charlie told her. “I think I will.”
“Are you sure about that?” Dena said, doubtfully.
“Yes,” he said.
Dena sighed while Charlie put on his coat and went out the door.
The house and this street had a distinct lack of light, Charlie noticed as he walked carefully down the uneven brick steps, coming toward Bill’s car. He tapped on the window, and out of it, eventually Nell’s face came into focus. She opened the driver’s door and the light came on. Charlie smiled and came inside.
“Hi, Nell.”
“Charlie.”
“My God, you still look so beautiful.”
“And you still look like a boy.”
“Well,” Charlie touched his temples and the corners of his eyes. “Not quite. The boy has three kids, and one’s almost grown up.”
He shut the door and they were in darkness.
Nell swatted him suddenly.
“What?”
“And that means you’re too old! You were too young for me and now you’re too old for Meredith! What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Wrong with me! I’m not the one that put up a profile saying I was thirty when I was…. Well, I don’t know how old you were. But when Dena showed up, that was a surprise. And now, Meredith! I never knew about her.”
“Meredith is my stepdaughter,” Nell explained.
“I met you after Bill and I were falling in love. He kissed me, but he was married, so he went back to his wife.”
“Nell, you are scandalous.”
“I hope you’re joking, cause I can’t see your face.
“Anyway, that’s when we got together, and then it burnt itself out.”
“No, it didn’t burn itself out,” Charlie said. “You wanted a ride on the Charlie Train and when you’d gone as many stops as you cared to, you got off.”
“Did you just seriously call yourself the Charlie Train?”
“Not the point. You quit me because you were tired of me. And you didn’t care how I felt.”
“I thought you were okay.”
“You wanted to think I was okay. And then I guess you met this Bill and irony of ironies, I’m in love with his daughter. And you know what? It is love. And she loves me too.”
“I’m sure she does,” Nell said in a different tone.
“Please, Nell,” Charlie said. “Don’t patronize me.”
“I’m not, Charlie.
“Charlie, you were a good man. I’m sure you still are. But you weren’t my man. And what’s more, I’m sure I wasn’t your woman. I was too old. I couldn’t have given you children.”
“Should we go back inside?”
“Yes. More guests have arrived, and Meredith is going to wonder what we’re doing.”
“Meredith? What about her father?”
“Him too,” Nell said with a smile.
“Charlie, what do you plan to tell Meredith?”
“As in, do I plan to tell her that I slept with her stepmother? No. And Bill?”
“I don’t see a way around not telling him. He is my husband.”
“Um,” was all Charlie said.
Nell thought, and then said, “Or I might want to keep this to myself.”

TOMORROW NIGHT, THE STORY OF DONOVAN AND CADE CONTINUES IN THE SKIN OF THINGS

 

[CharmedFan28]

I am glad Nell handled the Charlie situation the way she did. I don't know how Meredith would react but who knows if they will tell her. I think Brendan and Sheridan moving to Chicago is a good thing and I hope they enjoy life there. I also hope that Meredith does move in to Kenny's and that they can tolerate each other. Great writing and I look forward to more of this in a few days and more of The Skin Of Things tomorrow!