Page 40 of Mr. Infuriating (Mister #1)
Gretchen
After Jake’s bath, I wrapped him in his blue hooded shark towel and took him into his room to get him dressed for bed. But as I gathered his pull-up diaper and pajamas., the little stinker took off to streak through the house while screeching, “Nakey time!”
I started after him and banged my knee, which doubled me over momentarily.
“Jake William Wainwright, get back here!”
He just giggled and kept going, his little arms flapping like a bird as he ran.
Normally, naked time was not discouraged. He liked to run around the house for ten minutes with nothing but the breeze on his behind, and I was all for it, especially when he’d use the potty while doing it.
But it wasn’t something I wanted him doing when we had company over. Especially around someone as little kid-averse as Gabe.
Picturing the look of horror on Gabe’s face prompted me to hobble toward the kitchen, the direction Jake had run.
I heard the humor in Gabe’s voice when he exclaimed, “Oh my goodness, it’s a naked boy!” followed by the pitter patter of Jake’s feet and his squeal of delight at being acknowledged. I suspected he thought Gabe was going to give chase like he knew I was when I called again, “Jake Wainwright!”
I limped into the kitchen—which I noticed was clean—and found Gabe sitting at the table with his computer, wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses .
Hello Sexy Nerd.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a naked baby butt running around the coffee table in the family room.
“No running around the table!”
Jake must have noticed the change of my tone, because he came to a halt immediately with a look of panic on his face.
Which of course made me feel bad, so I softened my voice when I moved closer and told him, “You have to be careful, baby. You could fall and hurt yourself on one of the table’s corners.
If you got hurt, that would make Mommy so sad. ”
He arched his back to flop on a couch cushion like only a little kid could contort himself to do.
“Hey, I just remembered I need to take my daughter something.”
I glanced over to find Gabe standing at the doorway leading to the entryway, holding his closed computer. “I’ll call you tomorrow, maybe we can schedule lunch or something this weekend?”
It was painfully obvious he was lying. I wasn’t sure if it was the naked boy, the way I’d scolded the naked boy, or the fact that he’d had time to reflect about what he was doing spending time at my house that triggered him.
Yet I couldn’t find it in me to muster feeling anything more than mild annoyance.
I knew I wasn’t going to hear from him again.
“Yeah, sure.”
And just like before, he was gone.
*** *
Gabe
“You look like shit,” Derrick remarked when I sat down at Flannigan’s bar.
“I feel like shit.”
“Dude, when are you just going to man up and call her?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “I actually just left her house.”
“Oh.” My brother’s eyes got big. “Ohhh. I’m going to guess she told you to pack sand.”
“No, actually, she was gracious and accepted my apology. She even made me dinner.”
Derrick pulled a mug from the freezer and placed it under the draft spout.
“So, what happened?”
“I’m not sure. Her son was there, and—”
He pushed the tap to stop the flow of beer and looked over at me.
“You freaked out again.”
“No, well, not at first.” Derrick set the beer in front of me and I took a grateful swig before continuing. “I followed Dr. Frank’s advice and concentrated on Jake . He’s a sweet kid, and I enjoyed being around him.”
“This sounds promising…”
“Then she gave him a bath because he was covered in pudding.” I smiled at the memory of Jake’s face and hair smeared with the dessert and how Gretchen had held him at arm’s length when she carried him to the bathtub.
“After his bath, he came running through the house naked, like little kids do, and I was still good, not thinking about Bodhi, just Jake. But he started running around the coffee table, and she yelled at him. Which made him stop.”
Derrick stared at me for a beat, then lifted his hands. “And?”
“Then she told him if he got hurt that would make her sad, and my mind went to what if he did get hurt? What would we do? We’d have to take him to the emergency room. Which, then of course, took me to the last time I was in the emergency room, and… I left.”
My brother looked at me in disbelief.
“You left? Again ?”
I stared at the condensation forming on my mug.
“Yeah.”
“With no explanation?”
“No. I tried when I first got there, but she cut me off.”
“And you just let it go?”
“She’d just let me in her house, I didn’t want to rock the boat.”
“So instead, you torpedoed it and left it sinking.”
I didn’t like the analogy but couldn’t deny it.
“Pretty much.”
“You need to fix this, Gabe. Now.”
“I told her I’d call her tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow isn’t soon enough. She’ll have all night to think about what a flake you are. And how you bailed on her again, just like before.”
“I know you’re right. But I feel like an ass.”
“You are an ass. But you’ll be an even bigger one if you don’t do something about it now . ”
I took another pull of beer, set down my half-empty glass, and Derrick promptly took it away and dumped the contents in the sink.
“Go!”
I slid off the barstool, still undecided about what to do but it was obvious I was no longer welcome at Flannigan’s.
I’d almost reached the door when my brother’s voice rang out, “And buy her some flowers!”