Page 20 of Home Body
“You’re horny aren’t you.”
“Sure. I’m always horny. Haven’t had a boyfriend in a year.”
“Jessa, you’ve never told me what happened with Roy. Do you want to talk about it?”
Jessa sighed. “There’s not much to talk about. He’s gorgeous. Fun. Good student. Promising future. Girls fall all over him. Hung like a…well, you get the picture. Sadly, I came to realize he’s a dickhead. A flaming narcissist. Never let me finish a sentence. Always butting in like I’m too stupid to know what I want to say.” She lifted up on her elbows, becoming animated with disdain. “Always had to one-up anything anyone said or did. Oh, he’d be charming, which is terribly disarming. Had me doubting myself all the time. But I finally saw clearly that it was him, not me, who had a problem.”
“What do you mean, one-up?”
“Well, for example, I’d make us something to eat. Like, say, spaghetti. He’d say, ‘Oh, this is good.’” She mimicked a man’s voice. “‘Next time how about a little more oregano? That would make it even better.’” She dropped the impression. “He did that all the time. I’d write a paper, he’d pick it up and read it and say, ‘Wow, Jessa, this is good. I like the part about whatever. You know, if you put XYZ right here…’” she imitated his voice again and pointed mockingly “’… it’d be great.’ Once I modeled a new dress for him. I love that dress. He said, ‘You look cute. I’m surprised you bought a green dress seeing that you look so good in blue.’ It got so I wanted to punch him in the teeth every time he spoke.” She punched the air, then laid back down.
“Wow. So, you do have a lot to say about him, even though you said you didn’t.”
“I guess I’ve been hesitating to talk to you about him because I see the same thing in Chad the Cad. I’m so glad you didn’t marry him.”
“Chad the Cad? Huh. I like the nickname. Yeah, I guess he did do some of that, too. But you know what bothered me most?”
“Only one thing?”
“Good point. But it was his tone of voice when he talked to some people. The words were always the right ones. His tone was, I don’t know…”
“Condescending.”
“Yes. That’s it. Like a waitress. He’d say, ‘Thank you, miss,’ but the way he always said it was so dismissive, like she didn’t deserve any respect. Like she was a peon. He did that with lots of people.”
“He did it with you, too.”
“Yeah, I guess he did. My dad even told me so. More than once. He said he didn’t like Chad’s ‘tone’ when he talked to me. At the time, I thought that was silly. But then I noticed it more and more. It bugged me a lot. When we first got engaged, Momand Dad sat me down and asked if I knew for sure I was in love. I told them of course I was. Mom even said she feared I was in too much of a rush to get married because I’d graduated and didn’t know what else to do. That pissed me off but deep inside I think I knew she was right. They told me they had some reservations about Chad. In short, they didn’t much like him. ‘All bluff and little substance,’ Dad said. When I refused to give up, Dad had a private talk with Chad. Took him into his study and did the whole mano a mano dad thing. Later Chad told me that really pissed him off. Dad told him he’d better not ever hurt me, or he’d have my dad to answer to.”
“Kenyon, I don’t think I’ve ever told you how much I like your dad. Your mom, too. But your dad is such an old-fashioned protector dad. Were you mad at him for doing that?”
“You know, I told Chad I was, but I wasn’t. By then I had my doubts and was glad Dad stuck up for me.”
“Kinda points out that it’s time for us to stick up for ourselves, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. And we have.”
They fist bumped.
“You know what else?” Kenyon continued. “They said they’d pay for my wedding or they’d give me the money for a down payment on a house. But they’d only give me the money if the house was in my name alone. Not Chad’s.”
“Whoa. It sounds like they were protecting you for after a divorce.”
“Yup. I told them that. They didn’t deny it. I never even told Chad. We just went on with the big wedding plans, and Mom did get excited about the whole thing. Not the groom, mind you, but the big soiree.”
“And you, my dear, became obsessed with your dress.” Jessa giggled.
“You have to admit, it’s a great dress.”
“That it is.”
“Too bad I let myself get carried away with the whole fairytale of a perfect wedding, knowing my parents didn’t want me to marry him.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Nope. I did not!” Kenyon popped up, dove into the pool, and took a lap. When she reached the other end, she jumped out of the water, spread her arms wide, and smiled.
Their worries and disappointments drifted away on the surf, stress and strain evaporating like mere mist in the tropical sunshine. In this exotic retreat so far away from home, the trials and tribulations of daily life didn’t exist. Relaxation and renewal enveloped them, leaving them too content to worry anymore about any troubles back home.
