Page 125 of Unbreakable
I was going to tell her I’d check in with her over the summer, after we’d gotten through this season. I was going to tell her I was happy to re-evaluate our relationship after a break.
But my mom hung up, so I wasn’t going to be evaluating shit for a long time.
FORTY-SEVEN
JEANINE
NOW | DECEMBER
Hey! I’ll be late but I’ll at least have drinks for everybody
Mara Leroy
We’re late too. Diaper explosion
Christine Lindberg
We’ll get it warmed up for you
“An oat milkmatcha latte for you,” I said, passing a cup off to Mara, “and a skim vanilla latte for you.”
“Thanks, J!” Christine said, putting Clark down while Mara put her youngest, Hazel next to him. They looked at each other for a moment, then promptly disregarded each other. Clark headed for the toddler section of the playground. “I wish he liked to play with other kids.”
I tossed a hand. “Eh, they’re at the parallel play age. It’ll come when they’re older. Neither of them are preschool age yet.”
“Everybody have a good Christmas?” Mara asked.
“Seb prefers Hanukkah, but he’s a good sport,” Christine said. “He grew up with both, but he calls Hanukkah the underdog. He wants Clark to have the same experience. We did a menorah earlier in the month with eight nights of activities.”
“It’s not even the biggest Jewish holiday, right?” I asked.
“Not at all, but Seb’s competitive. He likes how Hanukkah’s not the commercial nightmare that Christmas is. And it’s not like Clark cared either way. He likes the lights and making food and all the songs and stuff,” Christine laughed, pulling her phone out of her coat pocket. “Oh, I think Lacey’s going to stop by soon.”
“Oh, great! I haven’t seen her since the last volunteer day,” I said.
“Speak of the devil!” Mara said, greeting Lacey as she strolled across the playground.
“I’d have gotten you a coffee if I knew you were coming!” I called as she got closer.
She sighed. “That’s alright. I already had too much. How are all the babies?” Lacey looked over the playground for our kids.
“Not fighting at the moment, so we’re good,” Mara said, doing a quick headcount of the four kids under her purview. In addition to her two biological kids, she had Leroy’s kids as her stepchildren. “But none of that matters! Jeanine, tell us about the rest of Dylan’s big plan! I heard about Greyson’s arm. That’s so scary.”
“Oh, well, ha,” I started. “Yeah, you were all there for Plan #3, and then Plan #4 was when Grey broke his arm. Thank you all, by the way, for sending over food. That was so thoughtful. We were struggling for sure.”
The three of them nodded at me, giving me sad eyes. “We want to help you, Jeanine. Any way we can,” Lacey said. Her earnest response, combined with thinking about everything with Greyson, had me tearing up.
“I appreciate it. So much. I was afraid of . . . a lot of things with you guys, if I’m honest. I felt like I wasn’t fitting. But you’ve been so kind, and yeah,” I gave a watery laugh and dabbed under my eyes. “Anyway. For Plan #5, he took me out to a really fancy dinner and my favorite musical,White Christmas. And now we’re in the next phase, which is actually working on our issues.”
“Do you think it’s going to work?” Christine asked quietly.
My smile was wry. “We both want it to work. We want to be together. As long as we keep that in mind, I think we’ll be okay. He even made a big step, telling his mom we’re taking a break from her. She’s made my life hell since we got together and I honestly never thought he’d do it.”
“Oh, wow. That’s huge,” Mara said. “How is he feeling?”
I tossed my head from side to side. “Sad, but it was necessary. Now I just hope things get better at work for him.”
Lacey rolled her eyes. “I told Gavin to stop letting Dottie be a dick to Dylan.”
