The Denver Cereal (5 page)

Just spend the day. That’s
all.

Zoo and lunch.
Easy.

Ah fuck.

~~~~~~~~

Jill liked to get up
early. When Trevor lived here, he grumbled through the morning, and
a pot of coffee, before leaving for school or work or studying or,
as she knew now, the rich girl. The cool quiet morning was a gift
of Trevor’s betrayal. Even though she slept only a few hours, she
woke early to steal an hour for herself.

Jill loved
Sundays.

Megan and Tim kept Katy
while Jill worked at Pete’s. Sundays were a ritual of breakfast
with Meg, church, then free time with Katy. Sometimes they just ran
errands. Other times they spent the day at the park. Katy talked
non-stop about every little thing happening around her. Yes, Sunday
was absolutely Jill’s favorite day of the week.

So why did she say she
would go to the zoo with that guy?

Her mind went blank. It
just happened.

He was cute. Turning on
the shower, Jill grinned. He was very cute.

But, the Megan in her mind
reminded her, so were a lot of men. Stepping under the blast of
water, Jill tried to imagine another man in her life. Nope. No men.
She pressed her hand against her heart.

Still, she felt good when
she was with Jacob. Safe. Warm. He’d held her hand when he walked
her to the apartment last night. She was prepared for him to want a
kiss or to come in. But he kissed her hand in a funny, shy way,
right at the base of her thumb, and then said good night. He waited
until she waved from her window before walking down the street. She
watched him until he walked out of sight.

With Jacob, she didn’t
feel the flash intensity of Trevor. Hot or cold, Trevor was an
in-your-face-person who demanded everything he wanted. He wanted
Jill morning, noon, and night. As almost a conditioned response,
her body leapt to attention when he turned his mind in her
direction. For nine years, early Sunday mornings were spent rolling
around in bed with Trevor.

Trevor was in bed with
someone else this morning.

And Jill was
alone.

Stepping from the shower,
Jill was gripped with anxiety. What was she going to
wear?

And why did she
care?

~~~~~~~~

After running stairs,
doing a half hour of body-weight exercises, and throwing the ball
for Sarah, Jacob was out of time-wasting ideas. Plus he was getting
hungry. The lure of the Cap’n drew Jacob and Sarah home. Turning
from Sixteenth Avenue onto Race Street, Jacob noticed two things at
once — Delphie’s car parked in front of the house, and Jill’s
brother Mike sitting on the front steps waiting for him.

Jacob groaned.

Pushing open the metal
gate, Sarah ran forward to say ‘hello’ to Mike. With a nod of his
head, Mike followed Jacob up the stairs to his
apartment.

“
You know the front door
doesn’t work,” Jacob said.

“
Maybe you should install
a bench for your waiting visitors,” Mike said.

Jacob unlocked the door at
the top of the stairs and Sarah bounded into the
apartment.

“
Damn, Jake, you stink,”
Mike said.

Jacob gave Mike a dark
look. Mike had come straight from a night of driving drunks around
Denver in the limo. He stank of beer, cigars, and
boredom.

“
Hey, I just got off
work,” Mike said.

“
Breakfast?” Jacob
asked.

“
You know it,” Mike said.
Mike went to the cabinet to get Sarah a dog treat. While Mike and
Sarah played ‘find the treat,’ Jake pulled out box after box of
cereal from the cabinet. Mike grabbed the gallon of Royal Crest
milk from the refrigerator.

“
You cleaned up a bit,”
Mike said. He gestured around the apartment. “Nervous about
something?”

“
Very funny.” Jacob set
two bowls on the table.

“
It has been requested of
me to ask you to be very nice to my sister,” Mike said. “Where’s
the Crunch Berries? I’ve never known you to not have Crunch
Berries.”

“
Get it
yourself.”

“
I’m a guest!
Sheez.”

Jacob frowned at Mike, and
then retrieved another box of cereal from the cabinet.

“
How did you find out?”
Jacob asked Mike.

“
You told Jill that you
play hockey. Megan asked me about you after your step-whore’s
party.”

“
And you said?”

“
Jake’s a good guy, plays
hockey, eats lots of cereal.” Mike shrugged as if there were
nothing else to say about Jacob.

“
So today?”

“
Candy heard Jill say
she’d go somewhere with you. She called Megan . . .
Shit, man, you’d know how this worked if you ever talked to your
sister,” Mike said. “What’s it been, two years?”

“
Hey, we swap Christmas
cards,” Jacob said.

“
Yeah,” Mike said. “Like I
said, you’d know how this thing worked if you ever dealt with your
family.”

“
I deal with my father
every single day,” Jacob said.

“
Yeah, at the company you
own. Why did you tell Jill it was ‘your father’s
company’?”

“
Because it is my father’s
company.”

“
That you own,” Mike said.
“What are you doing today?”

“
Zoo, lunch, that’s all,”
Jacob repeated his mantra.

“
Yeah, right,” Mike
smirked. “Well, be nice. She’s really had a tough time of it. I
know you saw that slide show. It makes everything look so
hunky-dory. But Trevor was a hard person to live with. Jilly’s
whole life was consumed by that guy. You know she worked two jobs
so he could go to college? Then
wham
. He’s off screwing your
step-whore. And . . .”

Jacob held his hand in
front of Mike’s face. Mike stopped talking. He poured a second bowl
of Crunch Berries, finishing the box.

“
You heard all of this
before,” Mike said.

“
When it was happening.”
Jacob nodded his head. “I will do my best to be nice to your
sister. Scout’s honor.”

“
Pfft, you were never a
scout,” Mike said. “Shit, college boy, you weren’t even in the
military. Hey, can I shower here? I got to get to Mass.”

“
Help yourself,” Jacob
said.

“
Damn, you are nervous,”
Mike yelled from the bathroom. “I could eat off this
tile.”

Jacob shook his head and
returned to the sagging armchair. The sun was up now. Only a couple
hours to go.

~~~~~~~~

“
When are you meeting
him?” Jill’s best friend, Sandy, whispered in Jill’s ear. The music
was starting for Mass.

Jill held up ten
fingers.

Sandy fanned herself with
her hands as if she were hot.

“
That man is gorgeous,”
Sandy whispered. “And very rich. Did you see February’s
5280
? He’s the Bachelor
of the Year. Third time! They said it’s rumored he owns that
construction company. I’d do anything he wanted just to get a piece
of that . . . change.”

Jill hit Sandy’s
leg.

“
Church?” Jill said
between her teeth. She gave Sandy her “shut up” stare.

Sandy laughed.

“
You should have let me do
your hair,” Sandy said.

Jill gave Sandy a strong
look and then shook her head.

“
Oh, right, you don’t care
what you look like. It’s not a date,” Sandy whispered. “I bet
you’re wearing those sexy undies Tanesha got you.”

Jill blushed.

“
I knew it!” Sandy
whispered. “Just do him and cash in for a while. Why not? Not
everything is soul-mate love. Plus, you’ve got to be horny. What’s
it been? Seven months? I can’t go that long.”

“
Church?”

“
Have you seen Jake’s
hands? Carpenter’s hands. I’d let him hammer on
me . . .”

And the priest began
Mass.

~~~~~~~~

“
You’re home early,” Jacob
said. He stepped aside to allow Delphie to enter his apartment.
“How’s Sam?”

“
Sam is very fun,” Delphie
said. She flushed in her flamboyant way. “Very passionate. Very
Aries. They don’t call him ‘Big Sam’ for nothing.”

Jacob dropped his head and
held up his hand. He really didn’t want to know about Delphie’s sex
life.

“
You should try it
sometime,” Delphie said.

“
Have sex with my father?”
Jacob asked.

“
Have sex,” Delphie said.
“With anyone.”

Delphie moved into the
Race Street Castle when his mother was ill and never moved out.
When Jacob was in Maine, Delphie hung on as the Castle fell down
around her. After four years of Jacob’s Castle refurbish, she lived
in a comfortable, safe apartment of her own on the second floor of
the house.

“
I’m not a virgin,
Delphie,” Jacob said.

“
Could have fooled me,”
Delphie said. Looking in a mirror, she fluffed her bright
bottle-red hair. “Some Bachelor of the Year.”

“
I didn’t ask for that
award. I wouldn’t even let them take my picture. How is it my fault
that they stalked me? Fuck.”

Delphie turned from the
mirror. Her eyes assessed Jacob.

“
Stop psychic-ing me. Just
spit it out,” Jacob said. “I have to be somewhere.”

“
Ah, Jake, can’t a girl
come visit her best-friend’s son?”

“
No,” Jake
said.

Like a five-year-old,
Delphie twirled back and forth causing her flowing gauze skirt to
flip from side to side. Jacob smiled at her.

“
You’re glad I made you go
to your step-horror’s engagement party,” Delphie said.

“
Yes, Delphie. I never
would have gone if you hadn’t made me go. Thank you. Now
what?”

“
Have a big day today?”
Delphie asked.

“
You know I do, so why
ask?”

“
What are you
doing?”

“
I’m taking Jill and Katy
to the zoo. We’re going to get lunch. That’s all. No date. No
hanky-panky. Just lunch and the zoo.”

“
Uh-huh,” Delphie said.
“The cards say the day isn’t exactly what you planned.”

“
What ever is?” Jacob
said. He picked up his wallet, keys, and phone. “You did not leave
‘Big Sam’ to tell me I’m not the master of the universe. What is
it?”

“
Jill is equally attracted
to you and frightened of you. Be yourself —honest, true, kind — and
you’ll do fine. Remember, soul mates are just people who arrive to
teach you something. Jill is still learning the lesson Trevor came
to teach her.”

“
Thanks, Delphie. I’ll be
myself.” He bent forward to kiss her cheek. “You’re a
gem.”

Walking to the door of his
apartment, Jacob saw the clock on the wall.

“
Ah crap, I’m
late.”

Flying down the stairs, he
heard Delphie yell, “Don’t worry, she’s late too.”

When he reached the bottom
of the stairs, he turned to wave good-bye to Delphie.

“
And Jakey? Katy’s
allergic to bees.”

He was locking the door
when he heard Delphie say, “She’ll die if you don’t get her to the
hospital.”

Shaking his head at
Delphie’s never-ending drama, he ran to his Lexus SUV. After four
hours of waiting, he was late.

~~~~~~~~

“
Rich people call it being
‘stylishly late,’ Jilly,” Tim said from the driver’s seat of the
family van. “He’ll think you’re stylish.”

They were stuck in traffic
on Colfax Boulevard. Road construction left only one lane open in
the four lane boulevard. And that lane was jammed with cars. Their
direction waited while cars heading downtown used the
lane.

“
It’s not polite. That’s
all,” Jill said. “He’s nice enough to take us to the Z-O-O. The
least I can do is get there on time.”

“
Mike says he’s a nice
guy.”

“
He was Bachelor of the
Year!” Jill blurted out the information that freaked her out the
most; the information she had just learned from Sandy.

“
Now Jill, did you see
that article?” Megan asked. “My boss gets that magazine,
5280
. The magazine
couldn’t get him to do an interview or sit for a picture. The
picture with the article was a telephoto shot of him running. They
call him the ‘mysterious Bachelor of the Year.’ A guy like that
isn’t going to care if you’re a few minutes late.”

“
I thought
5280
singles were all
gay,” Tim said.

Megan smacked Tim on the
arm. He laughed.

“
Mommy, what’s gay?” Katy
asked.

“
You don’t know what GAY
is?” Megan’s oldest son, Ryan, asked. “Are you a retard? Gay is
where boys like boys. It’s gross. They do it everywhere all the
time.”