This Too Shall Pass (18 page)

“I’m going to the County Line. I may not answer.”

“Who are you going there with?”

“Sam, she had a fight with Doug.”

“You’re going to the bar with my sister?” Alexis made her way to the kitchen, feeling weak, but better. Her legs felt like Jell-O and she still felt that sick faint feeling, but not near as bad.

Bernie popped another bubble. “She needs a drinking buddy.”

“You’re a horrible drinking buddy.”

“I am not.”

“You’ll be the drunk one and Sam will be the babysitter. Why are they fighting? And stop popping bubbles in my ear.”

“I didn’t ask that. I just said I would go.”

Alexis moved the pop away from her ear again and shook her head. Sometimes she was sure Bernie’s mind stayed in high school. “I’m going to call her. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Don’t you talk her out of going. Travis is gone. I don’t want to stay home.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Don’t drink and drive.”

“Love you, bye.”

“Love you, bye.”

Alexis opened a can of soup and plopped it to the microwave, leaned against the counter for support, and dialed her sister.

“Hey, how do you feel,” Sam answered.

“I’m okay. What’s going on? Bernie said you and Doug had a fight. You okay?”

“I don’t know, but it’s fine. I was going to come and hang out with you, but I don’t want the germs.”

“I’ll spray Lysol. Come over.”

“Bernie will be mad.”

“She’ll get over it. You don’t want to go to the line with Bernie. That’s a warning you should heed to.” Alexis moved to the chair, feeling like the counter wasn’t enough to hold her weak legs.

“Do you have alcohol?”

“I have beer that has been in the back of the fridge for months, and Cory has some Crown and Jack, maybe a little Jim Beam. Come over.”

“You call Bernie,” Sam countered. Great. Bernie was going to kill her.

“Okay, I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

“I have homemade potato soup. Do you want some?”

“Yes, that sounds way better than watery chicken noodle.”

“Okay, I’ll see you in a few.”

Alexis cowardly texted Bernie.

Alexis—Sam is coming here.

Alexis emptied the soup to the disposal and opened one of the electrolyte popsicles.

Bernie—I hate you! I knew you would talk her out of it.

Alexis—I didn’t talk her out of it. Sam’s not really the bar type. She needs a shoulder not a bottle.

Bernie—No sir! She needs Captain Morgan. He makes everyone feel better. Now what am I going to do?

Alexis—Come over. We’ll make it a party. Where is Taylor?

Bernie—My grandmas. Can I spend the night?

Alexis—Yes, come over.

Alexis sprayed the house with a half a can of disinfecting spray while she made her way up to her room. She undressed, retrieving clean pajama pants and white a cotton shirt. That was as dressed as she was getting. She adjusted the shower and turned toward the sparkle when the light caught her ring, sending a quick glimmer across the room. The next thing that caught her eye was how huge she was. Not quite four more months. She could do this. Alexis placed her hand around her stomach, ignoring the shine from her ring again. A surge of guilt filled her lungs with the deep breath. This guilt was different than when she was pregnant with Kinley. Kinley’s gestation was ignored due to fear of something being wrong. This poor little baby was disregarded due to not wanting it. Alexis smiled at her reflection when she felt what she was sure was a foot. Sure she would feel different once it arrived, she blew out a puff of air and stepped into the shower. She would worry about that day when it came.

Sam was in her kitchen warming her soup when Alexis joined her with a towel wrapped around her head. “Do you want water or tea?” Sam asked.

“I can get my own food, Sam,” Alexis protested, sort of. She did sit down at the table while she was saying it, still feeling like shit.

“You’re sick. I’ve got it. You should have told me you had Coors. I hate Coors,” Sam complained while preparing Alexis’s much appreciated meal.

“Oh, don’t worry. Bernie’s coming. She hates Coors, too. She’ll bring Bud Light, I’m sure. Where’s Doug?”

“He’s home, sitting in front of the television.”

“What’s going on?”

“I can’t talk to you about my problems with Doug, Lex,” Sam assured her while placing the bowl of soup in front of her along with a glass of tea.

Alexis blew steam, cooling the spoonful of soup. “Yes you can. Why are you fighting?”

Sam took a deep breath and twisted the top off one of the bottles of Coors. “You might need to find a babysitter.”

Alexis’s eyes widened with the bite of soup. “Why? What does that mean?”

“I think it’s time Doug and I throw in the towel.”

“Throw in the towel? You mean like a divorce? Mom will kill you dead.” Wow! Sam wanted a divorce? Alexis was in shock. None of her siblings had ever gotten a divorce. She wasn’t sure anyone in her extended family had ever gotten a divorce.

“Yes, I think I’m going to move to Bradford. The only thing stopping me is Emily, but she’s in school now. I can still come and get her on the weekends,” Sam explained, like she was trying to work it all out in her head.

“Sam! Are you serious? You’ve been married for like a hundred years. Why? What’s going on?”

“Twenty five next April. It’s been coming for years. We’re just not the same people anymore. I’m going to be forty five in two more years. I don’t want to live in the country and cater to Doug anymore. My kids are raised. I want more out of life,” Sam explained.

Alexis ate her soup, trying to grasp what she was saying. “Maybe you’re just going through a mid-life thing.”

“Maybe.” Sam sat across from Alexis and chugged her beer. It was probably a good thing she was at her house and not the bar. Alexis had a good feeling that Sam was out to get drunk.

“What does Doug say? Is he on board with getting a divorce?”

“I don’t know. One minute he is, and the next he’s not. It’s time.”

“You can’t leave me. I can’t let anyone else watch my kids. Move in with me. I have four bedrooms. You can have the downstairs bedroom.”

“Hey, that’s my room,” Bernie announced while joining them in the kitchen, carrying a whole case of beer. Yup, somebody was getting drunk.

“Why didn’t you lock the door behind you?” Alexis teased with a smirk toward Sam.

“She did, the key has been on the light post for years. Don’t worry, I locked it back,” Bernie assured her with a toast of her beer.

Alexis ate her soup and drank tea while Bernie and Sam sat at her table and bad mouthed men, mostly Sam. Alexis was in shock. She didn’t know it was that bad. She’d always known they weren’t close, not like her and Cory were, but she hadn’t realized things were so wrong between them. A few more beers and the real truth came out. Alexis was beyond shocked.

“Are you sure there isn’t another guy, Sam? You keep talking about how you don’t feel anything with Doug, and how he’s not what makes you tick. What is it, Sam, Huh? Who’s making you tick?” Bernie questioned with narrowed, accusing eyes. Alexis paid zero attention. She knew Sam went down that road years ago, and she did cheat on Doug. Surely she wasn’t doing it again.

“It’s the same one from twelve years ago,” Sam confessed in her drunken state. What!?

“I’m drinking a beer,” Alexis said with a shake in her tone. Sam was having an affair? No way.

“It’s not like that, Lex. I haven’t touched him.”

“Emotional relationships are the worse kind, the most dangerous. You know that,” Alexis pointed out like she was the older sister.

“You can drink one beer. It won’t hurt the baby. He’ll sleep better,” Sam slurred.

“I was going to. Sam, you’re having an affair?”

“No, this has nothing to do with Wyatt.”

“Wyatt? Do I know him?” Alexis questioned as the cold bottle touched her lips. She stayed standing, leaned against the counter while she tried to make sense of this. It was crazy. She knew Doug and Sam had a middling relationship, but she didn’t know it was to the divorce stage.

“You know him.”

“I do? Wyatt … Wyatt,” Alexis repeated while her brain searched out a last name. Nothing. She didn’t recall a Wyatt. The only Wyatt she could think of was Wyatt Earp.

“Drummond,” Sam helped.

Alexis moved back to the table. She needed to sit down. “Wyatt Drummond? Wyatt Drummond went to school with us. He’s like twenty years younger than you.”

“Fifteen. He was two years ahead of you,” Sam offered.

Bernie didn’t say a word. Her eyes went from Alexis to Sam while for the first time in her life her mouth stayed out of it.

“Wyatt Drummond was the guy you had an affair with years ago?”

“Yes, we actually started talking at your graduation party. He needed help with his website and I helped him.”

“You don’t do graphic design,” Alexis argued. What the hell was going on? Wyatt Drummond? Wow.

“I can do graphic design. Just because I’ve been a stay at home housewife my entire adult life, doesn’t mean I can’t do anything else.”

“What does this mean, Sam? Are you going to leave Doug for Wyatt?”

“No! Of course not. I’m leaving Doug for me.”

“But what about Shannon and Pete?”

“What about them? They both have their own families. Emily’s in school now. They don’t need me. Don’t lecture me about this, Lex. I’m going to hear it from mom and dad enough.”

Alexis took a deep breath and took a very long drink of her beer. That’s when Cory walked right into the kitchen, carrying Kinley. Alexis tried to slide the beer away, but it was too late. The look on his face was obvious.

“You could knock,” Alexis pointed out. She was moving that key.

Kinley leaped from Cory to Alexis and she knew exactly what he was doing there. She was warm. “I didn’t know you were having a party. Riki is staying with me, we’re getting pizza. I gave her something for the fever and she’s drinking, but she keeps crying for you.”

Alexis looked to Riki and winked. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay, if I get sick I will want you, too,” Riki assured her.

Alexis smiled. Perfect response. Cory gave her a dirty look and glanced at the empty bottle of beer. “You better hope that’s not my kid,” he threatened.

Alexis turned so that Riki couldn’t see her and mouthed, “Fuck you,” with a middle finger behind Kinley’s back.

“Let’s go, Riki.”

“I love you,” Alexis called to Riki.

“Love you, too. Why you mad at Lexis, Daddy?”

“I’m not. What movie are we watching?”

“What a dick!” Bernie spouted with a distasteful glare toward the door.

“Let’s move this party into the living room so I can rock her,” Alexis suggested. Bernie and Sam followed with another beer. Alexis sat in the recliner and listened to Bernie and Sam talk about Wyatt. Bernie was the one who commended her on it.

“Good for you, Sam. I’m glad you’re not settling for mediocre. You deserve to be happy. And if that means Wyatt Drummond is the guy you lay down with then so be it. Who cares? It’s your life.” Bernie was drunk. Bernie always spoke the truth when she was drunk, more so than when she was sober.

“You’re never going to be able to bring him to the farm,” Alexis assured her.

“Maybe not, but that’s okay. I’m not planning on marrying him. You deserve to be happy, too, Lex. I can’t believe what an ass Cory turned into. I hope this kid is Mitch’s.”

“Oh, my God. Shut up! That would be hell on top of hell.”

“Wait, you didn’t tell her, Lex?”

“Tell me what?”

“Nothing. I’m going to go lay her down. She’s out,” Alexis said while she grunted, trying to lift both babies from the chair.

“Can I tell her?” Bernie questioned while Alexis disappeared upstairs.

“Whatever, but we’re not discussing it.”

That topic was handled just like everything else Alexis didn’t want to face. Nonexistent. The conversation had changed again when Alexis returned. Now they were discussing her going to Chicago with him.

“You’re really going to do it, Lex?” Sam questioned.

Alexis pulled the quilt from the back of the sofa, feeling sick again. She plopped to the chair and covered her arms. “I don’t have a choice. He’s not taking them without me.”

Sam stood to retrieve more drinks for her and Bernie. “You don’t really have a say over Riki. I’m surprised he even lets you keep her at all.”

“Oh believe me, Cory points that out all the time. The only reason she is here at all is because of Kinley. He doesn’t want them separated like that. He’s a good dad. He’s just a dick for a man.”

Alexis fought with her eyes for the rest of the evening while listening to talk about everything under the sun from Bernie and Sam. It was fun having them there, a nice change for once, but she was fighting the exhaustion like mad, finally giving up just before nine and leaving them to their party. The Kinley being sick wasn’t the problem. Alexis didn’t sleep because of Cory.