There was an ice cream parlor on the outskirts of Bixby, and it was amazing. There was a burst of cold air when you first walked in, but once you got farther into the restaurant it wouldn’t be cold, like you had first expected.
The wallpaper was red and white striped and the table cloths were yellow and white striped.
There was also a juke box in the far left corner that played the best songs from the 60’s and 70’s.
The counter was set up like a lemonade stand, but it almost seemed like there was no limit to the things you could get, unlike a lemonade stand where the only thing you could get was lemonade or the occasional cookie.
In this ice cream parlor it was like a heavenly candy land.
Normally we only went there for birthdays and other special occasions, but Zoë was right, we needed to have a family outing that didn’t involve a hospital.
We called everyone and invited them; we had a positive response from everyone. Diana took me back to her house so I could get my car and then I went how to collect my wayward husband.
I pulled into the driveway and noticed a site that I was becoming quite accustomed to… Roman’s car was sitting there behind Meredith’s car. I liked how he blocked her in so she couldn’t get away if they got into a fight.
When I walked in through the side door that led into the kitchen and realized that nobody was on that floor, my first reaction was to head downstairs to get Meredith and invite her and Roman to come along.
When I got down to the door, my hand was about an inch from the knob when something made me pull my hand away. There were noises coming from inside that I had no trouble recognizing. They were in there having sex.
At first I just stood there, suppressing the violent urge to laugh really loud, I knew that neither of them were virgins, but it was just funny.
Then a plan came to my mind…
I’d go upstairs and get Zac, and then we’d stand in the kitchen and yell fire or something.
So, I climbed the two flights of stairs that lead to my bedroom.
When I reached the bedroom, my hand was on the knob and turning to when I heard noises coming from inside.
Zac and a girl were in my bedroom laughing about something. Now, I should tell you now that I shouldn’t have gotten as mad as I did, but it happened and I was livid.
I didn’t even hesitate; I pushed the door wide open.
I was walking fast, but suddenly my world was going slow motion. I walked into the bedroom and turned left and rounded the corner.
There in my love seat in front of my television say my husband and Regan.
Now, I normally wouldn’t be mad, because the three of us had sat up here and watched movies, because I, for some odd reason, trusted Zac.
But today… they were sitting next to each other, Zac had his arm around her and she was laying her head on his shoulder. That’s not even the worst of it…
She had her left leg spread over top of his right leg; her right foot was stretched out so that he foot was resting on the TV stand.
Now, this is the worst part of it all. He had his left hand rest on the inside of her upper-thigh and he wasn’t wearing his wedding band.
I just stood there in awe, not knowing what to do.
“Fire,” I whispered. I figured this was more of a situation to say it instead of on Meredith and Roman.
“Oh my god Dirb! I didn’t know you were home!” Zac proclaimed as him and Regan jumped up off of the couch. I just turned my back to him; I couldn’t look at either of them.
“We’re going to get ice cream. Zac, you can drive yourself and Regan don’t you ever come back to my house again. If fact, don’t even drive near this house if I ever se you again, that’s it… I swear!” I was breathing heavy and trying to keep from yelling. I didn’t want to make my blood pressure rise for the baby’s sake.
“Dirbee, this isn’t what it looks like, I…” Zac started, but I cut him off.
“Zac, just get in your car. Your family is waiting for us,” I breathed.
“Umm Dirb,” Regan started.
“Get out of my house you bitch!” I finally yelled.
“Zac, are you going to let her talk to me like that?” Regan asked Zac.
“Umm, yeah. Maybe you should just leave,” Zac said sadly.
“Yeah, in fact go back to wherever the hell it is you came from and do the world a favor and play on some train tracks,” I said bitterly.
“And you think I’m a bitch,” Regan said under her breath as she walked out of my room.
“Dirbee,” Zac tried again.
“Get in your car!” I yelled again. I started down the stairs at a run and didn’t stop until I got to the top of the stairs to the basement.
“Meredith!” I yelled. I heard some shuffling and then she came running up the stairs in only a bathrobe.
“Get some clothes on and get in my car… now!” I said and she didn’t argue. Roman came up the stairs as she was going down.
“What’s happening?” Roman asked.
“Get out and when you get home, send your sister back to wherever it is she came from,’ I said and he didn’t argue either, he just left.
I could hear Zac apologizing to him for my attitude. He was just making it worse.
“Yes, please excuse my attitude because I, on accident of course, actually love my husband. So, yes… please excuse my behavior,” I said with anger radiating from every part of my body.
“Yeah, see you tomorrow Zac,” Roman said sounding genuinely frightened.
Two minutes later Meredith came running up the stairs and stopped behind me. Her eyes just glanced back and forth between me and Zac. He was standing in front of me, leaning against the counter. He was silent and staring at the floor, I was standing there staring at him.
“Hey Dirb. Uh, did you need to go somewhere,” Meredith asked and just then the house phone rang.
“I guess I’ll get that,” Zac said quietly. “Hello?” Zac said shyly into the receiver.
“Zachary?” I heard his mother say into the phone.
“Hey mom,” he replied. He suddenly got this look in his eyes that he was extremely grateful that Diana had called.
“Son? What’s wrong? Is something wrong with Dirbee?” Diana asked.
“No mom, nothing’s wrong,” Zac said not sounding convincing at all.
“Well, okay. Are you two coming or not?” We’ve been here for fifteen minutes and everyone’s waiting on you now. The kids are starting to get anxious,” Diana replied.
Her voice so apparent because of the dead silence that was pulsing through the room.
“Yeah mom, we’re on our way. We’re leaving the house now,” he said with a glum tone in his voice.
“Okay son, see you in a little bit, bye,” he mother said.
“Mom?” he gulped out.
”Yeah,” she asked back.
“I love you,” he whispered. I guess he was sucking up in case he had to resort to the couch at her house.
“I love you too Zac,” his mom said slightly bewildered.
“Bye mom,” he said then hung up the phone.
He got his keys out of the bowl that we keep on the table next to the kitchen door that led into the hall that wound to the garage.
Then Meredith, who was still confused about what was going on, placed her hand on my elbow and started leading me to the car.
I figured it would look funny to our family if Zac and I came in separate cars so I climbed into the passenger seat while Meredith climbed into the backseat.
“We’ll talk about this, if you’ve calmed down enough to talk to me rationally,” Zac said while putting the car in reverse.
“I don’t know how you can expect me to be rational in this situation,” I whispered while putting on my seat belt.
Meredith, seeing me do this, put hers on too. I didn’t normally put my seatbelt on while I was riding, but I didn’t know how made Zac was about to get, so I put it on just in case.
“Okay, don’t be rational for me. Please, be rational for the baby,” Zac said with a terrified tone in his voice.
“Were you sleeping with her?” I asked afraid of what the answer might be.
“No, I would never do that to you,” Zac said and I could tell that he was being sincere.
“Then what were you doing?”
”We were just sitting there. We were watching a movie and she was laying on me and the way I was sitting was the only way that I was comfortable.”
”Then how come you weren’t wearing your wedding band?”
”Because this morning when we were getting ready you told me to give it to you and you dropped both of ours in a blue liquid,” he said reminding me that I had put it in the cleaning solution.
I looked down at my own hand and sure enough I was wearing only my engagement ring and promise ring on my right hand.
“I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions like that,” I said, a tear running down my face.
“No, I’m sorry. I could’ve told her I wasn’t comfortable sitting like that,” he said moving his right hand over and holding onto my left hand.
“You know,” I started, “I’d almost understand if you were having sex with her, since we can’t right now,” I said just testing him.
“Dirbee,” he said sternly, putting a tighter grip on my hand. “You do realize that Jordi is my baby too. I don’t know why you’d think I’d do something like that to you,” he said as he took his hand away because the light we had been sitting at had turned green and he needed both hands to take the left turn.
The ice cream parlor was on this road and I had to make sure we got things worked out before we got there.
“Because, number one, you’re a guy. In fact, you’re still a teenager, the hormones should be raging. I don’t know why I think things like that. I guess I’m just so afraid that if I don’t give you that kind of room to grow than you’ll leave to find what you’re looking for,” I said giving him a true feeling.
“Dear god Dirbee cut the crap already. This doesn’t have anything to do with giving me more room to grow. This is all about you having been hurt so many times that you absolutely can not trust me,” he said in a tone that was not angry, it was sad.
“Zac, that’s not it at all. I do trust you, I trust you more than you know. That’s why I would’ve been okay with Regan in our bedroom, it was just how you were sitting.”
“Okay, I’m sorry. I know you trust me, just promise me one thing,” Zac said while we pulled into the ice cream parlor, the parking lot full of our family’s cars.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Promise me that if anything happens like this again you won’t get mad before you hear what I have to say about it,” he said.
“You know what baby?” I asked.
“What?” he answered with a question.
“I’ll promise you that,” I said opening my door and getting out of our parked car. Zac met me at the back of the car.
“Come here,” he said pulling me into a warm embrace. “I am really sorry though.”
”No, I’m sorry,” I said looking up at him. “You do deserve some free time without me.”
“No, the only time I’m growing is when I’m with you. I’ll never need space,” he said placing a gently kiss on my forehead.
“Come on, I’m really craving some ice cream,” I stated while taking his hand and pulling him towards the door.
We were going to be okay.
Email: hshanson09@yahoo.com