Chapter 28

© Copyright 2013 by Elizabeth Delayne



Cameron, Thessa, George and Felicity had been taken away for filming on the bikes. Tyler was glad they were finally on the move. They needed something to think about other than ...

All those cars. The crying. The white smoke rising from the air bags.

The death.

Nine dead in all, 17 still in the hospital. It was hard to take in.

Still, once they were on the move, they would leave Jamie behind.

Standing outside the RV at the makeshift command center the producers had set up in the parking lot, Tyler took a look over the amended schedule Jessica was explaining his mind on Jamie more than Jessica’s agenda. He told himself to pay attention.

“We needed to wait for the kids to get out of school for the day,” Jessica was telling him, “we’ll meet with them by four and be on the road by six. Or rather ... George, Cameron, Thessa and Felicity are meeting with them.”

“And what am I going to be doing?” he asked.

“You,” Jessica sad as she slid the clipboard under her arm. “Have a dinner date with your girlfriend’s mother.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

“We’re hoping,” Jessica said. “I'm sure in the back of you're mind you're hoping.”

“You’re going to ruin my chances with her,” he warned.

“You have ways around it, Tyler,” Jessica laughed as she turned away, shouted over her shoulder, “Meet her in the restaurant at one. Dinner or Lunch. She said casual. She’ll be there.”

“And the cameras?” he asked.

“We only promised to keep away from Jamie,” Jessica said, and walked back over to him, “but her mother, now that’s an interesting twist. Especially for the boy who’s been courting her girl. Chocolate chip cookies were a nice twist. Does she know the show’s website has been updated with such information you can use to rope her in?”

“If she doesn’t she will ...” he held a hand out to stop Jessica. “Does she ... Jamie’s mother ... does she know about the cameras?”

“Of course she does, genius. And she’s fine with it because in the end of all of this, we're telling a story of you and what something does to people. Its psychology and its very human and in the end, without her grandmother and this show, you wouldn't have met,” Jessica grinned, before spinning around again to walk away. “You just be ready for her. I personally can't wait.”



Great. Tyler had no idea what to expect. He liked Jamie ... he could even go so far to say that he was a bit crazy about her ... but he didn’t know what to do with her mother thrown into the equation. He wasn’t sure that any man would want a mother thrown in, especially when he didn’t know where he stood with the girl.

She wanted a meeting. Obviously it was without Jamie. Jamie hated to be the center of attention, and bringing in her mother was obviously going to put Jamie in the middle of the plot.

Right smack dab where she didn’t want to be.

So in the end, he was stuck between meeting with Jamie’s mom and making Jamie happy.

Just because he knew what he needed to do, didn’t make it any easier. Tyler got onto the RV, went back to his room, and showered. If he was going to meet the mother, he was going to do it right, even if he’d been told casual. He’d shave. Wear slacks, the button down shirt. His mother had taught him right. In a way, he had to represent his own mother in this.

Tyler and his three sisters hadn’t been the easiest lot.

When he started to put on a tie, the single tie he’d brought with him on the trip, he tugged it off and tossed it on the bed.

The tie was definitely overkill.

But it was a five star hotel. The restaurant was listed as a city delicacy.

A tie, he thought, as he picked it up again, was probably required.

You're in deep, he thought as he looked at himself in the mirror. Jamie wasn't ready for what he felt. That much, he was sure. And she might never be ready for him.

It scared him, more than a little.

He found Rebecca Malcolm waiting for him outside the restaurant.

“Mrs. Malcolm,” he said.

“Rebecca, please,” she said, holding out a hand as he walked over. “I’m glad you could make it. I know your schedule’s tight.”

He laughed as he took her hand, and pulled her into a hug. “Me, too. Despite the circumstances of meeting you. How’s Jamie?”

She smiled at him as she slid a hand through his arm and turned toward the restaurant. “She’s fine. Asleep. Which is what she’s needed all along. All she really needed.”

He stopped before they reached the maitre de’s stand, and turned to face her. “No—she needed you.”

“Well,” emotion danced in her eyes, “she's my oldest, and my beautiful girl. But I'll return the favor and tell you that she needed you to.”

“Ms. Malcolm, we’ve got camera’s following us.”

She nodded. “I know. And our table’s been selected and miked. They’ve cleared it with me.”

He let out a laugh. “As long as you know.”

“Jamie and I both knew what she was getting into, bless my mother’s living soul,” she sighed with a smile as they followed the maitre de through the linen covered tables. “I wouldn’t have chosen this, but life, as Jamie knows, is not always as neat as we want it to be.”

As the maitre de pulled her chair, Tyler moved around to his own, and as he was taught, sat after she was seated.

They opened their menus, and Tyler studied the contents. The network was covering the expenses, but Tyler wasn’t surprised at the listings on the restaurant’s menu. They had already ordered room service, after all. He knew from the list what each tuna sandwich cost.

But while it wasn’t his tab, it was still only lunch.

“I was told this place had the best hamburgers on this side of Dallas,” Rebecca said. So when the waiter came, they ordered five star hamburgers, Tyler with the Texas fries and Jamie’s mother with a salad. It felt ... normal, he thought. When they were alone again, or as alone as they could be with a miked table, she leaned back, and sighed.

“You’ve been my mother’s favorite heartthrob for going on five years now. What makes you choose to do this time after time?” she asked.

“The people,” he said easily. “I like people. The places. It’s all new ... building the teams, time after time. It’s never the same. Maybe I needed a little of that.”

“It’s an experience you wouldn’t get ... not really, anywhere else.”

“No ... and I get benefits. I won’t lie about that.”

“It would be hard to as my mother has listed quite a number of your perks already. She can negotiate the message board like a pro, probably better than anyone her age.”

“She seems like quite a lady.”

“She is,” Rebecca picked up her water and stared at the glass before slowly taking a drink. “Do you know ... and my mother already knows this by the way ... that I’m very angry with her right now.”

“Because she convinced Jamie to apply for the show?”

“She filed out the application papers herself without telling Jamie at first,” Rebecca shook her head. “And no, I’m not mad at her for it. It’s just something she would do ... Jamie had locked herself into Iowa, and that probably bothers me more than it should. I got out, and ended up in Chicago. I love my life there, and Jamie did too, and after years in Iowa, she needed an opportunity to see what else was out there. Despite the circumstances, my mother wanted her to have that.”

“Jamie said she moved in with her grandmother to help out when she was in high school.”

“Which is part of her problem now I think,” she picked up her tented napkin, laid it over her lap, fiddled with the corners. “It was her idea to go. My father had just died, it didn’t make sense to force my mom to sell the farm. There was nothing wrong with her health. She just hadn’t lived on her own her entire life. So Jamie, seeing how hard it was on me, on my marriage, stepped up to the plate. Volunteered to spend the summer.”

“But she stayed.”

“She got caught up, which isn’t a problem,” Rebecca assured him, “she made friends easily, got involved in a good church in ... but she was very close to her family. Her family meant so much to her. It’s why she chose to go be with her Gram in the first place.”

“She had to choose,” Tyler murmured.

“I can’t say she didn’t choose right, but she couldn’t. She did what needed to be done, but ... suddenly there was a barrier between us, between her and the family she left behind. She couldn’t share how homesick she was for us. Not with us.”

“You would have brought her home.”

“You bet I would have,” Rebecca said. “Or I would have tried. But on top of that, she’d knew it would hurt more in missing her, if I heard from her how homesick she really was. And I missed her. As much as I loved my mother, she played Jamie. She has friends and she has a life and she’s smart. She picked up the computer and made friends on the internet before we even had the internet in our own apartment. She taught Jamie how to use a webcam and communicate with us...

But she wasn’t alone when Jamie was there so she kept her there. She manipulated her and she did it intentionally. And I can say this, because I said it to my mother’s face years ago. Jamie learned to pull her emotions in to keep them away from other people. So she wouldn’t upset other people. And she would hold them in until she could deal with them without the stress, without making other people upset. And she learned to cope and deal with it.

“But now ...” Tyler thought about how Felicity labeled Jamie a mother figure. Maybe it was more of a protection. “She can’t do it. She can’t hide the pain.”

As much as he knew she tried. It was tearing her up inside.

“Who could? Its not that Jamie doesn’t feel, she feels a lot. I’m in pediatrics, but Jamie couldn’t do that. Seeing sick children, losing them. It devastated her.”

“And she’s normally not the center of attention.”

“But she was then.”

Rebecca nodded, “In the showdown between my mother and I, she was. We put her there.”

“Like she’s been holding the death of the girl in until you got here.”

“The death of the little girl, and the two adults. She watched them fade away, the blood on her hands. The loss of a little girl, a sister, when she’s so emotionally close to her own. She couldn’t break down in front of the cameras, partly because she’s innately shy of attention and partly because she knew that people who love her, and who loved the little girl, would or could eventually see it. And we would hurt for her, without being able to hold on. To hold her hand through it.” She studied Tyler. “Apparently, she let you hold her hand through it.”

“I don’t think she had much of a choice.”

“Tyler, if she held on to you, she did it because she trusted you and because it helped her. That's a big step for her, whether she would say it or not,” she said and smiled as he considered it. “That doesn’t upset you.”

“She’s ... it’s complicated.”

She tilted her head to the side. “You spend your life meeting and working with people. You like complicated. Would you have it any other way?”

He laughed. “No. I don’t guess so.”

Rebecca nodded. “I just wanted you to know ... because on top of upsetting us, she hates that she might have upset her team. It all weighs on her heart,” she fiddled with her napkin, then sighed. ”I wanted to do this for her, to meet with you, to establish kind of what's going on in her head. Since this is a show people will wonder. I don't want her to have to open up about it.”

“So you're saying it for her.”

“Something like it. What happened, what didn't happen, whatever they use, I want to give her the freedom to stay on this journey.”

“She’s lucky to have you as a mom,” he said.

Rebecca grinned. “She’s a great daughter to have. You’ll come by to say goodbye to her before you leave?”

He studied Jamie’s mom. “You think she wants it?”

“I think she needs it.” She smiled. “I like you, Tyler, as her mother. I really like you. And I want my baby to see the country and get out of Iowa. But, if there's a chance with you—I have to agree with my mother on that—and only that. I like you, I really do, so I want her to have the chance. To enjoy the chance.”



HEY! and don't forget to e-mail me if you have a comment!




Return to Unreal Table of Contents