LOVE BY CHANCE
Chapter Eleven
Rose sat in her car outside Jack’s apartment
building. His car was there, which meant he was there. She opened the door and
got out, going right past the doorman, who didn’t even think twice about seeing
her go in, to Jack’s first floor apartment. She rapidly knocked on the door, to
see Jack, obviously not expecting visitors, open the door.
"What are you doing here?"
"I came to talk, Jack." She waited
a second. "Can I come in?"
"Sure. Sorry." They stepped into
the apartment and Jack motioned her to a chair. "Go ahead and sit down,
while I go put something else on."
She nodded and sank into the nearest
loveseat. This was going to be either good or bad. She was crossing her fingers
for good.
He came back in moments later and sat down
across from her. "So, what’s this about?"
"Well, I basically told my mother to go
away and leave me alone because I don’t need her interference anymore. I’m not
going to tolerate it. I cancelled lunch and have been trying to call you all
day. I love you, Jack. What my mother told you I said all those years ago was
out of bitterness and immaturity. I never hated you. I never could. I was just
so heartbroken when you left ,and then when I never heard anything–" Her
voice broke as tears started rolling down her cheeks. She looked up at him.
"And she stoked that fire. She never liked you and she encouraged me to
want to hate you, but I couldn’t. I was never strong enough to really push her
away, until now. With you, I feel like I can do anything, and I don’t want to
know what life feels like without you."
Jack had, by this time, gotten up and sat
down by her on the loveseat, stroking her arm comfortingly.
"I’m sorry, Rose. I guess I just let
your mother get to me, and jumped to a very wrong conclusion. I’m sorry you got
this upset. I don’t know what I was thinking…"
Rose reached up a hand and stroked his face.
"It’s all right. I think we both made mistakes. Now, it’s all a matter of
pushing past them and going on."
"Right," Jack said, his hands
framing her face. "And I think this will be a very good start." He
leaned in and gently kissed her lips. Rose kissed him back, with increasing
passion.
Jack pulled back, and as Rose searched his
face, she noticed a question in his eyes.
"Rose, would you stay with me
tonight?"
Rose caressed his face as she replied,
"Yes."
He got up, took her hand, and led her back to
his bedroom.
*****
When Rose went home the next afternoon, with
Jack close behind, she noticed she had about fifteen messages on her answering
machine. She couldn’t imagine that she had gotten that popular, so she pressed
play.
"I’ve got fifteen new messages,"
she said, turning to Jack
He raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Wow."
They listened as Ruth’s voice continually
played over the answering machine. After the seventh one, she pressed delete
and turned to Jack. "I can’t believe her! That’s it. She’s going home! I
don’t want to see her anymore!"
Jack came up behind her and wrapped his arms
around her. "Don’t let her ruin our wonderful mood." He kissed her
neck lightly.
She leaned back into him and sighed.
"You’re right, but wouldn’t it be smart to just call her and get it out of
the way, and then we can spend the rest of this beautiful Monday
together?"
He pondered. "I suppose, but as long as
you promise not to get upset and forget about it once we go out."
"Deal!" She grabbed the phone and
flipped back to find the number of Ruth’s hotel to call her.
"Hello?" came Ruth’s terse voice
over the phone.
"Mother."
"Rose? Where have you been? I’ve been
calling you for--"
"I know. Look, that’s none of your
business, and I think that you should just leave me alone from now on."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"You heard me. Get a cab, go to the
airport, and take your plane home like you’re supposed to. And don’t call me.
I’ll call you. Good-bye!" She hung up the phone with a click before Ruth
could even take in a breath to say something.
Rose turned to Jack with a broad smile on her
face. "Okay. Let’s go."
*****
Ruth was absolutely steaming in her hotel
room. She couldn’t believe the nerve of her daughter. Moving out here and
starting dating that boy were the worst two things she ever let her daughter
do. Since her daughter wouldn’t listen to reason, she just decided to do what
Rose said, naturally not because Rose told her to, but because she wasn’t going
to sit here and do nothing while her daughter was out gallivanting with that
boy. She’d go back to work and just forget about that girl.