"Excuse me?"
"Babe, you need to forgive Marcy".
"It's not that easy, Jonathan".
"Yes, it is. I know you, you don't have a mean bone in your body. You are always the first to forgive, and the most forgiving at that. You have forgiven a lot of people, me included, for a lot less than this".
"It's not the same, Jonathan".
"Then explain to me how it is different?"
"First of all-she didn't make a move here either. The ball is in her court, if she wants to make amends, she could have said something, and she didn't. Second of all, yes, I have forgiven other people before, and yes it was for less than this. And the difference is, they weren't as close to me as she was. This didn't just piss me off, it hurt me, and I don't bounce back from that very easily".
"I know. But babe, you are miserable without her. And she seems to be feeling the same way".
"Actions have consequences Jonathan. If she didn't want to be miserable, she shouldn't have crossed the line. And for the record, I am sick and tired of talking about this".
She turned and stared out the window.
***Espana***
Jonathan pulled the car up to Espana and parked. He went around and opened Jennifer's door, and helped her out.
They walked inside, and were seated.
As soon as they sat down, she grabbed her menu and started looking at it.
The waiter came, and Jonathan ordered her an orange margarita and some cheese dip for the table.
As soon as the waiter left, he scooted his chair closer to her and leaned over.
"I love you". He quickly kissed her cheek.
"Do you really want to fight here in a restaurant?"
"I don't want to fight with you ever".
"Then leave it alone, Jonathan. Seriously".
"I can't leave it alone, Jennifer. It's affecting you. And what affects you affects me".
"Jonathan, just drop it, ok? It is what it is".
He sighed. He decided to drop it, so that they didn't argue in the restaurant.
They ordered soon after, and then resumed sitting in silence.
There were other couples dancing and looking happy and in love.
Jennifer was busy watching them while she sipped her margarita.
Their food was delivered soon, and they ate in silence.
Afterwards, Jonathan paid the check and bought a gift card to put in the silent auction.
They headed to the car.
He put the top down as they drove home, and she laid back and looked at the stars.
They pulled up to Willow Pond, and parked, and she got out and went inside ahead of him.
She went upstairs and changed into pajamas.
He followed and changed into sweatpants and a shirt, and then went downstairs.
She was downstairs, on the couch, reading, when he came downstairs.
As soon as he sat down, the phone rang. She reached over and got it and handed it to him.
"Hello? Yeah, sure. We are home. Come on over".
He handed the phone back to Jennifer and she hung it up.
Jonathan got up and went in the study. Jennifer put her book down, and went across the room and cracked the windows by the door, and then went outside to the hammock. She turned the TV on, and turned it down low.
About 3o minutes later, she got up and turned the TV off and walked around to the kitchen, and went inside through that door. She grabbed a glass of water, and then went through the dining room to the stairs and went upstairs to bed.
By the time Jonathan came to bed, she was fast asleep.
***The next morning***
Jennifer woke up and saw that Jonathan had already left for work.
She went downstairs and started the coffee.
He had left her a note on the counter.
"Had an early meeting. Love you-J".
She went about her day, trying to make sure everything for the auction was in place.
She got a call from the decorator at 11.
"Hi, can you come meet me at the venue?"
"Sure, I can be there in an hour".
She called Jonathan at the office.
"Hello?"
"Hi".
"Hi. Everything okay?"
"Not everything. But, the decorator just called and asked to meet us at the venue. I am headed there now, can you meet me?"
"Yes, I'll see you there".
"Ok. I love you".
"I love you too".
She hung up the phone and headed out.
***LoftPenthouse***
Jennifer pulled up and parked.
She went inside and was shown to the top floor.
"Hi, I'm Megan Ashby, the decorator".
"Hi, I'm Jennifer Hart, it's nice to meet you. My husband Jonathan should be here any minute".
They went over the basic color scheme and Jennifer explained where she wanted everything to go.
Jonathan walked in then, and they caught him up to speed.
The whole meeting took about 30 minutes, and then they were on their way.
Jonathan and Jennifer rode the elevator down together, and then walked to the parking lot.
He walked her to her car.
"I have to get back to the office. I love you". He kissed her.
"I love you too. And I just want to ask you one thing".
"What?"
"How long are you going to stay mad at me for not wanting to fight with you?"
"Jennifer-"
"You wanted us to have a nice evening at the restaurant, and I just felt that if we kept talking about the Marcy situation, it wouldn't be a nice evening. And you have barely spoken to me since".
"I love you, I just don't want to see you throw away a friendship that means a lot to you over something silly and petty".
"Don't you see-if I take the high road this time, like I have always done, it will keep happening. I will always have to take the high road. And maybe, if we were talking about her not inviting me on a trip or gossiping about me to others, I might take that high road. But this time, she went after you. And she hasn't once said I'm sorry for that. You are off limits, Jonathan. My best friend of all people should know that".
"She didn't come after me. What you saw were all misunderstandings".
"Jonathan, nobody has that many misunderstandings. She even got in your head-otherwise you wouldn't have said her name in our bed. I mean, come on. She barged in on us in your office, not once, but twice. And she's had several opportunities to rectify this, none of which she has taken".
"So have you".
"I haven't done anything that needs rectifying".
"So you are just going to end a friendship over nothing?"
"It's not nothing. This is important to me. And I told you, after the auction, I plan on asking her to lunch and giving her a chance to apologize".
"And what about at the auction?"
"I will be polite and civil".
"Well, I guess that's all we can hope for".
He leaned down and kissed her.
"See you tonight. Don't wait dinner on me".
He walked to the car and left her standing there.
***Willow Pond***
Jennifer came inside and immediately went to the workout room.
She punched and kicked the punching bag for about an hour, and then ran on the treadmill. Her calves were absolutely burning when she was done. She went downstairs and made a lettuce wrap and then went to the couch and started going over her to-do list.
Around 5, she got up and made dinner, and saved him some.
She went upstairs and took a long, hot bath after she was done eating. She added the relax bath salts, and stayed in till the water got cold.
After she got out, she put on her pajamas and came downstairs and read on the couch a long time.
Jonathan got home around 7:45, and came and sat by her on the couch.
"Hi".
"Hello".
"You busy?"
"That depends".
"I don't like the way I left things with you today, so I was hoping we could call a truce".
"Well, I guess that's all we can hope for".
"I deserve that".
"Jonathan, do I tell you how to run your relationships?"
"No, you don't".
"And you've never told me how to run mine, until now".
"I know".
"So why this one?"
"Because, you may not see what this is doing to you, but I do".
"I am not buying that."
"It's the truth".
"Enlighten me on what this is doing to me".
"You aren't yourself. You aren't happy. You are stressed out, you are snarky, you haven't smiled at me in weeks, babe."
"That is not true".
"Jennifer, it is true. Now come on, I wanted to call a truce, so that we wouldn't spend the evening doing this".
"Then stop bringing it up".
"Ok deal. I will stop bringing it up if that's what it takes for you to be happy and loving again".
"Thank you".
He leaned over and kissed her.
"I saved you some dinner".
"No thanks, I ate earlier. How about you and I brush up on our dancing skills?"
She nodded.
He got up and turned on some music, and held his arm out to her.
She took it and they started dancing. By the end of the first song, the phone rang.
"We are not home".
She was looking into his eyes.
"No, we aren't".
They kept dancing while the phone kept ringing.
Suddenly, the answering machine picked up.
"Hi, you have reached Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, we aren't home right now, please leave a message at the beep".
Jennifer kissed Jonathan and ran her fingers through his hair.
"Hi Jonathan, it's Marcy. I just wanted to say thank you so much for coming to dinner earlier. I am sorry Jake couldn't make it. I promise to be better company next time. Thanks again". Click.
Jennifer looked at Jonathan incredulously.
Without a word, she turned, went up the stairs and slammed their bedroom door.
Jonathan sighed. He turned the music off, and then went to go talk to her.
She had locked the door.
He went to the guest room and called the bedroom phone. Busy.
"Fine. You want to be difficult? I can be difficult too". He went to the bedroom door, and started banging on it relentlessly.
After about 4 minutes of constant banging, she opened the door, threw his pillow, pajamas and a blanket at him, and slammed the door again.
He went downstairs and got his tool kit. He brought it back upstairs, and began to unscrew the doorknob.
He was only able to get one side off, so he stopped. He went back downstairs, and then came back with an electric drill. He drilled a few holes in the door, and then reached in and opened it from the other side.
When he went in the room, she was sitting on the bed. She was horrified, that he would drill through the door.
"Have you gone completely insane?"
"No, I haven't gone insane. You locked me out, and I found a way in. I would call that the opposite of insane".
"Did it occur to you that I don't want to talk to you? That maybe I want to be alone?"
"Well in case you forgot, this is my house too. You locked me out of the space I share with my wife, and that's not okay".
"Your wife doesn't want to share space with you, right now".
"Her husband just wants to take a shower. Is that permissible?"
"Sure. Go right ahead. His wife will just go somewhere else".
"That's not what the husband wants, but the husband won't push it".
"The wife doesn't exactly give a damn about what the husband wants right now".
She quickly changed into some yoga pants and a t-shirt and her flip flops and left the room.
She grabbed her purse, and keys and went for a drive.
She ended up at Susan Kendall's house.
She rang the doorbell.
"Jennifer, hi".
"Hi".
"You look upset".
"I am. Jonathan and I had a fight".
"Come in".
"He told me he was working late today, and instead, he was having dinner with-"
"Susan, do you have any herbal tea?" Marcy had just come out of the kitchen.
"You!"
"Jennifer-listen".
"No, you listen. You keep inserting yourself into my relationship with Jonathan. I have had enough. Leave us alone!"
She turned to Susan.
"And you-it's not like you to play both sides like this. I would have never expected this from you".
She turned and ran out the door.
"Jennifer, wait".
She hopped in her car and sped off.
She drove through the canyon, and back again, and then finally went and sat on the beach.
She parked at the public access a few houses down from their beach house, and walked out and sat on the sand.
She let the tears fall as she thought about everything.
Was it so wrong to expect that the people in her life were honest with her? She didn't think so. She had always been honest with them, and had never given them a reason to not be honest with her. Marcy had shown herself to not being capable of being honest recently, but Susan could have very well come outside the house when Jennifer showed up, or said "Hey, now's not a good time". But she didn't.
And Jonathan. Why is Jonathan pushing so hard to for her to heal this with Marcy? That didn't make sense at all.
The part that hurt the most was that during all of this, the one person she wanted to turn to the most was the one she was fighting with-Marcy.
She sat there, in the sand, hugging her knees and crying for several hours.
If she could get away with it, she would call Jack and have him fly her to Paris. But she didn't want to do that to Jonathan. He had made her angry, but not enough for her to just leave.
That was the only relationship she was going to actively try to save after all of this. The more she thought about it, the more she felt like she couldn't trust Marcy at all.
She stayed on the beach till daybreak, and then headed home. She figured Jonathan would have gone to the office and she wouldn't have to see him till he got home.
***Willow Pond***
Jennifer pulled up and parked, and went inside.
Sitting on the couch waiting for her, were Jonathan, Marcy and Susan.
"Babe, come over here, please. We want to talk to you".
"No way".
She headed upstairs.
He found her in the workout room, putting on her boxing gloves.
He grabbed the second glove while she was putting on the first.
"Please come downstairs, we just want to talk, that's all".
"I don't want to talk."
"Ok, then come listen".
She acquiesced, and followed him downstairs.
She went and sat on the couch.
"Let me go first, Jonathan".
He nodded.
Susan turned to Jennifer.
"I am sorry, I should have told you she was there. I didn't mean to ambush you. But to be fair, you ambushed me, too. I hope you three can work this out".
"Thank you".
Susan got up and left, and Jonathan moved to sit by Jennifer.
She turned to look at Marcy.
"Your turn".
"Jennifer, I-"
"Not for talking. Your turn to leave. We have nothing to say to each other".
"Jennifer-you promised to listen".
She turned to Jonathan.
"So?"
"So listen".
He put his hand on her leg.
She moved it off.
"You want to talk, talk".