"Jeesh Hannah," Pizza Girl says. "I never knew you were so into baby gifts."
"I'm not," Hannah assures them. "But Janet has dirt."
"Ooooh" Emily says, her eyes widening. "My mom told me there's a vicious rumor mill in this town..."
Janet comes in the room with the coffee pot in one hand, four mugs in the other. She sets the mugs down and pours the coffee.
"Ladies," she starts, sitting on the couch next to Hannah. "What I am about to tell you is neither rumor nor dirt."
"You said you had something juicy to tell us." Pizza Girl looks a little disappointed.
"Oh, it's juicy alright. Eddie came over last night."
"Right, with the gifts." Emily says. Maybe Janet doesn't know what constitutes gossip. Maybe she should have stayed home, slept in, and lingered over brunch staring at Nick.
"He totally tried to have sex with me last night..." Janet trails off.
"Wha??" Hannah spits out some of her muffin.
Janet nods, smiling.
Emily sits up on her knees, she's eager to hear this. That Eddie Latekka's one hot man, and she hopes there's some discussion about what goes on under that flannel.
Janet sips her coffee before continuing. "I was pretty much asleep on the couch, and he shows up. After checking on the baby, I come out here and he's holding my bra, you know that purple one I got when we went to Target?" she looks at Pizza Girl, who nods.
"That's a pretty sexy bra," she adds.
"Anyhow, he was like dangling it in front of me and then, bam, he's kissing me, and feeling me up."
"Under or over?" Emily asks curiously.
"Under. Then he goes.." Janet lowers her voice an octave to impersonate Eddie. "Janet, I want to fuck you."
The girls start talking all at the same time.
"Ahhhh, my ears...bleeding" Pizza Girl says.
"Shut UP!" Hannah says.
"Go Eddie." Emily adds as Janet laughs at them.
"You go girl," Emily says. "Well...was it good?" she adds after a few seconds.
"Oh I kicked him out." Janet admits. "It took all I had, but I sent him home."
"Why?" Hannah inquires.
"Because he's still with Rory."
The girls all grimace at the mention of her name, and Janet loves them for that. She's had a hard time seeing Eddie around town with Rory. She likes to take daily walks, pushing Madison in her stroller as the dog trots along happily, and she almost always has a Rory/Eddie sighting. She's seen them eating lunch at Murph's, drinking coffee on a park bench, kissing by his truck...She really wanted to hate Rory, and sometimes she did, especially when she was fake sweet to Janet when they were in the same room. After the initial "That Bitch Has My Man" attitude, Janet resigned herself to behaving, if only for Madison. She didn't ever want her child to have memories of her parents fighting over some beautiful, long-legged girl. Still, when she was alone, Janet constantly drove herself up a wall imagining the two of them, usually in some sort of undress. When she was among her friends, she participated in their elaborate fake plots on the best way to drive Rory out of town. After all, she could only take the high road for so long, according to Hannah.
"So...what did he say when you told him to leave?" Hannah asks.
Janet blushes. Emily notices. "Don't you dare water down that answer Janet" she demands.
"He put my hand on his...you know..." she feels strangely protective of Eddie's penis all of a sudden.
Pizza Girl covers her ears, shaking her head. "Dude, Eddie's like my brother."
"Ok, you touched his junk and then you still sent him home?" Emily asks, incredulously.
Janet nods.
"Well, wait." Hannah asks. "Was it, you know...uhm...happy?"
Janet and Emily giggle as Pizza Girl flops back on the floor groaning.
"It was happy, very VERY happy" Janet smirks.
"Ok, let me get this straight." Emily starts. "Eddie was here, feeling you up, happy-to use Hannah's word, and you sent him home?!" She reaches over and feels Janet's forehead. "Are you feeling allright?"
"I had to, right?" Janet asks.
"YES!" Pizza Girl yelps, sitting up. "Dude, the thought of Eddie standing there...all...happy...I might be ill."
"You would be the first girl in this town to have that reaction." Janet laughs. "You haven't had sex, until you've had sex with Eddie Latekka."
"Great..." Pizza Girl moans. "Put THAT on a billboard. Welcome To Knights Ridge, Where You Haven't Had Sex Until You've Had Sex With Eddie Latekka."
"Janet, you did the right thing." Hannah's voice is full of reason, she being the only other girl in the room who actually had sex with Eddie. "Eddie would have been the biggest hypocrite if he actually went through with it. " Come to think of it, she thinks, he already is one. She wanted to call Eddie out on the Janet/Rooster thing many times, to remind him of their little lack of judgment years ago, make him admit that it really wasn't much different and get him to cut Janet some slack.
"God" Janet says leaning her head on the back of the couch. "Do you know how hard it was?"
Emily giggles.
"No, not that" Janet realizes the entendre too late. "I wanted to have sex with him so badly."
"Janet." Pizza Girl says, leaning onto the coffee table. "I am going to say this only once, and then we need to change this subject before I throw up the pancakes Phil so lovingly made me this morning. Eddie knows he wants to be with you, he just can't find his way back yet. You know, it's the whole forest for the trees thing he's got going on."
"Well, until Rory's out of his forest, I don't need that firewood."
Hannah and Emily exchange a look.
"Ugh, again, dirty." Pizza Girl laments. "Let's cleanse the air, and open baby gifts."
"Speaking of, where is Miss Maddie this morning?" Hannah asks.
"Eddie came and got her. He took her to the park with the dog." she looks at the three of them, "And before you ask, yes it was awkward."
"Whatever, that boy has it bad. He took the dog too?" Emily asks, biting into her muffin. "Damn Janet, these are good."
"I'm glad you think so, I'm thinking of asking Sully if we can add baked goods to the lunch menu and I could really use your back up."
Emily gives her a thumbs up as she chews a big bite of blueberry muffin. "I'm down for that."
"Fair warning, it's going to be a hard sale. Sully barely started serving proper lunch, and I let him think it was his idea now that it's one of the busiest times of day."
The girls start to unwrap the mounds of gifts, there are more outfits than Madison will be able to wear before she outgrows them, stacks of hand knit blankets from all the old ladies that live on Gelson Street and as Janet opens a card with Sully's familiar writing on the envelope, a small bank book falls in her lap. She reads the card aloud.
"Janet, as you may or may not know, I have always thought of you as the daughter I never had, and I guess that makes Maddie Lou my granddaughter. Once I found out you were pregnant, I opened an account in her name. I made an initial deposit and then matched your tips from every one of your shifts. I want this kid to have everything I had to work so hard for, and I know you and Eddie will give it to her. I am so very proud of you. Love, Sully"
Janet felt the tears pour from her eyes as she opens the bank book. She gasps. Sully started the account with a thousand dollars and then over the course of her pregnancy, had made five deposits a week, reflecting her months of hard work. Janet was speechless, and as she looked up, she realized there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
"I think you have your angle for the baked goods thing." Emily says, lightening the mood in the room.
"OK" Pizza Girl announces. "I saved the best for last." her voice laced with sarcasm. She stands and hands Janet the gift from Rory.
"Well the wrapping screams expensive." Hannah says. "It looks like something Christine would give to Jasper and Kasper."
Janet sets the package on her lap, taking some pleasure as she rips the pretty paper and the bow flies across the room. She lifts the lid off the box and pulls out a beautiful pink dress with a matching cashmere sweater, which she can tell cost Rory a pretty penny. Janet looks at Pizza Girl, who's scrunching her nose in distaste.
"What the hell?" Emily says. "I've been here a month and even I know that you hate the color pink."
Hannah takes the dress from Janet and turns it over, examining it. She begins to laugh.
"What Hannah? It's really pretty."
"Ok, well sure it's pretty, but this thing is for a three month old baby. And no offense, but even when Maddie was three months she had too many rolls to fit into anything this size. Does Rory even know how old your kid is?"
"Or how chubby she is?" Pizza Girl adds.
"Regift?" Emily guesses. "Maybe one of her rich New York friends cast it off?"
Janet stands and starts picking up boxes and wrapping paper. "Come on guys, the thought was there."
"Oh shut up Janet, you know you can't stand her." Hannah challenges.
"Can't stand who?" Eddie questions, coming in the front door with the baby in his arms and the dog on her leash.
"Uh, that new cashier at the grocery store" Pizza Girl offers.
Eddie raises his eyebrows, knowing they were most definitely not talking about Renee.
"M-Lo" Pizza Girl comes over and takes the baby. "You look so cute today"
"What a mess." Eddie says, surveying the room. He feels like the girls are all looking at him, strangely, like they are examining him. He wonders how much Janet told them about last night. He watches as Janet leans over picking up the trash, trying to see if she has on that hot bra from the night before. He can't tell which annoys him. Janet stands back up, catching Eddie's eye. She immediately blushes.
"Ok" Emily stands. "We should go. I have to get ready for my shift and I want to see if my mom needs anything before I start."
The girls head out, Janet thanking them for the help, and the talk. She comes back into the house. Eddie's sitting on the couch with the baby on his lap, watching a basketball game.
"How was the park?"
"Good. We ran into like six hundred old ladies who all wanted to hold her."
"Did she eat?"
Eddie nods. "I even changed her."
"Amazing" Janet laughs. She knows for a fact Eddie pays Phil five bucks a diaper when Maddie's at their house.
"What? I change her."
"Uh-huh" Janet says.
"What's that pink thing over there? On the pile" Eddie spots Rory's gift.
"A dress, from Rory"
"Pink?" Eddie questions. He thought everyone knew of Janet's distaste for the color, she'd practically put in ad out in the Knights Ridge Times professing the fact. He knows he mentioned it to Rory several times when she asked why there weren't any clothes that shade in Mads dresser at his house.
"It's very pretty." Janet says. She's never going to tell Eddie that it's too small. It's going in the closet, and maybe to the Goodwill.
Eddie lets the dress conversation go.
"Janet. Should we talk about last night?"
Janet sits on the couch. "I suppose we should. Eddie, you should know it was really damn hard to send you home last night."
"Not as hard as it was for me." he says, grinning, trying to make a serious conversation lighter. Janet loved him for it.
"Seriously. I would have loved nothing more than to see you naked over me last night."
"So then? What goes on?"
"I can't do that to Rory. Look at how I fucked us up when I..." she can't finish the sentence.
"Janet, we can go round and round about this and frankly I'm so tired of that conversation. I think it's time to start putting all that behind us and move on."
"Move on?"
"Ok, move ahead. Is that better?" she nods. "I think Rory and I are over." he finishes.
"Really?" Janet says, a little too happly. "I mean, really" She attempts a serious reaction.
"Yeah." Eddie's never going to confess he had sex with Rory last night. He knows Janet would never buy the fact he was thinking about her the whole time.
"Well, Eddie. I think we should go slow."
"I was thinking the same thing, although how many people start over with one of these?" He kisses Madison on the head.
"Lots of people Eddie, lots of people" as she touches his hand.