NOVEMBER

CHAPTER 3

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Jen rolled over in bed, squinting at the numbers on Roger's alarm clock. 6 AM. She groaned and shut her eyes again. Any minute now Abby would be running into the room, yelling about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade at the top of her lungs. She felt bad enough about kicking Roger out of his room, although he insisted that the pull out couch was fine for him and that she needed the bed. Mark had his room, and Abby was set up on the other pull out couch in his office.

She had heard Roger get in around midnight last night from bartending, reminding her of all the times she would be lying in the very same bed, waiting for him to come home. As the months wore on, it would be progressively later with a different excuse, and there were very few mornings when he wasn't high or hung over—or a combination of both.

She pulled a pillow closer to her and inhaled his scent on it. How many times had she done this, when she couldn't find him or he wasn't home? Too many.

Closing her eyes, she was close to drifting off to sleep when she heard tiny footsteps running down the hall and giggling before Roger's door squeaked open.

"Mom?" Abby whispered, peeking in from the hall.

Jen pretended she was asleep, learning from experience that if she didn't answer right away, Abby would go back to sleep for another half an hour or so—most of the time.

"Mom?" she repeated, her voice getting a little higher.

"Hmm?" Jen opened one eye to find Abby at the foot of the bed and Roger leaning against the doorframe, grinning.

"MOMMY!" Abby shouted, jumping on the bed. Unfortunately, she bounced a little too high and Roger made a dive to catch her before she tumbled off the bed.

"Whoa. Cool. Can I do it again?" she asked him.

"No," he laughed, placing her back on the bed.

"Definitely not," Jen added.

"Mom get up! Now. I wanna see the balloons!" she said, taking the pillow away from her. When Jen didn't get up, Abby looked at Roger. "Do something Roger."

He grinned again. "Like what?"

"Tickle her," Abby giggled. "Feet!" she whispered.

Jen shook her head and tried to get up as Roger grabbed onto her right foot and started tickling it.

"No, fuck, Roger! Stop it! Davis!" she shouted at him. "Mommy didn't say that sweetie. You never heard that word."

"Yeah I did. Mark said it last night when you weren't here, but I won't say it, I promise," she laughed, as Roger still had Jen's foot in his grip.

"Well I guess I'll have to have a talk with Marky, huh?" She smiled at her. "Did you eat?"

"Nope."

Jen crawled out of bed, pulling her hair into a messy bun. "I have to take a shower, so what do you want?"

"I'll get it," Roger added. "Go take a shower."

"You sure?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay. Abby, let Roger make you something to eat and don't give him a hard time."

"Kay." She ran out of the room as Jen grabbed some clothes out of her bag.

"You don't have to come with us if you don't want to. You look tired."

Roger shrugged. "Nah, I wanna go. I never saw someone with that much energy at 6 AM, well besides Mark, the workaholic," he laughed.

"Yeah, so by noon she'll be ready for a nap," Jen added, grabbing her hairbrush as well.

"Roger!"

"You better go," she smiled.

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"It's not my fault I don't know how to cook a turkey!" Maureen shouted, slamming the potholders down on Mark's counter. "It's been in the oven since 9 AM, I think it should be done by now."

Joanne glared at Maureen from the island, where she was sitting on a barstool flipping through a folder of legal documents. "It said 3 ½ hours. It's almost noon. Therefore, there is half an hour left," she said sarcastically.

"Okay Miss Ivy League, why don't you try?" Maureen added, shooting an icy stare Joanne's way.

"Why don't you just shut your—"

"Okay! Moving on!" Mark said, intervening and trying to change the subject at the same time.

Collins chuckled as he covered the mashed potatoes and placed them on the other side of the oven. "Roger and Jen should be back soon?"

Mark nodded and took the gravy out of the microwave. "His mom keeps calling and I keep running out of excuses."

"So make him call her back?" Maureen suggested, adjusting the timer.

"Don't do that!" Joanne argued. "Leave the timer alone."

"I'm in charge of the turkey and I'll do whatever the hell I want with it!"

"Ladies. Let's just be…thankful today?" Collins suggested.

"Hmph," Maureen said, placing the potholders back on her hands.

"So much for originality," Mark smirked.

"Move it or lose it!" Maureen screeched, shoving him out of the way.

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"I can take her if she's too heavy for you."

Roger shook his head as he and Jen continued walking through the East Village. "Nah, she's fine," he said. Abby was sleeping, her head resting against Roger's shoulder.

Jen brushed some of the hair out of her face and placed her hands back in her pockets. "She must be really exhausted. I never saw her that excited about the parade before," she laughed.

Roger grinned. "Yeah, it was fun."

"Liar," Jen said, smiling and shaking her head.

"Hey I'm serious. I need to get out more, even though it was freezing."

"Yeah. It was kind of cold."

They crossed the street and continued walking past Tompkins Square Park. "So, were you supposed to go to your mom's for Thanksgiving?" he asked.

"I don't know. She asked me a few times. How'd you know?"

"Your answering machine," he laughed.

"Oh. Well she asked me a few times, but like I said, my dad's schedule is always crazy at the hospital. Last year he had to do an emergency appendectomy exactly when my mom was pulling the turkey out of the oven. My mom was pissed, but it's not like he has control over when he gets paged. She should know, she did the same thing Christmas Eve. They were short on attendings in the ER and she got called in to fill the rest of a doctor's shift. Didn't get home until 5 AM Christmas morning."

Roger laughed. "I forgot for a second that both of your parents are doctors."

"Don't ask me why a doctor would marry a surgeon—they barely see each other, and when they do, they usual argue," Jen shrugged.

"How's Erica?" Roger asked, adjusting Abby a little on his shoulder.

"Good. Had her sweet 16 in July. Got her permit last month. Has a boyfriend—you know, normal teenage stuff. She got in trouble with my dad last week," Jen grinned.

Roger looked over at her. "Why, what did she do? Throw a wild party or something?"

"No, but speaking of parties, remember that one party you had when the cops showed up?"

"Let's not go there."

"How long were you grounded for?"

Roger laughed. "Four months."

"And who snuck in through your bedroom window every night?"

"You did," he added. "Good thing you kept me sane, because my family sure as hell wasn't. Don't ask me how Lindsey got grounded for three weeks and I suffered through four months."

"Poor baby."

"Yeah. So what did Erica do?"

"Mom found condoms in her sock drawer," Jen grinned.

"She what? Are we talking about the same Erica here?" Roger laughed.

Jen started laughing. "Yeah, so my mom finds them and gives her the little speech and everything, then she takes them from her and leaves them on the counter in the kitchen."

"What kind of sense does that make? Like if you know your kid is having sex, then why take the condoms from them?" Roger asked, trying to be quiet so he wouldn't wake up Abby.

"Don't ask me. Anyway, my dad walks in from the hospital late one night, around 11 I guess. My mom's upstairs watching TV in their room, and Erica was out with Vinnie—that's her boyfriend. So he starts going through the mail and magically finds the box of condoms. He starts yelling for my mother to come downstairs and asks her if she was planning some kind of romantic getaway for the two of them. My mother starts cracking up and saying that no, they're Erica's, and then he starts laughing and doesn't believe her. So Vinnie drops Erica off about twenty minutes later, and my dad asks her if the condoms are hers, and she says they are. So instead of yelling at her right away, he starts telling all of these horrible 'One night I went to the bar and met a hooker' jokes, and telling her about the importance of protected sex. Then he starts going off at her, and my mom had to get into the middle of it."

"Wow."

"So the next day, he comes home around 3, right after Erica gets home from school and leaves a bunch of colored condoms on the kitchen table. Erica wanted to kill him."

"Kind of reminds me of the time your mom found condoms in your jeans," Roger smirked.

"Oh shut up. Only because I was holding them for you," Jen said, shoving him a little.

"Right. Blame it on the guy, naturally." Jen whacked him on the arm and rolled her eyes. "Can you get the key out of my back pocket?"

Jen nodded and pulled the key out of his jeans and opened the loft door, the smell of turkey wafting out into the hall.

"Holy shit, it smells good in here," Roger admitted, closing the door behind them.

"Thanks," Maureen replied cheerfully. Mark and Collins were carving the turkey, although Collins was taking charge and Mark was more like stabbing it. Joanne walked in right after Jen and Roger with a bottle of wine she had brought up from downstairs.

"How was the parade?" Mark asked, finally giving up with the turkey and passing the knife to Collins.

"Good," Roger answered. Abby started stirring against his shoulder and woke up.

"Cold," she yawned.

"Yeah," Roger agreed, putting her down. She climbed onto the couch and sat on it as Jen took off Abby's jacket and shoes.

"Can we have turkey now?" Abby asked, rubbing her eyes.

"If you want," Jen smiled.

"Is Roger having some?"

"Yeah," he answered, trying to pry the cork out of the wine bottle.

"Okay." She got up and ran over to Joanne. Jen was in the kitchen, talking to Maureen and pouring the gravy into a separate dish. Mark seized the opportunity and pulled Roger aside for a minute.

"So?" he asked.

Roger laughed and shrugged. "So what?"

"How was it?"

"It was good, I had fun."

"And?"

"And Jen is a really great person. But we already knew this."

"Do you miss her?"

"I do, but not in the same way I did before."

Mark raised his eyebrows at this. "What do you mean?"

Roger sighed. "Before, I had April and Mimi and I only thought about her once in awhile, but she was still always in the back of my mind. But now that she's here, it's another kind of missing her."

"You're being too intellectual for me," Mark said sarcastically. "Meaning what exactly?"

"Meaning that I still care about her, but I really fucked up with her. I know I hurt her, and I don't know if she's willing to give us another chance. I don't even know if I want another chance. I do, but I don't, but I do."

Mark started at him before answering. "You don't know that."

"I don't know, I think she's used to being a single mother and I don't think she'd want me in their life that much, especially with all the extra baggage I have now," he added.

"Then talk to her."

"And say what?"

"Tell her how you feel."

"You know I'm not good with shit like that."

"Hey, I'm not Dr. Spock or anything, but Abby really likes you, Rog."

"She likes everyone."

"No, but it's different with you. For the past two days the Jen's been here, she's gotten really attached to you. More than me and Collins, or Joanne and Maureen."

"Yeah."

"Mimi's gone Roger. Don't keep living in the past."

"I know."

"I'm not forcing you to do anything."

"I know."

Mark cleared his throat and changed the subject. "Your mom called again."

"Oh."

"She wanted you to come up for Thanksgiving," Mark said.

"I know."

"So why don't you go? Not for dinner, but for dessert or something? And take Jen with you? Then maybe you both could have some time alone without Abby."

"I don't know Mark," Roger said, frustrated.

"Look, just go. We'll watch Abby for the night. You guys can go, visit your parents and maybe Jen's parents. Hang out together just like the old days?" he suggested.

"I guess I'll ask her."

"Good, because I'm starving," Mark grinned.

"You're such a loser."

"Exactly, but I'm still hungry, and you are the most complicated person to have deep and meaningful conversations with."

"Thanks, I think."

"Dinner you guys! Stop professing your love for each other and come and eat!" Maureen yelled out, clanging her spoon against the gravy dish.

"Maureen calls."

"You're still a sucker for her, you know that?" Roger laughed, following Mark into the kitchen.

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An hour later, Jen was helping Maureen with the dishes when Roger walked in.

"Hey," he greeted, leaning against the refrigerator.

"Hey." Jen grabbed the dishtowel and wiped her hands. "What's up?"

"Can I talk to you for a sec?"

Jen nodded. "Yeah, sure. Just let me put Abby in Mark's office so she can take a nap and I'll be right out."

Roger nodded and walked into his room. He made his bed and cleaned a few things up off of his dresser before Jen walked in five minutes later. She took a seat on his bed and watched him.

"So what did you want to talk about?" she asked.

"Oh—um, my mom really wanted me to come up for Thanksgiving, so I was gonna leave in a little bit so I can at least get there for dessert."

"Okay."

"And I wanted to know if you wanted to come with me? I know you mentioned something about your mom wanting you to stop by her place, but you don't have to come with me if you don't want to," he blurted out. He took a small duffel bag out of the closet and threw a few shirts and pants into it, along with some socks.

"Oh. Uh, yeah. I guess that's fine. I'll go," she said. "Do you think Mark's gonna be okay watching Abby?"

Roger nodded. "Maureen said she'd take her. Joanne too."

"Okay, I'll just get some of her things to give to them and we can go." Jen stood up and smiled at him before leaving the room.

Ten minutes later, Maureen and Joanne had left with Abby's things, and Mark and Collins had promised to take Abby downstairs to them when she woke up from her nap.

Jen had added her clothes to Roger's bag, and he had grabbed his pills and tossed them in as well. He made sure she hadn't noticed, because he wasn't ready to tell her yet. There was a lot of things he wasn't ready to tell her yet, but he knew this weekend would give him a good opportunity to get some things out in the open.

"Who's car are we taking?" Jen asked, slipping her shoes on.

"Mo's. I already got the keys from her," he grinned.

"You sure about this Marky?" Jen asked.

"No problem. Have fun, don't let Roger get too drunk, and use protection," he winked. Jen walked over and hit him as Roger laughed.

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Roger was just turning off the parkway when Jen's cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey. Please tell me you're coming to the football game tonight?"

Jen grinned. Erica was co captain of the cheerleading squad this year, and tonight was the annual Thanksgiving game at the high school. "I'll be there. What time does it start?"

"At 7. Eagles against Cougars. Dad's gonna be stuck in surgery all night, and Mom has a double shift at the hospital."

"I swear I'll be there. You need a ride home to and from?"

"Yeah, I was gonna go out with the girls after the game, but I have a cold or something, so I feel like shit."

"No problem. We'll meet you there."

"Whose we?"

"You'll find out when we get to the house. I'll talk to you later. Get up and go, take it to the field…"

"Get ready to face boys tough as steel. God that cheer sucks."

"I'll talk to you later. Bye."

"Bye."

Jen tossed her phone back in her purse as Roger grinned at her.

"I liked that little cheer you just did there. How about I get a little private show after the game."

"Pervert." Jen rolled her eyes and rested her head against the car window.

"I was only kidding," he added, noticing how she withdrew herself from the conversation after he said that. "Jen."

"Roger."

"Walsh."

"Davis."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Never mind," he added, pulling into the residential section.

"Erica wants me to come to the football game tonight. Do you want to go?" she asked. "I feel bad because my parents can't even go."

Roger nodded. "Sure, why not? I guess we'll just have dessert or whatever at my mom's and then leave around 6 to take her over to the high school."

"Yeah."

Five minutes later, they were driving down Roger's street. "Who the hell is here?" he asked, parking on the street because the driveway was completely full.

"Don't know. Did your mom say?" Jen opened her door and got out.

"Of course not." He grabbed the duffel bag from the back seat before meeting Jen on the other side.

Jen bit her lip a little. She could tell her was nervous—she could always tell when he was angry, upset, nervous, or tired. That's exactly how well she knew him and how well she could read him.

"Nervous?" she asked.

He shrugged and nodded. "A little."

"It'll be okay," she reassured him. She slipped her hand through his and felt him relax a little. She felt more than awkward in doing so, considering that she hadn't seen him for three years and had only spent the last two days with him, but in a way it was like picking up where they had left off—almost. She made a mental note to have some kind of talk with him later, on what they were or what they wanted to be. She was happy with just being Abby's mother; it's what she had been for the last few years, but a part of her needed someone else to be there for her now.

They walked up the side of the driveway, squeezing in between the cars. As they reached the porch, Roger rang the doorbell, shifting uncomfortably. You could hear the laughter and talking filtering outside through the slightly opened bay window adjacent to the porch.

"Sounds like they're having a good time," Jen said.

"Yeah."

"It's okay Roger."

"I know."

About a minute later, the front door opened, and a small silver haired woman with glasses appeared in front of the glass screen door. She had an apron on over her pantsuit and was smiling broadly when she opened the door for them.

"Look what the cat dragged in—my vagabond grandson," she smiled, giving Roger a hug before he could even get through the door. "It's so good to see you."

"Hi grandma."

She wiped her eyes on the corner of her apron before letting Roger and Jen through the door.

"Hi Linda," Jen greeted, giving her a kiss on the cheek and a hug.

"Jen honey, you look so good! It's been too long since I've seen you. Oh my, Sandy, Annie! Look who I found out on the porch!" she called, taking Roger and Jen's jackets from them.

A tall brunette and a shorter woman with highlighted blonde hair appeared around the corner, chattering animatedly.

"Roger! Oh my god sweetie! You came!" the brunette exclaimed, wrapping her arms around him and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Oh god," she said, crying a little.

"Sandra honestly, don't start blubbering over him, you're embarrassing him," the blonde laughed, giving Roger a hug as well.

"Hi Aunt Annie."

"Don't hi me after all this time. I have half a mind not to speak to you right now," she teased.

Jen tried to blend in with the wallpaper when Sandra noticed her and clapped a hand over her own mouth. "Jen! Oh my god! Sweetie I haven't seen you in such a long time! I just talked to your mother the other day, she was telling me about you and that sweet little baby of yours." She gave her a hug as well and making a fuss.

"Hi Annie," Jen greeted as well. She used to love coming over to spend time with Roger's family—they were always so warm and inviting, and home most of the time, unlike her parents.

"We just pulled the turkey out of the oven. Russ, Jerry, and Doug are carving it right now, and your brothers are downstairs watching the pre game show on the big screen," Linda added, rushing off back into the kitchen. "BOYS! YOUR BROTHER'S HERE! So help me god if any of you want first dibs on my homemade apple pie you all better get your behinds up the stairs!"

Roger laughed, and Jen cracked a smile

"Ah damn grandma, I was comfortable."

"Don't sass me, Jimmy. I'll bring that wife of yours from upstairs and have her whip you into shape."

"So these two blondes walk into a bar…"

"Joseph Alexander if I happen to hear another joke…" Sandra warned, as everyone filed into the living room.

"Ma, I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to Kyle!' he said, defending himself.

"Stop blaming your cousin."

"Kyle, stop influencing him," Annie added, shooting a glare at her son as well. "23 years old. Grow up."

"Mom…"

"Don't Mom me!"

Nobody seemed to take notice of Roger until Jimmy started looking around and happened to realize he was in the room. "I guess if you leave the door open long enough anything wanders in," he joked, giving Roger a hug. "It's good to see you."

"Yeah," Roger answered. "You too."

Joey smirked at him. From behind, you could barely tell the two apart. They even had the same hairstyle going for them. "Mom finally dragged you home, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Gee thanks. I love how my children refer to me simply asking them to come home as dragging them," Sandra laughed, peeking her head into the kitchen

"Don't upset your mother," Linda warned, shaking her finger at all of them. "Especially you, Joseph."

"Grandma…"

"Ma, leave everyone alone," Annie said, walking into the kitchen.

Everyone minus Roger, Jen, Sandra, Annie, and Linda returned downstairs. Linda and Annie reentered the kitchen, as Sandra gave Roger another hug.

"I'm so glad you're home. And you too Jen, sweetie," she said, smiling.

"Thanks Mrs. Davis," Jen said.

"Your momma's so ugly…"

"JOSEPH ALEXANDER DAVIS!" Sandra hollered.

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