Chapter 3- Let the games begin

Alistair hung up the phone. He couldn't believe it. He was being rejected again. What he had ever done to her he could never quite comprehend, but he wished that she'd just forget about it. Knowing that that wasn't about to happen anytime soon however, he turned his attention to his cousin.

"Max, I don't know how to tell you this, but we've been rejected."

"What?"

"That was Judy and Fran on the phone. They aren't coming to dinner tonight. Something about, 'we're not taking this anymore,' I'm afraid. I wonder what that means."

"Oh, no!" Max said. "It's about the thing again!"

"What thing?" Alistair asked.

"Yes, what thing sir?" Niles pressed the aforementioned question.

"Alistair, you say that you and Judy have a rather stressed, relationship, correct?"

"At times, yes, but what does it all mean?"

"Well as a woman I understand exactly where they are coming from." C.C. said as she sipped her wine.

"Your not a woman, not until it's been scientifically proven."

"Shut-up Niles." She said. "M... M... Maggie! Yes, Maggie, you know what I mean, don't you?"

"Well sure I do Miss Babcock. Dad, Uncle Alistair, what they want is commitment."

"Commitment." They said at once, both men seemed to shutter in fear at the mere sound of the word.

"If you want them, you're going to have to commit. And if you love them, I mean really love them, like you've said that you do you'll do it anyway."

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"You know what, Max?" Alistair confided in his slightly older cousin several hours later.

"What?"

"I've never even said it."

"What?"

"I never told Judy that I loved her before."

"Do you?" Alistair was barely able to nod in reply.

"Well then, our answer to this dilemma is fairly simple isn't it? We go after the women we love." Max finally admitted. Niles, who was sitting nearby, smiled, C.C. rolled her eyes, but then smiled too. She didn't want Max and Nanny Fine to get married. But you'd be surprised to know that she did sort of like Fran and in some ways regarded her as a friend, she wanted them both to be happy. Maybe Max was just simply not right for her. She had realized overtime that he was really more like a big brother to her than anything else, and that she was more of a little sister to him.

............................................

"Didn't you go to dinner, love?" Jean asked her daughter, she had just returned from taking Sandy to the airport. (Sandy and her boyfriend were going on a Carribbean Cruise).
"No, Mum. Men are such babies, and I don't mean you Lionel, you are quite the exception." He smiled at her remark then resumed reading his favorite magazine, 'Old Codgers Monthly.'

"Yeah, we're not taking it anymore!" Fran whined.

"Good ladies. Take my advice and you'll have much healthier lives. Trust me." Gracie told them.

"Gracie, just tell me something would you?" Jean asked. "How can their relationships improve if they are apart?"

"It will force them to want to commit, knowing that's the only way they can have any type if relationship."

"But, what if it doesn't work?"

"Well, if it doesn't, then they will know that the relationship wasn't worth it anyway, and that it never would have gone anywhere." Jean was put off by the little girl's answer.

"Oy, what time is it?" Fran asked as she glanced at the clock. "It's eleven, way past your bed time Gracie." Everyone bid Grace a goodnight and Fran took her to bed.

"Judy, are you sure that this is wise?"

"Of course. Maybe, had I obtained these guidelines a little sooner I wouldn't be thirty-six and twice divorced."

"Perhaps." Her mother considered. "I'm just rather worried, that's all."

"Look, Mum. I really like Alistair, I really do. And I would love for things to work out between him and me; it would be my dream come true. But I want and need a relationship that's going to go somewhere. I want to be married again, and I want this third time to be the last time. The way I see it, if I play by the guidelines of that little girl upstairs, I'll know if this is going to go somewhere or not. It's the ultimate test, you see."

"I see. That's very wise." She said, kissing the top of her daughter's head. "What do you think Lionel? Lionel?" Lionel had fallen asleep while reading his magazine, and had not heard any of the conversation.

"Now that, he's asleep there's also something I need to ask you. Today Gracie said that my problems with men may stem from not knowing my father."

"That sure is an earful." Jean laughed. "So, you want to know about your Father, do you?"

"Yes." She nodded.

"Then come, let's have some tea."