Coming In Waves
Chapter 2: Zeke
I take in her embrace; she's so small and wonderful. She's about nine inches shorter than me, but it doesn't matter. We lie on the couch and just think about what's to come. I can't believe that Max hit her. He wasn't that kind of dad when I first started dating her. I saw the way he looked at her, like she was his pride and joy. He loved her so much and he would protect her from anything. I would never believe that he would inflect her with pain. I didn't think he was capable. It crossed my mind that I could hit him but i knew that Devina would never forgive me if I did that, so I just comforted her because that was the one thing I was sure she needed.
"I need to clean up the glass. It's going to hurt someone." I say and she nods not lifting her head from my chest. Her long brown hair is falling just in front of her face.
"I have to go to the office… It's 11:30." She says while looking at her watch. "And I have to have lunch with the girls at one."
"Are we going to talk about what your father said?" I ask cautiously. I know that I am her family and I am Lucas' father, this is all Devina's call because this is her situation, I am just her plus one.
She gets up and sits between my legs. I push back her hair and she closes her eyes. "I don't know what to do. He's right. We are Lucas' parents; nothing is going to change that. But I always had this idea that we would be his parents and my father would be, at least, the cool and important grandfather."
"I know…"
"And how could he leave him? I still don't understand that! He was an innocent baby."
"Devina…" I say compassionately.
"And he hit me! He slapped me in the face! He hasn't done that since Lucas was born and before then, never. Not once. Even when I got and F on my test or I stayed out past my curfew. What the hell is wrong with him?"
"I know…"
"He invited my siblings to my wedding! How dare he! He has no right! I mean my wedding. My big day! I don't mean to go all bridezilla on everyone, but it's an unspoken rule that it is the brides' day! God Damn it! Why cant people just follow the fucking rules?!" She yells. She stood up about mid-way and now she's pacing around my office. I was still sitting on the couch just watching her. She needs to get it all out before she can think rationally. "And why didn't you tell me Frank quit? I mean, that is something you should share with your wife."
"Who's frank?" I ask very confused. How in the world did her anger shift towards me?
"I mean… what's his face… Denny."
"Danny?" I ask and she nods. She stopped pacing and I stand up. I walk to her and she stays with her eyes on me. "Babe, come on. Let's just talk about what's really going on here."
"What do you think?" She asks and I move my hand to brush m fingers through her hair. She closes her eyes and feels my touch.
"I think we might want to consider the option of telling him…" I say and her eyes open.
"No." She says and moves towards the wall where I threw the glass of scotch that unfortunately missed Max's head. She kneels down and starts picking up pieces of glass. I walk over to her and she is shaking her head. "Devina…"
"We can't do that to him. He's eleven, he's not ready." She says and continues to shake her head. "He is our son and we have to protect him from things like this…"
"We can't protect him form everything…" I say and she stands up with her hand full of glass. She throws it in the trash and I do the same. She walks to the pictures on the bookshelf, the one's of our friends and family. She walks past the pictures of us on spring break in college before her mom died. We went to the Hamptons and just spent the entire time secluded from all the Sorority and Fraternity rival war and just hung out at her place. We did go out clubbing and all that jazz but it was just us and our friends having fun. This picture is one that Skylar's husband Derek took of us. It was us in the sunroom just reading.
She passed all of the pictures of us meeting the president, meeting Beyonce and every other famous person we come in contact with at whatever charity event Devina drags us to that week. She finally stopped at the one when we took Lucas to his kindergarten class, the day he started Hudson River Academy. I was only 24 and just starting Law School and she was finishing up her senior year. Lucas was excited… Devina was an emotional wreck. She picked up the picture of all three of us at the front of the school, him with the superman lunchbox and everything.
"Do you remember this day? The day he let go of our hand and we had to watch him go off to class without us?" She asks while touching his face. I hugged her from the back and kissed her shoulder.
"Of course I do. It was the day it finally clicked that my son would eventually have to grow up and we would have to let him make his own decisions." I say and she puts the picture down. She turns around but my arms never leave her. "We have to tell him Devina, we have to let him be a grown up."
"He's eleven…" She pleads.
"Okay… if not this year, at what age do you think he'll be able to sustain this bomb?"
"Zeke…" She says and touches my cheek "If my father leaves, I will not tell him. We will not tell him. If he wants to get out, he'll be out. But he's not going to be allowed back into out lives."
"It's Max's decision. We can keep it from Lucas if you want, but when we make this decision, there is no going back on it." I say and I'm serious. We will not have people move in and out of our lives with the possibility of ruining it. I will not live in constant fear.
"We don't tell Lucas and we let Max decide whatever the hell he wants to do." She says and I nod. "I have to get to work… so many things to do and so little time." She kisses me and I kiss back.
"Go save New York Superwoman." I say and she releases herself from my embrace. She grabs her bag and blows me a kiss. She leaves my office and I go back to my desk and I read the files that she got from Noelle. Shit… Noelle.
I pick up the phone and call her desk phone. "Hey Noelle, can you come in here for a sec?"
"Okay Senator Parker." She replies and about a minute later, she's sitting in front of my desk. It's like I'm a principle and she's a fourth grader.
"So, I'm sure you have some questions regarding the fiasco that just happened."
"It's none of my business." She says and shakes her head.
"Noelle, I may be your boss, but I don't like all the formality. You can call me Zeke instead of Senator Parker. Now, I know you must be curious. It's only human nature, something that I have noting against."
"Okay, I only have a couple of questions… first off, who is that scary woman that just left?" She asks and I just laugh. I forget sometimes that Devina is this whole other person to the rest of the world.
"Are you not from around here?" I ask and she shyly shakes her head. "That is Devina Kingston, My fiance and the mother of my eleven year old son." I say and hand her a picture of Lucas. She seemed very shocked. "it was quite a scandal here. About eleven years, Devina's mother dies while giving birth to her brother. They both died, but at the time, Devina was already three months pregnant. We were college kids and we decided to have the baby. His name is Lucas."
"That didn't interfere with your career?" She asked. I can tell that she isn't accustomed to this. "I mean, you're a senator. Is she a stay at home mom?" I laugh at this. Just the image of my Devina sitting at home and becoming, well, her sister.
"Devina isn't…" I start and try to subside my laughter. "She's both the Cadwell and the Kingston of Cadwell, Kingston and Partners. The best law firm in New York."
"How can she be both?"
"Well, her mother and Father started a law firm together and Max went into politics and Lorelei , her mother was the top litigator in the state."
"Interesting… Well, what's your family history?"
"My family isn't as complicated as hers. I have a brother, Randall. He works for the family foundation, to which my parents are on the board of. My family is all over the place, not in just one thing. Like D's family is all in Law and Politics, My family is everywhere. Anymore questions?"
"No, do you need help with the wedding? Any plans that need my assistance on?"
"nope, everything is handled." I say "Well Noelle, I hope we work together far a long time, well at least until you decide to leave me to peruse the bigger and better." I say and she nods. She stands up and walks towards the door.
"If you need anything, I'll be at my desk."
"I'll try not to need you." I say and she leaves. I got back to the act on Same Sex Marriage. I agree with it. Everyone should be allowed to love who their heart leads them to. I'm glad mine found Devina and I couldn't imagine another day without her being my wife.
It's weird that all of our friends are married but Devina and I have been together longer. We always said it didn't matter because we already felt married. We had an eleven year old together; we have a house and a whole new world we built together. Marriage is just a piece of paper because our hearts already chose.
I was reading the file for a good hour, making my usual pro and con list. I went back and forth with the piece of paper. Noelle had probably given me about three cups a coffee within the time span. This can go so many different ways; I need to consult with Bradley, the other New York senator. He was forty already and was getting old. He has a nice family, a wife and two kids. I got the file all together right when Xavier came in.
"Hey Big bro, quick favor." He says while bursting into my office. Noelle came in along with him, attempting to tell him that he wasn't suppose to go in without her checking with me first. Poor girl, this is the third person who did this today.
Xavier is a tall guy with blonde hair and blue eye, which was a lot like our mother. He was always like me personality wise, a goofball on the outside but our secret is, when we're passionate about something, there's no stopping us. X is and will always be my little brother. No matter how successful he is or how many times he travels around the world. He works for the Parker Foundation as the funds director. The Parker foundation is the family charity corporation. He travels around the world when he can to help out at a lot of the third world country sites. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Josephine or Jelly as she likes people to call her. She's a fashion designer along with our friend Marcella. Their company is called Countless Navigations. They are all, in some way, incorporated in our lives.
"What do you need X?" I ask cautiously. Whenever he needs something, it's always a dangerous business. Its such a broad spectrum with him because he could ask you many different things that can get you in many different scenarios.
"Well." He says sitting on the couch I have in my office. "The charity Gala for the children in Kenya is this Thursday"
"Point please X, I need to get these to Bradley's office by the end of the day." I say picking up the file and standing up to walk to the door. "Walk with me… and then we'll swing back to see Theo."
"The day before your rehearsal dinner and I'm afraid that I'm taking the spot light from your special day…" He says as I walk down the hallway.
"Its fine X. D and I will be there along with Lucas."
"Good. Mom has been complaining that she never gets to see him. Dad too."
"Well, the door is always open to them too. They can come by if they're in my neck of the woods." I say as we come to his office. I pass the doors separating the desks from his office.
"Hey Zeke." His assistant Hilary says to me. "He's in with someone right now. What do you need?"
"Can you give him this file? I made a pro and con list and I want to know his stance on the matter. We leave for D.C in three weeks and we have to have these things ready…" I say and she nods.
"Who's this?" She asks taking the file."
"This is my brother Xavier." I say pointing to X.
"Hello Xavier. He wants your stance on these matters as well." She says giving me a piece of paper. "I was about to give it to your new assistant. I just got really busy…"
"It's fine. Thanks Hilary." I say and X and I leave the room. We walk to the elevators and we push the button.
"So is Max coming too?"
"We aren't really on speaking terms as of the moment…" I say and cringe my teeth a little. He doesn't press me about it right now because he knows I rarely ever get upset about things.
"So, are you excited?"
"About the wedding? I mean, I guess. Devina and I just wanted to elope but the families want this big charade. I just want to go for the cake. And well, to finally call D my wife." I say and I blush a little. D, my wife, sounds perfect. The doors open and we head to Theo's office. He deals with the Parks and recreations of New York. His job is so fun and cool. He's really into nature and all that crap. So when he found Trisha, it was like his dream girl. We finally get to his office and knock on the door.
"Come in." he yells through the door. He was playing with this diagram, I guess for a new park they plan on building. He looks like a kid in the candy store. "What are you two doing here?"
"I'm almost done with my files and X came just to verify that we were all coming on Thursday." I said and he moved a tree a little to the left.
"What would happen if Zeke and I were to accidentally trip and land on your new toy?" X asks with a joking tone.
"Then I will shoot you." He says with his eyes glaring at us.
"We won't do it." I said and he stopped glaring at us. "What's your day like today?"
"Well, I have to finish up this diagram and then I have a few papers to fill out. But I'll be done in about an hour. What did you have in mind?"