I'm not sure if I'm ready for this. Yet, I'm kind of excited. Slowly, I make my way up the driveway, knocking on the door.
"Hello?" A man I don't recognize is holding the door open for me. He looks like he's a little over thirty, or so.
"Um, hi, I'm Jackie," I say awkwardly. "My daughter Molly is here."
"Oh, you're Molly's mom!" He grins and shakes my hand. "I'm Joel, Robin's husband."
I give him a surprised look. This is going to be weird, seeing Robin and everybody. I mean, Robin seemed like just a little kid to me when I lived there.
I walk into the house, and instantly, I spot my daughter, sitting at the kitchen table with a few other people.
"Mom, come over here," she says, waving me over.
I look over and I see Maureen. She looks the same, just a little bit older. Her hair is still blonde, no gray in it at all. She's holding a cigarette and is giving me the weirdest look. Quickly, she stands up.
"Jackie." She walks toward me, fast, then hugs me. "It's been so long!"
"I know," I say, hugging her back.
"You look so young! And to think that today, you turn forty-one!" She smiles at me.
Oh yeah, it's my birthday. I actually forgot.
"Yeah, wow, thanks!" I smile, then look back at the table. Robin is sitting next to Molly, smoking. She looks so much older. I mean, she's wearing her pajamas, and her hair is piled on her hair, but she's so much different than the last time I saw her.
She smiles at me. "Hey." She waves.
"Hi." I weakly smile back.
"Sit down," she insists, so I do as she says.
I look at who I'm sitting next to. A young girl is eating Fruity Pebbles next to me.
"This is my daughter, Miranda," Robin says, noticing me looking at her. "She's eleven. From my first marriage."
I give her a questionable look.
"Oh, come on. You remember Danny? My brothers' old friend?" she asks me.
"Yeah, the funny one," I say.
"I married him." She gets an irritated look on her face, but doesn't say anything bad because Miranda is still sitting there.
"Then, four years ago, I married Joel. We have a son, Jacob. He's two," she explains.
"Oh, okay." I nod. "So, tell me, what's going on with your other kids?" I ask Maureen.
"Well... Tom's son is sixteen now. He's a good kid, I guess. His name is Tyler," Maureen explains. "And Joe has two daughters, Alison and Sabrina. They're loud, and... never mind. Alison is twelve, and Sabrina is ten."
"Oh, wow. Okay," I say, nodding for her to continue.
"Nick's married now. He and his wife Rachel have one daughter, Emily, and just had a son, Nick Jr. He has a stepdaughter, too. I don't usually talk to him much, though. And Tony joined the Marines over two years ago. We haven't seen him in a while. And, Pete got married last year. He and his wife Natalie are expecting. Due in the summer." Maureen nods. "That's pretty much it."
"Wow." I'm shocked. "So much has gone on. How's Gary?"
"He's good, still working. He can't wait to retire, though," Maureen says.
I smile. "It's been so long. I've missed so much."
Maureen nods, and starts telling me more that I missed.
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About two hours later, Molly and I leave.
"See, Mom," Molly says. "I told you that you should come!"
"Yeah," I say. "I'm glad I did."
"So, are you going home now, or what?" she asks me.
"Do you want me to go with you? It doesn't matter to me," I say.
"Yeah, come to my apartment," she says.
"Alright." We get in our cars and drive to her place.
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After getting out of my car, I follow Molly up the stairs to her room.
She opens the door, and we go in.
"So, can you help me with Scott?" she asks. "I'm almost... well, I'm desperate."
"No problem," I say, smiling at her. "Give me your phone."
"What?" she asks, unsure.
"I said give me your phone. I'm gonna call him, and act like you, okay? We have similar enough voices."
Reluctantly, she hands me the phone. I flip it open and go through her contacts until I find 'Scott.'
I call, and nobody picks up. Actually, I noticed that it went to voicemail after one ring. He must have ignored her call!
After voicemail picks up, I decide to leave a message.
"Hi, Scott, it's Molly, from the other night. Listen, I know we didn't have the greatest date the other night. I mean, ten o'clock? Most dates I don't leave until at least midnight. But, anyway, I think it'd be nice for us to try one more time. You seem like a cool enough guy. Alright, well, you know my number. Ciao." I hang up the phone, smiling at Molly, who looks horrified.
I give her a stern look. "In order to get a guy interested, you have to be open-ended. Be cool, act uninterested, and like it means nothing to you. Like you have guys like that asking you out every week. Okay?"
Molly nods. "I guess so."
I open my mouth to speak again when my phone rings. I pick it up. "Hello?"
"Jackie, hi, it's Donna," a familiar voice says from the other line.
"Oh, hey, Donna," I say. "What's up?"
"Today's your birthday, right?" she asks.
"Yeah, it is," I say absentmindedly. I keep forgetting it's my birthday. In fact, I'd almost rather not remember.
"Well, I'm off work today. Do you want to grab lunch or something? I mean, if you're not busy," she adds.
"Yeah, that sounds good. I'm actually in your area right now. What time sounds good for you?" I ask.
"Well, I'm set in an hour. Is that fine with you?" she asks.
"Yeah, that's totally fine," I say.
We find a place to meet, and I'm excited to meet her in an hour.
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After leaving Molly's, I meet Donna at some restaurant she recommended.
"It's really good here," she comments once I sit in the booth.
"Yeah, I think I've heard of it once or twice," I say.
Donna picks up a menu and hands it to me. "So, forty-one? It's hard to believe we're getting so old."
"Don't say that!" I laugh. "I don't want to be reminded of how old I am!"
Donna laughs. "Yeah, I know what you mean." She smiles. "So what are your kids like?"
I sigh, raising my eyebrows and laughing a little. "Molly's great. I hadn't talked to her in a while. She hated Paul, and... I don't know. Just sort of a falling out. But now that Paul and I are divorcing, I guess she felt it was okay to come back into my life. Yesterday, actually." I laugh slightly. It feels like ages ago.
"Wow. Kind of ironic. Everybody's coming back into your life at once, huh? First your daughter, now me and Eric," Donna comments.
"Yeah," I say, thinking about Maureen and the rest of the Mancinis, too.
"And what about your other kids?" Donna asks me again.
"Well, Asher's just doing his own thing right now, you know. He's getting to be that age where he doesn't care about anything but video games and food. And girls, probably." I smirk. "And Spencer's so sweet. She's very... innocent, almost. You know? I'm glad to have her like this while it lasts, though."
"You'd better," Donna says. "Jenny... she can be a little brat. She's seventeen now. She can be sweet, when she wants to be. She's gonna be out of the house in a year or two, though, so I have to enjoy her being here, because I do love her a lot."
"Yeah. She's really pretty," I say, thinking back to when she opened the door for me. She has blonde hair, and was thin, yet curvy. Like a perfect blend between Eric and Donna, because she's not too lumberjacky or rail-like.
"Yeah, she knows." Donna laughs. "She has had a pretty steady boyfriend for a while, though. His name is Chad. I'm not too fond of him. Eric hates him."
"Isn't that the dad's job, though?" I chip in, smiling.
"Yeah, I guess so," Donna says. "Chad makes it easy to not like him, though. He ignores us most of the time, brings Jenny home past curfew... he even treats Jenny like crap sometimes. I wish she'd see."
"Girls tend to be oblivious to that kind of thing. I mean, especially with your first love. I guess you wouldn't understand as much, since you are married to your first love. But you want to ignore the flaws in order to make the relationship last. Plus, the fact that you're in love helps," I offer.
"I guess." Donna shrugs as a waitress comes up to us and asks us for our order.
After ordering, Donna asks me about Paul.
"How did you two meet?" she asks.
I sigh. "Well..."
**FLASHBACK, 1988**
It's a Saturday, and I'm working at the salon. My friend Vicki, who works at the station next to me, just walked in the door.
"Hey, Vic," I shout over to her.
She waves lightly, and I notice that she's crying.
"Vicki, come here! What's wrong?" I call to her.
She walks over slowly, looking at the floor. "My boyfriend... he just broke up with me."
"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry!" I say, trying to console her.
"Yeah, he's such a jerk. He said it's because I'm too busy or something. He /never/ wanted to go out on dates or anything. He's the one who was too busy!" Vicki insists.
"I know, guys can be jerks," I agree. "But it'll be fine, eventually. Just forget about him. If he was always a jerk, he doesn't matter."
"I guess so." She shrugs, still crying. "I don't know if I can work today," she says, wiping her eyes.
"Well, go tell Sherry, I guess," I say, referring to our boss.
"Alright. Thanks for helping me, Jackie," she says, going to Sherry's office.
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About two hours later, Vicki has gone home. However, when the door opens, a man enters with a boxful of stuff.
I'm the only one in the salon section of the building, so I walk up to him. "Yes?" I ask.
"Is Vicki here?" he asks.
"No, she... she went home," I say.
"Son of a bitch," he mutters. "Well, can you tell her that Paul stopped by?"
"I guess so," I say. "Are you her... ex-boyfriend?"
"Yeah, I'm dropping off all of her stuff. In fact, could you just take it for me and drop it off at her station?" he asks.
"Uh, yeah. I guess I can." I take the box from him but almost drop it due to it's heaviness. Paul quickly takes it before I can drop it.
"Sorry about that," he says. "I forgot how heavy it is."
"It's... fine." I lead him to Vicki's station.
"So, you're a hairdresser here?" Paul asks me.
"Yeah. I've worked here for a few years now," I say. "I'm Jackie, by the way." I extend my hand to him.
"Paul." He shakes my hand. "But we've already established that."
Somehow, Paul and I continue talking, and before I know it, I've given him my number.
Then, he leaves. "I'll call you sometime, Jackie!" he shouts before the door closes.
Wow, I'm a terrible friend, I decide.
**END FLASHBACK**
"So you stole your friend's ex-boyfriend, married him, had two of his kids, and now you're divorcing him," Donna clarifies.
"Yes. I'm a horrible person, aren't I?" I ask, inspecting my nails.
"No. You're just... human," Donna says.
"That's fine, I guess," I say.
"Yeah," Donna agrees.
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After a nice lunch with Donna, I leave the restaurant. Of course, Donna had insisted on paying, due to it being my birthday. And right back, I said I should pay, because I really don't want it to be my birthday. But in the end, Donna won, by throwing the bill at the waitress.
It was a good time, and I told her that we should meet up again, with Eric next time. She agreed.
Now, it's about four. I decide to head back to Molly's. I feel sort of bad for leaving her there when I said I would stay, although I did call Scott.
I drive to her apartment, and get buzzed into the building. After knocking on the door, Dario opens it, and I feel a sense of deja vu.
"We meet again," he says in a deep, dramatic voice jokingly, swinging the door open quickly.
I laugh. "Is Molly home?"
"Actually, no," he says. "But come in."
I step in and sit on the couch. "So where is she?" I ask. "I probably should have called her before I came."
"No, it's no big deal. But yeah, she's with that Scott guy again. He called her and told her to meet him up at that coffee place where he works. I heard you left him a pretty intriguing message?" He gives me a questionable look.
"Yeah, well, I pretended I was Molly. I'm trying to... coach her through this. She's never actually had a serious relationship, and I think it'd be nice for her to be with a guy she really likes," I say.
"So why did you have to pretend you were Molly?" Dario asks.
"She doesn't know much about guys," I admit.
"And you do," Dario asks, but it ends up sounding more like a statement.
I nod, grinning. "I guess so."
"Like what?" he asks. "Special moves, or something?"
"Something like that," I say.
"Well, tell me. Or rather, show me." He stands up, raising his eyebrows and crossing his arms.
And I feel myself blushing. It's weird, because I'm like... fourteen years older than him. But his mussed brown hair is really cute. And his green eyes are shining at me.
So I stand up. And... after a little casual flirting with Dario, showing him my 'special moves', it turns into some heavy-duty flirting.
And before I know it... we kiss. And it's a great kiss. Passionate, deep... just like Dario seems to be. God, is this wrong or what?
This kiss turns into more kisses, and now we're laying on the couch, and now...
Oh, God. I'm a cougar!