9

Jonathan's cell phone bounced up and down on the wooden bench where he had just put it to assist the little boy sitting in front of him with tying his shoe laces. He sighed, checked the display for who the caller was, sighed again, then decided to take the call.

"Mom? It's not a very good moment right now," he told her.

A bunch of kids came running down the hallway. Jonathan would've preferred to instantly end the call; he didn't want his mother to jump to wrong conclusions. He didn't want her to jump to any conclusions at all to be precise. But it was too late.

"What's that noise? Children?" Angela asked.

"Yeah, children." He hoped this would suffice, and maybe it would've, because Angela's mind was too occupied with other, more important matters than where her son exactly was at this particular moment, but then she overheard a childish voice, and it was talking to Jonathan.

"Tojatan," - the little boy still had problems pronouncing his name correctly - "done!" He proudly held out his right foot. Jonathan chuckled about the undefinable knot the boy had tied. With the cell phone hemmed between his shoulder and his ear he tried to entangle the laces and hoped his mother hadn't heard the boy.

"Jonathan, where are you? Near a playground?"

"Sort of, ..." Well, there was a playground outside the day care center where he came every Thursday afternoon to pick up Alexander, Emily's three-year-old son.

"I need to talk to you, Jonathan. Do you have a minute for your mother?"

"Actually, I'm in a meeting with someone. Can't it wait, Mom?" Again he wasn't lying, only stretching the truth a bit.

"Uhm, ... well, not really," Angela said. Her talk to Lynnie had stirred her up. She was at the verge of making an important decision, and she didn't want to make it without talking to her grown-up son because it would affect him too. Although not as much as if she had made that very same decision a few years earlier. "Can't you cancel?"

"No, Mom, I'm sorry, I can't cancel."

"Tojatan, we go now? I want my ice cream," Alexander once again interrupted. Patience wasn't a trait which could be expected from a three-year-old who had been promised a huge ice cream cone after being picked up from day care.

"Jonathan, who is talking to you? It sounds like a little boy."

Jonathan moaned. "It is a little boy, Mom. His name is Alexander, he's three years old, and I promised to buy him ice cream in the park."

"You're taking a three-year-old boy to the park? Why?"

"Because his mother doesn't have time to take care of him on Thursday afternoons." Jonathan knew that this wouldn't serve as a good enough explanation but it was worth a try.

"And why are you looking after him? Are you having a job I don't know of?" Nothing of what she heard made any sense to Angela.

"Alright, what the heck," Jonathan mumbled. He had wanted to tell his mother several times but the moment had never been right. This wasn't the perfect time and place either, but now that she had already gotten a glimpse on it, he might as well let the cat out of the bag completely. "Alexander is the son of someone I'm seeing for a while. Her name is Emily, she's a teacher and works full time. The day care center closes at 2 pm on Thursdays, that's why I take care of him on Thursday afternoons."

Angela gasped. "You're dating a mother?"

"She's not married, if that's what you think. The guy left her when she told him she was pregnant. She's a single working mom."

Memories from the past came to the surface in Angela's mind whenever she heard this expression - single working mom. She had become one the day Michael had left her, and it had been a tough time. She felt instant compassion for every single working mother, for she knew how hard it was to manage your own life as well as that of your child alone. She didn't even want to imagine how Jonathan's and her life would've turned out if Tony hadn't shown up to support her.

"Since when are you two dating?" Angela asked.

"For a couple of months." It was a little more than half a year now, and Jonathan knew exactly how his mother would react to the news. So he held the phone away from his ear.

"A couple of months?" Even Alexander who was shifting impatiently from one foot to the other in front of Jonathan could hear Angela's voice. "Why haven't you told me earlier?"

"Well, I didn't know how you would react. It's not exactly a relationship Fairfield's elitist women's circle would approve."

"Come on, give me a little credit! Since when do we care about what Fairfield's women think about the relationships of the Bower-Micelli-household?"

"True," Jonathan had to admit. Although there had been a time he had cared. As a boy he had been bullied by his classmates who had called his mother a bimbo, keeping herself a lover under the guise of calling him her housekeeper. But only until Sam had taken care of the matter and had made Jimmy Randall, the leader of the gang, apologize to him with a conscience-stricken look and a bleeding nose. Jonathan had always admired the dignified way his mother had ignored the whispering and gawking within their neighborhood. "Well, maybe I thought you've had enough complicated relationships in your life and wanted to spare you this one until I knew it was serious."

"So? Is it serious?"

"We're getting along pretty well, even the kiddo and me." He smiled at Alexander who started dragging Jonathan toward the door. "Come on, Tojatan, let's go!"

"Are you going to introduce her to us? How about next weekend? I could ask Tony to bake one of his delicious cakes, and maybe some chocolate chip cookies for the boy."

"You rather mean for yourself, Mom," Jonathan teased her. "That's a good idea though. I'll ask Emily. But we would have to bring Alex along. Would that be a problem?"

"Why should that be a problem? Do you really think I would ask a young mother to leave her kid at home?"

"Okay, I let you know whether we can make it next weekend."

In the meanwhile Jonathan and Alexander had left the day care center and were heading toward the ice cream parlor. The boy had taken Jonathan's hand and couldn't get his mind off the huge strawberry ice cream cone he would be having in a couple of minutes.

"What was it you wanted to talk to me about, Mom?"

Angela had almost forgotten why she had called Jonathan in the first place. She was so excited about meeting his girlfriend and her little son. Now her pulse skyrocketed and all the phrases she had prepared to break the news had vanished.

"Mom? It sounded important," Jonathan asked once again.

"It is. ... Uh, ..."

"Something wrong with Grandma?" The horror in his voice was unmistakable.

"No, Grandma's fine."

"Sam? Lynnie?"

"The girls are fine, too."

"Tony?"

"Uhm, ..."

"Oh my god, it's Tony! Is he sick?"

"No, no! He's perfectly alright."

"Mom! Are you going to tell me or what?"

Angela took a deep breath. "I ... think I'm going to marry Tony."

Silence. Jonathan hadn't anticipated anything like this.

"Jonathan? You still there?"

"Yes, I'm still here. Wow, ..."

"Wow-yay or wow-oh no?"

Angela held her breath. When Jonathan had been little, it had always been a given thing that she would never marry someone he wouldn't be able to come to terms with. That he had seen a potential stepfather in Tony had been obvious at least since he had played cupid and had tried to pair the two of them up. Things were a little different right now of course. Jonathan wasn't a little boy anymore. He was an independent, self-sufficient grown-up man, of marriageable age himself. Maybe Angela actually sought Jonathan's advice rather than his approval.

"Hey, that's great, Mom! And I thought it would never happen. When is the wedding gonna take place?"

"Well, ..." Angela hesitated, "I haven't accepted his proposal yet. I wanted to talk to you first."

"To me? Why would you want to talk to me first? I know that I wasn't very happy when he returned after having abandoned you, ... I mean us. I was angry at you that you let him back into our lives. I thought you were debasing yourself with allowing him to kiss you when he suddenly showed up at Fairfield after so many years. I thought he hadn't deserved to even touch you again after what he'd done to you. When I had seen you in that hospital bed after your nervous breakdown - so distraught and exhausted, so hurt and lonely - I had been so scared that I might lose you. And I had blamed Tony for your breakdown. But one day I realized that he was doing you good. After he'd come back, I saw happiness and joy returning to your eyes and your smile. I made up with him the day you sent me to that soccer field where Lynnie's team was practicing. Remember? ... Actually, you should know that I'd be totally okay with you guys marrying, so why do you think you need to talk to me before making a decision? I don't really understand, Mom."

"Maybe because if Tony and I marry, it won't only affect the two of us; it will formally connect a lot of people. You and Sam will finally be stepsiblings, Lynnie will be my stepdaughter, ... and your stepsister."

"Ahhh, now it's beginning to add up! ... Hold on for a sec, Mom!" Jonathan and Alexander had reached the ice cream parlor. It was an authentic Italian place which was supposed to have the best homemade ice cream in the area. He ordered what he had promised his little friend and handed him a huge waffle cone filled with delicious strawberry ice cream, sprinkled with colorful sugar pearls. The boy's eyes were beaming with delight and he instantly started licking. Jonathan knew that Alex would be occupied with savoring this delicacy for some time, which would give him the quiet to continue the important talk with his mother. "Lynnie called me the other day and asked whether I had ever been mad at Sam because I had to share my mother with her. I didn't know what this was all about, and she refused to explain any further. But now I get it. She feels insecure about my attitude towards her role within the family."

"Lynnie has to deal with a lot of issues at the moment. She found out everything about Tony and me, ... well, Tony, me and Kathleen that is."

"Oh boy! That explains Kathleen's crazy behavior at Lynnie's birthday party. I bet she isn't too happy about the two of you marrying!"

"That's another issue we have to deal with. ... What did you tell her?"

"Who?"

"Lynnie. When she asked you whether you had ever been mad at Sam."

"I told her that I've never been mad at her. I never had the feeling she took you away from me. And besides, she's given me parts of her Dad in return."

"So, having two stepsisters wouldn't make you feel booted out?"

"No, Mom," Jonathan chuckled, but instantly became sincere again. "And you? How do you feel about becoming Lynnie's stepmother? What you feel about Sam I know, but the situation is a little different with her."

"You're a very sensitive young man, Jonathan Bower!" Angela inhaled deeply. "I never wanted you to be an only child, ..." she replied, thus avoiding to answer his question directly.

"Why didn't Dad and you have more children then?"

"Welllll, ..." Angela cleared her throat, "your father was away much after you had been born, and we started having discussions about how to live as a family. It became obvious soon enough that a big family wasn't the right way for us."

"Tony's different," Jonathan said, "he's Italian."

"Yeah, but in addition to that he's warm, caring, and giving. He loves being a father. He's simply crazy about kids. Your little Alexander will end up sitting on his lap next weekend, I'm sure."

"Mom, you're crazy about kids, too. And you're also warm and caring. You've got a heart the size of a bowling ball! You're the best mother I can imagine! You cared for Sam as if she were your daughter, and you've been doing exactly the same for Lynnie. You paid for her treatment at a time both her parents treated you like shit, for heaven's sake!" Jonathan began to understand what his mother's problem was. "Is this why you're hesitating? Because Lynnie is Kathleen's daughter and not yours?"

"Possibly." Angela swallowed away a lump which threatened to suffocate her.

"That's absurd, Mom! Tony and you raised three kids together. We're a family almost as long as I can remember. Whether or not you're married has nothing to do with it. Marriage is only about the two of you! Sam's and my - and even Lynnie's - biological parents are of no importance at all! Don't you see that with marrying each other, Tony and you will finally commit to your love? Finally, after so many years of ducking out of an outspoken commitment. Marriage means you declare you want to go through life together, you promise to care for one another come fire or high water. And if you're honest, Mom, Tony and you have been doing exactly this almost half your life; much longer than the past ten years after he'd come back. You've been looking out for each other ever since he entered our lives in 1984. That's almost a quarter of a century, Mom!"

"Do you really think I should marry him, Jonathan?"

"Yes, I most certainly do!" Jonathan couldn't believe his mother still had doubts. He had never seen her happier than during her time with Tony. Needless to say that he had also never seen her more miserable than during the six years without him. 'That's what comes from loving someone so much,' he supposed. It pained him to find her struggling with a decision which seemed to be so self-evident to everyone else. He felt she needed one last push.

"Come on, Mom, just do it!"