Ch100 The Pessimist and the Optimist

“Good Morn…”

Wes couldn’t finish his greeting because Janet grabbed his face with both hands, pulled him down to her level and kissed him heartily. After the shock wore off, he slid his arms about her and pulled her closer. 

This was some greeting!

“You really know how to get a guy’s motor running, baby,” he said somewhat breathless, pressing his forehead to hers. “Glad to see me?”

She giggled. “Maybe. I made breakfast. Come eat,” she said. She tried to step away, but he resisted and pulled her back against him. “Not hungry?”

“Not for anything in the kitchen,” he said, kissing her again.

“Good morning, Wes,” Jeff said, showing up entirely too soon to please either of them.

“Hey, Mr. Fummel, how ya doing?” he said, stepping a respectable distance away from Janet.

“Not as good as you apparently,” Jeff retorted.

Wes grinned sheepishly. “What can I say? I have the best girlfriend ever,” he said.

“I recall saying that more than once. I was about your age, too,” Jeff said. “Ended up marrying her.”

“See?” Wes said to Janet. “Told you it could happen. It will happen.”

“Oh, you shut up,” she said, taking his hand and pulling him into the kitchen.

“I hope you’re not serious,” Jeff said, suddenly anxious. 

“Of course not,” Janet said. “He’s totally kidding, Daddy.”

“No, I’m not,” Wes said.

“You can’t get married yet,” Jeff said adamantly.

“No, not yet,” Wes agreed. “After college.”

“Jumping the gun there, Wesley,” Janet warned as she went to the stove and filled a plate.

“True, I have to get you to admit you’re in love with me first. That alone may take two, three years,” Wes said.

“Please shut it,” Janet muttered, blushing bright pink.

She placed the plate at the table, folded her arms across her chest and snapped, “It’s cold, cuz you were late.”

“That’s what microwaves are for,” he said taking the plate and planting a kiss on her cheek before going to the microwave. “I had to get some decent clothes at home. I didn’t bring any to Troy’s place. Oh, that reminds me.” He stopped to set the microwave to a minute then turned to Jeff. “Mr. Fummel, would it be okay if Cindy stays here while I’m at work? It’s not that she needs a babysitter, but I’d feel better if she wasn’t alone. She gets along pretty good with Stevie. Troy’s parents are going out for the day.”

“Sure, no problem. How long will you be gone?”

Wes calculated in his head. “Four, five hours, unless somebody else calls and needs me right away. Could be more, never can tell.”

The microwave dinged and he pulled out the plate. He took a bite and smiled. “This is great, Janet. Thanks.”

“It’s just scrambled eggs,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“My yenta made it for me. Nothing’s better than that. Am I right, Mr. Fummel?”

“Sure are,” Jeff said grinning at Janet and her blushing cheeks.

“Shut up and eat,” she mumbled, embarrassed.

“Janet,” Jeff said, lowering his voice slightly. “We didn’t finish our… discussion.”

“There’s nothing more to say,” she said. “It never happened and when Mom hears the facts, you’ll be back home.”

“That’s just it, baby,” Jeff said. “She’s not going to believe it. I don’t even believe it.”

“Well, she’ll believe me,” Janet insisted. “I’m the skeptical one in the family.”

“That’s true,” Wes interjected, taking a bite of a bacon strip. “She still doesn’t believe I’m totally in love with her.”

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up?” Janet hissed.

“Yes, Ma’am,” he replied, grinning at his toast.

“But, Honey, all this time has passed and…” Jeff said.

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Janet asked. 

 “Dad, just stop it. I’m the pessimist around here...”

“That’s true, too,” Wes interjected again, and he stopped when Janet glared at him. “Okay, I’m shutting up.”

Janet rolled her eyes, then turned back to her father. “Daddy, I’ll talk to her. I can make her see the logic of it all, okay? Just trust me.”

Jeff smiled and hugged her. “I love my Janet-baby.”

“I love you, too, Daddy,” she said kissing his cheek.

“Now if I could only get her to say that to me,” Wes mumbled.

“I’m going to kill you before the day is out, you know,” she said.

“And yet I still am willing to take you with me. Go figure!” Wes said.

Jeff laughed and waved to them as they drove away. He sighed and his smile slipped away as the car vanished around the corner. He couldn’t help wishing he could turn back time, surprisingly not to be their age again. He just wanted to go back before the last few months to that point when he ruined everything; the night of the fight he should never have had with Wendy.

That’s when he remembered Karen Harris and rage took over.

“So, you lied, Karen and you tried your best to get between me and Wendy…again,” he mumbled to himself as he pulled out his cell phone and ran through his contact list, looking for Gus who would likely have her number. “I wanna hear it for myself straight from you. And I want proof, proof I can show Wendy.”

*******

Wes sighed. Janet was doing it again. She sat in silence staring out of the window and thinking so loudly, he swore he could hear the gears grinding. He wished she would confide in him without him having to ask. He fleetingly wondered if that made him like one of those girls who became annoyed with their boyfriends for not knowing what they were thinking.

He cleared his head of such a ridiculous notion and cast a sideways glance at her.

“So…” Wes said as they drove on through a tiny village just outside of Port Orianco heading to the Medical Center.

“So…what?” Janet replied.

“You and your dad obviously talked. How did it go? If you don’t mind my asking.”

She gave him a small smile and shook her head. “No, I don’t mind. I was just… thinking. It’s exactly as I thought, Wes. He couldn’t have had sex with her, With Karen Harris, not in the condition he was in.”

“So, he remembered?”

“No, not all of it, but enough to piece things together and make her story totally bogus.”

“So, why did he think it happened if it didn’t? I would think he would know,” Wes said.

“He believed her, which was so stupid of him!”

“Your mom believed her, too.”

“I know, right? What idiots! Would you believe anything a known liar says, especially someone who has been trying to break you up since high school?” 

she said shaking her head in wonder. “They can be so gullible and dumb and….I must get it from them.”

“You’re not gullible and dumb!” Wes shouted.

“Aren’t I, though?” she said, bitterly. “I believed my dad could…could do that and hurt my mom and all of us. All he did was get too drunk to get home on his own and he trusted the wrong person. Karen Harris told him she would take him home to my mom and she didn’t! She set him up and went in for the kill. She got what she wanted, to break them up.”

“For what purpose, though? Makes no sense,” Wes said, driving on with a frown. “What does she get out of it?”

“Revenge. She hates my mom. My Aunt Dawn told me she does, cuz my mom stole my dad from her.”

“That’s stupid. No one can steal someone away, not unless that person wants to be stolen,” Wes said.

Janet stared at his profile pondering this. “So, if some guy tries to steal me away from you, you’re saying he can only do that if I want to be stolen?”

“Exactly,” he replied. 

“So, if some girl—say, one of your groupies—flashes her boobs at you and…”

He scoffed. “Not gonna happen.”

“You don’t know your groupies then, cuz they’ll do anything for you,” she retorted.

Suddenly intrigued, but trying not to appear so, he said, “Oh, yeah? And you know this for a fact, do you?”

“Yeah, I do. You’re saying the only way they can steal you away from me is if you wish it, right?”

“Right, which I don’t,” he said, turning into the parking lot.

“That’s only until someone can give you something I can’t…or won’t,” she said, pensively. “You’ll discover you can’t resist and then… then being stolen is inevitable.”

He frowned as he  parked the car and took the key out of the ignition. “What are you saying?”

“There will come a day, Wes, probably soon, when you’ll want to be stolen.”

“No, there won’t.”

“You can’t know that.”

He glared at her. “Did your father want to be stolen?”

“No, but that didn’t mean he didn’t come very close.”

“But he didn’t want to be stolen because he loved your mom.”

“He didn’t because he was drunk.”

“If that’s the case, that makes me slightly better than your dad, cuz I never will get drunk. On the other hand, I’m exactly like him because I’ve only loved one girl and I plan on marrying her, if she’ll have me. So, no, I don’t want to be stolen.”

“So, far.”

“You’re trying to pick a fight with me.”

“I’m not.”

“Yeah, you are. Why?”

“Because you have to stop all this you wanna marry me stuff. I’m just sixteen, for Pete’s sake!”

“And I’m seventeen. What’s that got to do with anything? I told your dad we’d wait until after college and I meant it.”

“You can’t tell me you’ll still be in love with me five weeks from now let alone five years,” she said, her eyes suddenly filling with tears.

Stunned, Wes stared at her. “Is that what you’re worried about? That we’ll break up in a few weeks?”

“I’m not worried! It’s completely ridiculous anyway. Love never lasts. Look at my parents.”

“You're wrong. Your parents are proof that love endures even when they have problems. You just discovered the truth about what really happened and once you tell your mother…”

“And what if my dad’s right and she doesn’t believe it?”

“Oh, Janet,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulders. “You’re skeptical, I know, but don’t be a pessimist, too. I can’t promise everything will end rosy with your parents. I don’t know what else they have to deal with and neither do you. That’s between them, and there really is nothing we can do, but we can hope for the best.”

“Easy for you to say,” she whined. “You’re a freakin’ optimist!”

He chuckled in spite of himself. “Maybe, but that’s who I am. If all we have is right now, then let’s just enjoy that. I won’t make plans even as far as prom night, if that makes you feel better, okay?”

 “Prom is long way off.”

He smiled. “Then next week? Can I make plans to like you til then?”

She looked up at him, then giggled and nodded.

“That’s my good yenta,” he said, kissing her cheek.

She stared at him for a long moment then kissed him. “I kinda like you, Wes,” she whispered.

“Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me,” he said.