Jackpot! (2 page)

“Mind if I sit here?” Danny asked.

She answered amenably, “Not at all.”

It took a mere ten minutes for both to decide there was enough chemistry between them to take things a step further.

“What do you say we continue this little meeting on the patio of
Que Rico
?” Danny suggested, “A couple of margaritas, some chips and salsa?”

Now the girl, whose name was Kate, seemed hesitant. “I’d love to but…”

“Don’t tell me you have a date,” interrupted Danny, with his best puppy dog face, “I’m a pretty fragile guy.”

“No, it’s just…”

‘What’s her deal?’ Danny thought to himself, ‘A second ago she seemed to be digging me. Why is she backing off now?’

Then he heard, “Mommy!” and saw a little girl running toward them.

“Hi, sweetie!” answered Kate.

Now Danny realized the woman he was hitting on was a mom, too. He watched the little girl give her a tight hug. Boy, she was a cute kid, he thought. Looked just like her mom, in fact.

“Danny, this is my daughter, Sophia,” Kate said proudly, “Sophia, this is my friend, Danny.” Sophia smiled shyly, which made Danny smile.

“Hi Sophia!” he exclaimed.

There was a moment of awkward silence, broken by Danny introducing himself to Sophia’s babysitter, who he thought was quite a looker, too. Then, a second later, the actor looked at his watch and began to act. “Hey, I just realized, I have a 5:30 audition,” he exclaimed with fake surprise in his voice. He felt guilty about the lie, but he had a policy, and that was never to date women with children.

As cute and sweet as Sophia seemed, Danny always resisted getting involved with single moms and their kids. He actually looked up to the moms immensely, and had tons of respect for them, not to mention that 99% of the time they were smokin’ hot! But it was himself he doubted, because he knew he didn’t have the ability to make them happy.

First of all, he could barely take care of himself, both emotionally and financially, let alone try to support a family. Then there was the commitment factor. Obviously, if a woman had a child, she had most likely been in a committed relationship at one point, and probably wanted that again. Danny was smart enough to realize that his picture should be next to the word commitment-phobe in the dictionary (if commitment-phobe was actually
in
the dictionary.) So, no offense to Sophia, or her gorgeous mom, but he had to bail.

Before anyone could respond, Danny was already standing up. “It’s been really nice talking to you,” he said to Kate. “Nice meeting you, Sophia!”

Danny never turned around to see the confused looks on all their faces, but he wasn’t confused. Things were very clear to him. It was clear that he was a huge jackass.

Frankie

The smile on her face was huge, but inside, Frankie Jacobson felt like crying. There she stood, holding a big plate of noodle koogle, watching yet another one of her friends’ grandchildren get circumcised. This was Marilyn Grazer’s third grandson, and the third briss of hers Frankie had been to in the last four years. It seemed like all of her friends’ kids were reproducing, while Frankie’s own two selfish offspring weren’t even close.

When the Moyle performed the actual circumcision on poor baby Noah, the child wailed. Then everyone shouted “Mazol Tov,” and immediately afterward the contest began.

“Guess who’s expecting number three?” Sheila Katz beamed to a circle of women standing around eating lox and bagels.

All of the women turned their attention to Sheila, already a grandmother of seven.

“Joshie!” she exclaimed.

“Oh my God, Sheila!” responded a woman.

“Honey, that’s wonderful,” said someone else.

“I wish you the best, Sheila,” replied Frankie, who wanted to scream with frustration, but instead continued to eat, while mingling with the other grandmothers.

Sheila’s announcement caused all of the women to quickly put down their plates of food and begin digging through their purses, pulling out baby pictures, and showing off the grandchildren.

“Look, here are David’s kids, Lilly and Jeffrey,” Marcy Rothberg proudly declared.

“Very nice,” faked Frankie.

A woman leaned over to have a look. “Absolutely gorgeous!” she exclaimed.

As the contest of who had the most grandchildren continued, Frankie looked across the room at Marilyn, who now had baby Noah contented in her arms. She thought about Marilyn, how her kids had married well and had given her so much joy with the births of their babies. Didn’t every mother deserve to be a grandmother? Wasn’t it one of the only benefits of getting old? Now on the brink of sixty, Frankie felt like she was getting up there. She also felt she deserved grandchildren more than any woman here, simply because her husband had died when she was so young, robbing her of so much happiness. Frankie wasn’t bitter, though. She had ended up living a good life, thanks to her two children, who had both given her great joy when they were younger.

Jamie and Danny were both healthy, beautiful, smart and driven, all the characteristics for which a parent hopes. Frankie was proud that both of her kids graduated college, were registered voters, and even managed to donate blood every six months, which they knew pleased their mother. Somewhere along the line, though, Frankie’s son and daughter had lost all sense of what was important in life; family. Neither was interested in long-term commitment or babies. All they cared about were their careers, which according to Frankie were self-serving narcissistic ones.

True, Danny was a teacher and a basketball coach for one of the Chicago Public Schools, a very noble and selfless profession, but his first love was acting, and thirteen years after college, he was still modeling for print ads with hopes of getting discovered. Her daughter, Jamie was the lottery number picker for WGB. Frankie didn’t understand this. Didn’t she want more out of life than being an on-air celebrity? Where had her kids gotten the desire to be in the limelight? Certainly not from her.

As she continued to glance at all the grandmothers in the crowd, Ester Cohen must have been reading her mind. “Is Jamie still dating that lawyer?” Ester asked her.

Frankie gleamed with pride. “Oh, yes! I’m waiting, any day for their engagement,” she answered. Frankie wondered if she sounded convincing enough. She knew in her heart her daughter would probably never go through with a wedding to her current boyfriend, Max, even though Frankie adored the boy. Still, she could dream, right?

“Mazol, Frankie” replied a woman.

“Yes, honey. You deserve some good news,” added Marcy Rothberg.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” the woman asked in Frankie’s defense.

“I just mean,” said Marcy, “it’s her turn. You know, for marriages…” she hesitated, “and babies.”

“From your lips, Marcy,” said Frankie.

At that moment, Marilyn Grazer walked up to the crowd, proudly holding sleeping Noah in her arms. “Sid says he looks exactly like me. What do you think?”

All the women responded on cue and made a fuss once again over Noah. Frankie couldn’t muster up the strength for more fake praise, so she opted for the job of photographer, grabbing a disposable camera from a nearby coffee table. “Let me get a picture, Marilyn,” she called out as she focused in on grandma and baby.

“How’s that gorgeous son of yours, Frankie?” yelled out Sandy Greenberg.

“Danny? He’s fine,” replied Frankie, who spoke of him as if she barely cared. She did care. She was just irritated and frustrated because she knew her son was a playboy who could not have been further from diaper changing and bottle feeding.

“Is he seeing anyone?” asked a woman.

“I really don’t know,” replied Frankie.

All of a sudden, the earth shattering scream from across the room could have given any one of these woman a heart attack. “Guess who’s engaged?” the screamer screamed, “Neil!”

Dramatic gasps could be heard from all the women, staging their responses as they congratulated the screamer and talked about it amongst themselves. All except for Frankie, whose smile returned but whose insides were burning with envy. Three of her friends watched Frankie while they talked about her.

“Poor Frankie” said Sandy Greenberg, “Lost her husband at such a young age and now all she’s got is a divorced daughter…”

“And a son who will never settle down,” finished Marcy Rothberg. Marcy looked at Sandy and another woman, who didn’t know Frankie very well. “He dated both our daughters,” she said.

Sandy validated the statement with a firm nod.

They all knew how badly Frankie wanted babies. But they also knew her children, and it was a well-known fact that Jamie and Danny Jacobson were about as far away from marriage and family as the earth was from the moon.

“I’m sure Frankie will have grandchildren someday,” the woman added, “Eventually, everyone settles down.”

“She doesn’t understand,” said Sandy to Marcy. Then she looked right into the woman’s eyes for dramatic effect. “If you knew Frankie’s kids, you’d agree with what I’m about to say.” Marcy was nodding in agreement while Sandy continued, “Frankie Jacobson has a better chance of winning the lottery than she does of ever becoming a grandmother.”

Chapter 1

I tried to sound as excited as I possibly could. “One…five… seven…three!” I shouted, easily fooling my audience with the fake enthusiastic tone I’d perfected over the years. Walking to center stage, I finished up the daily lottery with the sugary smile I’d practiced hundreds of times in the mirror. I forced out plenty of phony passion and added some much needed drama.

“There you have it,” I exclaimed, “One five seven three for the pick four, and once again, three eight seven for the pick three. Thanks so much for watching WGB, the official station for the Illinois Lottery. Have a wonderful afternoon and remember…” I upped the drama even more at the very end, “Somebody’s got to win. Why shouldn’t it be you?”

“Okay, we’re clear!” Richard, our producer, shouted the second we were off the air.

Instantly, my charming grin vanished. A look of annoyance took its place. “Suckers…” I mumbled as I took off my microphone and headed back to the office I’d recently been complaining about to management. It was too small for the lottery girl, who in my opinion deserved much of the credit for the consistently steady incline in WGB’s ratings.

Following me like a puppy dog was Drew Conrad, one of the camera operators. I hate to sound conceited and egotistical, but I have to be honest and say that Drew was madly in love with me. Everyone at the station knew it. I didn’t really get why he liked me so much, probably because back then
I
didn’t like myself so much, but I have to say, I secretly loved the attention.

Most of our co-workers had a theory as to why he was so gaga. According to them, it was the chase. I was unattainable, due to my serious boyfriend, Max. And Drew, the handsome dark-skinned guy with the deep green eyes and jet black hair was on a mission to sleep with the one woman in Chicago he couldn’t have.

I’d heard the rumors about Drew’s motives, but I didn’t care. He was really was nice to me, and he was entertaining. And looks wise, I hated to admit it, but with better clothes and no goat-tee, Drew Conrad was truly adorable.

Drew dated tons of girls and was very non-committal, but he was also a sweet guy. He had the potential to become a great boyfriend. I truly believed that someday, Drew would meet the right woman and she would transform him from a sweet-talking, sex-crazed, playboy to a “take home to mom” kind of guy. Not a “take home to
my
mom” kind of guy, however.

My mother, Frankie Jacobson, didn’t want me with handsome, charming, or charismatic. She wanted her daughter with career driven, money making, nice (which I translated as not good looking), and most importantly, Jewish. Everything Drew Conrad was not (except nice, but not Jewish). And because Frankie drove me nuts and made my life miserable when she didn’t approve of someone I was seeing (which was every man in my life except for Max), I had always chosen to view Drew strictly as a platonic friend, even during the times when one look from him melted me.

There were several other reasons for keeping away from him, though. I had no desire to get into an inner office romance, I had no interest in a womanizer of any kind after my cheating husband divorced me, and I wanted no part of anyone who was so smitten with me, in hindsight, because I had major self-esteem issues and again, really wasn’t that crazy about myself.