The Denver Cereal (31 page)

“
I never knew there was a
‘they,’” Jill said.

“
They have all this drama
about whether they are together or not. But get them in the same
room?”

Jill nodded.

“
ROPER,” Alex
commanded.

Mike’s head jerked up.
Alex pointed toward the Castle living room. He carried Valerie
through the kitchen and into the living room.

Valerie
squealed.

Jill stepped out of the
way so Valerie could run past her. Valerie took the stairs two at a
time. Valerie’s footsteps pounded overhead.
Wham
. Their apartment door slammed
closed.

“
What was that?” Jill
asked.

Mike poked his head into
the kitchen. He looked at Jill then Alex.

“
She’s a little excited,”
Mike said.

Alex and Jill
laughed.

~~~~~~~~

Aden woke alone on the
cramped twin guest bed.

And certain he had never
felt so very alone.

Jill told him to go slow.
He had tried to go slow. But last
night . . .

He fucked up.

Standing from the bed, he
stretched his sore body and smirked. The guest bathroom mirror
reflected the unmistakable marks of passion created by Sandy’s
teeth and nails.

And his heart ached with
loss.

Sandy was gone, probably
forever.

How could one man
experience so much wonder and so much loss at the same
time?

Hearing the water run, he
remembered that the kids were home. He slipped downstairs to his
bedroom, showered, and dressed then went to find the kids. They
weren’t in their rooms. Standing in the hallway, he heard Nash’s
voice, then Noelle’s voice coming from the kitchen. He went down
the hall to find them.

“
Oh, don’t worry, Sandy,
we know all about sex,” Noelle said. “I haven’t had any sex. I
don’t think Nash has had any sex either.”

“
Nope,” Nash said. “But we
saw a bunch this weekend.”

“
Yeah,” Noelle said. “I
didn’t like it. It wasn’t like Daddy said it was.”

“
What do you mean?” Sandy
asked.

“
Well, Daddy says that sex
is how adults play with each other. Like Nash plays soccer and I
play gymnastics.”

“
It didn’t look very fun,”
Nash said.

“
Why did you see sex?”
Sandy asked.

“
Because Nuala was doing
drugs and having sex with men,” Nash said. “I told her we couldn’t
be around drugs. But she just laughed at me.”

“
What do you mean?” Sandy
asked.

“
Daddy says we have addict
parents,” Noelle said. “Do you know what an addict is?”

“
Sure do.”

“
Dad says because we have
addict parents, we are more sensitive to drugs and alcohol. We
can’t be around it,” Nash said. “That’s why I locked us in the
closet.”

“
That was a very smart and
brave thing to do, Nash,” Sandy said.

“
My brother was amazing,”
Noelle said. “You should have seen him. He wouldn’t let them take
me or . . .”

“
Take you?”

“
Into the other room,”
Noelle said. “They wanted to have sex with me. But I told them that
I was
not
a grown
up and I did
not
want to play with them. Then Nash locked us in the
closet.”

Aden’s heart seized with
rage. No wonder Nuala was so adamant that she wanted the kids this
weekend. Nuala’s party plans included his daughter. He rushed
forward to comfort his kids but stopped in his tracks. Sandy’s
neutral kindness was helping the kids. He paced back and forth to
cool his rage.

“
That’s why you called the
police?” Sandy asked.

“
Yeah,” Nash said. “Dad
gave me a phone and told me to call him if I needed him. I was
going to call but then I hoped he was with you . . .
on a date. Dad said he was going to see you when we talked. So I
called the police.”

“
I think you both are very
brave,” Sandy said. “Muffin?”

Aden heard the kids move
forward. Blowing out the last of his rage, he walked forward into
the kitchen. Noelle was sitting on a barstool at the kitchen median
while Nash was sitting in front of the kitchen computer. They were
both eating muffins.

“
DADDY!!” Noelle
said.

She jumped off the stool
to hug Aden. Nash joined them.

“
We were just talking to
Sandy,” Noelle said. “We like her a lot. Plus, she made blueberry
muffins. Don’t they smell great? She made coffee too. Do you want
some? I can get it.”

Aden kissed Noelle’s head,
then Nash’s.

“
It’s great to have you
here” Aden said. “I need to steal Sandy from you.”

“
Okay Daddy,” Noelle said.
“She has to go anyway. But she said she would come back to see
us.”

“
Can we go to the splash
fountain today?” Nash asked.

“
And the zoo?” Noelle
asked.

“
You bet.”

Taking Sandy’s hand, Aden
led her into his basement bedroom. He wrapped her in his arms, and
she giggled.

“
Last night
was . . .”

“
Incredible,” Sandy said.
“Yeah.”

He brushed her lips with
his lips.

“
I thought you’d
gone . . . that I’d blown it . . .
that . . .”

Sandy put her finger over
his lips.

“
I heard Noelle crying.
She was standing in the hall looking for you. She didn’t want to
disturb you . . . us . . . She seemed
to know who I was — which was
weird . . .”

“
We don’t have a lot of
secrets around here.”

Sandy smiled.

“
I’m glad. I told her I
would make her some blueberry muffins. She woke Nash. We talked.
That’s all that happened. They had an awful time at their
mom’s.”

“
Sounded like you’re
really good with kids.”

“
I took care of my little
sister and brother a lot.” Sandy shrugged. “I think the kids need
you. Can you take Monday off?”

“
I can, but keeping to the
schedule helps them feel more normal than hanging around with
me.”

“
Jill’s baby Katy is like
that.”

He tugged her to him and
she rested her head on this chest.

“
I have to get going,”
Sandy said. “I meet Jill for breakfast and church every week. We’re
hanging out today. Val said she would let us go through her old
dresses since we didn’t find anything at the mall. Plus, it’s the
one-week anniversary of the non-date. Delphie told Katy she would
make a cake.”

“
Quite a week.”

Sandy stepped back a bit
to look at him. “Thanks for . . . last
night.”

“
When do I get to see you
again?”

“
Call me.”

“
Sandy . . . What did you decide?”

“
About?”

“
Dating
exclusively.”

“
After last night?” Sandy
smiled. “Oh yeah.”

~~~~~~~~

“
I’m Frederic,” a young
man said in heavily accented English.

“
Nice to meet you,
Frederic. I’m Mike.”

“
Yes. I need you to take
your clothing off.”

“
Why?” Mike
asked.

“
I have to see what your
body looks like in order to make sure we get something that looks
right . . .um . . . right for you.”
The man touched his arm. “I can’t tell with this on.”

“
But . . .”
Mike said.

The young man cocked his
head and laughed. He said something in French and they all
laughed.

“
Why don’t you hit the
shower?” Alex asked. She pointed to his unbuttoned 501s.

“
He’s not coming into my
shower,” Mike said.

“
You’re such a homophobe,”
Alex said. “Chill out. I’ve had to take my clothes off in front of
everyone too. Scared them with my scars. Frederic? You want him in
underwear.”

The young man said
something in French. Everyone laughed.

“
Do you have any briefs?”
Alex said. “He won’t like your boxers.”

Mike looked at Alex and
nodded.

“
Great. Wear those,” Alex
said. She whispered to him, “They’re very particular about
undergarments. They usually just buy mine but they know my sizes
and stuff.”

Mike nodded to Alex and
started walking toward the kitchen. When he turned into the
stairwell, he found Valerie peeking around a corner. Valerie was
dressed with full make-up and her hair was curled. She looked every
bit the movie star.

“
Do you know who that is?”
Valerie whispered. “That’s Claire Martins. She’s a world-famous
designer. Designs for the Queen and . . . No one in
Hollywood has worn her dresses . . . and they’ve
tried. I . . .”

Mike shrugged.

“
I mean, real A-list stars
have begged to wear her gowns. Remember the vintage Dior gown Reese
wore? Her stylist camped out in Paris for a week to see if he could
get a Martins gown. He found the other gown while he was killing
time between begging. He thought that beautiful dress was a good
second. A second to a Claire Martins gown!
And . . .”

“
She wants to talk to you,
Val.”

“
Where are you going?”
Valerie asked.

“
Alex said shower. Just
following orders.” Mike shrugged. “Honey, just go talk to
them.”

He gave her a little push
toward the living room.

Valerie stood in the
doorway to the main Castle living room watching Mike’s guests. Alex
and Max were clearly a part of this little group. Claire Martins
had a long, black braid down her back and was carrying a Baby Bjorn
across her chest. There was a young man stretched out on the couch.
They seemed so happy together . . .and so French.
Val’s heart raced with panic.

“
Hey, Val.”

Max saw her from across
the room. She couldn’t escape now. She raised her hand to say
hello.

“
This is my dear friend,
Claire,” Alex said. She came over to give Valerie a hug. Leaning
in, she said, “She speaks English but she’s impossible to
understand when she’s excited. Do you speak French?”

Valerie shook her
head.

“
No problem, I’ll
translate,” Alex said. “Claire brought a few dresses for you to
look at. I guess you’re having a party next week?”

Valerie nodded her
head.

Alex puzzled at Val’s
timidity and shrugged. “Claire has a line of clothing coming out in
the fall. She wanted to know if you might take a look. She thinks
the clothing will look great on you.”

Valerie nodded. Smoothing
her hair, Valerie glanced at Claire just as Claire’s baby peeked
over at her. Val’s heart melted. Her anxiety slipped away in the
dark eyes of the six-month-old baby.

“
Meet Gerard,” Claire
said. “Would you like to hold him?”

“
I . . .
I’m a little baby crazy right now,” Valerie said.

“
I’ve always been baby
crazy,” Claire said. “Why don’t you hold Gerard and I will take
some measurements? Okay?”

Valerie nodded. She took
the baby from Claire. Enraptured by the warm bundle in her arms,
she didn’t notice Claire buzzing around her.

When Mike returned to the
Castle living room, Valerie was singing to the baby. His heart
stood still at the sight. She looked up at him and
smiled.

His Val.

He jerked back to the
present when the young man touched him. Frederic was holding a
couple pieces of fabric up to him.

“
What are you doing?” Mike
asked.

“
I need to know what
colors work on you and get your measurements,” Frederic said.
“Don’t worry, man, you’re not my type.”

“
You’re not gay? I mean, I
don’t care if you’re gay, I just don’t
want . . .”

“
My girlfriend would hate
it if I were gay,” Frederic said.

“
How come you do this?”
Mike asked.

“
We don’t choose our
gifts,” Frederic laughed. “My mother is a great designer. You’ll
see when your wife tries the off-the-rack. Maman also brought a
couple of her original gowns.”

Mike nodded his head as if
he understood. He mostly hoped the young man would stop touching
him. Mike didn’t like to be touched very much. In fact, outside of
a quick hug from people close to him, the only person who touched
him was Val.

“
What are you comfortable
wearing?” Frederic asked.

“
Jeans,
T-shirts.”

“
Your legs are too big for
these Levis,” Frederic said. “They can’t fit well.”

“
They don’t. But I like
them.”