Not So Black and White

Chapter 13

I walked along the sidewalk following the setting sun over the hill of townhouses ahead of me thinking about Jackson, Leo and Mr. Black. I wondered how Leo was doing in Arizona, he never did well with the winters here anyways. I wondered if Jackson was at home finding ways to let me down easy for almost killing him and then I thought about Mr. Black. I liked seeing him so casual and tending to his kids and in glasses. It made him seem more real, not just this enigma of a man.

But before I could keep comparing them I heard something, “Hey! Anna!” I looked over it and was Mr. Black sitting on his front porch smoking a cigar. I waved and crossed the empty street.

“Hey, how are you Mr. Black?” I asked as he puffed out some smoke. He was still wearing his khakis which were now a little more wrinkled than before like his green polo.

“I’m good…”He replied as a smiled at the ground then looked up, “Call me James,  Anna.” I liked how he emphasized our first names and scooted over towards the railing to make room. “Uh I don’t have any more with me, but I can go inside and get you one?”  He motioned towards his cigar.

“No, I’m good, I don’t smoke but I like the smell.” The silence was awkward for a moment until I just broke it. This was Mr. Black he knew of every secret and every part of my baggage I had. This shouldn’t be awkward. “So I thought you were going away this weekend, I saw you take your kids into the car this morning.”

“Yeah, I was but just the kids. I was taking Clara and Liam to their grandparents in Vermont for the weekend.” He smiled leaning back.

“Clara? That’s such a pretty name.” I smiled.

“Yeah, my wife, Poppy was born and raised in London but she's Irish, so she was determined to have our children named with traditional Irish/English names.” You could tell he was really proud of what he was talking about.

“Is Poppy around now? I would love to meet her." I asked peering into the house.

“Uh, no, she died 5 years ago. In child birth. It’s kind of ironic because we rushed into having kids because as soon as we were done having kids she needed to have a double mastectomy and ovary removal because she had the breast/ovarian cancer gene..”

“Oh I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry, I didn’t realize she was,” He jumped in at my pause.

“Dead? It’s ok. It was 5 years ago, I’ve been through months of group counseling I can talk about it. That woman you probably see come in and out is the nanny, Josey. She’s great. The kids love her.” It all made sense now.

“So tell me about Poppy, to be honest I couldn’t picture you with an artist from London.” I giggled.

“Neither did I. About eight years ago, when I was a lawyer at Grey and Ropes, a couple years out of law school, I was given these art show tickets from one of my clients. So I went with my girlfriend, a girl I went to Colombian law school with. We were very serious, like 5 years of dating serious. SO at the art show I see these amazing paintings. And I know nothing about art so I asked the beautiful blonde girl next to me. She turns around and she’s even more gorgeous than I thought. Long story short, I got her number, broke up with Colombian law girl and married her in two months. Can you imagine how upset my family was?” He laughed letting the cigar dangle between his teeth.

“Actually, yeah,” I laughed at the realization we were more alike than I thought.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot..” We let our laughs trickle off as the evening arm brushed in. “So anyways tell me how you are doing. Are you dating?” He asked trying to make the awkward tension disappear.

“Yeah. Sort of. Well, probably not much longer. I almost killed him tonight,” I confessed.

“What!? Do I need to represent you??” He sat up immediately in shock. After I explained the traumatic and failed evening we were both holding out guts laughing making fun at my expense.

“So this guy told you four times he was allergic to garlic and he even mentioned it while the lasagna was in the oven and you still couldn’t connect it??” He was almost crying he was laughing so hard.

“I guess! I mean, ahg, I was distracted or just didn’t care?” I laughed again trying to make myself focus to keep explaining myself, “Like Jackson is great and all, but overall he’s blind, he’s boring, our relationship is safe. I guess I’ve always liked a little adventure, disapproval or whatever,” At this moment I realized how close I was leaning towards James, and when I looked up his cigar was still in his teeth and his eyes were peeled on me. I stopped talking and I looked at his lips as he looked at mine, yet before I could do anything I coughed and sat up straight. "I think I left my oven on now that I think about it. It was nice to catch up, I'll talk to you soon." I jumped up and didn't look back.