Mint 2 b

Take It Slow

Five Months Later

Having a housewarming party was never the plan, but April hated how quiet the apartment was when Jackson had Harriet. She, however, did not think ahead about the mess that was going to be left afterward and was starring at large amounts of food and plates left everywhere once everyone had gone home. Everyone except Jackson.

"Harriet is asleep," Jackson said as he walked into the living room. He took a look at the living room and pulled his sleeves up. "Wow."

For some reason, Jackson had come over to the house warming party with Harriet. Turns out mentioning an event can be confused as inviting the person. Ever since his confession, Jackson and April had agreed to keep their relationship strictly co-parents. They only talk about Harriet when dropping off Harriet. That was their relationship. At first, it was awkward, but with time they had found the perfect place they needed to be where Jackson could walk into a room and April could look at him without feeling completely heartbroken.

"Yeah," April said. She started to pick the dirty dishes collecting them one after the other, placing them on top of each other to make a sort of tower. She saw Jackson doing the same thing and quickly spoke up. "You don't have to."

"It's okay. I don't mind."

April nodded her head as thanks. They did for a long time in conformable silence. April ended up in the kitchen, in front of the sink, scrubbing off the food as Jackson stored leftover in the fridge before joining her. He dipped his hands in the sink beside her and started to wash off the plates April had scrubbed off. Their shoulders were touching. They did this in silence too for a while, before Jackson spoke.

"The party was great," he said.

"Thanks." Silence again as Jackson tried to balance all the dishes onto the small plastic dish dryer. "Thanks for sticking around, too. I would probably be stuck doing this all night if it weren't for you."

"No problem. I actually want to tell you something."

April lifted her eyebrow at him. "Are you going to confess your love for me again?" she asked.

Jackson chuckled. "No."

She looked back to the sink. "I'm just teasing."

"I'm sorry about that. I really didn't think it through, to be honest. I mean, I meant what I said, but..."

She cut him off. "It's okay. I forgive you for...everything. I wasn't completely in the right either. We were both wrong."

Jackson smiled. "Yeah, we were."

"What's the thing you wanted to tell me?"

"I am dating this girl. She is a firefighter and I think it's becoming serious."

April thought her heart was going to sink. She thought that something in her would break. She waited but it never came. After she divorces Mathew and made friends with people at her church, she started to see things in a different way, almost in a bigger way. She didn't understand at first how five months could make her feel so new when years passed and she felt the same. She realized though with the help of her friends that it not really about how much time, but what you do with it.

"That's really great, Jackson. I'm really happy for you."

"Thanks. Also, I've actually decided that I want to go to church. Try it out."

April smiled. "Really?"

"Yeah. Do you think your church would mind if I...?"

"No, they wouldn't mind. They would love to have you."