The Strange Life of Jonas Marks - 10. Chapter 10

So the beginning of my weekend sucked, to put it mildly. When I got home Friday night, I tried to get everything I was wearing clean. I could smell the garlic and tomato sauce that had coated my clothes, and just wanted to forget this blind date had ever happened. Mrs. Meyers came out to get a cup of coffee just as I walked into the kitchen wearing chef’s whites.

“Well, that is, um, certainly different to wear on a date.” She took a quick look and leaned against the counter, her coffee cup forgotten beside her. “What happened?”

“Yeah, well, it was a lot more comfortable than what I was wearing.”

I couldn’t even look her in the face. It had been that bad.

“Well, forty five minutes doesn’t even give you time to get there, eat, and get back.”

I nodded, feeling like an idiot.

Mrs. Meyers walked over and gave me a hug. She spotted the take out bags and wandered over to them, and before I could stop her, she was pulling my sauce covered clothes out.

“Oh, Jonas,” she began sounding all upset. “Your poor clothes. What happened?”

“My date knocked my meal into my lap.”

She looked at my clothes and then me. I was sure she was going to break out laughing, but she didn’t. Instead she took my stuff back to the washng machine and began pouring different things onto the stains.

“I don’t know if I am going to get the sauce stains out, but we’ll try. Did you eat at all?”

I shook my head no.

“Sit down. It might not be hot, but I can make you a meal for a change.”

I sat down and watched as Mrs. Meyers pulled out the makings of sandwich. Guess my meatloaf was pretty good, because there was only a small piece left from the dinner I’d made, which she used on my sandwich. She cut up a tomato and some lettuce, leaving me to think about the disaster the night had been. The only good thing was, Jenny had been having a good time with Michael.

I sort of lost track of everything, because suddenly the sandwich was before me. Mrs. Meyers was sitting across from me, drinking her coffee. I just sat there looking down at the food and shaking my head. I could feel the tears that slid down my face.

“Alright, spill it Jonas. You evidently had a bad night.” Mrs. Meyers reached out and covered my hand with hers. It was such a simple thing, but the show of concern was something my mom would have done. Her voice was so gentle as she went on asking me questions. “Who did Jenny set you up with, and what the hell happened that you got covered in that much sauce?”

I couldn’t help but tear up as I told her about my night. She was pissed, you could tell. She grabbed her coffee cup so tightly her knuckles were white, and she kept grinding her teeth. Mrs. Meyers didn’t calm down till I got to tell her what Jenny did about paying for the date, and how I managed to send her off on her own date, rather than babysit me.

“My daughter should get out of the dating service. She isn’t any good at it,” she said as she rolled her eyes.

“Well, she tried.”

She rolled her eyes like Jenny normally does which made me laugh. She got up and checked my clothes. She came back shaking her head a moment later.

“I got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”

I figured I might as well get it out of the way; my day hadn’t been that great to begin with.

“Give me the bad news, Mrs. Meyers.”

“I’m sorry, but we finished the ice cream off last night.”

I laughed as I realized she was trying to make my night better.

“The good news is we have brownies. I’ll finish the laundry for you in the morning, and do my best to get your stains out.” She paused as she placed a brownie on a plate before me. “Here, chocolate makes everything easier to handle.”

“Thanks.” I took a bite of the brownie and realized this was one of the double chocolate chip ones she makes ever so rarely. Mrs. Meyer must decided to cook with everyone out because they were still warm.

“Why don’t you go watch something on TV? The boys went out tonight as well. They’re camping over at their friend Ron’s house. So it is just you and me, and to be honest, I’m heading to bed. I have a wedding catering job in the morning.”

She yawned and headed down the hall. Mrs. Meyers was the only person I knew who could drink coffee right before bed and still nod right off.

I went and grabbed a glass of milk, and then finished my sandwich. I sat for a moment, enjoying the sweet brownie, before I faced the remainder of my evening. I cleaned up my dishes and then headed into the living room. I wasn’t in the mood to watch TV, so I just sort of lay down on the couch, figuring I might as well get some sleep. I didn’t actually fall asleep, so three hours later, when Jenny finally came in, I pretended to be asleep.

“Jo? Jo, you awake?”

I just kept my breathing even and didn’t look at her. I heard her sigh, and a few moments later, heard her head to her bedroom. I had hoped her date had gone well, but I really wasn’t in the mood to talk after the disaster of the evening.

It took a long time to fall asleep, but eventually I did.

I woke up late and found everyone gone. The boys were still on their camping trip, Jenny had left for work, and Mrs. Meyers had her catering job this morning. The house was quiet, and I decided it was time to go through the stuff I had managed to get out of the house. I needed to know what I had, and what I was going to have to get for myself. As I moved toward the kitchen, I found a note from Mrs. Meyers and my pants neatly pressed.

Jonas,

The pants are all that survived. Your shirt and boxers were nearly neon pink due to the sauce so I tossed them. Again, I’m sorry. Jenny said she will get you another shirt; she is feeling guilty about the disaster of a date she set you up on. I’ll be home late tonight. The boys texted me this morning, saying they are going to spend the day at Ron’s. It will be you and Jenny alone tonight.

Mom Meyers

I smiled as I saw the way Mrs. Meyers had signed the note. It was nice knowing someone really did care about me. I wiped the tears that were forming and took a seat.

There wasn’t a whole lot in the bags I managed to get out of my father’s house. I found shorts, half a dozen tee shirts, some jeans, my one pair of tan dress pants, three ties, and a bunch of socks. I knew the few dress shirts I owned were in the bag in Jenny’s room.

“What in the hell am I going to do?” I felt like crying, but didn’t want to be the sort of man who just cried at the drop of a hat.

I was just starting to organize the clothing when my cell phone went off. I got up and ran into the living room, where the phone was still hooked to the charger from last night.

“Hi, this is Jonas.”

“Hello, Mr. Marks.” The exotic tone of the voice let me know immediately it was Mr. Openseter.

“Good morning, Sir. Is something wrong?”

“I hate to intrude on your weekend, but I’m afraid a few of the articles have begun to arrive. Would it be possible for you to come in tomorrow?”

I sat there and thought about it for a moment. My life was pretty much free from any sort of commitments.

“I can be there today if you need me.”

“No, enjoy your day. I’ll see you tomorrow at nine.” There was a slight pause, and then barely audibly Mr. Openseter added, “Sorry about your date.”

Before I could open my mouth, he had hung up. I sat there feeling terribly exposed for the rest of the day.

In order to get out of my funk, I dug through Mrs. Meyer’s cabinets and found the ingredients to make blueberry muffins. Focusing on the task at hand allowed me think about Mr. Openseter. I couldn’t help but remember his comment about not wearing white, and now he was apologizing for a date he couldn’t possibly know about. Seems there was a lot more to my boss then just the odd coloring of his skin or his strange eyes. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day to say the least.

Jenny arrived home from work around four that afternoon. She carried a large bag in her arms. “Here.”

“What’s this?”

Jenny snatched one of the muffins off the plate and sat down. “Open it and see.”

I opened the bag to find a new dress shirt, tie, and even a pair of boxers. “I don’t believe you bought me underwear.” I sat there blushing and shaking my head.

Jenny swallowed quickly before she spoke, nearly spraying me with crumbs. “Least I could do, Jo. I mean, I did set you up on a date from hell.”

I just blushed, but I really didn’t want to talk about my night again. “So, how was your date, anyway?”

Jenny turned beet red.

“Oh, no, you don’t. I want details. Come on. I know you two were going for dessert.”

“Hush.” Jenny shook her head. “We went out for ice cream.”

“You said you were going to the Ice Cream Cottage.”

“We did.” Jenny was quiet for a moment, and then she blushed all over again. Jenny refused to look at me, and instead, kept picking at the crumbs on the table.

“So … tell me about Michael.”

“I never would have thought he would be so sweet, Jo.“ Jenny looked up and smiled. “He was so nice. We talked for nearly two hours.” She paused and then laughed. “They had to toss us out of the place. We had been talking so long, we didn’t even notice they were closing. It was really nice. He was so sweet.”

“Good. Then I don’t have to kill him for trying anything.”

“You wouldn’t dare?!” Jenny stared at me, her mouth open and eyes wide.

“Close your mouth, Jen. You look like a fish. What? You think I wouldn’t be protective of you? You should know me by now, I mean, you are family.”

Jenny sighed and shook her head.

“You know your mother; if she didn’t like him, she would have both your brothers and me go after him.”

Jen gazed at me through her lashes for a moment, and then giggled. “Yeah, you are probably right. Mom wouldn’t let me date a loser if she could help it.”

“So, what did you guys talk about?”

“Well, at first we talked about you, if you must know. I mean, Mike felt horrible seeing you covered in your dinner. He felt we should go pick up a pizza and try to get you to go with us. He said you reminded him of a hurt puppy.”

I stared at Jenny, not believing a word of what she was saying.

“What? Jo, you really did look like someone had stolen your puppy. However, I told him you would hate the attention. I mean, even I noticed how you couldn’t wait to get away.” She paused as I tried to deny it, but she simply held up her hand. “I know you too well. I was grateful for the way you let us escape to continue our date, and I did have a good time. Did you know that he likes mint ice cream? I mean that is all he ordered, with lots of their fudge topping and sprinkles. He is just like you in that respect.”

“Hey, I don’t always get mint.”

“Yes, you do. You might get vanilla and mint, but you always get mint.”

We both laughed.

“So he got mint, and let me guess, you got your usual as well, blueberry cheesecake ice cream with fresh whipped cream and their dark chocolate syrup on top.”

“No.” Jenny stuck her tongue out at me. “You forgot the cherry.”

I couldn’t help but laugh again.

“Okay, so I’m as predictable as you are. Did you know Mike was planning to go to college too? He has a job at the library. He is a page there, and he plans on going to college to become a librarian.”

“I didn’t know that. How long has he been interested in books?”

“That is just it. He is so shy around people, but if you get him talking about books, I swear, he becomes so alive.”

“Sounds like you enjoyed yourself, Jen.”

“I did. I just wish your date hadn’t been so screwed up. I’m sorry, Jo. I shouldn’t have set you up.” Jenny looked really upset again.

“Don’t worry about it. It was a learning experience. I’ve learned never to order a meal with hot tomato sauce on a first date again. Next time, it will be something easy, like a burger.” I smiled at Jenny. “So what are we doing for dinner?”

“I don’t know. Where is everyone?”

“Your brothers are still over at their friend Ron’s house again. Your mother said they were doing a second night of camping out there.”

“Oh. So it will be just us and mom.”

I shook my head, “No. Your mom has a catering job for a wedding. She said she would be late and it would just be us tonight.”

“Alright, so it is just us. Want to order a pizza and watch a movie?”

“Sounds good. Just have to go to bed at a decent time tonight.”

“Why? Aren’t you off till Monday?”

“Actually, Mr. Openseter called today. I got called in for tomorrow. Seems a lot of merchandise arrived, and it has to be sorted, and we have to make sure it all works.”

“It all works? Really? You mean you have to test that stuff? I thought you were kidding about that, Jo.”

“No, I meant it. This is going to be the first of the orders coming in. So, I will get to find out all about how this stuff works.”

“Wow.”

Just then, Jenny’s stomach began to growl.

“I guess that muffin wasn’t enough.”

Jenny blushed. “I’ll treat for the pizza.”

“Nah. I’ve got it.”

“Alright, but I’m ordering. I don’t want a meat lover’s pizza.”

“Well, how about extra cheese?”

“I’ll do extra cheese if you will do pineapple.”

“Fruit doesn’t belong on a pizza.” I eyed Jenny suspiciously.

“Come on, Jo. I’ll even let you put ham on it.”

“No. You just want your Hawaiian pizza. If I can’t have a meat lover’s pizza, you can’t have a Hawaiian.” I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Fine. Extra cheese and bacon? Will that do?”

“Deal.”

“But I get to pick the movie.”

“I can live with that.”

Jenny gave me one of her sweetest smiles, letting me know she would be looking for the most girly film she could find. What she forgets is, I am usually the one who can stomach them, and she can’t.

I ordered our pizza, and she finally decided she would torture me with 27 Dresses. We curled up on the couch till the pizza arrived, and laughed our way through the movie. It would be a good night, anyway, but I had a feeling I’d be a bit tired come morning.