Third Time's The Charm?

You’re in your twenties and you think you’ve got it all figured out. You’ll graduate top of the class, marry your college sweetheart, land the ideal job, make a baby or two, and live happily ever after. Yeah, sure. That’s how it goes, uh-huh.

Almost thirty years later and Jenna couldn’t help but wonder if anyone in her generation ever did figure it out. She did graduate near the top of her class, had a good job right out of school, married her college sweetheart and left him five years later, with no babies to worry about, thank goodness.

Then mistake number two came along. Well, it took eighteen years to realize the mistake, and thirteen months of counselling after the fact but she did in time, after contributing an exorbitant amount of her ex’s money to her therapist’s retirement fund, accept and understand that the issue wasn’t with her, the mistake wasn’t hers. The fault didn’t lie within her that the scum-sucking-piece-of-crap claimed to be going through a mid-life crisis and needed to sleep around and did what all these morons tended to do and traded her in for the proverbial younger model.

He had become such a sad cliché that all she could do was shake her head in disbelief when he showed up at the lawyers office with both the bimbo and the little red sports car. If only she had arrived five minutes earlier she wouldn’t have had to witness the decline of what was once a better man. Or the perfect blond sitting in the convertible beside him.

But back to reality.

“Mom, enough,” Jenna said as she poured her coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. “I don’t need to hear the sad story of my life any more, nor do I need to be told I should get out there and find Mr. Right. I’ve found two Mr. Right-Gone-Wrongs and am quite content with the way things are now.”

“But you’ve been alone for almost five years, that’s not good. You don’t want to end up old and alone.”

“I’m not alone, and I do have quite a few years ahead of me before I’ll be considered old. I have plenty of friends, a good job, I volunteer in the community, and I’ve adopted three lonely cats from the shelter over the past two years, which, I might add are far easier to deal with than most people.”

“Well, you just need to find the right man, look at your dad and me, still happy after fifty-five years together. And we’ve had our issues too, we just don’t walk away when the going gets tough, you know. That’s when, what’s the saying? The tough get going, and that’s what we’ve done. We have had our share of problems.”

Jenna mentally rolled her eyes. “I’m sure it will all work out when it’s meant to. Now can we move on to something more interesting, and doable? Like curing world hunger? ”

Jenna’s head turned at the sound of the doorbell.

“Oh, that must be the contractor. He was going to stop by today to go over the plans for the bathroom renovation. You remember Joyce’s boy, don’t you? Jason Vaughn? Joyce was the head of the PTA when you were at Strathville High, he was a year or two ahead of you. Had that band that played on dance nights at the school before the main event. Made a heck of a racket in Joyce’s garage, him and his band members.”

Jenna smiled at her mom, “Sorry mom, doesn’t ring any bells.”

“Be right back,” her mom replied as she headed to the door. “Jason, hello,” Jenna heard in the background, “Come on back to the kitchen, I’ve just made a fresh pot of coffee.”

Jenna got up and put her cup in the sink, preparing to leave. “I’ll let you two get to your bathroom fix, I should be going.”

“Nonsense dear, sit down for a bit, I’d like to toss some ideas around with you and Jason, I’m not quite sure what to do with that old room. Jason, would you like a coffee? And this is my daughter Jenna. Jenna, Jason Vaughn, our fix-it-up-guy.”

They shook hands. “Jason, hi. Nice to meet you.”

“And you Jenna, your mother has told me a lot about you.”

“Please ignore most of it, she exaggerates.”

“Sit down you two. Jason, here’s your coffee. Jenna, you want another?”

“No, but thanks.” Jenna tried to glare at her mom and send mental daggers without being overly obvious.

“I’ll be right back; I want to get those decorating books I was telling you about Jason.”

“Sure Mrs. Webb, take your time.”

Well, this was awkward, Jenna thought. She sat there wishing upon whatever stars were in the sky that day that her phone would ring, calling her away to some imagined emergency that she just had to deal with right away, right then and there.

She decided she wasn’t going to get caught up in the small talk, or play into whatever this thing was that her mother was trying to do, she was going to be straight with this guy. Two divorces and too many bad dates had taught her that honesty really is the best policy and game-playing wasn’t her thing.

“She wants us to date, you know. She’s trying to set us up,” she said to the renovator.

“I know. She’s been trying to do it for a while.”

Jenna was taken aback and suddenly speechless. “Oh,” was the best response she could muster.

“Yeah, she keeps showing me your articles, talking about what a success you are. At least you can be pleased that she’s so proud of you.”

Jenna smiled, “Well, that’s nice to know. And I’m sorry about all the pressure. She means well.”

“It’s quite all right. And I like your work; your opinions are interesting and thought provoking, so it’s not a chore. And I like both her and your dad. They’re good people.”

“Yeah, they are.” Jenna laughed, “Just think, If we did go out then they’d probably renovate the entire house; keep you in business for years.”

He looked at Jenna, apparently deep in thought. “Well, perhaps we should give it a whirl. After all, she’s going to keep at it until we do. And look at it this way, if it doesn’t work out, she’ll stop. How about we do dinner Friday night. Nothing fancy, wings and a drink or two at the new pub on the lake. Worse case, we’ll call it an interview for an upcoming article on renovating and you can write it off to a bad debt if you need to. I could meet you there at seven.”

Jenna folded her hands in front of her and rested her chin on her fingers, “Why not? I’ve never done an article on what’s involved in planning a renovation from the contractor’s point of view. Might be an interesting angle. Besides, I love wings. And I’ve heard that new pub is quite nice.”


# # #


The moon was high later that Friday night as Jason questioned the evening. “Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

They were strolling alongside the lake, the lights of the city reflecting off the slight rippling of the water.”

“No,” Jenna replied, “it wasn’t so bad at all. Even the company was good,” she continued with a laugh, glancing at Jason, swatting away the look he gave her. “Actually, your theory on renovation psychology was very interesting. I’ve never looked at it quite like that before.”

“Just an idea I came up with as a result of my many conversations with clients. I’ve documented most of it; I’ll show you the notes if you are interested.”

“I’d like that, it has potential,” she stopped beside her car. “Here we are.”

“Yes, here we are.”

They looked out over the water.

“So, who’s going to report in to mom?” Jason wondered.

“Oh, you can do it; she’ll want every detail from me. Go look at the bathroom tomorrow and make her day.”

“What should I tell her when she asks if I’m going to be seeing you again?” as he opened her door for her.

“Good question. What do you think? I’m game if you are.”

“Definitely.”

And before she could respond she felt his strong hands gently holding her head as he kissed her. A gesture she returned in kind.

Smiling at him, she got in her car. “Good luck with mom,” she offered.

“Piece of cake,” he leered playfully, “She loves me already.” And shut the door.

Jenna nodded and laughed as she fired up the engine and waving, pulled out and headed home, her thoughts on the unexpected but welcome kiss. A kiss that held no promises, no demands, but said “maybe” and “let’s take it slow and see where it goes.” And that was something she definitely could live with.