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“Sort of. She told Roberta, and Roberta confirmed it.”
“Did they tell you she was gay, too?” Jake asked, fuming.
“Well, not that shewasgay, just that people had said she was.”
“Who’speople?”
“I’m not entirely sure about this, but I think someone she went to school with that was hired at another station told someone who told Charlie.”
“Isn’t there a law about that?” Big Mike asked, entering the room.
“Hi, Pop,” Jake said, getting up to kiss his father.
“Only if she wasn’t hired based on that information,” Joey said. “I already looked into it.”
“Thanks, Joe,” Jake said.
“If I can say this without offending my wife, Geri is a beautiful young woman,” Big Mike said.
“No offense taken,” Roberta replied. “And I don’t think you can determine someone’s sexuality completely on looks alone.”
One of the children started to whine, so the attention was gratefully taken off Jake and Geri. While Roberta handed plates around, Jake’s mood sank. He felt protective of Geri, and anyone talking about her in any way wasn’t good.
“Son, I can see you’re peeved,” Big Mike said. “So what if they said that about her? It’s not like they said she was a liar or a murderer.”
“Why say anything though?” he retorted. “What’s the point?”
“The intent of that kind of gossip is to undermine someone,” Candy said. “They’re threatened by Geri or jealous of her. So anything they dig up from their own small mind is fodder.”
“Jake, do you want to say grace?” Roberta interrupted.
“Sure, Ma,” he said.
Everyone held hands and he recited by rote, “Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
“Amen,” they chorused.
While they all talked at once, eating Roberta’s lasagna, north of town Geri sat around the table with her family, offering bits of information about her new job that didn’t mention Jake Saint, or that she’d slept in the chief’s office, or that one of the fires they’d fought took all night to put out and she’d still put in a full day’s work the following day. She listened to her brothers Scott and Greg and her father give honest accounts of their workday, not glossing anything over for Mary’s sake. She didn’t have a lot of friends who would be interested, and depended on her family to share important milestones and experiences. This gathering might be the last time she’d hold back.
***
Geri was back at her apartment. It had been a long exhausting day including the zoo, the run and dinner with Mom and Dad. Hanging her purse on a kitchen chair where it usually stayed, she went back to the bedroom and bath to take a shower. With her eyes shut and her face turned to the warm water cascading down her body, she thought of Jake, his lean, slender body, his big hands on her back, and shuddering with a little grin, she remembered those hands moving around to her chest and how she didn’t stop him. She couldn’t; the kneading felt so good, if he hadn’t stopped on his own, she probably would have ended up dragging him to bed.
After the shower, she got into bed with the remote and clicked it on, running the channels. Where was her phone? She got out of bed and, finding her purse hung over the chair in the kitchen, searched for the phone. A text from an unfamiliar number was on the face.
What are you up to? How was dinner with the parents? Miss you.
Smiling, she got back into bed.Who is this?
The answer came back in seconds.Do all your friends tell you they miss you?
About to type something sarcastic, she was saved by the bell when her phone rang.
“It’s Jake. Sender of texts without signing them. Sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’m glad to hear from you.”
He was somewhere noisy, and she felt strange about it, like she was home in bed where she belonged, but he was out.
