On the rebound!

Jerry and Samantha did things the unconventional way. It was Samantha who got down on one knee in the middle of a busy restaurant, with a small, red, velvet box. Inside the box, of course there wasn’t a diamond, but two promise rings that would tie the two of them together for eternity.

Jerry, a man who wasn’t into flashy proposals, took the ring, but only because all the eyes in the restaurant were on them, and he felt pressurised. Everyone applauded the couple when Samantha sat back down, but Jerry, on the other hand, was frustrated with himself for not saying no. He had to remind himself repeatedly, that he also omitted to saying yes!

Jerry had brought Samantha to the fine establishment to break the news to her that he had gotten his ex, Julie, who he had been seeing on the side, pregnant, something he no longer had the guts to say although he yearned to tell the committed Samantha!

‘Why now?’ he asked himself rolling his eyes when Samantha was admiring the ring on her finger.

‘I bet you’re asking yourself why I proposed?’ Samantha asked, reading his mind.

‘Yes!’ he answered a little too quickly.

‘Well,’ Samantha started, ‘I have some news you need to hear!’

Jerry looked at her, expectantly.

‘I’m pregnant!’ Samantha smiled.

Jerry’s stomach dropped like a ten-ton weight had landed in it.

‘What?’ he asked, needing to hear her say the words again.

‘We’re having a baby!’ Samantha beamed.

Jerry excused himself and rushed to the bathroom where he vomited up his meal, all the while thinking, ‘why?’

When he returned, his gut told him he had to tell Samantha, who was grinning like a Cheshire cat, about Julie, but didn’t have the bravery to burst her happy bubble. He felt that if he broke the news to her alone, there wouldn’t be yet another scene in the overflowing restaurant! He decided that telling her there, would be cruel as she looked so happy!

When they were finished their dessert, Jerry asked for the bill, the waitress congratulating them on their upcoming nuptials. Jerry just thanked her for a lovely meal and brought Samantha home to the apartment she shared with her best friend…Julie.

Jerry was aware Samantha knew that Julie was pregnant. She had told her in the utmost confidence, thinking she’d put two and two together, and realise it was his baby! Samantha, however, was a bit slow on the uptake to the detriment of Jerry’s character.

Jerry went two weeks with his head stuck like a deer in headlights, contemplating how he would have the all-important ‘talk’ with the woman he knew was on cloud nine. Pressure was being put on him by Julie to have it sooner rather than later! Samantha had told Julie, who spent those two long weeks pretending to be happy for her best friend, knowing the news of her betrayal was going to crush Samantha.

Jerry was a man of honour, well mostly, and when he finally sat Samantha down to tell her, he knew that Julie’s friendship with the woman he reluctantly took the promise ring from, two weeks prior, would end. He contemplated telling Samantha, with Julie by his side, but knew a catfight between the best friends would occur.

The only other person who knew he had two babies on the way was his twin brother, Mike, who simply laughed when he told him!

‘It isn’t funny man!’ the panicked Jerry confronted the laughter, unsure as to how he was going to break the news to Samantha that she was going to have to bring up their baby as a single mother, even though he was certain he was going to take full responsibility for both children.

Samantha, who still didn’t know who Julie’s baby daddy was, was stuck to her seat when he finally plucked up the courage to tell her. He was certain, at that stage, that Julie was the one he was going to marry, but Samantha had found the ring he was going to propose to Julie with, and thought it to be hers. She was acting expectantly, her face lit up like a Christmas tree, Jerry not knowing she had found the ring!

‘Well,’ Jerry started, ‘you are probably wondering why I sat you down!’

Samantha’s grin grew wider by the second, making Jerry’s job harder.

‘I have something to tell you that you aren’t going to like, but that you need to know!’ Jerry continued.

Samantha chimed in, ‘I found the ring!’ something that threw Jerry off his thought trajectory.

‘What ring?’ he asked with panic in his tone.

‘The engagement ring silly!’ Samantha beamed.

Jerry shook his head like a dog after returning from a swim, quickly and with vigour.

‘That’s not for you!’ he said wincing at the sound of his own words.

Samantha’s face dropped!

Jerry continued. ‘The reason I brought you to the restaurant a couple of weeks ago, was to break up with you!’

Samantha gazed at him as if he had two heads.

‘I seem to have gotten myself into a pickle!’ Jerry admitted. ‘You see, I have been seeing Julie behind your back!’

Samantha frowned, reality sinking in.

‘I am her baby’s father! Something I was trying to tell you when you proposed!’

As she rose from the couch with haste and begun to pace the room, he couldn’t believe how Julie had kept her mouth shut, something she rarely did when it came to Samantha, and how he was left with thinking how he had the audacity to let her believe she was in a committed relationship, where in fact he was treating her like a fool.

‘But we’re engaged,’ Samantha began to ramble, Jerry letting her. ‘You said ‘yes’ in the restaurant when I proposed to you!’

‘No,’ Jerry hung his head in shame, ‘I just said nothing if you remember correctly, because I didn’t want to create a scene!’

‘You mean the scene you’re creating now?’ Samantha asked.

Jerry looked around and opened his arms widely, ‘there is no one else here!’ he closed his eyes and sighed.

Samantha’s mouth opened and closed, like that of a fish, as she was lost for words for once. When Jerry heard keys jingle in the lock of the front door, his eyes still closed, repeating the words, ‘please not now!’ in his head over and over again.

As Samantha turned towards the door, she saw Julie standing there and lunged at her. ‘You bitch!’ she said as she vaulted over the couch, ‘you’ve ruined everything!’

Jerry was too slow off the blocks to stop Samantha’s attack at the love of his life, Julie, who had dropped the two bags of messages on the floor, trying to protect herself from Samantha.

As Jerry watched the pair begin to fight, he saw it as if it was a movie, moving in slow motion! When he eventually got to the pair and separated them, Samantha had a tuft of Julie’s long, brunette hair in her hand, coupled with rage and betrayal in her eyes. Julie touched her face, blood coming from her cheek where Samantha had scratched her with her long, manicured nails.

‘You told her then!’ Julie deduced, unable to stop touching her face.

‘Yup!’ Jerry simply replied.

As Samantha regained her composure, she lifted her hand and released the large clump of hair that had created a bald spot on the side of Julies head.

‘Bitch!’ she screamed before lunging at Julie again, Jerry ready to stop her.

As he held her back, Samantha spit at Julie, the only thing she could do whilst Jerry restrained her! Julie wiped the saliva off of her cheek and stormed into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

Eventually Samantha stopped struggling in Jerry’s arms, so he let go, only for her to begin banging on the bathroom door. Jerry, satisfied the pair were safe from each other, suddenly found himself to be Samantha’s next target. He wrapped his big, muscular arms around her flailing limbs until she calmed down enough to grab her keys and leave without another word.

 

Eight months later:

Jerry held both of his babies in his arms together for the first time. He had fought hard for the privilege, Samantha not wanting him to have anything to do with her son!

As tears began to roll down his cheeks, both babies having his nose and mouth, he could just look at the siblings who were born one week apart, in awe of the love he felt in that moment. He was relieved when Samantha’s mother convinced her that going through the courts, as he was looking for full custody, could mean she lose her son altogether. That was all she needed to hear in order to agree to let him have her baby every Wednesday and Thursday and alternate weekends. When she agreed to that, Jerry was quick off the mark to put it in writing, grateful to not have to go through the torturous custody battle he was fully prepared for.

He knew that, even though he had a good case for full custody, having a house, a wife and a job where he could more than provide for both his daughter, Alice, and his son, John, he couldn’t put the struggling Samantha through the hardship. He wanted a good line of communication with Samantha, who had lost her job, her apartment, her ‘fiancée’ and her best friend, all in the one day eight months ago.

He was aware that, although Julie treated John like her own when it was Jerry’s day to have him, she was the only reason he had put the custody battle to rest, settling outside the courts. Julie knew Samantha thought her to be the reason she was living off her parents, on her own, with a new baby, even though it wasn’t the case! It was all because Jerry couldn’t keep it in his pants and realise before he agreed to go out with Samantha, that she was a rebound girlfriend from the love of his life, Julie. He regretted the split from Julie, and how he conducted himself afterwards, but was happy it happened, because it gave him John!