Page 104 of Sex. Love. Marriage.
Now, let me say this first. It isn’t that I don’t want to take him fishing. That’s not it at all. I want to spend time with him, and fishing together has always been our thing. My fear is having him on a fishing boat seventy miles from land. It always goes back to being able to protect my kids. I’ll admit it’s different with the boys than it is with the girls. My job with Oliver is to teach him how to be a man, but in the same sense, I want to make sure he’s safe.
He’s also a shithead, so it oughta be interesting. It’ll be a miracle if I don’t push him overboard myself. He’s eleven now. Eleven in boy terms, I can sum it all up with he knows everything about everything, and I know nothing about parenting. Kelly’s therapist tells her it gets better. Jason tells me it doesn’t. Gretchen says it doesn’t. I’m gonna go ahead and believe our friends.
Our adventure starts with a three-and-a-half-hour drive to Newport Beach with Jason and his boys. Let me tell you that traveling with three boys around the preteen age is quite possibly worse than traveling with girls. I say this because I have experience in both, and if you haven’t spent much time around boys around the age of eleven and twelve, you’re not missing out on much. It’s a lot of fart jokes, video game talk, awful smells, and moodiness. One is always hungry, always has to pee, and one has to be difficult and disagree on everything. That one would be August. He’s not happy unless he’s pissing someone off. I begin to understand he’s a lot like Jason because there was a time, around Los Angeles, I thought about joining a gang just to get out of riding in a car with him for another ten minutes, let alone the hour we had left. Or maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m not road trip material. That could very well be it.
There’s also a moment where I realize my son is just as much a smartass as me. It starts with Jason asking him and the boys why they’re watching YouTube videos of other people playing video games. “Why not just play them yourself?”
Oliver smirks. “You watch racing on television. Why not race yourself?”
“Little shit,” Jason mumbles, rolling his eyes.
I smile. “Yeah, dude, why don’t you?”
He glares at me. “Just drive.”
“IT’D BE COOLif we caught a shark,” Jagger says, his eyes on the water as we stand on the dock. It’s around four in the morning. Nobody is happy to be up this early, and I’m popping Dramamine like they’re fucking Skittles.
Remember when I said I liked to fish with Oliver? Lake fishing, shore fishing, off a bridge, that’s my thing. Oceans with waves and nowhere near land? Nope. Not my thing. But when I see Oliver’s eyes lighting up at the vast ocean and the large fishing boat filled with skilled fisherman and rods that probably cost as much as our house payment, I forget about my own needs and focus on his.
I wrap my arm around his shoulder and he looks up at me, smiling. “Thanks, Dad.”
I wink down at him. “Anything for you, buddy.”
He gives me a cheeky grin. “How about a 69 Nova for my sixteenth birthday?”
“I like your taste, but if your grades don’t improve in the next five years, you’ll be riding the bus.”
“Crap.”
Hazel is great in school. She’s a perfectionist and loves learning. Oliver, he’d rather just get by and do the bare minimum to pass. We’ll be lucky if he graduates, let alone go to college. We don’t have our hopes up on that one. It’s a good thing he has my looks because he’s fucking dumb. I know you’re not supposed to say that about your children, but I say it with love. He’s dumb.
In between waiting to board the boat, I have the not so great pleasure of overhearing Jason and Kate arguing on the phone. “You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore, Jason.”
He snorts. “Says who?”
“The dissolution of marriage certificate.”
Jason huffs out an annoyed groan. “Whatever. I’m only looking out for our boys.”
“No, you’re not. You’re looking out for you and your needs. You realize acting like this is why we’re divorced.”
Realization hits him and his shoulders hunch. I really wish he’d turn down the volume on his phone. I don’t want to know this much about their marriage.
“If you don’t back off and let me have some space, this deal where we live in the same house isn’t going to work anymore.”
Standing, he distances himself from me, something I wish he’d done when he took the call, but he didn’t. I think on some level I can relate to both Kate and Jason. Did you know they were ten years old when they fell in love? Got married at eighteen and then life happened. And kids and all that messy shit that complicates marriages. I don’t think it means they don’t love each other any less and I think it’s great that they made the decision to raise the kids together knowing it’d be best for them than having to share custody. So many times that’s not taken into consideration.
I’ll also tell you what else wasn’t taken into consideration. Me and boats. I should have thought about this before I booked a deep-sea fishing trip.
Jason bumps my shoulder with his. “You sick, man?”
I imagine my face is pure white just being on the dock. “I’m good.” So many lies.
“Have you ever been deep-sea fishing?”
I pop a piece of ginger in my mouth. I hate ginger by the way. It’s awful. “Nope.”
He laughs. Like it’s fucking funny. So I push him into the water. The boys think it’s funny but Jason, he doesn’t.
