Page 34 of Laying His Claim
“It’s Eric,” he said, stepping a little closer. “Don’t you remember me?” The idea that she didn’t remember seemed to hurt.
Before she could answer, Kaiya stepped in. “Jalissa had an accident a year and a half ago, Eric. She’s lost her memory.”
“Oh,” he said, still looking at her curiously.
Jalissa was burning to know. “Did we know each other?”
He gave her a rueful look. “We did. We dated for a while.” And then, as if he didn’t want to go down that painful road, he ushered forward the two little girls who had been lingering behind him, clinging to his pants legs. “These are my daughters, Anna and Erica. Say hello, girls.”
The girls waved shyly and hid their faces against their father’s thighs. In response, Jalissa indicated the two sleeping babies. “This is Kaiya’s son, TJ, and mine, Sebastian. Over there, on the pinball machine, is her daughter, Lili—”
Eric cut her off with a gasp of amazement. “You have a child?”
She looked at him, perturbed by the extent of his surprise. “Yes. He’s almost a year old—”
“Wow. I wouldn’t have thought. You were always adamant about not…” He stopped, looking as if he’d said too much, then gave her a stilted smile. “Well, it was good seeing you. Both of you.” Hastily, he gathered his two little girls and hurried away.
Jalissa turned to Kaiya, puzzled and hurt. “What was that all about?”
Kaiya contemplated her answer before saying, “You dated for about nine months. Things were going pretty well for you two. He was in love with you and he even proposed a few times, but you never accepted. You said you two wanted different things… I believe you had a deep fondness for him too.”
There it was again, she thought. Why, why, why was the old Jalissa against having children? Was that even possible? She could tell there was more to the story, which Kaiya seemed reluctant to tell her, so she waited pointedly.
“And you cheated on him,” Kaiya blurted. “That’s why he ended it.”
“Me? Cheated?”
Kaiya said nothing.
Jalissa plopped down into one of the brightly colored plastic chairs, suddenly feeling weak. “Do I want to know with whom?”
“Spare yourself from the unnecessary information,” Kaiya advised.
Taking a deep breath, she asked, “Kaiya? How many men have I had sex with?”
Her friend looked at her and bit on her lip. She knew that Kaiya did this when she was nervous.
“Lissa, it doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me,” she retorted.
“Alright, alright. Do you want all of it or just the ones you considered were even worth mentioning? You did have a few you un-fucked.”
“Un-fucked?”
“Yes. If the sex was horrible, you simply didn’t count them as a worthy sex partner.” Her friend shrugged and Jalissa cringed.
“Tell me all of it.” And Kaiya did. Mentioning every single person Jalissa had sex with.
She stared down into her melted slushie, which now seemed disgusting to her. “Who was that person? Who was I? A woman who hated children. Who wanted to have an abortion rather than give birth to this wonderful miracle of a baby? Who cheated, lied and was overly promiscuous. Who was I?”
Kaiya’s hand closed around hers and gave a reassuring, friendly squeeze. “Don’t be too hard on yourself, Lissa. We all did stupid things in the past, but you have your entire future ahead of you. Thank God for a fresh start.”
* * *
“It’s okay,” Justin said. They were sitting in the living room, in front of the giant bay windows, looking out into the bright evening sky. He’d listened patiently to Jalissa’s story of her encounter with the man called Eric at the Fun Zone earlier, and it hurt him to see how distressed it had made her. “The past is in the past,Cherie.”
“That’s exactly what Kaiya said!” she wailed in frustration.
