Clearly the bastard had known how close he was to Emily’s pussy and it was just killing him to be denied now. Nick smiled to himself.
Emily had ignored the first four messages. In response to the fifth one, sent on Wednesday, she simply wrote back:
“Jason:
Let it go. I’m not going to see you again. Stop contacting me. Emily”
Jason had written her once more but half-heartedly, along the lines of “okay, but keep me in mind.” He knew he’d lost, at least for now.
“And,” Nick thought, “I’ve won—at least for now. But for how long?” That was the question—what was to prevent this from happening again?
**********************
On Friday around 11 a.m. Nick called Emily from his cell. He tried to strike a tone that was businesslike without being too brusque.
“Hi Emily, it’s me. How are the boys?”
“Nick, my God!” He heard her starting to sniffle. “How are you? I’ve missed you so much! And the boys, they …” She started to cry.
“I’m getting on the plane in a few minutes, okay? I’ll be home for dinner tonight. I was wondering if your parents could maybe take the boys on Saturday, keep them overnight for a visit, and you and I could have some time to talk.”
He could hear her pulling herself together. “Uh, I’m sure they’d love that. I’ll call them today and set it up.
“Honey, what would you like for dinner tonight? I’d like to make us something really special.”
Nick grinned. “Oh, I don’t care, Em—don’t go to any trouble. Make something that Ben and Charlie like—hot dogs, whatever.”
“Okay, honey.” She was obviously disappointed. What was she expecting, that he’d fall right back into her arms? Nick shook his head.
“Gotta go—see you tonight. Bye!” He hung up, not waiting for the “I love you” that was sure to follow.
**********************
Nick’s return was fantastic. The boys were all over him, wild with excitement, and he let them wrestle him and clutch at him and tell him all their stories of the past few days. They were thrilled with the Columbus Clippers hats he’d bought them, and ran and got their baseball gloves so they could have a catch in the back yard.
Emily watched all this with obvious sadness. He’d let her hug him when he arrived, but pulled away far sooner than she wanted, and her eyes followed him despairingly as he threw himself back into the lives of their sons. Maybe she’d hoped that his shocking announcement had only been a mirage, that things would go back to normal, but it clearly wasn’t happening.
Nick let Ben and Charlie stay up ridiculously late—almost until 11. Partly it was to prolong Emily’s obvious misery, but mostly he’d just missed them. It wasn’t until they could hardly keep their eyes open that he agreed with Emily that it was time to get them into bed.
And once they’d had the last story and the last glass of water, he wasted no time in getting ready for bed himself. Before Emily could attempt either a seduction or a conversation, Nick already had his head on the pillow and the light out.
She still tried, though. “Honey? Could we talk for a few minutes?”