Week Seven: How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)

I needed the shelter of someone’s arms
There you were
I needed someone to understand my ups and downs
There you were
With sweet love and devotion
Deeply touching my emotion
I want to stop, and thank you baby — James Taylor

Jack

Oh, come on!  Of all the times to have the shower break!  Jarvis is going to be here any minute now.  Maybe if I can get it fixed up real quick he won’t spend his whole day mopping water…

“DADDY!!!”

I put down my wrench and sighed.  Today was not going to be my day, I could already tell.  All I wanted was to spend a little time with Jarvis. I’ve even been going out of my way to clean up before he gets here so he has more time to spend with me.  Between broken showers and terrified children, however, I doubted I would get much time with him today.

I finally managed to convince Cynthia that dragons weren’t real and even finished fixing the shower.  I ran down the stairs and scanned the street for Jarvis’s car.  Darn, he wasn’t here yet.  I guess I have time for some breakfast.  As I walked into the dining room I saw Caroline tormenting poor Mia again.  Caroline seems to hate the poor child, I think it’s cause she looks so much like me.  I go out of my way to give Mia extra attention because of it.

“Don’t you have anything better to do than torment children, Caroline?”

Caroline just glared at me and stalked away.  She’s still not really talking to me, not that I care.

“Why does mommy hate me?”  I could see the tears forming in Mia’s eyes and at that moment I wanted to kill Caroline.

“She doesn’t hate you sweetie, she’s just very childish.  You know I love you very much and you can always talk to me, right?”

Mia sniffled.  “Peaches too, right daddy?”

“Yes sweetie, Peaches too.”

Peaches was her imaginary friend.  I wasn’t sure how healthy it was that she spent all her time with an imaginary friend but I was just happy she had anyone to talk to other than me.  The other girls saw how much Caroline hated Mia and had started excluding her as well.  I’m not sure they did it on purpose, I think they just subconsciously didn’t want their mother to reject them too.

Finally I spotted the maid car out front, Jarvis was here!  I ran outside to meet him at the gate.  Jarvis is my best friend in the whole world.  I met him when he started working for us before the triplets were born.  After the whole incident with Caroline I was pretty depressed for years.  I don’t know what I would have done without Jarvis!  He constantly stayed late and helped me out with the children.  He was my rock.

After a few years he finally convinced me to give love a try once more and boy, am I glad I did!  We have been dating for over three years now and I couldn’t be happier.  He’s everything I ever wanted in a partner and I can’t imagine ever being without him.  That thought would have scared the shit out of me a few years ago but it seems I might be cured of my commitment issues.

I helped Jarvis clean the house and we got it done in record time.

“I don’t want you to go, move in with me Jarvis.”  My stomach was doing flip-flops as I waited for his answer.

“I’d love to, but you’ll have to get a new maid if I do!”

“Deal.”  I grinned and leapt on him, I couldn’t ever remember being this happy!

I guess we were making quite the racket because the next thing I knew Caroline barged in the room screaming her head off.

“Oh, for the love of God, cover yourself up, nobody wants to see that!”

“If you didn’t want to see then maybe you should have stayed the fuck out of our room.”  I yelled back while poor Jarvis just stood there looking mortified.

“Our room?  What is this our room shit, he doesn’t live here.”

“He does now, I invited him to live here today.”

“What???  You can’t do that!”  Caroline looked downright horrified with the idea.  Too bad I didn’t give a fuck what Caroline thought about anything anymore.  I didn’t have time to respond because I could hear Cynthia screaming my name again.  I wonder what’s wrong this time.

“Come on, Jeremiah, I really need to pee, who cares if the stupid sink is dirty?”

“I’m almost done, just hold it for a few more seconds, jeez.”

“DADDY!”

I threw on some clothes and went to find out what was wrong with Cynthia now.

“Hey Rachel, do you know where Cynthia is?”

“I think she’s downstairs, daddy.”

“Thanks, princess!”

By the time I got downstairs it seemed that the crisis had passed on its own.  I sighed and shook my head.  Someday Cynthia was going to have to learn not to come screaming for me every time she doesn’t get her way.

“I really hate dirty dishes, maybe I could be a maid just like you someday.”

“You know it doesn’t really pay much to be a maid, you might wanna consider something else.”

I’ve noticed Jeremiah giving Jarvis lots of sidelong glances lately and I’m convinced my son has a crush on my boyfriend.  I don’t know what to do about it, I just hope he meets a boy his own age soon before it gets awkward.

Caroline’s blatant favoritism toward Rachel really ticks me off.  Every night Caroline comes into the triplets’ bedroom and reads Rachel a story before going to bed herself.  It doesn’t seem to bother Cynthia much but Mia gets more grumpy by the day.  I’ve offered to read Mia a story but she just yelled at me that she doesn’t need a stupid story and stomps off to bed.  I know she’s hurting, but nothing I do seems to get through to her.

Even though I don’t dance professionally anymore it’s still my favorite thing in the world to do.  Luckily Jarvis loves to dance too!  He’s pretty good at it too!

I decided to take Jarvis out for a date at the club and was surprised to see Alison there.  She hadn’t called or visited once since she moved out and I was eager to see how she was doing.  Unfortunately it really seems like Caroline screwed that girl up for life, she was downright rude to me!  She kept yawning at everything I had to say and even called me a few names.  What the hell did I ever do to her?

We had a screaming match right there in the club!  I finally told her to just go home and sleep it off, it was obvious the poor girl was drunk.

The rest of the night went a lot better.  Me and Jarvis had a great date!  We danced, drank and even played some video games.  Jarvis got the cool game though and I was stuck playing freezer bunny adventures.

The next morning I walked into the kitchen to see Jeremiah crying.  It seems he wanted to surprise the family with breakfast but had burnt it pretty bad.  I told him we could all have cereal instead and he started crying even harder!  Finally I told him the pancakes looked great and grabbed a plate.

I managed to convince most of the family to choke down the awful pancakes and Jeremiah finally stopped crying.  That boy is so sensitive, I worry about him.

Today is a special occasion!  It’s my girls’ birthday!  I made up tons of non-alcoholic drinks, ordered up some fancy cakes and even hired a caterer.  Not only were my triplets turning into teenagers but Thalia was going to be a young adult!

The party started right after school.  I invited Calliope and Blake even though I didn’t really want to see them.  Thalia had a right to have her mother at the party though and I’m sure Jeremiah wouldn’t mind seeing his mother too.

I had always been afraid Rachel would turn out to be a snob because of the way Caroline treated her but I was pleasantly surprised.  All she could talk about after her birthday was books.  She used all her birthday money at the bookstore, you should see all the books she got!

Mia was the complete opposite of Rachel in every way.  She started acting out more and more after she aged up, she’s so rebellious now!  I suppose I should have figured this would happen after her childhood but it still makes me sad.  I tried so hard to reverse what Caroline did to her over the years but I guess that kind of thing always sticks with you.

Cynthia was so excited to grow up but she waited patiently for both her sisters to go first.  She really is such an easy-going child.  It’s amazing to me that she and Mia turned out so differently after both being ignored by their mother.

Cynthia turned out to be such a hopeless romantic.  All she ever talks about now is falling in love.  It scares me to death!  I’m not ready to have my daughters date!

Thalia decided she didn’t want a cake and celebrated quietly in the kitchen with just us.

She had been planning to move out for months now so that night right after the party she headed over to her new place.  I couldn’t believe my first daughter was all grown up now!

The next day while all the kids were in school and Caroline was at work I decided to take Jarvis out for a romantic picnic.

The ants made off with most of our lunch, but we were too busy to notice.  I’m so in love with this man, he makes my whole life better.

“OMGOMGOMG!!!”

I ran upstairs to see what was going on with Cynthia this time.

I got there just in time to hear Cynthia telling her mom she got a date for prom.

“That’s great, Cyn!  Who is this lucky date of yours?”

“Thalia!”

What??  Clearly I heard her wrong. Caroline spoke up before I could question Cynthia further.

“What the fuck?  Thalia is your sister, you can’t go to prom with her!  I swear, this whole family is fucked up.”

“She’s my half-sister and yes I can to go to prom with her.  You can’t stop me!”

I was dumbfounded.  Was there something going on between Cynthia and Thalia?  I admit I spent most of my time paying attention to Mia and her problems lately but I can’t believe I would have missed something this big.  The whole idea of my daughters together freaked me out and I had to leave the room before I said anything that might hurt Cynthia’s feelings.  I needed time to digest this.

I was just stepping out of the shower when I caught Jeremiah watching Jarvis sleep while sobbing.  I sighed, I so didn’t need this right now.  I started to approach him but he heard me coming and bolted out of the room.  What was I going to do about this?

I quickly got dressed and went to find Jeremiah, it was clear we needed to have a talk.  I was just about to head into the living room when I heard Rachel comforting him.  I stopped and decided to let her handle it.  Maybe he would open up more with his sister.

Mia has been talking to herself just like Alison used to.  She claims she is talking to Peaches but I’m starting to get worried about her.  Maybe there really is something wrong with our family?  Like a bad gene I somehow passed on.  A crazy gene.  I don’t feel crazy though, then again I wonder if crazy people know they are crazy…

“Hey sweet stuff there you are!”  I grabbed Jarvis and gave him a big smooch.  Tonight was prom night and all the kids would be out of the house.  Jarvis and I had our own celebration planned and I couldn’t wait!  I heard a small whimper and looked up just in time to see Jeremiah watching us with the saddest look on his face.  Well shit, I guess his talk with Rachel didn’t help much.  This was getting out of hand, I refuse to feel guilty for loving my own boyfriend!

                          

When Rachel got home from prom she was excited to tell us all about this boy she met, Korey.  Apparently he saw her get rejected for a dance early in the night and came to her rescue, I think she has quite the crush on the young man.

                      

Despite winning prom king Jeremiah said that prom sucked.  Apparently he got rejected for quite a few dances and even had a drink thrown in his face!

                           

Mia came home with a torn dress, a black eye and a crown.  She was so pumped up when she got home and described prom as “the most awesome night of my life!”  I got a call from the school the next morning, I guess Mia started a fight.  When I confronted her about the fight she told me the bitch deserved it!  What am I going to do with that girl?

                   

Cynthia wouldn’t talk to either me or Jarvis about the prom but we found out from Jeremiah that her and Thalia are going steady now.  I’ve had time to think about it and even though it really kinda creeps me out I’m not going to forbid her from seeing Thalia.  I figure if I forbid her she will just want Thalia that much more.  At least they are both girls so there won’t be any crazy incest babies coming from this.  I can’t believe I just thought that, I need to go wash my brain now.

As for me and Jarvis, we necked on the couch like teenagers all night.  It was heaven!  I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately and have come to the conclusion that I can’t live without my man beside me forever.  Some people might say I’ve gone through a mid-life crisis and maybe I have, but I think I’m a better person for it.  The thought of tying myself to one person no longer scares the shit out of me.  Maybe I have changed or maybe Jarvis is just the one but I know what want out of life now and nothing is going to stop me.