Beautiful Excuses

Chapter Two

"You need to stop this." Tina's eyes wandered to the left before they met mine again. "Seriously, she's happily married. And I thought you were too."

"I am-"

"You're in love with another woman, how could you possibly be?"

She was always good at giving it to people straight. I just shrugged. "I love Nancy."

"And Lindsay? Aren't you the multitasker." Tina walked over to me and placed her hand on my back. "I know you like the back of my hand. But this one, this issue? I don't know if I'm gonna be able to help you solve it. I love you dearly, and I want the best for you. But someone's gonna get hurt and something's gonna get ruined because of this. I can't tell you to ignore it anymore, because the way you talk about Lindsay.. it's bad."

"Jeez.. Tina you can't give me any tips? I'm dying here." I felt like crying, because everything she was saying was true.

"Jimmy, I swear I would if I could." She stepped back and placed her hand on her forehead, sighing. "Okay, here's one. Brace yourself. Whatever you do from here I can't even predict it. You can't hide these feelings anymore, it's unhealthy."

"I have to go." I left the cup of tea on her table and rushed to the door.

"Hang in there, please." She said before I exited her house and practically ran onto the sidewalk.

-

"Jimmy! You're home early." Nancy came in through the door and Drew and the girls followed.

"Daddy!" Winnie ran towards me.

"Hey kiddo!" She ran into my arms and I picked her up. "How was the mall?"
"Loud." She said before flashing a keychain in my face.

"Woah, what's this?" I grabbed it from her head. It read "Winnie."

"Drew spoils her incredibly too much. I wasn't buying the girls anything, but Winnie wanted it so bad, so of course she buys it for her." Nancy walked up to me and kissed my cheek. "How was your day?"

"It was fine. I just went to see Lindsay." I admitted. I've went to see Lindsay at least twice every week. This was the one time I actually admitted this is where I was.

"Really? How is she doing?" Nancy's face beamed. She loved Lindsay. My heart was slowly tearing into pieces. "How's Gracie?" She added.

"She's good, Gracie is awesome. She asked about you."

"Oh Jimmy, we should all go over there tomorrow to see them. Did you see Ryan?"

I shook my head. "He goes golfing a lot."

"Is Lindsay the girl with the reddish-brown hair?" Drew butted in.

"Yeah, she's so awesome." Nancy quickly turned to face Drew.

"I remember her! She was in your wedding party!"

"Is Franny good to go?" I wanted to grab her from her car seat and bounce her around really badly to distract myself from thinking about Lindsay and Nancy in the same room together again.

"Oh Jimmy no, she just went to sleep. Drew, can you do me a favor and quietly put her in her room?"

"Sure." Drew grabbed the car seat and walked towards the hallway.

"Jimmy, I'm serious about Lindsay and Ryan. I miss them." Nancy sat on the couch to watch Winnie play with her toys on the living room floor. I remained standing in the kitchen.

"Yeah, sure we can go. Whenever you wanna go."

"Tomorrow. You busy tomorrow?"

Shit. Empty day tomorrow. "No.. but I was thinking about seeing Miles and planning some things for after hiatus. But we can do that."

"We can just hang out with Lindsay and Ryan for an hour or two, it's not like they live in Jersey or something, babe."

"Yeah," I nodded. "You're right. We can go tomorrow."

Later that night, after we put the kids to bed, Nancy reminded me to call Lindsay to tell her we're coming over tomorrow. Nancy was busy on her phone, so I decided to grab my phone and call Linds. I got out of the bed and walked into the living room, phone to my ear.

"Jimmy?" Lindsay answered the phone in a somber tone.

"Hey.. you okay? Bad time?"

"I'm fine." She fake chuckled. "There's always time for Jimmy Fallon. What's up?"

"Me and the gang are coming to your place tomorrow. Let Gracie know, I know she's still up."

"I will let her know! I'm excited to see Nancy. I haven't seen her in eternities."

"Yeah, I haven't seen Ryan in eternities. He still out golfing?"

"No," She paused. "He's trying to get Gracie to go to bed. It's hard to get a 7 year old to sleep, heads up."

"It's hard to get a Gracie to go to sleep." I joked. She began laughing.

"Oh, It's much harder, trust me. That girl's a basket case."

"She gets it from you. You had to get married and have a kid to calm you down."

"Don't remind me." She giggled. "Lorne almost fired me like 4 times."

"Good times." I almost had to catch my breath talking to her sometimes.

"Okay, well I gotta go help put the Grace monster to bed. I'll see you guys tomorrow, alright?"

"Got it." I replied.

I slowly crawled back into bed with Nancy, who was watching my interview with Lance Bass.

"I love the re-runs." Nancy smiled at me.

"Me too." I smiled back. "I almost broke my leg trying to keep up with Lance."

"Ouch," She giggled, eyes focused on the tv. "You make it look professional."

"I told Linds about tomorrow, she can't wait to see you."

"Really?" Nancy turned around to face me. "That's cool. Winnie's been asking for Gracie."

"I know, it'll be good for them."

"Are you okay, Jim?" Nancy's hand found mine under the sheets.

"Yeah," I quickly nodded. "Why?"

"You just seem a little off, or just sad." She intently stared at me. "Something's wrong."

"I promise it's nothing." I quickly had to think up a lie. "I miss the show a lot. You know hiatuses always push me to wanna work more."

"Jimmy, baby you need rest. Hiatus is your time to relax, not be sad 'cause you aren't filming."

"I know. Maybe I just need sleep."

She slowly nodded. "Alright, I'll turn the tv off. I'm a little sleepy myself."

"I love you, Nance." I clutched her hand.

"I love you too, Jim." She pecked my lips before turning the tv off, making the room pitched black.

I rolled over and sighed. My head began hurting.