Waves

Changes

"This is Jess, you know what to do at the beep."

I should be surprised that my husband doesn't answer his phone and I get his voicemail, but honestly, I'm not. With a sigh, I turn my phone off and set it on the counter.

I'm not going to cry. I'm not.

Who cares that it's my twenty second birthday and my husband chose to spend it with another woman, right?

"Mama!" A small voice yells from behind me. I take a deep breath and plaster a smile on my face before turning around and facing my three-year-old.

"What's up, bubs?"

"Nana's gonna be here soon!" He announces excitedly.

My mother in law was taking my son for the night to give me and her son alone time for my birthday, too bad her son wasn't here.

"She sure is." I scoop him up. He's the miniature version of my husband, look wise. With his sandy blonde hair and blue eyes.

I was only nineteen when I got pregnant and a sophomore in college. I know I was young, but I always wanted a family, so when Jesse asked me to marry him, I was more than happy to start that family earlier than expected.

There was only one problem in my happily ever after storyline. Her name is Veronica and she's Jesse's best friend. They've known each other since they were kids and as I've heard from Veronica at least a dozen times, everyone always thought they would grow up and get married.

I was fine with Jesse having a best friend that's a girl, but oh boy did she have a problem with her boy best friend having a girlfriend.

Jesse, always seemed to have blinders on when it came to her jealousy, or chose to ignore it.

I set my son Leo down, when the doorbell rings. "Make sure you have everything, you wanna take, sweetie," I say over my shoulder, making my way to the door.

"Where is my darling boy?" My mother in law asks, as soon as I pull open the door.

"He's getting all his stuff ready." I step aside so she can come in and she pecks my cheek.

"Happy birthday, darling girl." She has this thing about calling everyone darling. If it was anyone else I would find it a little ridiculous, but Mimi has enough authority and sophistication to pull it off.

"Thank you," I murmur softly.

She grasps my arms. "You and Jesse are going to have such a marvelous time. You need some alone time."

I look away. A part of me wants to agree and not let on that her sons not even home, but I can't. "Jesse isn't here." My voice comes out hollow. "Veronica got tickets to a music festival and he went with her."

Mimi is instantly outraged just like I knew she would be. She pulls out her phone. "Oh, that boy is going to get a piece of my mind."

I'm grateful that despite Jesse being her son, she's on my side, but I also feel guilty about it. After all she is his mother and in a way I feel like I'm the one driving a wedge between them. I know it's his actions doing it, but still somewhere deep inside I wonder if I'm wrong for letting her be my shoulder.

"Mimi, don't worry about it, please," I say, touching her arm. "Just take Leo and you two have a good time, okay?"

"I'm not leaving you alone on your birthday!" She looks at me incredulously. "You will come with us."

There is no room for argument, not that anyone would win a argument against my loving mother in law anyway. Besides do I really want to be here when Jesse gets home?

A/N: I know it's short but it's just setting up the layout. Thanks for reading.