Ella opened the door for Josh to crawl into the backseat and handed him his backpack after he was settled in. He was grumbling about not being allowed to ride shotgun even after she had explained to him severally how the backseat was safer for him. She patted his brown curly hair and went round to get into the driver's seat.
After she had started the car and they were moving, She tried to make conversation with the grumpy little boy in the backseat.
"So, how was school today sweetie?" She asked.
"Cool." He answered shortly. Ella smiled to herself, he was so salty. She took a quick glance at the mirror to see what he was doing and as she had expected, he was frowning so adorably.
"Come on, Josh," she coaxed. "You can't be mad at me forever."
"It's not even been thirty minutes." He said as if he knew how long thirty minutes was.
"It doesn't matter. It's been long enough." Ella whined. He wouldn't be able to resist much longer. She decided to sweeten the deal. Literally. "You can have two of those lemon cupcakes after lunch."
She looked at the mirror again to see his reaction. His face burst into a grin immediately she had finished talking. "Really?" He asked happily, all his anger immediately forgotten.
Ella smiled. He was too easy. "Mm hmm."
"But isn't that too much sugar?" He asked, reminding her of all the times he had asked for two cupcakes and what her response always was.
"It is, but we can let that slide this one time." She said turning her attention back to the road.
"Are you trying to bibe me, mummy?" He asked.
Ella burst out laughing. "It's bribe, baby." She corrected. "And where did you learn that word?"
"TV," was his short reply.
"No, baby. I'm not trying to bribe you. I'm just being nice," She was definitely trying to bribe him, but he didn't need to know that, or think that bribery was acceptable.
"Okay." He replied as he pulled out a storybook from his bag and occupied himself with it.
"Honey, we're going to make a quick stop at the garage, okay?" She said to him after a few minutes.
"Cool."
****
"Hey, you showed up." Jon said cheerfully as he walked toward her. He hadn't been around when she had arrived but no one else had agreed to check out her car, they had all told her that Jon had given them strict orders to come find him when she showed up. She watched him as he approached. He was wearing his navy overalls as usual, but the top part was hanging down from his waist and the sleeves were tied around his waist. He was not topless, no. He was wearing a grey wifebeater which was fitted and highlighted all of his muscles. He was wearing huge boots on his feet and there was a grease stain on the tan skin of his muscular bicep.
Ella forced her gaze back to his face, it was not less appealing, his hair was messy like his fingers had run through it one too many times. His amazing eyes were happy and she completely given up on resisting his smile. She smiled back. "Of course. Did you think I wouldn't?"
"Well, I had my doubts." He nodded. "I thought that since my dad wasn't around anymore, you might..." His voice trailed off.
"Well, I still need to get my car checked." She replied. "I know absolute nothing about cars."
As he opened his mouth to respond, another voice joined the conversation. "Mummy! I'm thirsty and the water in my bottle is finished." Josh said from where he had come to stand beside her.
"Oh. I should have another bottle of water somewhere in the car." She said but as she looked into the car, she saw two empty bottles on the floor of the passenger seat. She sighed and looked to Jon for help. She saw however, that the smile had been wiped off his face and he was staring at Josh with a mix of surprise and confusion on his face. What....Oh! Josh! He didn't know that she had a son.
He looked up at her. "Mummy? You have a kid?" He asked.
Ella did not know how to respond, she knew she was not guilty of anything, she hardly knew him, plus she hadn't lied or anything, it just had never come up. "Yes. I have a son. A very thirsty son."
Jon recovered quickly. "Oh! Yeah." He called to one of the other mechanics. "Abel, could you take the little boy to the dispenser in the reception area?"
Abel nodded. "Sure. Come on little man." Josh looked to Emma as if asking for permission. When she nodded, he followed the man.
Emma looked back at Jon and waited for what his next words would be. He looked slightly sheepish. "I'm sorry about my reaction. It's just, I didn't see any..." He trailed off and wiggled his fingers.
Emma smiled. "Oh, I'm not married." He looked at her as if waiting for more. "Or engaged. I'm single."
Jon looked like he was still confused but when he opened his mouth, it was to change the topic. "So what's his name?"
"Joshua."
"Oh cool." He said as Josh came running towards them with his filled water bottle.
"I'm just gonna go use the bathroom." She said, handing her car keys to Jon and walking towards the reception area.
****
Jon watched Emma's retreating figure while he kicked himself in the ass for acting like a complete idiot. He had made her feel uncomfortable when she had done nothing wrong. He looked down at the boy who was standing beside him. The boy was staring at him curiously.
"Hey, Joshua." He said awkwardly, not really sure what to say to the boy. He went to the car to unlock it. Then he opened the driver's door and pressed a button and then went to the front of the car and lifted the hood of the car. Joshua trailed after him.
"So how are you today?" He asked, as he replaced the hood of the car. He wasn't a stranger to hanging with little kids. No, he had nieces and nephews. He was a stranger to hanging with the kids of women he found attractive.
Josh took a gulp of water from his water bottle and shrugged. "Fine. I'm just coming from school so..." He left the rest of his sentence to the imagination.
"That's good. School is good." Jon said awkwardly as he moved to gather the equipment he needed to change her car oil.
"What's that?" He asked, pointing to the bright orange ramps on the ground.
"They are floor ramps."
"What are floor ramps?"
"They are used to lift the front of the car while I work on it." Jon explained as simply as he could.
"Okay." Josh said nodding at the ramps. Josh looked as though he wanted to ask something more when something seemed to occur to him. He looked up at Jon. "What's your name?"
This surprised Jon. "Umm. Jon."
"Ooh. Like J-O-H-N?" The little boy spelled out happily.
"No, my name's different. It's J-O-N." He replied, feeling a bit bad about bursting the little boy's bubble.
Joshua pouted. "That's a lame name."
Jon smiled. "It's better than Joshua."
His little face crumpled. Just then, Emma walked up to them. "What's going on?"
Josh pointed at him accusingly. "He said my name was lame." Joshua whined.
Emma looked at Jon. "Why would you say that?"
"He said my name was lame first." After he said that, he realized how like a child he sounded so he gave up.
"Really?" Was all Emma said in the most sarcastic tone he had ever heard from her.
"I'm sorry." He said to the both of them. Emma told Joshua to come sit with her in the reception area. As they walked off, he heard Emma assuring the little boy how awesome his name was. Then Jon got the shock of his life when Josh turned around and smiled a devious smile at him. "Son of a bitch." Jon whispered feeling a little bit impressed.
****
Ella was sitting at the reception area of the body shop reading a book when she saw a shadow appear in the pages of her book. She looked up and saw a sweaty, very delicious Jon standing above. "Your car is ready, Ma'am."
She got up and took her keys from his outstretched hand. She glanced at Joshua who was asleep on the couch beside her. She turned to Jon. "Hey, I'm sorry about him. He really is a good kid. Sometimes."
He gave her a strange look. "I thought you didn't believe me."
"Oh, I did." She said feeling a bit uncomfortable. "I just didn't understand why you would respond to his childishness."
Jon shrugged. "I don't know either. He caught me off guard."
"Anyway. I'm sorry."
"Come on, you don't gotta apologize." He said as he started to smile. "He's a kid."
"Thank you for not calling me a bad mother and casting me and my devilish offspring off." She said, trying to joke.
Jon laughed. "You're welcome." He turned and looked to where somebody was calling him. "I gotta go now. See you next week?"
"Sure." Ella said and he walked away. Then she had to wake Josh up because he had gotten too heavy for her to carry. Waking him up was like trying to wake the dead though.
"Need some help?" She heard Jon's voice ask from just behind her.
"Yes , please." She said and he lifted the sleeping boy into his arms and walked behind her to her car and deposited him in the backseat. "Again, thank you." She said to Jon.
He smiled his beautiful smile again and gave her a wave before he walked off.
***
That afternoon, Jon got the surprise of his life when he knocked on the door to his parents' house and a very blonde young lady opened the door for him.
"Hello! You must be Jonathan!" She squealed -yes, squealed- very enthusiastically. "Your mother was just telling me about you."
The young lady before him was obviously very excitable. He might have returned her enthusiasm if he had the slightest idea who she was. He examined her closely from top to bottom. She was blonde, with brown eyes. She had full pouty lips. He looked lower and realised that she had a generous bosom and she was generally curvaceous. Then he realised that he was probably leering at her and she was just standing there and he looked up. But she didn't have that mock affronted look that females had when they found themselves being leered at. No, not this one. She was smiling patiently at him as if waiting from to finish his examination of her.
"Hey." He said. "I'm sorry, I don't remember-" He started but she cut him off.
"Oh, no. We've never met before." She said cheerfully. Then she stretched out her hand. "I'm Leah."
He took her hand. "Jon."
She giggled. An incredibly high pitched one. "I knew that." Jon smiled at her and led her into the house.
"Your mom's in the kitchen baking cookies. That is so cool. My mom never made cookies. The only thing she ever made me was cereal. It wasn't even good cereal. It was soggy and all that." She said before she had to pause for breath. Then she continued.
Jon was relieved that they had finally gotten to the kitchen. Leah was beautiful, but she had a mouth on her. And lungs of steel. "Hey, Mom."
"Hey baby. How was your day?" His mom said without looking up from the cookie dough currently being placed on the pan.
"It was okay. Regular." He replied. "Yours?" He asked as he used his finger to scoop some cookie dough out of the bowl. His mother frowned at him but didn't scold him.
"It was good. I sent out some pillows for delivery today." She answered.
"Oh? That's awesome." He looked around and realized that Leah had disappeared. Huh. "Who's the blonde?" He asked in an almost whisper, just in case she was still around.
"Oh, that's Leah." His mother said. "My friend Maggie's daughter. She's a real nice girl. She's pretty too."
Jon knew where this was going. "Oh no you don't."
His mother tried to look innocent. And failed. "Whatever do you mean?"
"Mother." He said in a warning tone.
"Oh just go out with her. Just once. She's really nice." His mother said petulantly.
"Have you heard her giggle." Jon said, and cringed mentally just at the thought of it.
"Your laugh isn't so appealing either." His mom retorted. She really just sounded like a child now.
"Why is this so important to you?" He asked. She had been trying to set him up since he got back. If he turned this one down, there would be another bodacious female lurking around the house in less than a week.
"Because I want you to be happy, Jonathan." She sounded so frustrated.
"I had no idea I was so unhappy."
Her mother's face softened. She walked over to him and took his hands in hers. This was getting way more emotional than he could have imagined. "Jon, since your father died, you haven't even let yourself grieve." She started. "You've been too busy trying to make everyone else feel better. And we appreciate it, but you can think of yourself once in a while."
"Mom. I'm fine. Really." He said, chuckling. She had no idea what she was talking about. Also, he didn't want to think too deeply about what she had just said. "If it means that much to you though, I'll go on a date with her." His mother smiled but didn't say anything in response. "Where is she, by the way? She seems to have conveniently disappeared."
"She came over with her brother. They are in the den." She said.
"Oh okay. Let me go acquaint myself." He said, grabbing two cookies from the batch she had already made.
Oh, yeah. Jon." His mother called just as he had stepped out of the kitchen.
"Yeah?" He said as he poked his head back into the kitchen.
"You should invite Emmanuella for the funeral." His mother said in a sombre tone.
"They were that close?"
"Yes. She was almost the daughter he never had."
"Alright. I'll tell her."
********
A/N: Wow, if you're still reading this story then I thank you for it. I haven't updated in about 15 years. I'm truly sorry. I've been busy with school and I promise to do better.Don't give up on me. The next update should be real soon.
Is it too late now to say sorry?