“That was, wasn’t it? Bette?”

“Um, yeah.” Let it go, Alice, please. Just for now.

Alice just looked straight ahead, thankfully, as she drove on. “Wow.”

“So, I guess you met her,” Alice called back to Jess, who was trying to look disaffected as she scrunched down in the back seat.

I looked back and saw Jess respond with a shrug. Maybe I should have just sent these two out for brunch, along with a tape recorder. Perhaps it would yield more information.

“Wow.”

I really hope Alice gives up on that word soon.

Having left Bette back at the house, I am certainly not feeling any sense of ‘wow.’ If anything, I’m feeling a sense in the pit of my stomach that I really should not have done that. If nothing else, I should not have set such an example for Jess.

But it felt so much like one of our old discussions, one of the ones that would be a recounting of my sins, the many ways that I had failed Bette as a wife.

My typical mode of dealing with Bette at that point was to check out or to engage in various types of passive-aggressive behavior. I’d like to think that I’m past some of that behavior now, but there’s something about dealing with Bette that brings back so many old behaviors.

So many old feelings, too. As much as I try to deny those, I know that they’re there.

When we got to the restaurant for lunch, I was given an unexpected gift. One of Jess’s friends was there, already seated with her family.

“Mom, can I go say hi?” She does such a good plead. In this case it wasn’t going to take much for me to shoo her away. I didn’t want to discuss too much with Alice while Jess was there. I was fairly grateful that Alice had, for the most part, left her comments to the single-word variety.

“Go ahead.” I can’t say I was too sad when Jess took a seat at their table. I’d deal with the grounded bit later, right now, that was becoming the least of my worries.

Alice looked like she was ready to speak. “Don’t say ‘wow’ again, please.”

The server gave us a few moments of reprieve. I ordered a double-espresso and a Bloody Mary. Alice placed her order, and I asked the woman to please see if Jess wanted anything.

We were finally seated alone. “Yes, it was Bette.”

Leaning forward on the table, Alice used her hands to prompt for more information.

“Why? I don’t know, exactly.”

“So, she and Jess spent time?”

“So to speak. But something strange happened with that.”

“Strange? Strange as in they look like mother and daughter and got along great?”

While I do love Alice for her bluntness, sometimes I can pass on Alice’s bluntness.

“They were getting along well. Then, sometime when Jess went back to see Bette, something changed.”

“Changed?”

“Bette and I sat down with her, and offered to answer her questions. Something about the answers upset her.”

“Oh. So, I guess that explains the mood.”

I glanced towards the table, where Jess now appeared to be her usual animated self.

“It does, but the problem is, I’m not exactly sure of the reason. She’s a bit short on specifics, or she says it’s nothing.” A big nothing with a tie-in to Bette and me.

“And I take it that things between you and Bette”

The headache was starting somewhere behind my eyes. I rubbed at my forehead to try to ease the tension, at least. “I really shouldn’t have left her like that, should I?”

“We’re talking now, right?”

Alice, do not get started. “That’s all we’re talking about, Alice.”

“It probably won’t win a Ms. Manners prize.”

Yeah, like I didn’t know that. “Do you think she’ll still be there when we return?”

“She can be persistent.”

“When she wants to be,” I agreed. But as flattering as that persistence could be, I knew it to be selective. When I really needed that attribute, she had fallen short for us.

We sat in silence for a few minutes before the server came over with my drinks, and the quiche that Alice had ordered. “Would you like something else?” she asked.

Perhaps not everything was too late. “Can I get the frittata to go?”

Alice looked between me and the food that she’d just had delivered. “Do I have to eat this quickly.”

“Take your time. It’s not for me.”

“Oh,” Alice responded. And then her eyes widened. “Oh. So, you do think she’ll still be there.”

“At this point, I’m not sure about anything.” That was as close to the truth as I could get. “This past week has been unsettling.” And not just for Jess.

“Wow.” I had to shoot Alice a look for her overuse of the word of the day.

“I mean, I know it’s not Bette’s fault, but her sudden reintroduction into my life” At that Alice raised an eyebrow. “Into our lives,” I emphasized the ‘our,’ “I’m not sure what to make of it.”

“I know what I’d make of it.”

If Bette and I hadn’t been through this dance before, perhaps I wouldn’t be quite so gun shy. “But there’s so much unknown, Al.”

“C’mon, Tina, don’t be so negative before you’ve really spoken.”

Negative? I’ve already been accused of pushing her out of our lives. “We spoke a little.”

“Really?” Alice looked interested. “And that went how?”

Did she really forget that I left Bette behind in the yard?

“Oh.” Alice sat back, deflated.

I guess she remembered.

“But there is something I could use your help with Al.”

“Sure,” she said, as she chased a lone grape around her plate with her fork. “Want me to tell Porter to ‘step off – ‘”

My look cut off that line. “I’d like you to, when you get a chance, not today, is to see if you can figure you what’s up with Jess.”

“You mean besides being a teenager?”

“Yes,” I confirmed. “It’s something much past being a teenager. If you happen hear anything, or if she drops any clues, could you please let me know?”

The remained of our meal passed with only light conversation. Rather remarkable, considering that I was dining with Alice.

When we were pretty much done eating I went over to check on Jess and her friend, Jeri. Jess set me up to be the bad guy, asking if she could go with Jeri to her house. Normally I’d have stuck by rules on the grounding, but there was little that was going on currently that I felt could fully qualify as ‘normal.’

Our server came back with the change from the bill as well as with the take-out.

“So, we’ve been ditched?” Alice asked.

I nodded in confirmation.

The entire ride back to my house I kept a white knuckled grip on the carry-out bag.

True to form, Bette’s rental remained behind my car in the driveway.

“Wish me luck,” I told Alice as I leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek.

“I’ll call later.”

I knew I’d be lucky if ‘later’ was longer than fifteen minutes.

After exiting the car I slowly went around to the back of the house. Bette was reclining on one of the chaises, looking every bit as if she belonged there.

As I set the bag down on the table she opened her eyes to the rustling. “I thought you might be hungry.”

She opened the top of the bag and peeked within. “Thanks,” she said. “And if it’s no trouble, I could use some more water.”

Okay, I thought, that’s no trouble. But then where do we go from there?

(tbc)