Chapter 4

After their shower, Jeremy and Robin climbed in bed and just talked. They were being silly and reminiscing about the past. It got Jeremy thinking about why he loved Robin so much. In the back of his mind, though, he couldn’t help but think there was something missing.

He’d had a girlfriend most of the time he was in high school and then he met Robin in college. He couldn’t remember the last time he was single.

But he also knew that wasn’t it. He had a sinking feeling that he knew exactly what the problem was. And it didn’t help that she’d come back into his life only a few hours ago.

Charlotte had always been a permanent figure in his life. From his first day of Pre-K, when she told him that he was going to be her best friend whether he wanted to be or not and him refusing her because she was a girl, to the day they graduated. He never meant to let that day be the last time they saw each other, but Bianca had put her foot down about their relationship. It didn’t help that he spent most of his time over the summer visiting his cousin who was already in college. He was known at the school before he was even officially a student, especially with the girls.

After he broke up with Bianca, he dated around while in college. It wasn’t that he’d forgotten about Charlotte, but he wanted to move on fromhigh school, to finally become a man and leave behind the kid that was. And that included high school crushes, too.

He dove head first into the sea of women on campus and met Robin. She was the girl that was driving all the guys in his frat crazy, and the bonus was that she really seemed to be into him. She flirted with all the guys, but still kept them at a distance. Jeremy seemed to be the only one she let really get close to her. He liked that about her.

They dated for his four years in school and then he married her two years after they graduated. By then, he felt like it was the only thing left to do. He loved her enough to do it, but he wasn’t sure that he was in love with her still.

David, his friend who he met while still in college, told him marrying Robin was not the right move for him. His own mother didn’t even like her. She never came by to visit or invited the two of them over. She would always call and ask Jeremy, specifically, to come over. He knew his mother’s position on him marrying Robin, but he just felt like it was the right thing to do.

In the almost four years they’d been married, he still felt a certain emptiness when it came to Robin. He just didn't know what to do about it now.

Jeremy fell into a restless sleep. When he woke up in the middle of the night, he saw a small figure standing over his bed.

“Uncle J, can I have something to drink?” Mikey was asking.

Jeremy was relieved. He’d forgotten that Mikey was there.

“Sure, lil man. Let’s go downstairs so we don’t wake up Auntie Robin,” he responded.

He climbed out of the bed and picked up Mikey. He figured these are the good years, when you’re still needed and depended on by the kids. He wanted to enjoy every moment of it before Mikey hit puberty and didn’t want to be around him anymore.
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Back at Charlotte’s house, she spent some time talking to her sister. Samantha didn’t make it to the party but still wanted to go out. Charlotte wasn’t really in the mood to go to a club and watch her sister make a fool of herself. Something crazy always happened when they got together. It wasn’t so much Charlotte, but her sister’s friend Candice.

Candice was trouble from head to toe and whenever the three of them would hang out, something was bound to go wrong.

“How come all you and Candy ever do is club hop? Don’t you ever want to do anything productive with yourselves?” Charlotte asked. She knew she was beating a dead horse, but it was still fun to watch her sister squirm.

“Dang, you sound just like mama. I’m young and want to have some fun. I can’t help it if you old fogies don’t want to have any fun. You need to loosen up. I know Damien is out tonight, you need to get out too,” she retorted.

Charlotte knew she was caught. And Samantha was right. Her own boyfriend told her the same thing just the other day. But she couldn’t help it. She was a certified homebody. That was how she got her kicks in. She knew that you didn’t have to go out and have drinks when you had a full service bar in your own home. She wasn’t going out to meet anybody because she already had a man, and so did her sister and her friend.

She just didn’t understand the point of it. You’re out with total strangers and nothing ever goes right. Where was the fun in that?

But she also knew that she would give in to her sister. She was still young, too. She like to get into a little trouble every now and then, as long as she stayed out of jail.

“Okay, I’ll go, but I’m driving and we leave when I say I’m ready,” she stated. If she got her way with this, then she could control how the night went.

“Done! Get dressed, Candy and I will be there in an hour!” her sister excitedly stated. “It’s on tonight!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I swear if you and Candy make me regret this night I will kill you both and hide the bodies.”

The two of them talked for a few more minutes and then hung up. She did want to have fun tonight and hoped that that was all that was going to happen. But sometimes, with her sister, you never knew what you were going to get.

Either way, she was ready to get the night over with.