Black Rose

raised his Coke in toast. “So how are your mother and Keith?”
    “Good. Fine.” Josh took a long swallow from his can. “She’s all jazzed up about the holidays. You know how it is.”
    “Yeah, I do.” He gave Josh an easy slap on the knee. “It’s not a problem, Josh. Your mom wants you home for the holidays. That’s the way it should be.”
    “You could come. You know you could come.”
    “I know, and I appreciate it. But it’d be better if I just hang out here. We’ll have our Christmas deal before you leave. It’s important to her to have you there. She’s entitled. It’s important for you, too.”
    “I don’t like thinking about you being alone.”
    “Just me and my cup of gruel.” It was a sting, it always was. But it was one he’d earned.
    “You could go to Grandma’s.”

    “Please.” Exaggerated pain covered Mitch’s face, rang in his voice. “Why would you wish that on me?”
    Josh smirked. “You could wear that reindeer sweater she got you a couple years ago.”
    “Sorry, but there’s a nice homeless person who’ll be sporting that this holiday season. When do you head out?”
    “Twenty-third.”
    “We can do our thing the twenty-second if that works for you.”
    “Sure. I’ve just got to juggle Julie. She’s either going to Ohio to her mother’s, or L.A. to her father’s. It’s seriously messed up. They’re both doing the full court press on her, laying on the guilt and obligation crap, and she’s all, ‘I don’t want to see either one of them.’ She’s either crying or bitchy, or both.”
    “We parents can certainly screw up our children.”
    “You didn’t.” He took another drink, then turned the can around in his hands. “I don’t want to get all Maury Povich or whatever, but I wanted to say that you guys never made me the rope in your personal tug-of-war. I’ve sort of been thinking about that, with all this shit Julie’s going through. You and Mom, you never hung that trip on me. Never made me feel like I had to choose or ripped on each other around me. It sucks when people do. It sucks long.”
    “Yeah, it does.”
    “I remember, you know, before you guys split. It was rugged all around. But even then, neither of you used me as a hammer on the other. That’s what’s going on with Julie, and it makes me realize I was lucky. So I just wanted to say.”
    “That’s a... That’s a good thing to hear.”
    “Well, now that we’ve had this Hallmark moment, I’m getting another Coke. Pregame show should be coming on.”
    “I’m on that.” Mitch picked up the remote. He wondered what stars had shone on him to give him the gift of such a son.

    “Hey, man! Salt and vinegar chips!”
    Hearing the bag rip, and the knock on the door, Mitch grinned, and rising, took out his wallet to pay for the pizza.
    “IDON ’T GETit, Stella. I just don’t get it.” Hayley paced Stella’s room while the boys splashed away in the adjoining bath.
    “The sexy black shoes that will kill my feet, or the more elegant pumps?”
    When Stella stood, one of each pair on either foot, Hayley stopped pacing long enough to consider them. “Sexy.”
    “I was afraid of that. Well.” Stella took them both off, replaced the rejected pair in her closet. Her outfit for the evening was laid out on the bed, the jewelry she’d already selected was in a tray on the dresser.
    Now all she had to do was settle the boys down for the night, get dressed, deal with her hair, her makeup. Check the boys again, check the baby monitors. And... Hayley’s pacing and muttering distracted her enough to have her turn.
    “What? Why are you so nervous? Do you have a date going on for tonight’s party I don’t know about?”
    “No. But it’s dates I’m talking about. Why would Roz tell Mitch to bring a date? Now he probably will, because he’ll think if he doesn’t, he’ll look like a loser. And they’ll both miss a golden opportunity.”
    “I missed something.” She hooked on her earrings, studied the results. “How do you know Roz told him to bring a date? How do you find this stuff out?”
    “It’s a gift of mine. Anyway, what’s up with her? Here’s this perfectly gorgeous and available man, and she invites him for tonight—points there. But then tells him he can bring somebody. Jeez.”
    “She’d have considered it the polite thing to do, I guess.”

    “You can’t be polite in the dating wars, for God’s sake.” On a long huff, Hayley plopped down on the foot