Theresa sighed as she dried her eyes from yet another crying session after talking to her daughter. It ended up with hurt feelings on both sides, as now was the norm anytime they talked. It seemed like an endless cycle, hurt feelings led to distance between them, which led to pain and so on. The easy answer that she knew when it all started (waiting for them to break up) didn't seem likely now. As Theresa sat there, she couldn't get her daughters words out of her mind. Tom and Jenny had been together much longer than she'd expected. Could they really be serious? Could they truly be in love? Theresa had been consumed by the hurt and pain for so long that she had never stopped to think of anything else. As she shook her head with the pain and confusion that still surrounded her, her husband Mathew entered the room.
"Let me guess who that was." Mathew said snidely after looking Theresa over briefly.
"She wanted to know if we would come to her birthday party this year." Theresa said now looking at Mathew, trying to read his reaction to the news.
"What? But that's months off." Mathew replied quickly and curtly.
"No dear, it's just a few weeks off, less than a month." Theresa spoke and watched as Mathew's face was now washed with confusion.
"But . . . it was just last month that they . . . wasn't it?" Mathew said looking visibly shaken.
Mathew sank into the nearest seat as he tried to understand the amount of time that had passed. Theresa moved next to him and wrapped her arms around him as they held each other saying nothing. More than anyone on the planet she knew what he was going through for her head and heart was filled with the same questions.
Mathew had always known that eventually Tom and Jenny would come to their senses and admit their mistake. Sooner or later they would come forth and admit that their experiment had gone wrong and that they were simply friends again. Sooner or later they would come forward and beg for forgiveness on their knees. The fact that it had been nearly a year forced Mathew to realize that perhaps all this was not going to happen. A year was much longer than the two months he'd given them before reality would set in for the pair of them.
Well, reality was setting in for both Mathew and Theresa as they both wondered how they could have let a whole year slip by. They were both faced with the fact that this was not a passing fad or fling for Tom and Jenny. They had to face the possibility that it was real, not a joke and not going to go away. Somehow Theresa and Mathew both realized that they had to deal with it, find a way to get past it. Neither of them knew how to do that just yet, but the will to try to accept it was now there.
"What do you want to do?" Theresa asked, being the first to break the silence.
"I don't know, I want to go but I don't know if I can handle it, if I can . . . " Mathew replied, his words stopped dead, the next words simply wouldn't pass his lips.
"Stand seeing them together?" Theresa finished his sentence. "I know, I don't think I can either." She said and looked down before continuing. "I miss her and I miss Tom as well."
"I know . . . I do too." Mathew admitted.
"Maybe we can start slow, it's only one evening. We can handle an evening can't we?" Theresa said hoping for some positive assurance from Mathew who took a moment before responding.
"Sure we can." Mathew said with a confident smile as he tried to hide the uncertainty that lay beneath the surface of his cool exterior.
It was a few days before Theresa and Mathew gathered up enough courage to call Tom and Jenny. They wanted to invite them over for dinner before her birthday. They wanted to test the waters in case things went bad rather than risking ruining her birthday. Theresa and Mathew wanted to see if they could really handle seeing them together, as well work toward mending the damage between all of them.
* * * *
"They'll be here." Mathew said as Theresa looked back at the door once again.
"But they're late." Theresa said anxiously.
Theresa was eager to see what changes a year of them being together had brought in both of their lives. What would a year in a committed relationship do to Jenny? What changes would this past year do to Tom? She was eager to get on with the planned events and see her daughter once again. Her stomach was churning with butterflies as she awaited the arrival of Tom and Jenny. While she did not feel at fault for causing the rift, she knew that she had her hand in keeping it going. She felt like she had now emerged from a cloud of pain and bitterness.
In retrospect even Mathew felt that he could have reacted better to the news about Tom and Jenny's relationship. It was all so sudden that day, all so inconceivable, so unnatural the thought of Tom and Jenny together. All Mathew wanted at this point in time was to be a part of his daughter's life. If that meant that he would have to somehow accept her relationship with the man that he still viewed as his brother than so be it.
Jenny paused for a moment just outside her parent's apartment building. It would be the first time she had seen them without yelling since she told them about Tom and her relationship. It had gone so badly last time they were face to face; the bad memories came flooding back to her. She stood outside the very apartment where she had spent most of her teen years and was gripped with fear. Jenny was eager to mend things but nervous that reconciliation was not possible. Jenny was going to try her best to heal the rift; being cut off from her parents had not been easy on her.
Tom held Jenny as they stood outside Mathew and Theresa's apartment to gather their nerves for a moment before proceeding. Tom felt uneasy about this meeting even though he knew it was something they needed to do. Tom saw it as a way to patch things up, to make things right again. Tom was determined not to let the opportunity to fix the pain that he had caused everyone to slip by. It was a small step on the part of Mathew and Theresa and Tom knew it, but it would be far from a nice evening with old friends.
However the road ahead of the four of them not an easy one and there were no guarantees that it would end with everyone being happy. There was a real chance that Mathew and Theresa could not accept this. There was a chance that the parents could only stand to see Tom and Jenny together on special occasions. There was a real chance that the happy times of the past was long gone, never to return. In a way they already were gone.
Things had changed so fundamentally and yet so slightly between Tom and Jenny when they got together. They had always been close, always spent a great deal of time together. Now however it was not as Jenny and 'Uncle Tom' but as a couple. Neither Tom nor Jenny could imagine their lives without each other now. To them, their relationship was the natural next step for them a year ago. A year later they were much happier because of their relationship.
One dark cloud still followed them however. To outsiders it may have seemed insignificant to get the blessing of her parents as long as they were as happy as Tom and Jenny were. Mathew and Theresa were more than just Jenny's parents however; they were also their close friends. The four of them had been so close for so long that nothing seemed right without the companionship of the four of them. The blessing of Mathew and Theresa was very important to Tom and Jenny to say the least. In a way it was important for Mathew and Theresa to give that blessing as well.
"Well, we'd better get moving." Jenny said after a long pause. "This isn't going to get any easier." Jenny said shaking her head wearing a look of trepidation.
"No Honey, it isn't" Tom said with a pause. "But this is what we wanted. We can do this." Tom said reassuringly squeezing Jenny tightly for a second.
