Jane took a sip of her morning tea, hands wrapped I lovingly wrapped around the mug enjoying how its warmth was heating up her palms while the sip of tea in her mouth soothed her taste buds and warmed her from the inside on its way down. Sitting sleepily at the kitchen table in the quiet of a Saturday morning she couldn't help but smile a little. Everything was just perfect. Ok maybe it wasn't perfect. If it was perfect she'd be sitting in the kitchen of a beach house on a deserted stretch of white sandy beach listening to the waves lapping gently on the shoreline. There'd be a friendly old lady who came on as a housekeeper and they'd chat and she'd tell her tales of the faraway country she was from. No French maids, no way. "No need to give John ideas now." she thought to herself with a chuckle. No this wasn't her little dream of perfection, but this nice and neat, 3rd floor midsize apartment with the nice view of the city, with the nice neighbors in the lovely old building was pretty close to it. Sweet old man Perkins collected got the rent, but they all knew the building really belonged to that fat tabby cat that roamed the halls and sleep on the stair landing just below her floor. She even got that assistant editor job she wanted and things were pretty rosy now. What really made it cross the line into perfection was John, her John, her John with the perfect abs that just walked out of the shower with just a towel around his waist and she just couldn't help but crane her neck around a little and take a peek. They were thicker than thieves for almost a year now and sometimes everything else just vanished in an inconsequential blur to her. They were in love.
"We were in 'love' too!" Wanda wailed the next morning.jane was at office and half the girls had gathered around poor weeping Wanda while she blabbered away her tale of a love betrayed. "She was an older woman too.. one of those 'cougar' types.. thats what they call em right??" Wanda blurted out between sobs. "He kept coming home late and late and never could tell me why properly.. so I followed him one day.. and then i saw them together!!" and she started to cry again. 'She's howling like a wolf and VICI couldn't have cried more tears' Jane thought to herself. "How did you catch on to it in the first place?" she asked. "Well..." Wanda paused in mid sob to reply, and for air. "...he left his phone behind one day and suddenly a call came from 'Lily', and well he wasn't there so I answered... aaand iiit waasss heeeerrrrrr" and Wanda started to cry again. "She mumbled something and hung up, but I knew! I knew since then. You watch you man too Jane, girls like us have to be careful ya'know." Jane stifled an indignant chuckle, bit her lip and nodded a cursory acknowledgment as she hugged Wanda. "Yeah, right! John....pshhh. Never."
"How could you John, How could you?!?!" Jane screamed as she wound up for another throw. She had been an athlete in her younger days and helping out with her nephews little league practices came in handy now as a third saucer went flying at John. Jane was a little pleased that her aim and force was good enough that John had to keep taking evasive maneuvers and the more-than-occasional strategic cover behind the sofa. To his credit though, he had caught the laptop and the Xbox, but not so lucky with the controllers.
"What are you talking about?!?" John pleaded. He seemed so confused. "Good act that" Jane thought "I should get him an Oscar." "You know very well what I'm talking about mister. I saw you two together!! Wasn't I enough for you John, what about all the time we had together, everything we went through.. doesn't that mean anything anymore?!?" she raved as cup number 7 was sent flying through the air.
"Of course all that means everything to me.." John said as he ducked just in time for cup 7 to whistle past the top of his head. "What's happening now doesn't mean anything to me because I don't know what on earth is going on!"" John insisted.
"oooohhhh i dont know aaaanything, im a big baaaaby, i just follow a carrot on a stick with my big spotted nose" Jane mimed.
"Eh? ... big.. spotted..nose... carrot?!? John replied.
"Oh shut it!" Jane retorted. "I saw you two at you office. And you with all the late hours at work and the goings into town all on your own, don't you think I can put two and two together?? It's happening just like with Wanda, and I saw it coming!" Jane fired back.
"Wanda? who's Wanda?" John asked, looking even more perplexed.
"So what's the carrot Johnny boy??" Jane started taunting. "You her slave or something? These cougars are into that kinda kinky stuff aren't they??" she said as his storm trooper helmet went flying out of her hands. It was a bit unwieldy and she missed her intended target by a couple of feet and John dived to try and save it. "Is that what Rose is into??" Jane shot at him.
"Wait.. Rose.. ??" a flicker of a recognition seemed to pass across his face just as John stood up from saving his storm trooper helmet and turned around... only to be so lucky as to catch his old basketball flung at him with considerable speed.. with his face.
"Oh my god!! John, are you alright??" Jane yelled as John crumpled to the floor in a heap with a thin dribble of blood coming from his nose.
"Yeah, I'm ok. I think you broke my nose though." John chuckled back. Then with all seriousness he asked "Jane, how do you know about Rose?"
Jane's eyes widened in shock. "Oh my.. so you don't deny it!!" She half sobbed, half raged. "Of course I know!! You think I'm stupid?!? When you were coming home late I knew something was up so I checked up on you and I saw you.. with that.. that.. older woman! But you know what the last straw was? Thats when she called your phone in the morning and I saw what you had called her.. you called her Rose!! That used to be what you called me, remember.. your rose!!" Jane sobbed.
"No no, honey. .let me explain.." John started. But Jane was in no mood for listening, she wasn't even hearing what John was saying and she wasn't even sure what she was doing anymore. Later all she said she remembered was seeing the broom in the corner, grabbing it and having a run at John. She also remembered John scrambling away just in time to miss her first strike and then he managed to take a dive and ninja roll out the apartment door just as she brought the broom down a second time. All she knew next was that the door was firmly shut and she was on the floor with her back to the door looking at an apartment that wouldn't have been out of place in a warzone.
Just then she felt a buzzing in her left hand. Jane looked down to find John's phone in her hand. She hadn't even realized that in the middle of all that had happened she still had kept in her other hand the whole time. It had 5 missed calls, all from Rose. Rose was calling again now. Jane paused for a second, then hit the answer button and put the phone to her ear. "Hello?" she said.
"Hello, is John there?" a refined older voice with a touch of a European accent replied. She could understand the allure, even she felt drawn by the voice. "No he's away right now. Can I take a message?" Jane replied.
"Oh ok." Rose said. "You must be his secretary right?" and Rose kept going without waiting for an answer. "Well this is his Aunt Rose calling. I'm just calling to check on what happened with the ring. It was so exciting when he asked to meet me in town and then when he asked for the ring.. oh my.. you know we thought he'd never settle down." Rose must have sensed Jane's state of complete shock in her silence and shallow breathing. "Hello dear, are you there? You don't have to be shocked anymore you know." She laughed. Yes I'm not as half as young as I look but thats all down to exercise, diet and some good travelling around Europe. The plastics and the botox didnt do much bad either you knoew." Rose chuckled. "Okay you tell him I called ok sweety? Bye."
For what seemed like an eternity, Jane's head was completely blank. Then somewhere in the back of her head a lone voice started the song "okay what just happened' which was quickly joined by the "Oh.My.God." chorus quickly followed by the "What have I done" quartet graciously sponsored by her beating-faster-by-the-minute-heart and by Adrenaline: the extra power in your veins.
Jane threw the door open and burst through the door even faster than that basketball she had thrown not so long ago. She did keep thinking that maybe her head was as much filled with air and lack of brains as the basketball. She also kept thinking that just like the basketball she needed to plant her face on Johns face too. She was barely aware of any of surroundings as she ran to the stairs and grabbed the banister to leap over the few steps to the next landing.
She didn't really know what her legs hit mid-leap, all she knew was that she hit something that made her go flying the wrong way down the stairs. As the floor came rushing up to meet her, the last thing she remembered before it all went black was that she saw herself heading straight for the sleeping cat and calmly thought "That cat better move asap unless it wants a faceful of Jane."
When she came to she was in her bed. She recognized the feel of her bedspread. As the world slowly came back into focus, she realized it was John sitting there by the side of her bed. He smiled. "You know I was wondering what happened." John started. "Honey, I knew you could get paranoid but this was a whole new side of you" he grinned. "For one thing I'm glad there's a Xena around to take care of me.. that is if you still want me.." he stopped.
"John, I"m..." Jane started to get up but then it suddenly felt like she was inside the spin cycle of a washing machine and she quickly plonked back down.
"Whoa whoa.. don't get up. Concussion." John said as he rushed to her side and sat on the side of the bed. He smiled at her. "I feel obligated to tell you that it was me you tripped over. I was sitting on the middle of the stairs with my head down to stop the nose bleeding. I suppose thats why you didn't see me when you basically kicked my head like a football." he sniggered. "It also gave me time to put two and two together myself..." he continued as Jane went a little redder in the face. "...and to figure out that somehow my late rendezvous with my aunt Rose was somehow misconstrued. She likes to stay pretty. Your age really doesn't show when your face is mostly plastic."
"Anyway..." John continued, "I went to see her because she had something very important to me. My grandma's ring" and he pulled out this beautiful silver diamond ring, sparkling like a piece of heaven. "Nana said I was to have this and I was to give this to the person that would make me happy for the rest of my life when I find her. She said the ring was really about the 60 years that her and Grandpa were happily together, even with the occasional plate throwing contest." Jane blushed a little redder as she wondered whether this was really going where she thought it was going. "If Grandma was around she'd love to have known that I did meet her and that I was going to give the ring to her. To ask her to stay with me so we could grow old together and I would promise all of the things that Matthew in 100 girls promised and most of all I'd promise to keep her as happy as she makes me happy every single day that she's around me."
"Jane..." John said as he turned to her. "Jane, that person is you. I can't imagine life without you now so I'm asking you if you'll stay in mine. Jane this ring is for you, it was always and only meant for you." John held out the ring to her. "
Will you marry me?"
Jane stared breathlessly at the ring, and then at John. That now familiar blankness in her mind returning. Then as she looked into John's eyes and an epiphany struck. In an instant she saw their past, present, what just happened and the future all flashing by and she knew. She knew what her answer was.
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this is my answer to the
IIWC made by Tobie @ the awesome blog '
Life is an adventure!', which was a lot of fun. I was pretty lost for awhile before this idea came to me out of the blue. There's a place where I used the words and that came to me and then this whole situation kinda happened around it, which I think is a little too cheesy in the end, but I hope you like it.
Challenge: Grab the book nearest you. On page 1 pick the first adjective you come to, on page 12 pick the first verb, and on page 77 pick the first proper noun you come to. Write something inspired by those three words. Please share with us the title of the book you used.
