The Reunion

Chapter 10

I sat there staring at Cody, not sure what to say, the bastard even looked better than the last time I saw him.

He said, “sorry, I messed up your morning.”

I replied, “no, that’s fine you didn’t mess anything up.”

He didn’t say anything, so I did, “well, congrats on getting engaged, I hope you will be very happy. I sent you a text when I got the card, but you didn’t answer.”

Cody hung his head, “that bitch.”

I asked, “what does that mean?”

Cody turned to me, “Jackie went through my phone and deleted a bunch of my messages, you aren’t the only one she did that to.”

I shrugged, “well, it doesn’t matter, I still wish you the best. So, tell me what brings you here?”

He said, “I needed to see you.”

I put my hand up, “look Cody, you don’t owe me any explanation, I knew you weren’t sure about things, you never promised me anything. Like I said, I wish you the best.”

He stopped me, “Brian, it’s not like that at all. I do owe you an explanation, I wanted to call you right after the reunion. Jackie just wouldn’t give a minute alone and I knew she was looking at my texts, she even deleted you from my contact list.”

I said, “ok, so how did you get away to come here?”

Cody sighed, “she doesn’t know I’m here.”

“Alright, tell me what happened.”

He took a deep breath, “It all started on the way home from the reunion, Jackie was getting on me about spending so much time with you, I told her you were a nice guy and that I enjoyed talking to you and I could pick my own friends.”

I asked, “what did she say to that?”

Cody shook his head, “she didn’t say anything really, she just went on about you being a bad influence. I also told her she shouldn’t have spouted off about sending out those stupid save the date cards, we had never talked seriously about getting married,”

I nodded, “so it was all her idea, you don’t want to get married?”

He said, “no I don’t want to get married, not to her anyway.”

I was confused, “so why did she send the cards out?”

Cody continued, “I didn’t know that she sent them out until a couple weeks ago, when my family called me. I went over to her house and blew up at her, she denied everything until I showed her the card my sister gave me.”

I was in shock, “she sent them out and then denied it?”

He nodded, “yep, she claimed that she just filled the form out online to see what the cards would look like, and she thought she just saved it for later, but must have placed it as an order by mistake.”

 “Wow, she is a piece of work, she knew exactly what she was going.”

Cody agreed, “of course she did, she had it all planned out, she figured that once the cards were sent out that I would just go along with it. She even went out and bought her own engagement ring and told everyone that it was from me. I told her I was not going to marry her and that I never wanted to see her again.”

I was trying to take all of this in, “so what are you going to do now? What about the wedding?”

He chuckled, “I am not going to do anything, I have already called my family and friends and told them what was going on and if they got anything else from her to ignore it. I don’t care what she does or tells her friends.”

I smiled, “well good for you, I’m glad you finally stood up to her.”

Cody said, “yeah, I feel pretty good about that too, Jackie can explain to all her friends however she wants, I will never see any of them again, she can make me out to be the bad guy if she wants. I will never be back in that town again.”

I asked, “what do mean, you will never be back in that town?”

He said, “I quit my job, sold most of my furniture and moved out of my apartment.”

“So, what are you going to do now?”

He shrugged, “I guess I’ll look for a new job and try to find a new place to live.”

I paused, “do you mean here?”

Cody looked at me, “well, that thought did cross my mind, there are landscape companies here, aren’t there?”

I said, “sure, I guess so.”

He said, “I have everything I own in my truck, I’ll just go find a hotel to stay at. I’ll start looking for job on Monday, I just wanted to let you know that I was in town, and I really wanted to see you again.”

I smiled, “I’m glad you did.”

He shook his head, “no, I’m sorry, I should never have just showed up on your doorstep without calling. You’ve gotten on with your life, I’ll just go and leave you alone, I’ll figure something out.”

I took his hand, “Cody, you don’t have to stay at a hotel, we have room for you, I’m sure Eli won’t mind. You have a lot to figure out, you are more than welcome to stay here.”

Cody shook his head, “no, it’s obvious I interrupted something this morning, I should have at least called before I showed up. I’m going to leave, I hope I didn’t ruin anything between you and your friend.”

I said, “don’t worry about that, we can work that out later.”

Cody stood up, “no, sorry, I need to go, I’ve bothered you enough.”

He headed to the door, “I will let you know where I end up staying, once I find a place.”

I tried to grab his arm, “you really don’t have to go.”

He walked out the door. Eli and Sam came out of the bedroom.

Eli asked, “so what’s going on?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know, he left Jackie, but I still don’t think he knows what he wants,”

Sam asked, “is he coming back?”

I shook my head, “I don’t think so, I told him he could stay here for a while, if it was ok with you, Eli.”

Eli said, “of course it would be fine, I’m spending most of my time with Sam anyway.”

“Thanks Eli, I knew I could count on you.”

Sam looked to me, “I know it’s none of my business, but what about Zach?”

Eli gave me the same look, “yeah, he seems like a great guy too.”

I answered, “I know, he is a great guy, I wasn’t counting on Cody doing this. I told Zach I would talk to him after I got things worked out.”

Sam added, “that Cody sure is a cutie though, not that Zach is hard on the eyes.”

Eli cleared his throat, Sam quickly said, “of course neither one of them is as cute as my little Eli here.”

Eli glared at him, “yeah, you better just watch yourself mister.”

Eli and Sam left for the day, I finished the breakfast dishes and started to text Zach two or three times. I wasn’t sure what to tell him, hell I still didn’t know what was going on. I decided to go to the driving range and hit some balls while I tried to think things through. A few of my kids from the youth team were there, so I ended up having an impromptu practice, giving them pointers as we emptied several buckets of balls.

When I got back to the apartment, Eli and Sam were there making supper. After we talked about our day and ate, I headed to my room so they could watch a movie. Again, I started to text Zach, I just didn’t know what to say to him, I still wasn’t sure what was going on with Cody. I finally decided to call instead of texting.

Zach answered, “hey Brian, how’s it going?”

I said, “not bad, I just wanted to talk to you.”

He interrupted, “yeah, I wanted to talk to you too, but now is not really a good time. Can we meet tomorrow for lunch?”

We set up a time and place and I hung up the phone, what did that mean, now was not a good time?