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“You’re not going to talk to him at all today?” her mother asked.
“We texted earlier and that was it,” she said. “He knows I’m with Eli and we only talk at night when Eli is in bed.”
“How long are you going to go on like that?” her mother asked.
“I don’t know. I’m not rushing and he’s not pushing. It’s working for us.” Her phone went off in her back pocket and she pulled it out to see Jeff was calling her. She turned the phone toward her mother to see. “Hello,” she said.
“Why didn’t you leave Eli with my parents?” he asked. “I’m entitled to him for six hours on a holiday and I was letting my parents have him.”
She couldn’t say that wasn’t allowed. If Jeff left Eli in daycare during his time that was his business, she knew that.
“How do you know Eli isn’t with them?” she asked. She was going to make him admit what was going on.
“Because I called my father to make sure and he said that you took Eli home with you when they were there to spend time with him.”
Which was only partially the truth. “Now, now, Jeff,” she said. “I rang the bell twice, your father came to the door. He asked me what I was doing there. Said that he’d told you yesterday that your mother was sick and they were canceling Thanksgiving.”
“So?” Jeff said. “She decided not to cook, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t leave him there to visit.”
“Your mother is sick. Your father said they canceled so no one got her germs. And that you decided to go out of town with your girlfriend after that.”
“It’s not like I could have brought Eli,” Jeff argued. “We had to leave before he would have been dropped off.”
Maybe if Jeff hadn’t been such an asshole about things in the past this was where they could have worked things out, but she wasn’t going to say that either.
She wasn’t even going to address that statement. Instead, she said, “Your father told me he told you to make other arrangements. That he thought I knew and didn’t know why I was there. He even mentioned that he should have called me to verify before I drove there.”
There was silence on the other end. “He didn’t say that,” Jeff said.
“He actually did. I might even have it recorded,” she said. She wasn’t sure why she was bluffing like that. Maybe because she was so sick of these games.
“Fine,” Jeff said. “Maybe he did say it, but I figured they’d still want to see their grandson.”
“Your mother is sick,” she repeated. “They obviously care enough about their grandson to not expose him to germs,” she said.
She saw her mother waving her hands in anger when she said that. She shook her head and turned her back so she wasn’t distracted by how upset her mother was getting.
“Are you saying I don’t care enough about my child?” Jeff asked.
She could hear a woman’s voice in the background telling him to calm down. To say it was an honest mistake.
Funny, in her mind. Guess Jenna didn’t know her boyfriend enough that he’d never admit to a mistake.
Either he did forget to tell her or he didn’t care. It could go either way, but Jeff wouldn’t ever let on that he might have forgotten something that could come back to him in court.
He’d rather give her shit and make it sound like she didn’t uphold her end of the agreement.
She wasn’t going to let him get away with it.
“I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying that today was your day to get Eli for six hours. Rather than tell me your mother was sick, you let me drive there and I had to interrupt your father for him to tell me. He felt bad about it too. Whether you are there or not means nothing, you’re right. But it does mean something when they can’t take Eli and it looks almost like he was abandoned.”
Her mother got in her face with a big thumbs up. “Get over yourself,” Jeff snapped. “That isn’t abandonment. It’s not like you would ever drop him off and leave without knowing he was with someone.”
“That’s right,” she said. “I’d never do that. Just like I would have let you know what was going on today if the roles were reversed. We’ll see you on Saturday when you get Eli again. Have fun today with Jenna.”
She hung up the phone after that and took a deep breath. “I don’t know why you have to be so nice when you end a call,” her mother said.
“Because it does nothing to yell at him. He called to try to put this on me for breaking our agreement. That is what it’s about.”
