Chapter 5:  If You Can't Stand The Heat, Get Out of The Kitchen 

She impatiently taps her foot as she waits for Justin to answer the door. She’s spent an entire week without her daughter and is anxious to see her sweet face again. Sure she called every night to ‘tuck her in’ over the phone and spoke with her at least one other time, but it just wasn’t the same as face to face contact. Every time she called, Justin tried to initiate conversation, but intimately failed. Andrea actually tried to talk to him, just typical ‘how are you’ type stuff, but it was too difficult to pretend that nothing was wrong. They needed to sit down and sort things out and she’s finally ready to do just that….she’s ready to let him come home—on a temporary basis of course.  

She rings the bell again followed by more knocking, but still no answer. She’s sure he’s home, his car’s in the garage. Rolling her eyes for not realizing it sooner she reaches in her purse and pulls her keys out. It takes her a moment to remember which key belongs to this house—they have three. Finally finding the correct key she unlocks the door and slowly pushes it open. She calls out for Justin before stepping into the foyer and closing the door quietly behind her. She tosses her purse to the table on her right and sheds her coat, dropping to the same table followed by her gloves and scarf.  

“Justin! Tessa?” She calls again, but hears nothing. Creeping around the downstairs in search of her husband and daughter makes her wish they had bought a smaller house. As she makes her way to the end of the long upstairs hallway, she clearly makes out the sound of Justin’s voice singing softly. She tiptoes to the last door on her right. It’s Tessa’s room when they stay here. The door is light pink with her name painted in a brighter pink. The inside matches the door colored in many shades of pinks and purples—it’s a room fit for a princess and purposely made to look like one.  

“Some day, when I'm awfully low,
When the world is cold,
I will feel a glow just thinking of you
And the way you look tonight.”

He’s singing their song…the song they danced to for the first time as a couple and then as man and wife. Ever since they even found out that Andrea was pregnant, Justin would sing this very song to her stomach every night and that tradition carried on to when Tessa was born up until today.  

 

“Yes you're lovely, with your smile so warm
And your cheeks so soft,
There is nothing for me but to love you,
And the way you look tonight.” 

Andrea stands at the doorway silently, unnoticed as Tessa lay with her father sleeping as he softly sings to her. Tears slide down her cheeks. They fall faster with every word he sings and she finds herself clutching the wall for support. His voice always made her go weak in the knees and least when he sang songs like this one—the classics.  
 

“With each word your tenderness grows,
Tearing my fear apart
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,
It touches my foolish heart.”

He brushes some fallen curls from Tessa’s eyes, leaning down to kiss her forehead, whispering the sweet words against her skin. All the while he wears a tender yet wistful smile, no doubt thinking back to happier times.

“Lovely ... Never, ever change.
Keep that breathless charm.
Won't you please arrange it –”

He looks up then catching Andrea’s watery eyes with his and falls silent. They stare at each other for what feels like an eternity, but in reality is only a mere minute. A tear glides down her cheek as she takes her first step toward him. He moves to stand, but she stops him with the raising of her hand.

“'Cause I love you ...” She sings through her tears before he joins her to complete the last line of their song, both singing in a whisper.

 “Just the way you look… tonight.” 

“Rea—” Justin begins, wiping tears from his cheeks, but she quickly cuts him off. She walks to the opposite side of the bed and sits on the edge, looking down at their daughter. She smiles softly and runs the back of her hand over Tessa’s cheek before looking back up at Justin again—her smile faltering just slightly.

“I’m ready for you to come home.”

“Are you sure?” He nearly stutters, so completely shocked by this sudden turn of events. She could barely speak to him yesterday on the phone and know she’s asking him to come home—it just doesn’t make sense to him. He wasn’t about to question it though.

“You were right,” She prompts, still whispering. “We’re never going to find out if we can get past this, if we don’t try. I needed some time to…to be angry and to think, but I’m ready to try now. That is if you haven’t already given up on us.”

“I will never give up on us Andrea. Never.” He stresses, reaching out to grasp her hand. She tenses for a moment, but quickly relaxes and intertwines their fingers. He always uses her full name when he’s passionate.

“Why don’t you go pack a bag and I’ll take Tessa out to the car?”

Twenty minutes later they’re back home and Justin is unpacking his bag of clothes and putting his toothbrush back in it’s rightful place—next to his wife’s. When he finally makes his way back downstairs he finds Andrea in the kitchen with Tessa. They appear to be preparing some type of pastry.

“Hey Daddy?”

“Yeah sweetie?” Justin answers with an amused chuckle when he notices their matching pink aprons. He walks to the fridge and grabs a bottle of water from the bottom drawer before turning back to stand at the island.

“I’m making you cupcakes with Momma.”

“You are?”

“They gonna be good too.” She giggles and then licks her batter-covered fingers. Andrea shakes her head—the girl just doesn’t understand that it’s not sanitary to lick your fingers and then put them back in the batter. Good thing the cupcake will only be eaten by the three of them.

“I’m sure they will be.”

“Did you get all of your things unpacked?” Andrea asks somewhat awkwardly. This is going to be difficult—getting back to the way things used to be between them. Right now the air is thick with tension and discomfort. It will take time to learn they’re new boundaries and to just get comfortable with one another again.

“Yeah, I didn’t have much.” He answers, dipping his finger into the white bowl filled with batter and sucking it off with a devilish smile. He’s just as bad as any little kid.

“Alright,” Andrea smiles picking up the two filled cupcake tins and walking towards the oven. “Now all we have to do is wait and then we get to decorate.”

“Yay!” Tessa shouts excitedly, jumping off her stool and following her mother over the stove. She watches her mom expertly deliver the tins to the scorching oven as if studying for a test. “Can I watch Little Mermaid while I wait?”

“If you can find it.”

“I go find it right now.” She runs off in the opposite direction and noisily up the stairs, singing what little she knows of ‘Under the Sea’ along the way.

“She sure does love to sing.” Justin chuckles, assisting Andrea in cleaning up the mess she and Tessa made.

“Who do you think she gets that from?”

“She may like to sing like me, but she sure sounds a lot like you.” He cracks knowing full well how sensitive Andrea is about her singing voice. She knows she can’t sing and to have a professional singer criticized you about it is hard to take…even if it is a joke and the professional singer is your husband. 

Her jaw drops and she scoffs in pretend offense. “I can’t believe you said that.”

“I only speak the truth.” The minute the words left his mouth he knew he shouldn’t have said them. He may be kidding, but now is not the time to joke about being truthful. Andrea’s smile instantly falls to a frown and the tension that had just started to float from the room is now back and thicker than ever.

Spiteful comebacks swirl through her head, but she bites her tongue. If they are going to work again she can’t spend the rest of their marriage bringing up his unfaithful past and lies he may have told. So instead she just isn’t going to say anything—you know the saying, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all; that definitely applies to this very situation.

“I’m going to go check on Tess and see if she’s found her movie.”

“Okay,” Justin nods, shoving his hands deep in his pockets and licking his lips nervously. “I’ll pop some popcorn and get us some drinks.”

“That sounds good.” She answers over her shoulder and practically runs out of the kitchen and upstairs to the solstice of her daughter’s room.

Justin relaxes the moment her feet hit the stairs. This is going to be a lot more difficult than he thought. He sighs, shaking away his negative thoughts and begins searching the cupboards for some popcorn and glasses. She must have rearranged the cupboards again—she does that when she’s upset, organize. Of course the popcorn is in the very last place he looks. He opens the box and tosses the bag into the microwave. He gets three glasses as the corn pops and fills one with water for him, one with Diet Pepsi for Andrea, and the last with apple juice for Tessa. Now all he needed to find was a straw for Tessa.

He searches the first three drawers and finds nothing but silverware and other cooking instruments. As he pulls open the fourth of many drawers Andrea reenters the kitchen.

“Tessa found the movie.” She announces as the microwave beeps, sounding that the popcorn is ready. She grabs a bowl and carefully pours the white kernels inside, snatching a few warm pieces for herself.

Justin continues rummaging through the same drawer when he comes upon a curious picture. He pulls it from the drawer and turns it right side up. A deep frown sets on his face as he turns around to face Andrea.

“What are you looking for…” She trails off when she first sees his clearly upset face and then what he’s holding in his hand.

“What the hell is this?”

“Justin it’s—” She starts but Justin quickly cuts her off.

“What? Not what it looks like?” He asks rhetorically, his voice rising with every word. “This looks an awful f***ing lot like an ultrasound—an ultrasound with our f***ing last name on it and a date from last week!”

“Lower your voice,” She whispers harshly, looking over her shoulder into the room Tessa is currently sitting.

“I will not lower my voice,” The statement fails him when his tone lowers to match hers. “Are you pregnant Andrea?”

“You weren’t supposed to see that.” Andrea crosses the short distance between them and tries to swipe the picture out of his hand, but he raises it above his head and out of her reach. “Justin give that to me right now.”

“Answer my question!”

“Mommy?” Tessa’s hesitant voice breaks their heated argument and the both turn towards their daughter. “Why are you fighting?”

“We’re not fighting baby,” Andrea coos, forcing a smile.

“You were yelling.” She points out with a pronounced pout.

“We were just playin’.” Justin adds.

“Go turn on your movie and we’ll be right in, okay?” After a moments hesitation Tessa takes her mother’s advice and moves back into the living room. Andrea lets out a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding and grabs the bowl of popcorn and Tessa’s drink.

“This isn’t over Andrea.”

“The straws are in the pantry.” She swallows and slinks out of the kitchen before it gets any hotter.

TBC....