Jacob didn't ring the doorbell, but walked right into the house. He led me over a hallway full of shoes in every size and permutation. The house smelled of boiled cabbage. We walked into a family room full of people talking. Everyone turned and stared at us. A baby began to wail.
A silver-haired black lady, who I immediately realized was Jacob's mother, waved to me and said, “You must be Lexie. Come in here. Let us get a look at you!”
This made everyone else laugh and hoot and then go back to their visiting.
Some people scooted over on the fireplace mantel for me to take a seat. I shook Jacob's mother's hand, and then met his father, who was white. Both of Jacob's parents were incredibly attractive and seemed kind, which made sense. I tried to politely and succinctly answer their questions about what I did for a living, evading the questions about what I'd been doing in Indonesia.
A man who looked a lot like Jacob, except taller, came over and shook my hand. He had a kid hanging off each leg. “Why were you in Indonesia?” he asked.
I gulped. “Scuba diving.”
“Ah,” he said, beaming.
Some other people—cousins, I'd later learn—started talking about their last scuba diving vacation, and with that, the pressure was off of me.
Over the next two hours, I met a lot of Jacob's family, and was fed a cheeseburger from the grill. The burger was burnt on the outside and an unsafe-looking pink on the inside, but I ate it anyway.
When one of Jacob's nieces came over and grabbed my hand to show me her room, I went graciously. The little girl wanted to show me everything in her room, along with telling me all the related stories. She was a nice kid, and honestly, I was relieved to do this, just the two of us, away from everyone else.
I noticed she had an adjustable closet organizer system in her closet, but it wasn't organized for optimal use by a little girl. With a little work, I got everything out of the closet, put the shelves back in at better heights, and we put everything back in. I showed her how to roll sweaters and fit them into the vertical cubby-holes, and then we did a quick color-sort on everything.
When that was done, we did a sorting on her toy box.
We were organizing her sock drawer when Jacob came looking for me, ready to go home.
The little girl, Erica, was so excited, showing him what we'd done.
He smiled at her, then pulled me aside, saying, “I don't think you should have changed her room around without asking her mother.”
Although he said the words gently, they stung. I felt like a fool.
We said goodbye to everyone and went back out to his car in silence. The sun had set, and I could hear frogs at a nearby pond.
Inside the car, Jacob sighed heavily and said, “I'm sure my sister-in-law will be fine, she's just particular.”
“Okay,” I said. I couldn't remember which one she was, but I'd met a number of women, and they'd all seemed nice enough. “You know, I am a professional organizer. All we did was adjust some shelves. I didn't paint the room or throw anything out.” I laughed, trying to lighten the mood. “You're the firefighter, so you know. You'd fix a safety hazard if you saw one.”
His tone serious, he said, “I'd put out a fire.”
He pulled onto the highway, driving aggressively and weaving in and out of lanes. I was annoyed, but bit my tongue.
As we entered the city, I finally broke the silence, saying, “Maybe I did overstep my bounds by moving the shelves, but … maybe you shouldn't have sprung your entire family on me all at once like that.”
“I thought you wanted to move to the next level.” He honked the horn at a slow-moving car in front of us.
“I didn't exactly say anything about levels.”
He turned and frowned at me, his face lit by moving streetlights. “Lexie.”
“Jacob.”
“Lexie, why do you have to act so hot and cold? I mean, I come over to take you out, invite you into my life, and you barely say three words to me before you've got my c**k in your hands.”
“That's funny. I don't remember you complaining.”
“I'm not. I mean, I haven't been. Maybe I am now.”
“So … you don't want me to enjoy your body? You don't want me to wear fancy underwear for you?”
“Stop twisting my words. Damn women, always twisting words.”
I put my face in my hands and willed myself to do a mood reset. I can handle this, I told myself.
“I'm sorry,” I said, and I meant it. “Let's start fresh, right now. Tell me what level you'd like us to take this to. Let's talk.”
He shifted in his seat, opening his mouth a few times, but not saying anything. He seemed to be rehearsing something in his head.
Finally, he said, “I want what my brother has. I'll have to sell this little car, I know that. There's barely a backseat, let alone space for a carseat and all the other stuff.”
I sat silently, my eyes bulging wide open, waiting for him to laugh, to say he was joking. But he didn't.
Calmly, I repeated back to him what I thought he meant. “You want to get married, move to the suburbs, and have a bunch of kids?”
“Yeah. Don't you?”
I practically shouted, saying “No!”
He put on the signal light and pulled the car into the right-hand lane and then into an empty parking lot near a big box store. He killed the engine and turned to me. “What do you want?”
“I don't know.” I crossed my arms and uncrossed them. My throat hurt, the front of it being especially tight. “I might want the house and the kids … someday. Probably. But not right now. Don't you want to date for a while, see how it goes?”
“We've been dating,” he said. “I've already seen how it goes.”
“Jacob, you're an amazing guy—”
“But! But-but. Please don't say it, Lexie. Don't say but.”
Softly, I said, “You are amazing, though.”
He started the engine again, but didn't start driving yet. “Can I ask you a question, and you'll answer completely honestly?”
“Sure,” I said, ready to come clean about Indonesia and who I was with.
“Did you buy that fancy underwear specifically for me?”
“No.”
He laughed, softly first, but then louder. “So this whole thing is just a cosmic misunderstanding.”
“You mean life? Yeah, I'd say life is one giant cosmic misunderstanding.”
He reached over and patted my leg. “You're a good one. If you do get ready to settle down, will you look me up?”
“Oh, Jacob. This isn't the end.”