Cross My Heart

Jimmy helped us in the kitchen for as long as he could and then he decided that it was time to take a shower before dinner got put on the table. I gave him a hug and then let him go and turned to Dillon who was busy looking at his phone.

"Whatcha doin'?" I asked sitting down next to him.

"Nothin', nosy ass. What are YOU doing?"

I smiled. "Talking to you. So, who are you texting? Is it that girl?"

He shook his head. "No I haven't talked to her yet today."

"Really? You like her as much as you said and you haven't even wished her a happy Thanksgiving yet?"

"I don't think she wants to be bothered. She's got a pretty good life without me ruining it." He said and quickly stuck his phone back in his pocket.

I sighed and looked at him. "Are you alright, butthead?"

He smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine. Nothin' a good stiff-" He didn't get the entire sentence out before I started laughing. "Oh come on, YOU can't be that immature."

"I am. Sometimes. Come on, I'm married to Jimmy! I can't help but make those kinds of connections."

Dillon smiled a wide smile then ran a hand over his face.

"Hey, I bet you I can obliterate you in Call of Duty."

"Whhaaat? No you can't. There's no such thing as a woman who can beat me at video games."

"Jee, that's kind of sexist, don't you think?"

"Says the woman who was hinting around that I didn't know how to cook for myself." He argued.

"That's not being sexist, that's just telling the truth."

"I made those pies just fine thank you very much without your help."

"Yeah, you did. Good job by the way." I reached over and patted his head.

Dillon did his best to frown at me in disgust but it ended up coming out in an adorable pout. "So what about this bet then. You wanna bet money or slavery?"

"Hmm, money isn't that interesting anymore and last I knew slavery was illegal... let's think of something more fun and valuable. That way we really get down and dirty."

A snort.

"What? Oh please, I can't talk like a dude?"

"What dude do you know says 'lets get down and dirty'?" He paused for a second then we both at once said, "Charlie."

"Okay fine, what's your idea of valuable?"

I smiled at him and then crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair, trying to look like an evil henchman. Instead I leaned a little too far in the faulty chair and looked slightly stupid.

"That's what you get." He said.

"Har har. Anyway... if I win...how about you have to tell me who the girl is that you like?"

"Uh what? You don't know her, it's not like it's gonna matter to you who it is."

"No, but I still want to know. You're all secretive and shit with the guys. I like to know secrets. Secrets are awesome. As long as I'm the other half of knowing. I guess.... anyways, come on. If you don't want me to know then you're just gonna have to really try hard. Won't you?"

"Fine. Then what do I get if I win?"

I shrugged. "What do you want?"

Dillon took a long time to answer, for a few minutes all he did was sit there and look a little distant, but when he came back to he looked at me. "If you win I'll tell you who the girl is. If I win however, you have to-"

It seemed like every time someone was about to say something interesting around here they got interrupted. Just as Dillon was about to make his demands there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get that I guess, since I do live here."

"You should."

I got up and walked over to the door going through every person I could in my head that would be there, then opened it.

"Surprise!" yelled a male voice, just before knocking me almost completely over.

"Matt?!" I yelled despite the fact that the man had me in a bear hug. "What are you doing here, I thought you were suppose to be gone until next month?"

"Ahhh, you know me! I can't stay away from your beautiful face! Why, don't want me here?"

I laughed and pulled away from him but he kept one arm around me. "Of course I want you here! I was just telling Jimmy earlier that I wished you could be here! I'm so excited!"

"Whoa, don't let your husband hear you."

"He won't care, he'll probably be just as excited."

"Yeah you're right." Matt then turned his attention to Dillon who was now standing. "Hey man! What's up?"

"Not much, this son of a bitch had me fuckin' baking pies at like six in the morning though." He nodded at me.

"What? There's gonna be pies? Fuck yes. Thank God, at my mom's we didn't have pie. We had some weird shit my sister made. Good but not as good as pie. Nothing is ever as good as pie. Remember that." He said pointing at me.

I laughed. "I will."

When all of the boys were together and under one roof it was chaos. Now add the excitement of the holidays and the food they were about to eat and even without Charlie it was ten times worse. I felt like I had three little kids now to look after but I didn't mind. It made me feel like one big happy family, like the kind that you would see on a sitcom or something. I never wanted to lose that feeling.

"So anyone up for a little Call of Duty?" Matt asked. "You know, if there isn't anything that I can help you with for dinner of course." He added when he caught my look.

"No you guys are free to go play your games. In fact in just a few minutes when I'm done with the dishes here I think I'll even play."
There was an echo of 'ohhhhh' between them.

"The wife is gonna play video games with us!" Jimmy said.

"Yeah, and be prepared to die." I said casually and then looked at Dillon. "And just so you know, if I do play and happen to beat at least YOU still, I win the bet."

Dillon's face dropped and he looked at me. "What?"

"Yeah, what?" Matt asked. It didn't take much to interest him.

"It's nothing. We made a bet earlier. I won't tell you what it is because there's really no need to but I told him if I won I got something, and if he won he got something. Though, before he could tell me what he wanted you barged in here so..."

"Wait, wait, wait. You guys are gambling without me?" Jimmy asked. "I'm shocked at you two. Just..shocked!"

"What? You want in on this too?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"You're damn strait I want in on this!" he flung his arms around.
"What are we betting here? Or does it all have to be secret?"

"Guys we don't have to-" Dillon started but Jimmy held his hand up to silence him.

"No, just Dillon's bet is a secret. It's between him and I anyway. If you want in on the action though you're more than welcome. We can all make bets with each other. Then at the end it can be like a... Thanksgiving tradition."

They all looked at me and nodded thoughtfully, even Dillon who I thought had been acting rather strange lately.

"Awe, but man, we can't go making stuff up like this without Charlie." Matt said.

"Um, excuse me?" Dillon looked at him. "He went and made a baby so he has to be an adult now. No more foolish shit from him."

"Yeah right. I can't foresee ANY of you guys stopping with the crazy if you had a kid." I said.

"Hey. If we had a kid I would grow up." Jimmy said.

"Please." Matt snorted.

"It's true. If anyone here would still be like a little kid it would be Matt." Dillon said pointing.

"Don't you point that thing at me, I'll break it right off."

"Alright! As fun as it would be to go to the hospital so we could have something to talk about when the baby gets older, I don't want anyone ripping anything off. Unless it's on video games then...okay. Or .. part of the bet you make... I guess." I said. They
all looked at each other then me.

"So are we all making this ONE bet against you? And you with each of us, or how does it work?" Matt asked.

"Well I have my bet with Dillon. So I'll take bets with you two and you can bet against me. Too many bets might get confusing and honestly if you all bet and win and your prize is pulling my fingers off... well that's two less fingers. I wouldn't care too much for that."

The boys nodded.

"We want to talk it over. In private." Jimmy said eyeballing me.
"We'll be right back."

Matt and Jimmy disappeared to the living room and I looked over at Dillon. "I won't tell them what you owe me, but you owe me if I win." I said quietly.

"That's alright. Maybe I should tell someone and get it out there.
Then again I dunno. I might get my ass beat."

"Why would you get your ass beat?"

"Cuz if this girl knew that I had a thing for her, she'd beat my ass."

"What-"

"Ohhh wife!" Jimmy yelled and appeared in the kitchen with Matt right behind him.

"Yes, husband?" I asked.

"We came to a conclusion that if we win, we want you to cook us amazing dinners for one week." He said.

"That's it? Alright..."

"Nope, that's not it. You have to make both Matt and I DIFFERENT magnificent dinners for one week."

I frowned. "Okay... I can still do that I guess."

"No no, I'm not done. Not only do you have to go through all the trouble of making two amazing dinners for us, but YOU are only allowed to eat either one, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or two, Ramen noodles."

I scowled fully now. "Are you kidding me? I don't even like peanut butter, it's fucking gross."

Matt looked at me with a serious face. "That's the point. Make this
worth it."

I sighed. "Fine. So I have to cook you guys great shit, I have to eat shit, and so..." I trailed off and let myself think of something that would be worth it to me that I could win if I won.

Matt wouldn't be that hard to figure out, he was always whining about not wanting to do something so I could just give him one of those things and laugh it out. Jimmy on the other hand, I really wanted to get him. I wanted to be able to wake up every morning and know that I had won the bet and he was going to have to do
what I said.

"Well? If you can't think of anything then we don't have to do it." Matt said.

"Oh no, you little assholes. I'll think of something, just give me a second."

"Make it quick. We don't have all day." Jimmy said.

"Alright I got it. I'll do that stuff. But if I win just know ... that you're gonna have it worse than me."

"Oh come on, we have to make it equal." Matt argued.

"No. If you wanna do it, you're gonna do it right." I said giving them dirty looks. "If I have to eat peanut butter and Ramen noodles then you're gonna have to do this."

"What is it?" Dillon asked.

"If I win you guys aren't allowed to watch the next seven games of the football season, and I don't just mean the little games either. I mean the BIG Sunday games that you guys get so out of control at."

"What?!" Matt asked looking slightly wild at me. "I can't do that! No! Think of something else!"

"Ohhhh I have. ON top of the football games you, Matt, can't play call of Duty when you come over anymore! Instead if you want to come over and play anything of any sorts, it has to be Monopoly. My Seinfeld edition."

"What?! Why the hell do you have a Seinfeld edition of a fucking board game?" He asked.

"Because I love my wife and she loves that show." Jimmy threw in looking rather nervous for his half of the bargain.

"That's right." I smiled. "And I'll remember that too when I'm thinking up your half."

"Alright, I got mine." Dillon interrupted. He smiled at me. "If you win, you know what you get so it's all good right?"

I nodded.

"So if I win you know what that means?"

"What? What could possibly be worse than peanut...butter...and noodles!?" I struggled over the word peanut butter.

"You have to come with me to hit on girls at the mall."

I looked at him.

"That's right. You have to pretend to be a lesbian for a day, AND you have to invite the first nice girl you meet with us so we can take her out to dinner."

"Dillon, do you HEAR yourself? What kind of bet is that? It's not that bad, I'm not even insulted. I like lesbians."

"Then you'll have no problem doing that, will you?" He asked.

I looked over at Jimmy who was now wearing a dorky grin. "Stop thinking about it." I said frowning at him.

"Whaat? I wasn't. I just think it's amusing is all. No, she's right Dillon, bad idea." He changed his tune as the look I gave him got dirtier.

"Nope. She wants something from me that's worth equal value. It's this or no dice." He said.

I sighed heavily and weighed out my options. I didn't have to date the girl, just meet one and take her out. Then I could explain in the end and help her meet someone else. No, that sounded too much like some cheesy movie. "Alright." I grunted. "I accept that, and I accept the noodles thing."

"And we accept the football thing." Jimmy said quickly. "And Matt's Monopoly thing."

"What?! No, what's Jimmy gotta do then? He can't just get the no football thing, he needs a second thing too!"

Jimmy slapped Matt in the back of the head and Matt punched his arm. "I don't need shit. I'm married to her so whatever she says is gonna be ten times worse! I see her every day man. EVERY.DAY."

"So what! You chose that when you chose to marry me!" I yelled.

"Yeah!" Dillon and Matt yelled together.

"Hey, Mexican, you stay out of this." Jimmy pointed at him.

"Don't point at me, fool!"

"Alright! No more threatening to remove fingers! Jimmy, if you lose not only do you have the football thing to worry about but YOU aren't allowed to watch new episodes of Breaking Bad. Instead you have to watch re-runs of Hello Kitty until a week is up."

Jimmy's face fell. "I can't do that! You know Breaking Bad is my favorite damn show! Come on! I won't watch football for the rest of the year if you don't want me to!" He protested.

"Sorry. Them's the breaks. If you don't likes 'em you can always go through withdrawls of something ELSE."He caught my drift and then clenched his jaw. "Finnnnne."

"So it's settled then. We all know what our betting is, we all know what who's worth. Shall I go check on the food one last time and then join you losers in the living room?"

"FINE!" they all yelled.

"But don't come crying to me when you lose against all three of us and have to eat noodles for a week and fine dine a lesbian!"
Jimmy said and then stalked off to the living room. Matt and Dillon gave me one last hairy eyeball then followed him in.

I laughed.

-

Since it was late November the sun didn't stick around long enough to keep it daylight past five o'clock, making it difficult to want to remain awake most days, I had decorated the outside of our house with Christmas lights to help light up our yard a little bit. Sure we had the porch light, and the flood light that turned on when anyone was near it, but to me I needed festive light. It could have been all the excitement of the baby and having a husband to share it all with but I was feeling extremely over the top.

I was outside, wrapped up in my large fluffy coat that Jimmy had gotten me as an early present, messing around with the lights and
decorations when Dillon popped out to see how I was doing.

"I'm good." I said.

"Are you sure?" He asked, little puffs of steam leaving his mouth as he talked.

"Yes, why?"

"Because...."

I groaned. "Ahh. So what? I'll be eating peanut butter sandwiches and dating a lesbian for a week. I can deal with it, it's only a week."

He laughed. "Yeah, about that, that's sorta why I came out."

I stopped what I was doing long enough to warm my hands back up then continued. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"You don't have to do the whole lesbian thing. I wasn't really expecting to win, so I just pretty much said whatever came to mind honestly. I'm not gonna make you do that."

I let my hands fall to my sides and looked at him. There was something so different about Dillon and I was determined to find out what it was. All of my gut instincts were telling me that it had to do with this mystery woman, a woman who he said would beat his ass if she found out he had feelings for her. So who was she? And why was he keeping her such a secret?

"Hey Dilly Bean, what's up?" I questioned finally. "You know you can tell me right? I won't tell those guys. They're too busy gloating anyway, I'm kind of mad at them."

He smiled. "It's nothing, really. I told you, I'm fine."

"Ahh. Well that would be convincing if it wasn't for the fact that you're not reaping the fruits of your win tonight in video games. I should be fine dining a woman next week but I'm not. You're being weird, not gonna lie."

Dillon looked at the ground and then kicked at it with his foot. "I'm alright, I promise Lay."

"Well if you're not gonna tell me at least tell SOMEone... I don't like it when you look at sad and shit."

He scoffed. "Me? I'm not sad and shit."

I looked over at him and smiled slightly.

"Alriiiiight, I'm not sad. I'm just...." he shrugged his shoulders.

"Left out?" I asked.

"Maybe. I mean... Charlie's got some chick knocked up and it's a beautiful thing and all, but it was a mistake. Now he has this full life with a woman and a kid. Jimmy's got you... Matt...well he's a loser like me I guess."

I laughed and put down the stuff in my hand and walked over to him, touching his arm. "You're not a loser. Matt might be..but that's just because I'm not so fond of him right now."

Dillon smiled.

"But you're not a loser, Dilly Bean. You know it's out there if you wanna go get it. This girl you like, maybe she wouldn't 'beat your ass' if you told her the truth. She might actually feel the same way."

"No, that's not possible."

"Why not?"

He looked at me with big chocolate brown eyes. "It's complicated..she's-"

"Weeeeee are the champions, my friiiiieeeennnnnddsssssss."

"Annnd we'll keeep on fiiiighting 'till the ennnndddd."

"BUM BUM BUM BUMMMMM."

Jimmy and Matt walked out looking rather proud and I gave Dillon an apologetic look. It seemed like the universe didn't really want me to know who Dillon was secretly crushing on.

"Oh hell no, get out of here. Part of me losing was not having to talk to you fools anymore. I'll just serve my time and that's it." I said going back to my work.

"Oh come on babe, it's just peanut butter." Jimmy said.

"Yeah, why do you hate it so much?" Matt asked.

"Because! When I was little we didn't really have money. We were broke a lot and any food money we had extra went on making sure we had good dinners because that's all my father was ever home for. I ended up eating a LOT of peanut butter sandwiches."

"Just peanut butter?" Dillon asked.

"Yes. Just that. If I was lucky I got a glass of milk to go with it, other than that though it was water."

"You...You never told me that shit." Jimmy said coming up beside me and sliding one arm around my middle.

"Well. It's not something I really tell people. You wouldn't know it looking at my parents now. It wasn't so bad, I mean.. we did have more than peanut butter but it sure seems like that's what the majority of it was." I said.

"Well, I love you and I won't make you eat the peanut butter and jelly. I can think of something else to force you to eat with your noodles." Jimmy said and bent down to kiss my forehead.

Across the street we heard a door open and we glanced over to my old apartment to see Charlie, Mia and a few other people come out and stand around.

"Looks like family time is over, over there." Matt said.

"Yeah, do you think he's gonna have room to eat another dinner?" I asked.

"Charlie? Yes. Most definitely. Mia? She has barely enough room to fit in there with that giant baby." Jimmy said.

"Hey losers!" Charlie yelled and waved at us.

"Hi Charlie!" We said together.

"We'll be over in a few minutes!"

"Alright!" I yelled back then turned to them. "Better than a telephone call. Shall we all go back inside, I think my nose and my
toes are all frozen together."

"Your nose is frozen to your toes?" Dillon asked.

"That would be an awkward sight." Matt said.

"Not as awkward as someone coming to find you two frozen in a huddled, cuddly position." I said. "Which is what will happen to you guys if you don't stop with the Queen by the way."

Jimmy laughed and kissed the top of my head again. "Alright,
come on. The wife is getting delirious from the cold. Let's get back in there before she chops us up and accidentally serves us for dinner with the turkey."

"Accidentally?" I questioned.

"Well..I hope not on purpose."

"We'll see."

The four of us went inside and waited for Charlie and Mia to join us.