Wendy knew Jim had kissed her before he left for work that Monday morning but could not seem to be able to escape her sleep. Mental turmoil had had kept her awake for a long portion of the night.
Much later Mike announced breakfast was ready and she finally stirred but was somewhat surprised to note Karen was in bed with her. When they got up they noticed that Mike was dressed so they dressed too.
As they ate breakfast Karen asked her Aunt Wendy when she knew she was in love with Jim.
It never occurred to Wendy to deny she was and simply searched her mind for the correct answer.
After a few moments she answered, "The first time I saw him."
"Funny," Mike said. "That's what Dad said when I asked him the same question about you this morning."
Karen said, "That's a hell of a lot less time than it took you!"
"Funny, Dad said that too, although it is not true. It took me a long time to accept I was in love with you but in reality I fell in love with you when you walked past me with a possum in your arms."
"Really?" Karen said. "I picked up the possum just so you would notice me. I guess it worked."
Wendy watched as Mike and Karen kissed each other lovingly as she felt her own happiness begin to exude through her pores. Jim had confessed to his son that he was in love with her.
After they ate breakfast Mike and Karen drove Wendy to her townhome. She was stunned by how unfamiliar, how foreign her home of ten years felt. She was mostly in a haze as she spent her first work hours daydreaming. Her reveries were interrupted later that morning when Mike and Karen came in. Karen handed Wendy a house key on an intertwined heart's lover's key chain.
Mike said, "That is a key to the house. Dad told me to tell you Mi casa es tu casa. His home is your home."
Wendy stood there with a blank expression on her face, her mind had short circuited a bit. Karen asked, "Would you like for us to move you in now?"
Wendy snapped out of her fog and trembled as she said, "I am sure he would not want an old broad to just invade his man cave."
Mike said, "You are right there, no old broads for him. It is you he wants in the house. He said anytime you are ready as long as it is soon."
Wendy burst into tears, which scared Mike until he remembered that Karen cried when he asked her to move in with him.
Wendy searched her mind for logic, for a reasonable argument to delay what she knew was inevitable, what she knew she wanted more than anything.
Karen put her hand out. Wendy numbly placed her townhome key in it.
Six hours later she closed the shop but before leaving in her car she had to sit through a crying spell. She knew it was just a release of nerves so she allowed the tears to flow until she had regained self-control.
When she walked through the door and walked into her townhouse she immediately became disoriented. Her furniture was gone. All the pictures on every wall were gone. Her pantry and refrigerator were empty, and her small appliances were gone. Her bedroom was empty and her workshop was empty. The only thing remaining in the entire townhouse was the shower curtain.
She was just lost. She stopped in the living room and took a deep breath.
"Nobody lives here," she muttered to herself.
Wendy drove to her new home, Jim's home.
When she arrived she saw that Karen and Mike where in the hot tub in the middle of "getting better acquainted" so she decided not to interrupt them and surveyed the house.
Jason's photographs were prominently displayed in the living room walls. She did not remember what if anything had been there before. She did know that they looked better there than they did in her condo.
She smiled as she remembered hearing of Jason's decision to relocate to Felicity. He loved being in the middle of a large family. He had been an only child and both of his parents had re-married and lived in Europe. He had not heard from either of his parents in over two years. They had now become superfluous to him. As far as he was concerned Wendy's sister Mo was his mother, not his mother-in-law. Wendy understood that she was his Aunt Wendy.
Her recliner was next to his with one of her small tables between them. She loved her recliner but knew that she would not be in it as often. She now preferred to sit on Jim's lap on his recliner. Her loveseat complemented his couch, as did her wingback chair. The living room furniture looked like a set and Wendy began to appreciate just how big his house was. Their house.
Wendy went into the kitchen and found that her stuff had seamlessly merged with Jim's. It in fact appeared that she had the small appliances he did not. His pantry was very full as was his refrigerator and freezer. The freezer was missing a duck. The duck she had been saving in her own freezer for a special occasion was defrosting in the sink.
She smiled at Karen's hint; she knew it was a special occasion duck. Karen had decided that today was a special occasion.
Wendy walked to their bedroom expecting to see a major upheaval. Her dresser was to the wall on what was already her side of the bed as was her night table. Her roses were on it. She just realized that she was so out of it that morning that she had forgotten to take them to work.
