In Love With An Older Man 16: Valentine's Day

February 1994

Cindy had cooked Gary's favorite dish, lasagna, for dinner. She had made a Ceasar salad and bread sticks to go with it, and for dessert she had made his favorite, strawberry shortcake.

Jonathan was tired from an invigorating session of physical therapy, so she carried him on one hip while she prepared dinner. Rebecca busily sped around the house on her Disney princess ride-on toy. Jake was on the phone with Brandy, his current girlfriend.

Cindy heard the key turn in the lock, and Rebecca immediately got off her ride-on toy and danced around shouting "Daddy!" A couple of minutes later, Gary entered the house holding one hand behind his back. Cindy tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and went to meet him.

When Gary saw her, he revealed the heart-shaped box of chocolates he had been hiding behind his back. "Happy Valentine's Day, honey," he said.

"Oh, Gary, you're so sweet!" Cindy hugged him with her free arm and kissed his cheek.

"Daddy!" Jonathan exclaimed, grinning.

"Hi there, Jonny! How did PT go today?"

"It went really well, but he's all tuckered out," Cindy said.

"Aww." Gary ruffled his son's hair playfully. "Hey, is that lasagna I smell?" He took Jonathan from Cindy so that she could set the table.

"So, how was your day?" Cindy asked, when they were seated.

"It was all right. Busy, as usual." Gary helped himself to a heaping spoonful of steaming lasagna. "By the way, the saga of Jason and Vicky has ended. She just left him for a pilot."

"Just desserts," Cindy said under her breath.

"What was that?"

"I said, that must hurt."

"I'm sure it does, but he kind of had it coming, didn't he? Although of course I could never have told him that."

Cindy chuckled.

"What's funny?"

'Oh, nothing. That must be terribly awkward for them, still having to work together."

"Oh, she's not with the law firm anymore. She's in training to be an airline attendant now."

"That seems awfully flighty of her, doesn't it?" Half a second later, Cindy realized what she had just said and burst out laughing. Gary joined in.

"Well, now Debbie can come back, can't she?"

"I don't think so. Jason wants her to, but I think she's planning to stay in Brooklyn. She has a job there now, and she's enrolled Joel and Micah in school there."

"How sad."

"Yeah. He misses his kids, Cyn." He should have thought about that before having an affair with Vicky, Cindy wanted to say, but didn't.

After the meal was over, Gary put his arms around Cindy and embraced her tightly. Cindy sighed with contentment and rested her head on his shoulder.

"That was a wonderful dinner, honey. Thank you so much." He kissed her lips tenderly, and the garlic on his breath didn't bother her at all.

"Why, you're very welcome, Gary." Cindy was surprised but delighted. "I enjoy doing things to make you happy."

"I really appreciate everything about you, Cyn. I'm just afraid I don't tell you often enough."

Cindy could tell that Jason's ordeal weighed heavily on Gary's mind, and she clung to him for a few minutes longer before reluctantly pulling away. "I need to start the dishes," she said softly.

"Oh, no, don't worry about that. I'll take care of them. You sit down and relax and enjoy your Valentine's Day present."

Cindy laughed. "You're the most wonderful husband in the world, Gary."

Gary grinned. "Thanks. I'm so glad you think so."

Later that evening, the phone rang, and to Cindy's surprise, it was her brother Peter.

"Hey, Pete! What's up?" she greeted him.

"Well, I seem to have this problem which I was hoping that you could relate to. It's Wendy's little boy, Dylan. Lately he seems, well, very possessive of his mother. Any time she wants to go out and leave him with a sitter, he throws a tantrum. She's had to resort to sneaking out while the sitter keeps him distracted. Also, when we're together and Dylan's with us, he constantly wants to be the center of attention. If we're talking together, he interrupts all the time, and any time we try to show each other physical affection, he physically comes between us. I've tried to be patient and understanding, but I feel like I've had just about as much of it as I can take. I really care for Wendy, but I'm beginning to wonder if it was a mistake to get involved with someone who has a child."

"I thought that talking with you might be helpful, since I know that you had some trouble winning Jake and Carly over in the beginning. How would you suggest I deal with it?"

Cindy was flattered that Peter had turned to her for advice, and she really wanted to help her brother, although she wasn't sure how much her own experience would benefit him, since Dylan was so much younger now than Jake and Carly had been when she had started dating Gary.

"Well, what I did was to try to relate to them on their own level. For example, I knew the kind of music Carly liked, so I loaned her a bunch of my CD's. I even took her to a New Kids On The Block concert, just the two of us, for some female bonding. I think that, more than anything else, really brought us closer. Jake was a little more of a challenge, but I knew that he was really interested in Major League baseball, so I learned all I could about the teams and the players and their ERAs so that I could talk about those things with him."

Peter laughed. "Well, Dylan is really into Shining Time Station. He has all the trains, knows each of their names, and everything. Thomas the Tank Engine is his favorite. Maybe I should check into that some more. Thanks for the suggestions, Cindy."

"No problem at all. Good luck."

"Peter just called me to ask for advice about dating someone with kids," Cindy told Gary later.

"Let me guess. You told him it was a piece of cake, right?"

Cindy burst out laughing. "Oh, you're so funny," she said.