New Meadowlands Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ
It was a great fucking day for a Rock-n-Roll… a hundred or so lucky radio and backstage winning fans, the parking lot of Giants’-fucking-Stadium and Bon Jovi. What more could you ask for?
Yeah I know… New Meadowlands Stadium. Whatevah. It will always be Giants’ Stadium to me.
All and all it had been a good day. After saying their goodbyes, the band parted ways, and he and Richie took the kids back to the house. He should’ve known better than to take ‘Thing One’ and ‘Thing Two’ to something like this without any help. Poor Stephanie. He was sure this was going to cost him. The good thing was that his mom was back at the house waiting for them, hopefully with a nice home-cooked meal and a chilled bottle of wine or twelve.
The boys made a bee-line up the stairs, fighting about who would go first playing the video game. Jon paused to yell at them to play nice while Richie went on toward the kitchen.
When he joined his friend, he found his mother exactly as he expected - standing over the stove stirring the sauce. When he peeked over her shoulder to see, she gently swatted him away, but not before he could place a playful kiss on her cheek.
While Carol bombarded Richie about life in California and how Joan and Ava were, Jon snuck away to his office. He scrolled through his emails, answering only the ones that needed his immediate attention and left the others for Jeanie. Next, he placed a call to his lawyer to discuss a custody agreement. Which brought him to his next call – Dorothea. She’d already been gone when they left this morning and he needed to tell her about Jesse. Pressing the button marked ‘Soho’, he pushed the chair away from his desk so that he could put his feet up.
When she answered on the third ring with a curt, “Yes,” he decided not to beat around the bush and came right out and told her. Needless to say, she wasn’t happy, and like everything else lately, this too was Jon’s fault. Shockingly enough, she agreed with him about talking to both Jesse and Stephanie when he brought them back later.
He was just about to call Ari when his mother knocked on the door to let him know dinner was ready, so he sent Ari a quick text instead.
[3:35] Jon: Today went well. About to have dinner with the kids then taking them home. I will call you later. Love you.
Jon scanned the kitchen when he stepped through the doorway, finding that his youngest boys were seated on each side of their grandmother while his two oldest sat across from them. Richie was on one end of the table so Jon took his seat at the other end.
“Smells delicious Ma,” he said, reaching for the bowl of pasta.
“Its pasghetti and meatballs a la Nana,” Romey said, oh-so eloquently.
“It sure is, and do you know how to eat pasghetti?” Jon looked at his youngest son with wide eyes.
With a confused expression, Romeo looked up at his father and paused. Then picking up a piece of spaghetti with his fingers, he placed it between his lips and slurped until the entire strand of it disappeared into his mouth. With a pop of his lips he asked, “Like that?”
“That’s right.” Jon said proudly and proceeded to do the same.
Cocking an eyebrow at her son, his mother scolded, “John Francis!”
“Ah c’mon Mom! We’re just having a little fun.”
“Yeah, c'mon Mrs. B,” Richie joined in too picking up a piece and doing the same thing.
Carol shook her head. It was no use in fighting city hall when Jon and Richie were in this kind of mood. The only thing to do was to sit back and enjoy it – and she did.
The kids got a kick out of watching their father slurping his spaghetti, while their Uncle Mook broke into a rendition of ‘On Top of Spaghetti’ when he accidentally dropped a meatball on the floor.
After dinner, Jon sent Richie and the kids to the family room while he stayed behind to help his mother. She told him it was good to see him laughing again, and he agreed. He told her that Jesse overheard him fighting with Dorothea and about their discussion afterwards. His mother reassured him that they had raised four beautiful, strong, smart children and, although at first it might not be easy for them all to understand, they would see it in the end. She also told him to go easy on Dottie, which surprised him. Carol didn’t agree with what she was doing, but she understood.
With the kitchen spic and span and her care package for his father, Carol said goodbye to her son, grandchildren and Richie and was on her way. Richie was off to see his mother and would meet Jon in Philly in a day or two, and Jon piled his crew in the car for the trek into the city.
♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱
Jon walked into the apartment knowing that what he was about to do was going to break his kids’ hearts but living the way they had been living wasn’t fair to any of them either.
“Romeo and Jake, you go on upstairs. Mommy and Daddy have to talk with your brother and sister.” Dorothea nodded towards the stairs. Stephanie and Jesse took a seat on the couch and waited for their parents, who stood in the hallway whispering.
“Do you know what this is about?” Stephanie asked her brother.
“Sorta.” Jesse shrugged his shoulders as he looked at his phone.
“Tell me!” she demanded in an accusing tone.
“No.”
Hearing his kids bickering when they joined them in the living room, Jon interjected, “Steph knock it off, I told him not to tell you until your mother and I had a chance to do exactly that.”
“Fine.” Stephanie made a mumbled apology to her brother.
The city’s lights glittered through the room’s floor-length windows as they waited for their parents to take their seats in the matching leather armchairs across from one another.
“We have something important to tell you,” Jon began, and both teens nodded. “Your mother and I are getting a...”
“Divorce,” Stephanie finished her father’s sentence for him, looking down at her hands.
Dorothea leaned forward and placed her hand over her daughter’s, asking gently, “You knew, too?”
“I didn’t know, but what else could it be?” She looked over at her brother. “You knew, Jess?”
“I heard them fighting the other night and I asked Dad.”
The room was silent as they allowed the news to settle in, until Stephanie broke that silence with a single word.
“Why?” Her identical blue eyes locked onto his.
Jon looked at his daughter and said simply, “It’s not working anymore. We’ve grown apart.”
“Do you still love each other?” This time Jesse asked.
“We will always care for one another, but we’ve fallen out of love and it’s becoming hard to be around each other.” Jon leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. “Like I told Jesse last night, this is between your mother and I, and has nothing to do with you kids. We love you and will try to make this as painless as we can.”
“Your father is right. This is between us. We don’t want you to worry about anything.”
“So, what happens now?” Jesse looked to his mother for an answer. “Where will we live? Will you move out or will Dad?”
His questions were valid ones, and something that Jon and Dorothea hadn’t really discussed. Looking across at her first, to see if she wanted to answer, Jon waited. When she made no move to respond, he did.
“For now, I will stay in Jersey. Remember that your brothers don’t know yet and we would like to keep it that way until after Christmas. But you can come see me whenever you want, as long as it’s okay with your mother and it doesn’t interfere with school.”
“And after they know, then what?” it was Stephanie’s turn to ask.
Dorothea’s cross look didn’t go unnoticed by her daughter and, before Jon had a chance to answer, Steph looked to her father. Her next question surprised them both.
“Dad, you have someone else, don’t you?” Blunt and to the point. That was Stephanie.
Giving her an exasperated look, Jesse got up and went to the kitchen for a drink, unable to believe she asked that. They had discussed that very subject once or twice before, comparing little things that they had noticed here and there.
Jon sat back in his chair and brought a foot to rest upon his knee. “What makes you think that?”
“Uh, it’s just that you work more when you are supposed to be home and when you are here, Mom always seems mad at you for something or other.”
Jon waited until Jesse settled back on the couch before he answered. “Yes. There is someone, but your mom and I made this decision based on many other things, not just her.”
“What about you Mom? Do you have someone?” Stephanie confronted her mother.
Dorothea turned to her perceptive daughter and calmly, but firmly, stated, “No.” Then she stood before her kids could ask any more questions. “I think that is it for tonight. And remember not to talk about this with your brothers around. Now off to bed, it’s late.”
After hugging her father Stephanie pulled away about to say something, but Dorothea’s look stopped her and they quietly slipped away.
Jon and Dorothea listened as both children headed toward their separate bedrooms, still talking.
“I can’t believe you actually asked Dad that!”
Steph retorted, “Hey, it’s not like you hadn’t wondered either! Don’t get mad at me just because I had the nerve to ask them!”
Jon and Dorothea glanced each other as they had countless other times in their parenting relationship and both called out in unison, “Go to bed!”
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