9.95 What’s Going On

The next morning, Jonathan and Juliette left Skyla sleeping soundly and went to Sky High Cafe hopefully to find out what was going on. There was no way Jonathan was going to drag Skyla into the situation now that she was expecting. He planned to do everything he possibly could not to upset the apple cart in any way; he feared what could happen if she got too stressed out while carrying their child. When they arrived at the cafe, he saw as he was walking up the walkway that the electricity was not on there either. That’s when his mood turned sour. He unlocked the door and stood in the middle of the dining room as the fumes began to build up inside of him. The same thing happened to him that occurred at home: the stench of rancid food slapped him in the face as soon as he opened the door.

He remained silent and proceeded to his office hoping to find a note or something from Tony. There was nothing. Everything was just as he left it.

Juliette waited for a couple minutes before she came to rescue him. He was still standing in the middle of his office with his back turned to the door. But even from that angle, she could see the fumes leaking from his ears. “Let’s get out of here,” she said. She felt strange. The majority of her life was filled with yelling, insulting, and sarcasm. True, she had occasional moments of tenderness, but those were few and far between. She was angry too, but it was an empathetic anger. It felt rather nice to be angry for someone else.

She gently grabbed him by the arm and brought him outside to sit on the patio.

“Juliette…what is going on here,” he yelled in a tone that was partially afraid but mostly confused and upset.

It was a rhetorical question, but she wanted to know the answer too. She also knew there was going to be more where that came from and remained silent.

He looked up to the sky, wringing his hands and yelling, “We’re having a baby! What are we supposed to do?” He felt like crying but he was too angry to cry.

Juliette didn’t know about the baby yet. “Mazel tov…”

“Where is Tony? Why isn’t he returning my messages? I mean, is he dead? What could be so urgent that he can’t even send me a text? I don’t understand! Could…” He didn’t want to say it. “Could he have done this to me? He couldn’t have! He’s my friend, and I trust him! He couldn’t have done this to me…

“I mean…this dude is like a brother to me! He wouldn’t do this…he wouldn’t do this…” He trailed off as he tried to make himself hear what he was actually saying. It didn’t make any sense, and his brain could not compute it. All the evidence was staring him in the face, but he couldn’t comprehend it.

Meanwhile, Juliette was trying to resist the urge to suggest they roll up on his house and beat the answers out of him.

“Nah…this is a mistake. Meatball wouldn’t sabotage my life…our legacy! He wouldn’t steal from me. He wouldn’t! This is just some plummed up misunderstanding between the bank and the lawyer or something. I’m not buying it! He can explain it to me himself…

Once again, Tony didn’t answer.