Jackpot! (19 page)

Afterward, we were both sprawled out naked in exhaustion, and we turned our heads to the TV to watch Fredo being taken to his death in a boat, while Michael stood at the window watching. I thought about what a manipulator Michael was. He was a liar, the lowest of the lowest. And I couldn’t deny, I was just like him, although I can say with certainty that I would never kill my own brother.

“Are you up for watching number three?” asked Drew.

“Definitely. You?” I asked as I got up and put my clothes back on.

“Sure,” he said, following suit.

Just then, the phone rang. Since no one ever called me this late, it was a bit alarming, so I hurried to answer it. I saw private caller; my mother.

“Hi, Ma,” I answered, “Everything okay?”

“I can’t call my daughter after ten o’clock?” Frankie asked sarcastically.

“Of course you can,” I said while motioning to Drew to put in the DVD, “What’s up?”

“Is there a man over there?” asked Frankie.

As usual, the psychic knew. She was so in tune with me it was scary. “No, Ma,” I lied, “there’s no man here.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Drew smile.

“Yes, there is,” said Ma, “But you don’t have to tell me about it. I called to tell you I’m going on vacation on Monday. I’ll be gone for two weeks.”

This shocked me. Ma had never left town, let alone take a trip. I panicked. “What? Monday? You mean, two days from now?” I asked, my voice filled with anxiety, “With whom?”

“No one,” she replied confidently, “I’m going alone. It’s time for me to travel, and now that I have the money to go places in style, I’m going for it.” She went on to tell me about a European cruise she was going on, and how her friend had just returned from the same ship, and how great she said it was.

The whole thing sounded a little strange, and something didn’t seem right, but I could say that about a lot of things Frankie was saying and doing these days. That’s why I dismissed my feelings but told her to give me all the information and details about the ship before she left.

After we hung up, I tried to focus on the hot guy who was waiting for me to start our third movie of the evening, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Ma’s strange travel plans. A woman in her late fifties, who had never even been on an airplane, was going to Europe on a cruise by herself. Why wouldn’t she ask a friend to go with? Or even better, why wouldn’t she ask her daughter? I wondered. Money was certainly no issue. The only thing I could think of was, maybe my mother just wanted to be alone. And if that was the case, I was happy for her, happy that she now had the means to do whatever the hell she felt like doing.

Frankie had never traveled. As a matter of fact, when I thought about it, Ma had never done anything fun in her life. She was always saving, saving, saving. Sending Danny and I to college was her main reason for being so conservative. She once told me that no matter what, I would have a college degree. She’d find a way to pay for it, but I would have to find a way to graduate. Ma was so selfless back then. When exactly had my mother turned from selfless to selfish? I wondered. All my life, she’d wanted what was best for me. Now, she wanted grandchildren, and she was stopping at nothing to get them.

“Ready?” asked Drew, his hand on the remote, ready to press play.

“Sure.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just think it’s really strange that my mother’s going on vacation. She’s really changed.”

Drew smiled, “money changes people.”

“You don’t know the half of it!” I wanted to shout out. I didn’t, though. I just answered, “I guess you’re right.”

And while I watched an older Michael Corleone dance with his seventeen year old daughter, I found myself thinking about the changed Frankie Jacobson. And then I realized something. Who was I kidding? She hadn’t changed. Just as my mother was psychic when it came to me, I realized I could read her, too. Ma had not changed. Something weird was going on. And my gut said that something was very, very wrong.

Chapter 20

The next morning was Sunday. Drew had to get up early and go home because he had to work. After he left, I drank a pot of coffee, read three newspapers, and then started a new movie script. The idea: a woman who offers her son and her daughter millions of dollars to have babies. Pretty clever, huh? Essentially, it was a fictitious adaptation of what my nutty mother was putting Danny and I through. I figured this whole nightmare had to have a silver lining, so why not write about it? A person bribing her kids for grand-kids was so far-fetched, it seemed like fiction. People would think that was funny, right? I didn’t think it was funny in the least, but I figured, why not capitalize on it?

As I typed away on my laptop, the words flowing easier than they ever had with any script I’d written, the story as compelling and engaging as it was in real life, I felt I was writing something that would surely sell. The irony was killing me. My crazy, unethical, messed up life was the root of an amazing movie script that might make me a ton of money. Maybe I wouldn’t need Frankie’s after all!

Later in the morning I called Ma to get more details about the cruise. To my dismay, Frankie rushed me off the phone, saying she had a lot to do before the trip, such as last minute shopping, packing and cleaning.

“Can I help?” I asked.

“No, thanks. I’m good.”

“Can I at least drive you to the airport tomorrow?”

“Thanks, honey, but you have to work, and I have a limo coming at eight.”

This made sense to me. A multi-millionaire was getting a limo to take her to the airport. That’s why I didn’t push it. I said good-bye and hung up, but just as I had the night before, I felt very uneasy about the way my mother was acting. Was her extreme uncharacteristic behavior a byproduct of being nouveau riche or was I missing something?

I decided to call Danny.

“What do you think?” I asked him.

“I think it’s great,” he exclaimed, “Maybe Ma will start traveling and get her mind off becoming a grandmother. Who knows? She might end up realizing how nuts she’s being and how much she’s screwing with our lives.”

“Maybe you’re right,” I told him, “But still, something’s fishy. It’s weird.”

“Look, I think you’re reading into things too much. Relax. Be happy for her. More importantly, are you pregnant yet?”

“Danny!”

“What? Isn’t it a valid question?”

“I guess,” I said with a shrug, “I could be pregnant. I don’t know yet.”

“Boy, that would be nice for you, huh?”

“Sure. I’ll be rich.”

“Look, Jamie, I really do think you’ll be a good mother. I mean it.”

“Thanks,” I said to my brother as I stared at the living room floor and daydreamed about what I’d done there about fourteen hours earlier. Danny had no idea that I’d fallen for Drew and I was scared to tell him, as if saying it out loud might make it more real. But who was I kidding? It
was
real. My feelings for Drew Conrad were about as genuine as they could be. Baby or no baby, I was falling. Hard.

“How are things with you?” I asked.

“Not that good. I never realized how hard it is to find a girl to have sex with, let alone find one to get into a relationship with.”

“What do you think you’re going to do?”

“Well, I’ve been on the computer all morning looking into adoption.”

“Any luck?”

“It’s just too long of a process. I highly doubt someone’s going to give a single guy a baby within the next two and a half months.”

I took a deep breath. “Look, Danny, if I do end up getting the money, I hope you know I’m happy to help you out financially.”

“What? No thanks. I don’t need any handouts.”

“That’s not what I meant. I just mean…”

“I’m a big boy. I don’t need my little sister supporting me. I’ll get my own baby and my own money!”

“I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“I’ve got to go,” he said.

“Are you mad at me?”

“No, Jamie,” he said sadly, “I’m mad at myself.”

I hung up the phone feeling really sad. Sad for Danny, sad for Drew, sad for myself, even sad for Ma. What a bad situation we were all in. The upside was, in my case the bad situation had a really great side effect. I was Drew Conrad’s girlfriend. And I was anything but sad about that.

I was about to get in the shower when suddenly I got a sharp pain in my stomach. Did my conversation cause so much stress that I was experiencing stomach pain from it? Or maybe I’d had too much coffee? The pain began getting worse. I found myself holding my stomach. Seconds later, everything made sense. My pains were period cramps.

I ran to the bathroom and sat on the toilet. Within seconds, I had tears in my eyes. My life was so messed up. Here I was, upset because there was no little Jamie (or Drew) on the way, and my reason for being disappointed was sickening. I didn’t care that I wasn’t going to be a mother in nine months, I cared that I wasn’t going to collect eight million dollars. My morals had gone bu-bye.

Why couldn’t I bring myself to just tell Frankie I wasn’t interested in her contract, and that she could keep her money? Where were my values? Where was my pride? They were in my wallet. I wanted to make movies, I wanted to be wealthy, I wanted out of WGB. Maybe I wasn’t such a bad person. Maybe I was just a desperate person. And maybe desperate people did desperate things. Ma was a perfect example.

So being my mother’s daughter, I pulled myself together and decided that I knew what I had to do. I popped two Advil, showered, and headed to Walgreen’s. Once inside, I slowly and cautiously walked down the feminine hygiene aisle, praying I wouldn’t run into anyone I knew. What I was looking for would have shocked my friends. Not my family, though. Thanks to my baby-loving mother, I was in search of an ovulation kit.

I had to face it. I was a little bit older. Getting pregnant might actually pose a challenge, which was a weird mindset to a girl who had spent her entire adult life trying
not
to get knocked up. If I really wanted a baby, I needed to go to the next step, which was to actually pinpoint the days I was ovulating. Then I would seduce Drew on those days.

When I made it to the ovulation kit section, I was overwhelmed at how many brands and kinds of kits there were to choose from. There was a huge market for this. I giggled bitterly as I thought about the fact that everyone was willing to pay for babies, although not to Frankie’s extreme. I settled for the
One-Step
brand and quickly put the other two finalists back on the shelf. Then I paid and got the hell out of there.

Once outside, I felt relieved I didn’t see anyone familiar. I also felt a sense of accomplishment, like I’d just done something that might make a difference in my life. As I walked down the street with my new little friend in its bag, my thoughts drifted once again to the living room floor and to Drew; sweet, hunky, adorable Drew. I didn’t deserve him. But I had him and that’s all that mattered right now.

“Jamie?” I heard all of a sudden, my name snapping me out of the romantic daze I was in. I looked up. Standing there was none other than my ex-fiancé. “Hey girl,” Max said playfully. He was trying so hard to be cool and nonchalant, but it wasn’t working for the guy. It would
never
work for him. Ever.

I decided to play nice. “Hi Mr. Engaged man,” I said with a grin, “How’s it going?”

“Not bad…not bad…” Max said in that same tone. His cockiness was unbelievable. Hadn’t he gotten enough revenge last time I’d seen him? Obviously not. He wanted to rub it in more. “Just doing a lot of wedding stuff. Picking out my tux, planning my bachelor party, you know…” Then he stopped for a second. “Well, I guess you
don’t
know,” he said sadly and with some drama.

Now I became annoyed. Was he patronizing me? Was he actually forgetting the fact that
I
was the one who ended it, and that because of me he was marrying the person he was marrying? I felt like he thought I was devastated about him being off the market. All I could think about at this moment was how much I wanted to burn him.

“So, what are you up to?” he asked.

Suddenly, I realized that the object I was carrying in my bag was a ticket to revenge. I pulled it out and held it up. “This!” I exclaimed. “I’m trying to have a baby with the man I’ve fallen madly in love with.” I wondered for a split second if perhaps what I just blurted out was actually the truth.