Chapter Seventy Four

Jon arrived at Richie’s and soon was knocking on the door of his apartment. It took a few minutes but eventually the door opened and the bleary eyed version of Richie Sambora complete with bed hair was standing there staring back at Jon. Thankful he’d taken the time to put on a pair of sweats, as it had been too often that Jon had caught Richie without clothes.

“Hey Dean, you look like shit, sorry to come over so early” he said walking in. Richie just stood there still half asleep watching Jon head to the kitchen and put on the coffee. He scratched his head and followed him into the kitchen sitting down on one of the stools at the counter.

“Okay, what’s going on that’s got you here at this hour of the morning?” he asked Jon watching him fill the coffee pot and place it back on the element firing it into action.

Jon leant back against the counter top facing Richie “I asked Jesse to move in with me, and we kind of came to a small disagreement on the situation” he explained as he scratched his chin.

Richie raised an eyebrow “You guys are engaged though right? Its kind of the next obvious step I would have thought” he said agreeing with Jon.

“Exactly but she still feels so attached to the place, she explained it like she was losing her independence or something by moving in with me” he said confused. The truth honesty was he truly wanted to share everything he had with her now.

Richie accepted the cup of coffee Jon poured for him and took a sip and nearly spat it back out. “I forgot you liked drinking tar” he joked at how strong the taste was.

“It’s good for you, puts the hair on your chest” Jon grinned.

“You must drink a shit load of coffee then” Richie teased making a quip at Jon’s chest hair that had always been a topic of conversation for the ladies.

“Jesse never complains” he said with a smirk.

“Oh I bet she doesn’t, anyway Kidd, look. The way I see it is Jesse has a lot of history in her house so she’s probably scared of letting it all go, even for you her fiancé. It’s a big step for both of you, but realistically Jon you’re keeping your place and she’s giving up hers. Where’s the compromise?” Richie asked.

Jon looked at his friend, he was right in a way, he was asking Jesse to give up everything of hers and move in with him to a place he’d already established, a history of divorce with kid’s rooms and everything he’d built after the divorce with Dot, and she would be leaving everything she’d built after Jason.

He ran his finger around the brim of the coffee mug deep in thought, there was really only one way of resolving this. Eventually they would be married and they would have to live together but Jon wanted to make sure he did everything right this time around. Jesse deserved nothing less.

“You’re right you know” Jon said lifting the mug to his lips again.

Richie snorted “Great, let me grab some paper so you can write that down” he winked at Jon.

Jon was about to rebut when the door opened from the bedroom and a familiar blond woman walked out in one of Richie’s oversized t-shirts.
“Well what do we have here?” he teased as Kia walked up behind Richie and wrapped her arms around his waist giving him a kiss.

“Morning Darlin” Richie said giving her a kiss on cheek snaking his own arms around her.

“Hiya Jon, how’s Jess doing?” Kia asked. She had felt awful, the last few days had been just so hectic between her job and her new found relationship with Richie she’d hardly had time to do much else. She’d had to hear the entire goings on with Jason through Richie. She had been shocked to the core knowing Jason had been still alive and knew that Jesse would have been devastated. She took much comfort in knowing that Jon had been there the entire time for her through all this and she had made the right decision in the end choosing Jon. But today it was all going to change as she was heading into see her and get the real details of it, girl style.

Jon grinned watching the two lovebirds “She’s doing well, we’ve sorted a lot of things out, it’s been a hell of a time as you can imagine. She’s missed you though” Jon said. He felt a bit bad as he’d taken up so much of her time of late Kia wouldn’t even had the chance to see her if she’d had been trying.

“I know but I got told she was being looked after” she winked at him. She now trusted Jon fully. From the time she’d spent with Richie and of course seeing the way Jon was around Jesse she knew he loved her the way he said he did.

Kia could see that Jon and Richie had been in the middle of a “guy” discussion so she reached up and gave Richie a kiss on the lips brushing back his bangs. “I’m going to have a shower, but don’t be too long, I’m going to need someone to wash my back stud” she said with a teasing grin walking back towards the bathroom knowing he was watching her every step of the way.

Jon shook his head and threw the dish towel at Richie to get his gaze back to him. “Hey asshole, remember me?” he asked bemused watching his friend.

Richie snapped back from watching the most glorious set of legs waltz away from him “Uh yeah I’m here bro” he said coming back down to earth. “Isn’t she something” Richie asked picking his coffee back up.

“Sure she is” Jon agreed. It was good to see Richie happy again, and ironically with Jesse’s best friend it was even better.

“So what are you going to?” Richie asked Jon seeing he still was unsettled with the situation.

“I don’t know Rich, I need to go around to see the kids, and I promised I would take them out but did you and Kia want to have dinner tonight?” Jon asked gathering his keys and cell phone.

“We always have dinner” Richie teased back knowing what Jon meant but he couldn’t resist winding him up.

Jon laughed and punched him on the shoulder “Remind me that in love Richie is impossible to have a conversation with next time” he said rolling his eyes.

“I can’t help it bro, now you know what it was like when you first started seeing Jesse.” He said standing and stretching is long frame. “But sure, we’ll have dinner with you, just let me know when and where” he said putting the cup in he dishwasher.

“Will do bro, I’ll drop you a text later on, now go and have a shower you horny bastard” Jon said walking out the door back to the car.

~~

Jesse arrived at work with George already in a fluster around the calls he was receiving around her launch.

“Thank god you’re back!” he said giving her a huge hug and then proceeded to flick that one strand of hair from his face that was slicked there.

She laughed “It’s good to be back believe me, everything ok while I was away?” she asked powering her computer into action and picking the pile of coloured post-it notes that were left on her desk.

“They’re going crazy for your pieces Jesse, I’ve had calls from Milan, Brussels and Los Angeles this morning, and that’s just the beginning” he chattered away at a mile a minute. “And Jean Prashad wants you to ring him as soon as you can about the Milan trip” he said handing her the special post-it he had reserved for Mr Prashad’s number.

All thoughts of the conversation with Jon this morning flew from her mind in a flash as attention to her work called. She tried to dispel thoughts of worry and anxiety behind her while she waded through emails and phone calls.

She’d agreed to marry Jon and she had no regrets about it, but in reality they were still such a new couple. Knowing most things about each other yes, but was Jesse really ready to take that next step and become a step mom to four kids she hardly even knew. They were wonderful kids and she had no issue with them being in her life but maybe the thought of an instant family was jarring her just a little bit, how was she supposed to act? She had no experience with children at all either. She was so lost in thought it wasn’t until the hot liquid spilt across her.

“Shit!” she exclaimed standing up grabbing a fistful of tissues from the box to mop up the coffee narrowly avoiding her skirt as it dripped off the end of the desk. Throwing the soaking wet tissues into the bin she sank back into the chair.

Pull yourself together Jess, you just need to talk to him, he’ll understand. He always understands. She fished around in her hand bag for her cell phone with half a thought to call him and see if he wanted to meet for lunch but quickly put it away.

What would she say? Jon I don’t know how I‘m going to be a mother? They’d talked about kids before briefly but how would that even work with four of his own. She put her hands in her face. God, this was a mess.