Chapter 235: The Dinner

A few days later, Scarlett, Judith and I were at Cam and Mitch’s house. I was showing Scarlett my goddaughter.

“Isn’t Lily cute?” I asked while she rested in my arms.

“She sure is,” Scarlett replied with a smile, playing with Lily’s tiny fingers.

Then I noticed something. “Mom, I know you want to hold Lily, she’s all yours,” I remarked, handing her over to mom.

She accepted but quickly narrowed her eyes at me. “You are unbelievable, son,” she muttered, realizing that Lily needed a diaper change. Cam went to help.

“What are you looking at, Lettie?” I turned to Scarlett, “you can help mom change the diaper if you want,” I joked.

Her expression shifted, “nah, I’m too young for that.”

After a while, Scarlett and I went to the room.

“All clean?” I inquired.

Mom rolled her eyes, “yes, she’s all good now.”

Then the doorbell rang.

“Mitchell, who was that?” Cam shouted while already heading to the door.

“Uh, it’s my mom,” we heard Mitchell call from the living room.

“Oh, yeah, right. ’Cause the last time she was here, the refrigerator magnets rearranged themselves into a penta— Grandma!” Cam exclaimed once he saw that DeDe had actually shown up.

“We might need a cross and some holy water,” I murmured just for Scarlett and mom to hear.

“Be nice, son,” mom lightly scolded me, though probably thinking the same.

“Hey, you need to say 'be nice' to that.”

I really despise DeDe.

Seeing Scarlett’s surprised face, mom admitted, “Jake is not really wrong…”

---

We went to say hello but quickly returned to the room, with the excuse of letting them talk in private.

“Jake!” Mom reprimanded me when she noticed I had left the door slightly open so we could overhear the conversation.

“Mom, you judge me, but we all know you want the same,” I countered.

DeDe’s voice was heard from the living room, “Living in Sedona has been transformational. I get up every morning, and I go to a vortex meditation site and work with a shaman to finally understand how to live my spirituality.

And I’ve learned that the only way I can move to the next level of my awakening is if we all can somehow get past… the incident.”

“Yikes,” I exclaimed.

“Oh, no,” Mitchell groaned.

“The incident. Oh, boy,” Cam sighed.

“Later I’ll explain, Scarlett,” I whispered to her. “We all know what she’s talking about.”

The stupid thing she did at Gloria's wedding

“I’m about to embark on a new journey. I met a man,” DeDe announced.

“Really?” Mitchell asked.

“His name is Chas, and he’s asked me to come live with him in his foreign land. French Canada.”

“Poor bastard,” I muttered, receiving a pinch from Scarlett.

“Oh, that—that’s wonderful,” Cam chimed in.

“It is wonderful. It’s just that when I think of all the awful things that I said to Gloria and Jay, Mitchell, Claire and you, I feel such guilt.” said DeDe, but her voice didn’t really sound like someone who felt that much guilty...

“Give it time… and see Banff,” Cam suggested.

(Mitch probably nudged him after the comment)

“I just can’t give myself to him sexually,” DeDe confessed.

“Ewwww,” I blurted out, making a face like I wanted to puke.

“Okay, mom,” Mitchell sighed.

“Did not see that coming,” Cam muttered.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. We satisfy each other down there,” DeDe added.

I pulled a face that even Michael Scott couldn’t match. “Now I regret my decision… of eavesdropping.”

“Oh… yeah, don’t you want to…” Mitchell stammered.

“That’s why I need everyone’s forgiveness. I need your help, Mitchell,” DeDe pleaded.

“Did you hear that, Mitchell? Your mom needs your help to make love to her new man, Chas. That’s not weird at all,” Cameron snarked.

“I’m just not really sure what you’re asking me to do, mom,” Mitchell inquired.

“Well, everyone’s mad at me. Oh… maybe you could pave the way so that I can apologize,” DeDe suggested.

“Well, um… you know, we are actually all supposed to have a dinner tonight, so maybe I could go around and ask everyone if it’s okay for you to join us,” Mitchell offered.

“Holy crap, Mitch,” I muttered.

“Oh! I knew I could count on you. Oh, my beautiful boy. I love you so much,” DeDe gushed.

Cam entered the room and, seeing that we had all overheard the conversation, commented to us, “There’s a fish in nature that swims around with its babies in its mouth. That fish would look at Mitchell’s relationship with his mother and say, that’s messed up.”

I laughed out loud while Judith and Scarlett tried to hold back their laughter.

Then Cam turned to me, “Do you think your grandma will let DeDe come to the dinner?”

I thought briefly and answered, “Absolutely!”

Mom and Cam were looking at me intrigued.

I explained, “Grandma will be able to talk to DeDe and say everything is fine with her life and talk about the latest news”—more like rub her success in DeDe’s face (Grandma had already shown her disgust of DeDe). 

“Besides, any freak show that doesn’t directly involve our family is fine by her.”

Schadenfreude at its finest.

Scarlett told me, “This is better than a comedy sitcom,” giving a smirk.

I snorted, “that woman caused trauma in me, how can this be a sitcom comedy? I completely lost my appetite,” I said indignantly.

“Stop being a drama queen,” she said, resting her head in me. 

We chatted a little longer with Cam and then said our goodbyes (especially since DeDe mentioned she wanted to go see Claire, and Mitchell seemed eager to share the bombshell with someone).