"Part of my job is to scout out new talent in various places when I'm not working on an album. My boss came up to me last week and said 'I heard of this band that's in Tampa, I need you to check it out for me.' Initially I said no because I knew the you two were here," Zac was explaining later, pointing at me and Ginger, "but he basically told me I had to go. So I figured I'd come down here, go to the concert, check them out, and that would be it. I wasn't going to leave my hotel room for any reason whatsoever until he called me this morning and told me to get a CD for him. So I figure I'll just run out and grab it then run back. The moment I walk into the CD section I see Ginger with Jenny." Zac was holding Jenny. He hadn't stopped holding her since she woke up two hours ago. My biggest fear was that when he found out about Jenny he'd run away but he couldn't seem to get enough of her. He was slightly disappointed upon finding she didn't look just like him, but he saw himself in her and that was all that mattered.
"She loves you," Ginger said, looking at Jenny and then at Zac. He smiled. Ginger had been crying all day because she was so happy Jenny and Zac finally knew each other. This was a lot for Zac to take in all at once. In a matter of hours he was back on speaking terms with his old girlfriend and his brother and he discovered he was a father. It still baffled me. I couldn't believe Zac was a father. I'm staring at him right now holding his child but I still can't believe it. It's an amazing thing.
"And to think, I almost didn't come down here," Zac said, shaking his head. "The whole Tampa thing was hard enough, but to know I'd be here on Taylor's birthday�"
"Oh my God it's my birthday tomorrow," I said. Kris groaned. "I completely forgot." Not only with today's recent events, we were still getting over the excitement of Kris's nineteenth birthday a little over a week ago. March was a busy month; nine days after Kris's birthday is mine and eleven days after that is Ginger's.
"How could you forget? You'll be twenty-one tomorrow."
"Well so much has happened today�" I said, shrugging. "I guess this means Zac'll be ruining my birthday again."
"I don't always ruin your birthday! I didn't ruin it last year!"
"You got drunk and fell on the cake!"
"That wasn't last year!"
"Yes it was! You even promised me you wouldn't ruin it and then you did!" Zac shrugged. In his arms Jenny started to cry.
"Uh-oh. Ging?" Ginger smiled upon hearing her nickname again and picked up Jenny. She walked out of the room and Zac followed. Kris smiled.
"It's so good to see him again," she said. "And he's not hitting you or insulting you or anything like that. He's so good with Jenny too. I'm so happy." I raised an eyebrow in question. "What? I'm not allowed to be happy?" She put her head against my chest. "I'm just happy because you're happy."
"I'm very happy."
"Good�" I felt her take a deep breath against my chest. "Taylor, baby, did you mean what you said earlier�that you're losing your mind being in a house with a whole bunch of girls?"
"At times it can be kind of annoying," I told her. "I'm not going to lie to you. It's not always cool to be the only guy in the house, but I love being here with you and Ginger. I love it here and I don't want to be anywhere else."
"Good."
Kris and I sat there for a few minutes, and when Zac and Ginger didn't return, I started to wonder. "I'm slightly afraid to ask, but where are Zac and Ginger?" I asked. Kris sat up and shrugged. "Do you think I should check?"
"I don't know�they might be doing it."
"Do you honestly think they're doing it? They haven't even gotten back together and Jenny's with them."
"You never know."
"I'm going to check," I said, getting up. "I seriously doubt they're doing it. And if they are, well, it's just sex."
"Okay. But don't be running to me when you get grossed out." I rolled my eyes and walked quietly to the stairs. If they were doing it I didn't want to disturb them. I went upstairs and stopped before Ginger's room. The door was slightly ajar and they were talking inside. Jenny wasn't crying any longer but she was giggling.
"You don't know how much it means to me that you're here," Ginger was saying. "Taylor and Kris have been a lot of help but it's not the same. They're not you."
"I haven't stopped thinking about you, Ging," Zac said. "I want you and Jenny to come back to New York with me." I paused. Ginger didn't say anything for a moment.
"Okay."
"I mean, my job is there, I can't just leave that, but I want to be with you�what?"
"Okay!" Ginger said. "I'll go! But I can't leave Kris here."
"She can come too."
"What about Taylor?"
"Well�yeah he can come too. They're not living with us, though. They've got to find their own place."
"Do you not trust Taylor?"
"I trust Taylor as much as I did before he met you. No more, no less." That was good enough for me. I quietly went down to the corner stair then made a quite a bit of noise going back up.
"Hey, kids, you're not doing it, are you?" I asked, knocking on Ginger's door.
"No, Taylor, you can come in," Ginger said. I opened the door. Zac and Ginger were standing at Jenny's crib. Ginger's room was the barest room in the house. The room was kind of small and she had to fit all of Jenny's things in there so she really took most of her things out of the room. She'd opted for a single bed so she had more room, and also she didn't think she'd be sharing it with anybody. From the way Zac was looking at Ginger I think that would change tonight.
"Kris and I were just wondering where you guys ran off to. You know, we're nosy like that."
"Just taking care of Jenny," Ginger said. "Oh, by the way, I'm moving to New York and you and Kris are coming with me."
"Okay," I said, shrugging. "I'll start packing."
"Just like that?" Ginger asked. "You're not resisting?"
"To tell you the truth," I said, "I was expecting this to happen. Knowing Zac like I do, I knew he wouldn't want to be away from his daughter for any longer, and the only answer to that is moving to New York because he wouldn't be able to get out of his job. That and I heard you talking."
"That's what I figured," Zac said. Ginger turned back to Jenny and Zac left the room with me. We went back downstairs to the living room where Kris had sprawled herself out on the loveseat and was watching the Travel Channel. Kris always watched the Travel Channel. I moved her legs and sat down underneath them. Zac sat on the couch. While he was watching he absently scratched his arm where his tattoo was. His shirt stayed in its slightly pushed up position so I could see the entire thing. I pursed my lips in thought; I've seen that tattoo before. Ginger came in not long after with Jenny and sat next to Zac. I still had a clear view of his tattoo.
It was a few minutes later that he started to get annoyed. "What, Taylor?" he asked. I looked up at him a moment before looking back at his tattoo.
"I've seen that tattoo before," I said.
"Yes, Tay," Zac said. "I've shown it to you before."
"No! Not on you. I just don't remember where�" Zac gave me a blatantly pissed off look. "What?" His look remained and I remembered. "Oh my God!"
"What?" Kris asked, sitting up. "Who else has that?" Zac and I both looked at Ginger. "Ginger? When'd you get that one?"
"I've had it," Ginger explained. "Just about as long as I've had my other ones."
"How come I've never seen it?" Kris asked.
"Because it's in a very�um�private place," Ginger said.
"Ginger, why would you do something like�Taylor!" She started hitting me.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I said. "Okay, so we all know I've seen Ginger naked. We've cleared the air a little bit."
"Let's move on to another topic," Zac said.
"No," I said. "If we never talk about this then it'll just become one of those problems that end up affecting other things�like you'll start screaming at me because you don't like the way I do the dishes, or the twisty-tie on the bread is right-handed instead of left-handed, you know, stupid stuff like that.
" "I'm perfectly fine with that," Zac said.
"Zac, it's not good to live like that," Ginger said. "I think we should talk about this." Zac sighed.
"All right." Nobody said a word. "Anytime now."
"Okay," I said. "I'll do it. We all know Ginger and I have slept together a few times. We've apologized for it and we'd like to move on from it, and the only way we can do that is to acknowledge that yes, it happened, and it's in the past. It's old news and it'll never happen again. Okay?" I looked at Kris. She nodded. I was doing this for her as much as Zac. Although Ginger and I stopped sleeping together before I met Kris (or at least the last time we did anything together was before I met Kris) she was still uncomfortable with it. I looked at Zac and he nodded as well.
"If there's anything we can do to make you feel better about it," Ginger added, and then looked at Kris. "Either one of you, then we'd like to do that. We just want to make things better here."
"I think there's only one thing we need to do to fix this," Zac said. "I get to sleep with Kris."
"What?" Kris said. "No!"
"No way," I said. "Even if I would allow that, which I won't, you have a habit of getting people pregnant."
"That's only because we didn't use a condom that time," Ginger explained. "That's the only reason I got pregnant. If he were to sleep with Kris, he would definitely wear a condom."
"Nobody's sleeping with Kris!" I said. I put my arm around her. "She's my girlfriend. I'm the only one who gets the goods." Kris rolled her eyes.
"Oh, so when it's your girlfriend she's off limits, but when it's my girlfriend it's open season," Zac said.
"Zac�"
"Sorry," he said. "I'm sorry."
"So what can we do," Ginger asked, and turned back to Zac, "shy of sleeping with Kris, to make you two feel better?" Zac thought about it and Kris remained silent. It was a moment later when Zac spoke up.
"I think we should just act like it never happened," Zac said. Kris agreed. I looked at Ginger and she nodded. "If we just go back to the way things were before it happened, or before any of us knew it had happened, I think we'll all get along much better."
"All right," I said. "It never happened."
"So does this mean I don't get to sleep with Kris?" Zac asked, slightly upset.
"Oh, like I would ever sleep with you anyway!" Kris said. "I mean making out with you was hard enough�" I looked at her and she quieted. "I mean�um�hi honey," she told me very innocently.
"I think we should forget that happened too," Zac said quickly.
"Agreed," the rest of us said together.