Disclaimer: All
characters belong to NBC and the verses from 1 Cor. 13
If I Have Not Love
***********************************
When I was a child, I talked
like a child, I reasoned like
a child. When I became a
man, I put childish ways
behind me.
***********************************
Jing Mei had had a long day and she looked
forward to hanging out with John tonight.
He had invited her over to his Grams for supper. John had opted not to
tell her if his Grams would be there.
But in the end, Jing Mei didn’t really care if she was there. On the few occasions that Jing Mei had met
Mrs. Carter, she had been pleasantly surprised to how sweet the woman was.
Not that anyone should trifle with the woman though,
or her grandson, especially when it was a woman. When it came to John, Mrs. Carter was a bit on the protective and
catty side. It was the same old, same
old when it came to grandmas loving their grandsons. And no woman would ever be good enough for her
Johnny.
Jing Mei laughed as she tightened her ponytail and
pulled on the back of her red t-shirt.
The night air was crisp, but Jing Mei loved it. It held a kind of freshness in the air and
the promise of more nights to come. As
Jing Mei rung the doorbell, she tucked a straggling lock of hair that wasn’t
long enough to be held back by the ponytail elastic.
“Yes?” a classic short plump maid answered the door.
Jing Mei had to get a hold of herself and try not to
laugh. “I’m here to see John,” she
informed the maid.
The maid nodded and motioned her into the foyer. The house was as she remembered it. It was large, as you could tell when you
drove up the driveway, but on the inside, Mrs. Carter, had decorated it to be
cozy. The house wasn’t quaint, but it
also wasn’t formal. You could tell she
had decorated it herself, instead of letting some stranger tell her what she
should and should not have in her house.
“Just a moment,” the maid chirped. “I don’t think Mr. Carter is home yet. You say he’s expecting you?”
Jing Mei nodded.
“I could come back if you want?” she offered.
“No no!” a familiar voice called from the top of the
staircase in the foyer. “Come in and
wait for the boy.”
Jing Mei looked up to the top of the stairwell and
found Mrs. Carter hovering over the stairs leaning on a cane. “Do you want me to help you down, Mrs.
Carter?”
The woman’s disapproving frown was her answer. “Don’t patronize me! I can very well walk down these stairs.”
As she said that, the cane she lowered to the next
step slipped and Mrs. Carter faltered.
Jing Mei dashed up the stairs to help, but Mrs.
Carter caught herself on the banister.
“I said I can do it!” Mrs. Carter chided.
Jing Mei followed beside Mrs. Carter as she slowly
made her way down the stairs. She was
about to ask her if she was all right, but Jing Mei thought better of it.
As they reached the bottom of the staircase, Jing Mei
followed the elder Carter into the living room. “Have a seat dear, you don’t have to hover!” Mrs. Carter
retorted.
“Thank you,” Jing Mei said, taking a seat on the
couch adjacent to Mrs. Carter’s red, velvet antique chair.
“So,” Mrs. Carter smiled. “How have you been Ms. Chen?
It is Ms. Chen, right?”
Jing Mei smiled.
“Yes. You can call me Jing Mei.”
Mrs. Carter had a scrunched her face for a moment. “Didn’t it used to be a different name? I don’t recall John calling you…what was it
you said? Jing…May?”
Jing Mei smiled.
“Uh, yes Mrs. Carter. I…well, I
used to go by Deb,” she explained.
Mrs. Carter nodded.
“Yes, yes. I remember. John used to talk about you all the
time. You used to get a rise out of him
like nobody could!”
Mrs. Carter laughed.
“Mrs. Carter,” Jing Mei began to speak, but Mrs.
Carter interrupted her.
“Call me Millicent or Grams,” she corrected. “Only the people on the board of my
husband’s company’s call me that, and even some of them realize it irritates
me.”
Jing Mei bit her lip. “Well, since John calls you Grams, and I always think of you as
‘Grams’, I think I’ll call you Grams,” Jing Mei concluded.
“Fine. Good,”
Grams replied happily and patted Jing Mei’s knee. “Now how about some tea while we wait for John to get home.”
Jing Mei smiled and nodded. “That would be nice.”
»
* »
John had been detained at the hospital a little later
than he’d expected. A head trauma came
in and it was just him and Kovac in the ER at the time. By the time his shift ended, he was ready to
go home. John waited till Susan showed
up and then he left the ER. “Night
guys!” he called to the staff at the admin desk.
“Night Carter!” Susan called, looking up from a
chart. “Say hello to Deb for me!”
John shook his head and ran to the L-train. Susan.
As he breathlessly sat himself down in an empty seat
on the train, sometimes he didn’t understand why he didn’t just get a car. He had the money.
John looked forward to this evening, but as he sat on
the L-train and looked at his watch – 7:15 p.m. – John’s heart skipped a beat
and realized that Deb would have been at his house for the past 15
minutes. He hated to think what torture
his Grams would put Deb through. He
recalled the fleeting conversations Susan had had with Grams and John hoped Deb
didn’t run out of the house crying.
He laughed at the image. John knew she could stand her ground. Besides, if memory served John correctly, Grams even seemed to
like Deb when they had last met. It had
been a while ago though. Deb and his
late night study sessions and fast food binges.
How they had changed.
He wasn’t the same John who had to out-compete and
win at everything. Those were the good
‘ole days.
John felt the L lurch and got off on the next
stop. He checked his watch when he
reached his house. 7:35 p.m. He was really late.
John walked into the foyer and ran upstairs to quickly change. He could hear laughter when he climbed up the stairs.
Oh, that can’t be good!
John hanged as fast as he could, slipping on a pair
of jeans and a polo t-shirt. He ran a
quick brush through his hair and made his way down the steps.
“And then John tells me that the driver shouldn’t
worry…he was off duty!” Grams’ voice laughed hysterically.
Another voice joined in on the laughter. It was Deb.
This was definitely not looking good!
“Grams!” John called from the foyer as he strolled in
what he attempted to be casually, to the living room. As he entered the living room, John surveyed
the situation. There was a silver tea
set on the coffee table, a pile of albums and Grams sitting beside Deb as she
leaned over another album, of which John assumed was photos of him.
“He’s sooo cute!” Deb gushed, winking at him
as she noticed him out of the corner of her eye. “John, how come you didn’t show me these pictures of you? You definitely grew out of your looks,
rather than how most people grow into them!”
Grams and Deb shared a look, one, which
frightened John to some extent. His
Grams never got along this well with his girlfriends…
John stopped that thought for a moment and corrected
himself. Deb happens to be a girl
that is your friend.
Shaking his head, John walked to the couch and
planted a kiss on the top of his Grams’ head.
“What on earth are you doing?” John asked curiously.
“Well John,” Grams stated in one of her ‘you
did something wrong but I’m not going to say it in front of company’
tones. “I had to entertain your young
friend here. Besides, we had to catch
up. Jing Mei, here, has been telling me
what her parents have been up to.”
John sat down on the arm of the couch, peering into
the photo album, which lay between Deb and Gram’s lap. “Well Grams,” John informed, “I had a
head trauma that came in before I left.
Aren’t you glad to know that I saved a life in the time you decided
you would embarrass me with pictures of me in the tub?”
John raised his eyebrow at his disapproving
Grandmother. Jing Mei lifted the photo
album off of his grandmother’s lap, closed it and set it on the surmounting
pile on the coffee table. Grams’
clicked her tongue at him and reached for her cane. “You don’t have to be so sarcastic John Truman Carter.”
John watched as his stubborn Grams pushed herself up
on her cane. “It was nice meeting you
again Jing Mei,” she smiled. “I
do hope he behaves himself around you.
Lord knows I’ve tried to teach him some manners, but he’s a stubborn
boy.”
Jing Mei peered over at him, stifling a laugh. “I’ll make sure he does Grams,” Jing
Mei laughed, as John frowned at her calling his grandmother, ‘Grams’.
As soon as Grams had hobbled back up the stairs for a nap, John splayed himself across the couch and looked up at Deb as his head lay on her lap. “Sorry I’m late,” he sighed. “ER got hit just an hour after you left.”
Inadvertently Jing Mei’s hand brushed a lock of hair that fell into his eye. It sent a shiver down his spine.
‘Things had definitely changed,’ John thought as Deb’s dark eyes peered down at him.
John sighed as Jing Mei smirked at him when he raised his eyebrows in a suggestive, playful manner. “Feed me grapes!” he commanded laughingly.
Jing Mei finally pushed him up by his shoulders and stood up to stretch. “You know how long I’ve been sitting here listening to little John boy Carter stories?” she asked as she let out a deep breath, stretching her neck from side to side.
“How long?” he asked tiredly.
“About 45 minutes. Not that I mind the great stuff I got on you, but John, try being a little more punctual!” she laughed, flopping back down on the couch beside him.
They both leaned against the cushions of the couch and tilted their heads to the side so they could look at each other. “So, what do you want to do?” they both said in unison.
John looked into Deb’s dark brown eyes and found himself immersed in the deep dark pools of chocolate.
Suddenly he snapped out it when Deb suggested, “Pizza? Doesn’t that sound good? I really haven’t eaten anything since lunch, and that was an apple and a few crackers and cheese.”
Something’s never change.
John smiled, “Yeah, but definitely meatlovers!”
“John, no!” Deb pouted. “We always order that! This time I get to choose!”
He shook his head and relented. “All right! I mean it’s the least I can do for making you wait a half an hour right?” he sighed.
Deb shook her head and frowned, “You got that right buddy!”
John put up his hands in surrender. “Fine!” he said, getting up from the couch and making his way down the corridor to the kitchen. “What do you want?”
John heard the shuffle of shoes against the carpet and then on the linoleum floor. He stood there with the cordless phone to his ear ready to dial. “What are you ordering tonight?” he asked again.
Jing Mei hopped up on one of the stools and leaned back on the counter behind her. She winked and smirked at him. “Meatlovers, of course!”