The Good Life

Jack

Izzy and I were home waiting on Alex to come so we could take her to her doctor’s appointment. Alex had to stay late for a meeting so Izzy beat him home. I was kind of dreading him coming home because ever since last night we have been bickering with each other over little things. I think it's because we're around each other too much. We spend every weekday around each other when we're off from work and we spend the weekends together. We were slowly driving each other mad.

"Papa the kitchen looks kind of dark." Izzy told me as she walked into my room.

"I know, I noticed it too. I think the lightbulbs are about to go out. I'll have to ask Alex to change them when we get back from you doctor appointment." The lights in the kitchen were different from normal lightbulbs so I had no idea had to change them. Alex always did it for us.

Alex came home a few minutes later. I was happy that he didn't seem like he was stressed or in a bad mood from work. He said hi to us and went to change from his work clothes. It was close to time for us to leave so we wouldn't be late.

"Alex hurry before we're late!" I yelled to Alex.

"I'm hurrying!" He yelled back to me. "I don't know why we're rushing. The doctor is going to make us wait for like an hour anyways." He complained as he came out fully changed.

"Because we have to check in at four." I reminded him. He rolled his eyes at me and grabbed his car keys off the counter. We all got in his car and he drove us to Izzy's new Gynecologist.

I looked the doctor up online, she was one the best Gynecologist in San Diego. The office was a short drive from our house so we made it right on time given we left a little late now we were in the waiting room waiting for a nurse to call Izzy back.

"Grandpa called me today and I told him about everything..." Izzy told us.

"Oh I know because he called me and lectured me on bad parenting." Alex sighed.

"I told May for you so expect a call or visit from her today." I said. This news was catching everyone off guard because it seems like something you'd only see on TV. I would have never thought my daughter would be pregnant at this age.

"Isabella!" A nurse called out and we all got up and followed her behind the door.

"Hello! I'm Elena and I'm going to be you nurse today. We're going to start by taking your height and weight." She told Izzy. Once we finished she took us to a room and we sat down so she could ask a few questions for the doctor.

"So what brings you in today?" She asked.

"I um I took a pregnancy test and it came out positive." Izzy said awkwardly and the nurse chuckled.

"So you think you're pregnant?" She clarified and Izzy nodded. "Okay well I'm going to let you take a test here to make sure that one was correct. We'll be right back Dads." Elena said and walked out with Izzy.

"Does that means there's a chance she's not pregnant?" Alex asked.

"Possibly, but I doubt it. Those test don't mess up as much as people think they do." I said, quoting part of an article I read about drug store pregnancy test.

"Great." He said sarcastically.

"Hey when we get home can you change out the lightbulbs in the kitchen? It's getting kind of dim in there." I asked him.

"No I want to rest when I get home." He sighed.

"It will literally take you two minutes, Alex."

"Then why don't you do it?" He argued.

"Because I don't know how to change it, you always do it. But forget I asked." I said annoyed.

"Whatever I'll do it."

"No no don't worry about it." I said nonchalantly.

"Jack please don't start." He sighed.

"Start what? All I said was don't worry about it. How is that starting anything?"

"You know what you're doing."

"I honestly don't." I shrugged and picked up my phone. I could feel his eyes piercing into me but I ignored him.

A minute later Izzy walked in without the nurse. I'm pretty sure she could feel the tension between Alex and I in the room. We didn't speak the entire time we waited for the doctor to come in.

There was a knock on the door then the doctor walked in. "Hi I'm doctor Waters. You must be Isabella and you two must be her parents." She said.

"Yes, I'm Jack and this is my husband, Alex." I said happily, pretending we weren't mad at each other.

"It's nice to meet all of you. I looked over the pregnancy test we had Isabella take here and it also came out positive so she is pregnant. So I'm going to perform a physical and a Pap smear on her and we're going to run a few blood test to check for any abnormalities. Then you all can be on your way!"

***

We were finally leaving the doctor's office an hour later. She gave us a run though of what to expect throughout Izzy's pregnancy. Thank God Dr. Waters said her next checkups wouldn't be that long. Plus the time seemed to go by slower with Alex and I not speaking.
"Can we stop and get ice cream?" Izzy asked.

"Yeah." Alex said and drove to Cold Stone.

We walked in and waited in line for our turn. "Do you want ice cream?" Alex asked me. I wanted to be stubborn and tell him no, but the birthday cake ice cream was calling my name.

"Yes." I mumbled.

"Can I get three waffle cones? One cookies and cream, one birthday cake, and one vanilla." Alex ordered for us.

"Are you and Daddy fighting?" Izzy whispered to me."

"No not really." I whispered back trying not to worry her.

"The ice cream is ready." Alex said to us and we went to go get our cones. He paid for us and we walked out.

We were almost to the car when I heard Alan's voice behind us.

"Aw look at the grandparents!" Alan exclaimed. I turned around and saw John standing next to him with a smirk on his face. It startled me to actually see John in person. I hadn't seen him in years. As much as I hated to admit it he did age very well, but he didn't mature at all. I forgot he and Alan were exes, he could have been the one Alan cheated on Austin with. I looked at Alex who looked like he was ready to attack him.

"And that must be the sixteen year old mother!" John laughed. It pissed me off to know that Alan had been telling John our business.

"Alan please. We're not in the mood to deal with your shit today." I said trying to completely ignore John.

"What's the matter Jack? You don't want to say hi to an old lover." John said in a teasing tone.

"Let's just go." I turned and said to Alex. They were trying to get under our skin and the longer we stayed the more it would work. Alex wouldn't let us leave though.

"Alan what the fuck are you doing with him?" Alex shouted. I'm surprised we didn't have a crowd of people standing around to see what would happen.

John cut Alan off before he could speak, "He finally woke up and realized how much he missed me. You better keep an eye out before that one does the same." He winked at me and Alex stepped closer to him.

"Alex don't you see they're just trying to get under our skin. We should just go." I said, pulling on his shirt so he could walk towards the car with me.

"Yeah Daddy let's just go home." Izzy said worriedly. I think hearing her made Alex realize he didn't want to do this in front of his daughter.

"Yeah you better listen to them and just go." Alan said.

"Okay let's go." Alex said not taking his eyes off of them.

"I still remember how sweet you taste." John said licking his lips at me. It literally made me feel sick to my stomach. Alex stopped again contemplating going over there.

"Keep walking, Lex." I told him and he forced himself to get into the car.

"I know you still have my number, Jack. Call me!" John called out to me and I could hear Alan chuckle. I rolled my eyes at them and got in the car along with Alex and Izzy.

Alex started up the car and quickly drove away from there. His hands were turning white from gripping the steering wheel tightly. I wanted to praise him for not going over there like they wanted him too but I knew he didn't want to hear it.

"So who was that guy?" Izzy asked after a few moments.

"Some guy Jack cheated on me with." Alex said bitterly, catching me off guard. I understand he was just releasing some of his anger, he had for John, out on me but that gave him no right to say that.

"Excuse me? What are you talking about? I didn't cheat on you with him. We had broken up because I thought you had cheated on me with Lisa." I said matter-of-factly.

"Okay but you slept with him like a day after we broke up which was still messed up."

"I acknowledged my mistake and I apologized to you like twenty years ago so are you so pissed about it now??" I questioned.

"Because had you not had a one night stand with him like some whore I wouldn't have to hear him gloat about fuc- ...sleeping with you now." He snapped at me.

"Daddy!" Izzy yelled at him mostly because of the "whore" comment.

"No Izzy it's okay. His masculinity is obviously hurt." I hissed.

Alex glanced over to me and tried to argue with me but I held my hand up to stop him. "I don't want to hear anymore. Just take us home, Alex." I sighed. We didn't speak the rest of the ride home.

When we made it I went straight to our bedroom and closed the door. I couldn't deal with being around Alex anymore today. I laid down in our bed and tried to stop the word "whore" from continuously replaying in my head.

Notes

Sorry this took so long. I was busy basically the whole month doing Christmas-y stuff! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays (If you celebrate it) and are still enjoying the story!