Chapter 4

Kevin was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. He looked at his watch and couldn’t believe that it was already 4:30 in the afternoon. He had gotten a lot accomplished that day and was happy with his progress. Kevin got up to unlock the door. He expected to find Nicole standing there when he opened the door, but to his surprise it was Kylie. "Hey there Pumpkin. How ya feeling?" Kevin asked as he picked Kylie up.

"I’m feeling better. Mommy told me to come and tell you that you had to come watch TV with me. She had to take Nick and Steve to the dentist." Kylie said.

"Ok, then let’s go watch some TV." Kevin said as he turned off the lights in his studio and closed the door. Kevin was not prepared for coming face to face with Nicole. "I thought you were gone." Kevin said.

"I’m just waiting for Nick and Steven to brush their teeth." Nicole said without looking at Kevin.

"I could have taken them to the dentist." Kevin said.

"Kylie honey. Why don’t you go lie down in the living room and watch TV? Daddy will just be a second." Nicole said. As soon as Kylie was in the living room, Nicole said, "I didn’t think you wanted to be disturbed."

"Nicole, if you want my help around here, you’re going to have to tell me some of these things." Kevin said.

"See this calendar right here Kevin? All the appointments and hockey games and dance classes are all listed here. So the next time your guilty conscience bites you in the butt, all you have to do is look here." Nicole said.

"Will you quit it with this bitchy attitude Nicole. I’m doing my best." Kevin said.

"Then make an attempt at trying for longer than a few hours will ya." Nicole said as the two boys ran down the stairs. "I have some soup heating on the stove for Kylie. Make sure she eats some of it." Nicole said.

Kevin sat down in the living room. He desperately needed to get out of the house, but he couldn’t leave Kylie by herself. Kevin decided to call the usual babysitter. He found the number posted by the telephone and made the arrangements for Sherry to come over right away. Kevin then phoned AJ.

"Hey AJ, how ya doing?" Kevin said when AJ answered his cell phone.

"Kevin man. I’m doing well. How about yourself?" AJ asked.

"What are you doing tonight?" Kevin asked.

"I was just about to meet Howie for dinner. Why don’t your come along." AJ said.

"Yeah, I think I will." Kevin said.

"Ok then. Meet us at Montana’s in half an hour." AJ said.

"I may be a little late. I’m just waiting for the babysitter to come over." Kevin said.

"What’s Nicole doing tonight?" AJ asked.

"She took the boys to the dentist." Kevin said, not wanting to get into their problems on the phone.

"Ok, well see ya when you get there." AJ said as he hung up the phone.

Twenty minutes later, Kevin left Kylie with Sherry while she was eating a bowl of chicken noodle soup. He knew Nicole would be ready to hang him by the time he got home, but he just needed to get out of there.

Kevin quickly left the house and drove to the restaurant. He spotted Howie and AJ seated at a table and he headed in their direction. "Hey guys." Kevin said as he sat down beside Howie.

"Hey Kevin. Long time no see." Howie said as he patted Kevin on the back.

"Yes it has been a while hasn’t it. I saw the trailer for your latest movie just the other day. It looks like a good movie." Kevin said.

"Thanks. I’m actually taking a few months off since Julie is due to give birth any day now." Howie said.

"You’ll have to let us know when she finally has the baby." Kevin said.

"So how are you and Nicole?" Howie asked.

Kevin wasn’t sure if he should mention anything to Howie or AJ. He knew he could trust them, but telling someone else that they were having problems with their marriage seemed so final. Was he ready to face that, Kevin thought to himself? Kevin finally decided that he needed to talk to someone about it, so he said, "Things aren’t going that well."

"What, you’re not living in marital bliss anymore?" AJ kidded.

"I’m being serious AJ. Nicole and I are having some serious problems." Kevin said.

"What kind of problems?" Howie asked, knowing full well that Kevin was serious. He knew Kevin well enough to know that Kevin didn’t discuss his problems until they were too much to handle on his own.

"We never seem to talk anymore and when we do talk it is either for the kids sake, or we are fighting." Kevin said.

"What kind of things are you fighting about?" Howie asked.

"What don’t we fight about is more like it. Last night she got angry with me because I have been spending a lot of time in the studio. So I decided to head up to bed a little earlier last night and we actually connected for a while. We made love and I don’t know how long it has been since that has happened. And then I got up with her this morning and we were both getting along fine. We even talked about our problems a little and we vowed to try a little harder at making the marriage work. Then poor Kylie woke up and she was sick, so I got the boys ready for school and ran them over. We then took Kylie to the doctor. Then all hell broke loose again. She had asked me to go get the prescription filled and I guess I made the mistake of saying I needed to get back to the studio and that set her off again. She wound up taking the day off work to look after Kylie and I spent all day in the studio. We didn’t even speak a word to each other until she left to take the boys to the dentist. She dug her claws in again and well here I am. I had to get out tonight. I called for a babysitter for Kylie and got out as fast as I could." Kevin finally finished.

"Kevin, it sounds like every marriage to me. Wedded bliss doesn’t last forever I’m afraid." AJ said.

"So you and Sam have your problems too?" Kevin asked AJ.

"This all sounds familiar Kevin. It’s almost like it’s a stage that every marriage goes through. We had a really difficult time right after we had Jamie. I guess I was feeling a little neglected and all we did was fight." AJ said.

"What about you Howie?" Kevin asked. He was almost positive Howie was going to say that they never had any problems, because him and Julie always seemed so happy together.

"You have to take the good with the bad Kevin. It isn’t easy to keep a marriage together. Both of you have to work on the marriage and you both have to give and take. Maybe you need to get in the habit of helping with the kids a little bit more or taking a break from the studio to spend some time with Nicole once the kids have gone to bed. It will do wonders Kevin." Howie said.

"Then why do I feel so unhappy? Nicole and I never seem to talk about anything other than the kids these days. It’s all about hockey or dancing or the bills that need to be paid or the car needs a tune-up. What happened to those stimulating conversations we used to have?" Kevin asked in frustration.

"No one can answer that Kevin. You and Nicole have to figure out how to recapture some of that again." Howie said.

"Oh I don’t want to talk about it anymore. So how’s the new album coming along AJ?" Kevin asked changing the subject.