Step by Step...

It wasn't easy. Losing my Mom had broken my heart. She was young, she was vital and then she was gone. Losing Jody splintered both my soul and my spirit. It made absolutely no sense. It would be years before I put together most of the pieces of that horrible puzzle.

But I had silly game shows and the like to monitor and a new relationship to focus on. And focus I did. I really liked Bruce...a lot. He was cute, he was funny, he loved life and laughed a lot. We had good times together. We saw each other a couple of nights a week which made me realize this wasn't exclusive - at least for him. One Saturday he'd been taping one of the shows he produced and called around 6PM. We weren't supposed to get together but he said he had somewhere he wanted to take me. Completely casual. Forget playing hard to get. I was available and curious. I had on a pair of good jeans - oh, the standard studio outfit for our Compliance and Practices crew were good jeans, silk blouses and heels...yes, heels on concrete studio floors. My back doth protest. But, I digress.

He picked me up in his little red, Mercedes convertible and we headed toward Encino where he lived. Remember I had this cute one bedroom apartment in Toluca Lake catty corner from Mr. Bob Hope's house. Encino was about twenty minutes away. We passed the exit to his house and I finally said, "just where are we going?" He didn't respond.

Perhaps I had mentioned earlier that Bruce was (and still is) 14 years older than I. He had (and still does) two daughters...12 and 16. And an ex-wife...well, an almost ex-wife as I had recently discovered. While they'd been separated for four years no one had seen the need to make it "official" by getting a divorce. The ex had a boyfriend - a great, larger than life Italian Guido named Richard. Gold chains and all. There was quite a bit of drama as Bruce and Brenda (the almost ex) "co-parented" but it would be a while before I realized it would involve me.

A little background for future reference.

Bruce and I drove down a friendly neighborhood street and stopped in front of a house I'd never seen before.

"I want you to meet my parents," he said, and as we walked up the path to the front door he looked at me and said, "I've never done this before."

The stakes had just gotten much, much higher.