Chapter 123 - You Didn't Make It...

"Dad this is wrong, I am jealous" Jimmy complained.

"Why?" Harry was confused.

"You never talk to me the way you just talked to Rachel"

"Yeah because you are useless and she is not" Harry ignored Jimmy and looked at Rachel awaiting her answer.

"Okay uncle but you have to promise me you will tell me as soon as I know the trip story"

"Yes it is a promise"

"What is exactly happening here? What trip are you two talking about?" Jimmy couldn't contain his curiosity any more.

"None of your business" Harry rudely replied.

"Mom please answer me honestly, am I adopted?" Jimmy started overacting because of his dad's rude behaviour.

"Yes, me mom and dad once went out and saw you abandoned on the side of the road and decided to adopt you" Daniel answered Jim's question.

"Mom is that true?" Jimmy almost shouted.

"Yes it is" Harry answered him this time.

Daniel and Harry looked at each other and tried to hide their smiles.

"Mooooooom" Jimmy again shouted.

"Enough you two, Jimmy you are so old and yet you get bullied by your dad and Danny, your eyes look like your dad, isn't that enough proof?"

"But mom…"

"Stop overreacting, unfortunately you are our biological son" Harry taunted his younger son.

"Mom" Jimmy looked at Catherine as he felt wronged by his dad's behaviour.

"Harry enough, stop taunting him" Catherine looked very serious and Harry decided to stop troubling Jimmy.

Rachel smiled seeing the banter between these four, she missed her parents and wished they were alive.

After dinner they all went to chill in the living room and the three grandpas came back after having fun at The Eminent Club.

"Grandpa , why are so late? I have been waiting for you since evening" Rachel fumed in anger, although Catherine tried to convince Rachel it is fine she still felt embarrassed overstaying their welcome.

Grandpa laughed at her reaction and handed a bag to her, "Dear, take this bag. I have told our housekeeper to pack some clothes for both of us, I have picked it on the way back"

She glared at him in confusion "What am I asking? And what you are replying to. We are supposed to go back to our house tonight."

Michale interrupted her, "Rach, we three had a lot of fun today, it was just like being in a different and the most comfortable world, we want to discuss about that club so wanted to stay together so we decided we will crash again at Anthony's house tonight" he then asked Catherine, "Is it fine if we all stay tonight too?"

"Of course it is fine, rather I am happy as we can spend one more day together" she then looked at Daniel and winked, he smiled at his mother's enthusiasm and thought, 'The day she will know I hid about our relationship from her, she will kill me'

Rachel didn't say anything as Michael too insisted but she very strictly warned her grandpa, "But grandpa tomorrow we have to go home as I have work on Monday"

Her grandpa promised, "Tomorrow we will definitely go back, right after lunch, okay?"

"Oh god grandpa, you invited yourself for lunch already?" Rachel was getting more annoyed with his behaviour.

"Of course, no problem uncle, to be honest I want to keep all of you at my home permanently but since I need to give you all some space, I can't" Catherine interjected to stop Rachel from scolding her grandpa.

Jimmy had been curious to know why the grandpas looked so happy after visiting the club, so he finally asked "Grandpa, you said that club was a different world, what was that special about it?"

The three grandpas then shared their experience without skipping on any details, they described the beauty of that place, shared all the activities that were available and which ones they experienced first hand, they informed how amazing the staff was, grandpas looked very enthusiastic and excited when they were talking about The Eminent Club.

Everyone enjoyed knowing the details of their experience, "I wish I too could get a membership" Jimmy expressed his interest in joining it.

"That is the beauty of this club, you don't apply here for a membership, they will approach you if you are good enough to be a member there"

"Woah, isn't that offensive?" Daniel shared his opinion, just like Jimmy, Daniel too found it offensive.

"Yes unfortunately it is but that is how they want to bring the premium and exclusiveness to their service, when I received the membership offer, I too didn't share with the other two old men thinking they would feel left out and sad." Anthony explained.

"Yeah and then Michael showed off how he got the premium membership offer and then me and Anthony too shared the news of receiving it too" James added.

"Wow nice coincidence that the three of you got a membership in here, even if one of you was left out, I am sure the other two would not have accepted the membership offer at all." Catherine knew the three old men very well.

"Well I am sure Anthony would have left us and gone for it, if we didn't receive the offer." Anthony taunted his friend.

"That's not true, I was just showing off to tease you two, if you wouldn't have been offered a membership then I too would have rejected mine" Michael furiously explained as he felt wronged.

"Nonsense you would have definitely left us" James too teased him.

"Hey, I would be all alone if I leave the two of you, so please don't joke, I have no one except for you guys" Michael suddenly became emotional and therefore James and Anthony stopped teasing him.

Anthony never married anyone and now after all these years he somewhere feels he missed out on having a family, wife, kids and grandkids, whenever he sees Anthony and James with their grandkids, he feels an emptiness in his heart and therefore he too started treating them as his own to fill that gap.

"Should I bring some dessert for you three?" Catherine asked to end the awkward silence in the room.

"No, we had dessert at the club after having dinner, we now want to go and discuss when to visit the club again and which activities to cover next time, there are so many options that we couldn't explore everything in one day" Anthony answered his daughter-in-law and waved the brochure in his hand to explain they will be planning their next visit.

Catherine smiled at their excitement and let them be, the three grandpas left and Rachel too decided to have a bath again and change into the clothes her grandpa brought from their home, it was a relief now for her as at least now she does not have to wear these thin clothes or narrow Daniel's clothes from him.

Harry and Catherine too went back to their rooms and Jimmy got a call from Amanda, he anxiously went out to the lawn area to answer it. Daniel understood why he hurriedly left and decided to let him be and he too got lost in his own thoughts.

...…

Jimmy went to the lawn to attend the phone call from Amanda and he anxiously answered it.

"Hello, Jimmy Morris" he answered the call like a professional to hide the anxiety.

"Hi, Amanda here." 

"Yes ma'am?" He tried to sound as polite as he could.

"Hey as we discussed in the morning today, I called to inform you the result"

"Yes ma'am, so what have you decided?" His heartbeat was racing, since the director called him herself he was hoping the news was good, so he was going through a mixed set of emotions like anxiety, worry, excitement, fear.

But the next moment after what he heard, he froze on his spot.

"Sorry to let you know Mr. Morris, you didn't make it to the final cut" This news dropped on him so suddenly that he felt like a cold bucket of water was poured all over him. He was speechless and he felt like his heart was shattered into pieces.

Amanda understood what he must be going through so she continued explaining, "After you left, another person auditioned, he too was as good as you, to be honest this was one of the hard decisions I made and that's why I decided to personally call you, you at least deserve to hear the news from me." she sadly explained, it was evident how bad she too was feeling, delivering this news to Jimmy.

"Thank you so much for thinking that I am at least deserving of something" Jimmy chuckled at his own words and tried to joke to reduce the awkwardness.

"Please don't say that, we really liked your acting, we actually finalized on you as soon as you were done with the second act, the chemistry between you and Megan was great too but