“Is that what you’re calling it now?” She giggles. “Okay, I’ve got to go. I just got called into the conference room.”
“Talk to you later,” I say and hang up. Why didn’t she ask if I wanted to go with her? For that matter, why didn’t I offer to meet her?
The rest of the day flies by, and by the time I finish my meeting with Denis, it’s almost six thirty.
There is a text from Lauren and one from Noah.
I read Lauren’s first.
Thank you for the flowers, they are beautiful ;) She also sent a picture of her smelling the roses with a sly smile.
I smile at her face, missing her like crazy.
The next is from Noah.
Way to piss on her leg. We get it, she’s taken. Thank god you didn’t send a barber shop quartet to serenade her.
I laugh at him and answer with the middle finger emoji.
Closing up my computer, I head down to my car, wondering what field they’re at and thinking about going to join them.
I call her cell phone, but there is no answer, so I go home, where I grab my stuff and go for a run.
I run for six miles, getting home soaking wet. Looking over at Noah’s house, I see the lights are all off, so I go straight home, where I shower.
I pick up my phone and see that Lauren hasn’t called me yet, so I call her back.
“Hey,” she answers, out of breath, “sorry I missed your call before. We were at the park.”
I hear moving around on her end.
“Yeah, I know, I was going to meet you.” I slam the door of the fridge that is still fucking empty.
“Oh, really?” She sounds sad. “I didn’t know. I forgot about Rachel’s play date with Emma. So they met us at the park.”
I smile drinking my water. “Hot moms at the park,” I kid with her.
“It was actually Emma’s dad with us. Mom left them last year,” she explains, while I hear things slamming from her end.
“Is this father hot?” I ask, anger shooting out of me.
“Um, I don’t really look at him like that.” I hear a door close. “Why would you ask that?”
“No reason, just wanted to know who you were spending time with, since it wasn’t with me.” Holy fuck, am I sulking? Is this me sulking?
“I wasn’t with anyone. I was with Rachel, who was playing with a friend. I didn’t go there on a date with him. What is this really about?”
“Nothing,” I breathe out my frustration. “I just missed you today.”
“I missed you, too. A lot,” she whispers. “Like to the moon and back.” I hear a smile in her voice.
We continue talking till we drift off to sleep. I haven’t done this since high school, but smile when she sends me a text before I wake up.
Have a great day! Kisses in special areas!
I laugh to myself while I get ready and start another day that flies by. I won’t say that Bruce is better than Lauren, but he is filling her shoes better than anyone else.
I try calling Lauren during the day, but the conversations are all short. Then after she gets home to the kids, it’s almost impossible to get through to her.
I sit in my living room that night, holding my phone, wondering what she’s doing. Wondering if Rachel brought home more math homework. Wondering if Gabe is thinking hockey or soccer. I even wonder if Kaleigh is driving them crazy with tofu.
By the time she gets back to me, she’s yawning and on her way to bed.
I toss and turn all night as sleep evades me. My mind plays through different scenarios in my head. What if I’m not good enough? What if she doesn’t want me in her life with her kids? What if I fuck up and we fight about it?
The questions are endless, the answers never coming. I’m about to throw my phone out the window when Noah comes waltzing into my office.
“Hey, there, stranger.” He goes to my couch, unbuttoning his jacket and sitting down. I look at him looking at Bruce. “Well, at least you won’t try to bang your new PA, right?” He laughs, brushing his hands into his hair. I notice that he has pink nail polish on.
“That really isn’t your color.” I point to his hand.
“Rachel painted my nails yesterday.” He inspects his nails. “You should see what she did to my feet.”
I throw my pen down and sit up straighter. “You saw Rachel yesterday?”
“Well, we had to babysit Rachel and Gabe so Lauren could bring her car in to get the radio fixed.” He says it as if it’s no big deal, and I’m suddenly pissed off.
“What?” I yell.
“A CD of Frozen was jammed in her player and was stuck on repeat, so it played it all the time. You know this,” he reminds me as if I’m dumb.
“I know what you mean. What I don’t understand is why you were babysitting.”
“She needed help,” he says with a pointed look at me.
“Why didn’t she ask me?”
“I don’t know, maybe because you hightailed it right out of there the minute family shit started happening on Sunday night?” He stands up.
“Fuck off!” I yell back at him. Bruce sits up in his chair a little straighter. “She was busy, so I left.”
He glares at me. “You left or you took off, it’s the same thing.”
“Is that what she said?” I look at him, waiting for the answers. Did she think I didn’t want to be around her kids?
“She didn’t say anything. I just found it weird that she would ask us and not you. Kaleigh said to drop it, so I figured you didn’t want to.”
“I wasn’t asked.” I hold out my hands to the side. “I didn’t even know.”
I grab my jacket, ready to run out of the office, when Noah grabs my arm. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going to tell her that I’m not scared of her
