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Let Annie Decide
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Asking for a Friend Nothing to Worry About
MARISSAThe corners of my mouth turned up and my nose scrunched. “I realized I couldn’t stand blood.”Denise laughed, but Annie looked horrified. “I don’t like blood either.”“Then you probably wouldn’t like being a nurse,” I told her and she nodded her agreement before turning pensive again.“What does a counts manager do?” She asked finally between the last bites of her breakfast.“Accounts manager.” I corrected her gently. “I work with numbers. Basically, I look at how much money people have to build the buildings they want, and I try to see if we can get the building built with that much money.”It was a complete oversimplification, but the child was only six. She frowned, but nodded. “I think I understand.”“So, back to your boss.” Denise said, prompting us back to the actual conversation we needed to have. “What did he want to do with the two of you tomorrow?”I shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’ll have to talk to him about it today if Annie’s sure she wants to meet him.”“I’m sure,” s
Asking for a Friend Meeting Her
LAYTONMarissa’s house was a small, single family home in the suburbs. It was exactly what I might have expected from her, with bay windows and colorful flower pots on the front porch. There were wind chimes hanging from the roof over three steps leading up to the front door.The front yard was small, but well cared for. The weather was getting warmer and some of her plants were starting to come alive again after the miserable winter.I parked in her driveway, gravel crunching beneath my tires. Before I got out of my car, I took a deep breath and gripped my steering wheel so hard my knuckles went white. I was more nervous than I expected to be.Meeting Marissa’s daughter was a big step for us to take, even if we weren’t telling her exactly what was going on between us. It was a step I wanted to take with her, and I didn’t regret asking, but it was dawning on me that this was the biggest step I’d taken in any relationship. Ever.Sweat broke out on my brow and I wiped it off, willing my
Asking for a Friend Perspective
LAYTONMarissa stepped aside and motioned me into her house while Annie yelled something about getting different shoes and zoomed away, disappearing to her room. Marissa gave me a sheepish smile. “She’s really energetic, I know.”“I like it,” I admitted, surprising myself when I realized it was true. “It’s charming. Kinda makes me miss being a kid, back when everything was that exciting.”Marissa looked taken aback for a second before she started nodding. “That’s exactly how I think and feel about it. It’s incredible to experience things through a child’s eyes again. It makes me realize how desensitized we’ve become to how amazing life really is.”“That’s an interesting perspective.” I could see it being true, though. If Annie was already reminding me about how exciting going fishing really was, I imagined the more time I spent with her, the more I would start noticing other things I’d forgotten over the years. “I’m looking forward to seeing things that way again.”“You’re going to be
Asking for a Friend Catching Trevor
MARISSAIt turned out that all my worrying had been for nothing. Annie loved Layton already, it was clear as day to me. It didn’t hurt that he brought her a gift that I knew she would absolutely treasure for years to come, but she also seemed to just be having fun with him.I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her laughing and smiling so much. She was captivated by what Layton was explaining to her, completely taken in by all things fishing.Somehow, I had a feeling that even if Layton never wanted to see either of us ever again, there was going to be some fishing in my future. She was definitely going to want to use that rod again, and if the smiles she kept giving to and getting from Layton were any indication, she was going to have plenty of opportunities.It was strange seeing them together. About two hours before Layton was set to arrive at our house, I was this close to calling the whole day off. I even considered calling Denise and asking her to come have lunch with Annie
Asking for a Friend Boring Ice Cream
MARISSAThe respect he’d been showing me all day, as well as his insight into small things—like not making a promise to her when I would be the one who had to keep it—astounded me. It was impressive that he was so intuitive about what was and wasn’t okay with me.Annie turned to me and I answered her question before she repeated it. “Sure, we’ll come back sometime. It’s too pretty here to know about it and not come back.”Satisfied with my answer, Annie helped Layton pack up. Or rather, she followed his instructions about holding things while he packed everything back into its designated place in his toolbox thing.On our way home, Annie babbled on and on about fishing and told me everything she learned. We passed an ice cream parlor she loved and when she saw it, she tapped me on the shoulder. “Please can we get ice cream, Mommy? Please. Please. Please.”“It’s cold out, honey. Are you sure you want ice cream?”Layton scoffed, winking at me. “What kind of question is that? It’s never
Asking for a Friend More Money
LAYTONSunday morning arrived hours before I was ready for it to. I woke up to my phone ringing and groaned, hoping it wasn’t Clayton Reeve with another annoying surprise. Rolling over on my bed to grab my phone on the nightstand, I frowned when I saw it was Craig.“This better be urgent if you’re calling at seven-thirty on a Sunday.” I greeted, falling back onto the bed. “What’s up?”“You have to get down to the site,” Craig said, his voice strained and tense. “I’m sorry to be bothering you this early, but we need to talk and we need to do it now.”I sat up, immediately getting moving. Craig wasn’t the kind of guy to make a call like this lightly. If he was calling this early to tell me we had to talk, there had to be a problem. “What’s wrong?”He exhaled a deep breath. “It’s not good, but we’ll talk when you get here.”We ended the call on that note and I hurried to get showered and ready, arriving at the site less than thirty minutes after he called. It was a cool morning, crisp an
Asking for a Friend Who is This Guy?
LAYTON“I said it with such a straight face because it’s true.”His laughter ended abruptly and his brows pushed together. “You’re not fucking with me? You actually spent the day with Marissa and her kid and enjoyed it?”“Yeah, they’re both great. I took them fishing. I even taught Annie how to bait a hook and everything.” I said proudly, and I was damn proud of it. Having Annie look at me like I was a superhero because I knew how to fish had been strangely satisfying. Knowing that I had taught her something she was likely to remember, and maybe even brag about being able to do so gave me a sense of achievement.Craig’s jaw dropped as he watched these thoughts play out. “You took them fishing and actually spent time talking to the kid?”“Are you going to repeat everything I say today?” I teased, smirking.He nodded. “If you keep saying shit I have to repeat to know I understood it correctly, then yes. I didn’t even know you fished, and it never occurred to me that you would even know
Asking for a Friend Shopping Around
MARISSASunday was a girls shopping day for Annie, Denise and I. My little girl was fast becoming not so little anymore and was growing like a weed. In the past few weeks, she’d gotten so much taller that she had outgrown some of her clothes and most of what was left wasn’t going to last her much longer either.Denise wanted to pick up something new for herself as well, so she decided to join us. The mall was quieter than usual since it was a Sunday morning. Most people who were there had gone for brunch and just hung around the food court. The shop assistants smiled lazily and had none of their usual bustling energy as they flitted between customers.Annie held my hand as we made our way to her favorite shop, a department store for kids, with toys everywhere and even a huge doll house. Chatting to Denise while we walked, she looked up at her with wide eyes. “Guess what! We went fishing yesterday with Mommy’s boss.”Denise smiled, shooting me a wink over the top of Annie’s head. “Yeah
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