Once again, it was Liam and me alone in a room, only this time, it was his. I’d called and told him I was coming over when Mom let me know that his dad would be coming over to our place. While I wasn’t about to interfere with my mom’s relationships, it was still so strange for me to have the two of them dating. So, I left the house the moment she told me he was coming over, and I carried an outfit with me.Even though it was more than a week later, we were finally going to have a graduation party. I didn’t know all the people who were throwing the party, but nearly everyone would be there. I didn’t bother letting Mom know, I just told her I’d be at some friends’ places. Besides, she was planning a romantic dinner or something. I wouldn’t be surprised if she took advantage of the fact that I was out to get a little fun.I pushed those thoughts out of my mind quickly as I shoved open Liam’s door.“Hey,” he said, looking up.He was seated at his desk, playing on his phone, but he put it
I was home alone when the doorbell rang. I perked up because I was bored by myself. I did have a thought that it might be Liam there, and it was enough to have me rushing to the door. Only, when I opened it, someone unexpected was standing on the other side.“Rita?” I said, confused.She gave a wry smile. “You could at least pretend to be glad to see me, you know? Now I feel bad for coming all the way here.”“No!” I said immediately, fluttering my hands in the air between us. “I’m sorry about that; I just wasn’t expecting…”She rolled her eyes at me. “Let me guess. You thought it would be your boyfriend, come here to pull you out of your boredom.”I couldn’t exactly say no, so all I did was give her a sheepish smile. She just snorted at me as she rolled her eyes. I stepped to the side, and she let herself into the house. She’d been around to my place a few times, so she didn’t even wait for me as she headed straight for the stairs, and once I’d closed the door, I followed close behind
Rita left for a while. Neither of us wanted to speculate too much about what happened. It bothered me, but there was nothing I could do about this knowledge now. I had to think about what I was going to do with it.On the one hand, it was entirely Liam’s business, so of fucking course, he deserved to hear it. But…it would only hurt him, for one thing. For another, it would confuse him, and the last thing I needed was to have him withdraw from me.I couldn’t just keep it to myself, though. I was practically bursting to let it out, and I picked up my phone to message him.Hey, did you hear? Someone’s throwing a party! I’ll meet you there, okay?My heart was in my throat as I sent a second text with the address, then put my phone back down on the desk.I hadn't wanted to go to the party, but the crowded atmosphere would take my mind off things. I would just not drink anything the whole time.I jumped out of my chair and headed for the bathroom to have a shower. I’d been lazing around the
I was alone at home and bored. I’d been looking at college options—local ones—but there was only so long I could keep it up. At least, when I did it at Adele’s place, I could look up and see her sitting not too far away from me.She was the whole reason I was going through with this, after all. Having my motivation right there was usually enough to keep me going.Of course, I wasn’t doing it just for her. I was doing it for us, for our future. For the baby. I was still keeping it under wraps while trying to find the best time to tell Adele this good piece of news. That I might be going to the same college she would, so we wouldn’t have to be separated. At least, not for too long if she ended up waiting until after she had the baby to go. And then, we could raise him or her together.She’d been going to the doctors. Lately, I thought to myself. Is it still too early for an ultrasound? Then we could find out if the baby is a boy or a girl…I wasn’t sure that was something she’d want to
I stepped outside so they wouldn’t know I’d been there to overhear their conversation. I didn’t even want her to know I’d been there, so I was extra careful as I opened the door and stepped outside. Rita had gone to Adele with the information, and I wanted Adele to be the one to tell me herself.When Rita walked out, I was right across the street from Adele’s house, because I didn’t feel like going too far. My legs felt like jelly, like they would give up on me if I tried to walk all the way back home, so I was leaning back against a tree when I saw Rita leave.Not long after that, my phone vibrated in my pocket, twice. I figured they were texts, and I even guessed who from. Sure enough, when I pulled my phone out to check, it was Adele’s number that I saw. I unlocked the screen, opening the texts. They were invitations to some party and the address to where it would take place.A party…Was that something I could put up with, in the state I was in? I glanced down at myself. I was dre
I figured Dad would be sitting at the dinner table when I finally made my way to the kitchen. I’d been dragging my feet, practically crawling, so by the time I did walk in there; it had probably been a whole minute when it was only a few steps away. Instead, he was at the stove.My eyebrows arched, and I just stood there awkwardly, until Dad glanced at me. “Are you going to sit down, or what? I was already making lunch before you came back, so don’t think this is just for you.”I nodded in understanding. Even though it was a little late for lunch, Dad and Laurie looked like they’d been arguing for a while before we arrived, and that was probably when he’d started making the food, then forgotten it and just left it on the table. No, he was just gazing at it.“Will that be safe to eat?” I asked tentatively.“It’s fine,” he said, waving a hand at me. “I was worried it would take a while, when… Laurie said she wanted to talk. So I turned the stove off. It’s not like I would have left it
The penny dropped. I didn’t even need for him to clarify because by what he had said, the answer was obvious. He must have known I would be making assumptions and chose to say nothing, so it was probably now wrong.“Aunt Emelda?” I asked.She was the only aunt I had. I hadn't realized she was Mom’s aunt, too, maybe an older sister. So she’d…had me as a baby and given me up to Mom and Dad?I tried to think of all that I knew about her. Next to Mom, she’d been the other woman in the family I was closest to. I loved both my grandma’s, but Mom and Aunt Emelda had been my favorite growing up. Right after Mom died, I’d seen her a lot of the time. But, she had her own life, and she could only help us out for so long before she had to get back to it.At that moment, I wondered, if I knew what I did now, would I have wanted her to stay, or begged her to go with me?Well. Anyway, it guessed why I looked more like Mom than I did Dad because I was at least her direct family.“Did she not want me,
The drive wasn’t even that long, but on the way back, I didn’t feel like I was in a hurry, so we were going slower that before. I’d been right, too. Now and then, everything would hit me again, and my eyes would blur with tears. I’d remove a hand from the wheel to wipe my eyes, and go on driving.“Why don’t we stop somewhere on the way?” Adele was the one to make the suggestion.I glanced over at her. “You think it’s a good idea?” I asked, not feeling against it.“I think so. You need some time to calm down, at least, and you can't do that while you’re driving. An hour won’t put us out too much, right? We’ll get back on the road before it gets too dark. We passed a small hotel on the way; we could see if they do hourly rates…”There was no argument from me, and when the hotel came into view, I got off the road. We were lucky; they did do hourly rates. We didn’t pay any less if we stayed under the hour, but if we were over by a minute, there were extra fees. I didn’t even care, paying
I sat down with my friend in her room, helping her do up her make-up. We had friends and family running around, helping get ready for the wedding.“This brings back memories,” Chanel said, her eyes twinkling at me.I sighed. “I remember. My wedding that I ended up sharing with my mom. Honestly, I don’t know if I’m jealous of you or not because I didn’t exactly mind how things turned out that day…”Chanel had been there for me, but she’d been too busy to stick with me the entire time, and I’d had Mom there to help me out. Chanel’s mom was around, but she was acting more as a supervisor than anything.“Mom!”I looked up at my baby’s call and gasped. “Oh, honey, you look so pretty!”“Pretty,” Chanel said, sounding just as awed as I did.“Thanks for inviting me to your wedding, Aunt Chanel,” Harmony said, before running away to join the other kids, not waiting for a reply.Chanel sighed. “Adele, your kid is such a sweetheart. And she’s already so big! When Dwayne and I have our kids, they
“How the hell are we supposed to find a parking spot here?” I grumbled.“Watch your mouth,” Adele reprimanded lightly.I rolled my eyes, but looked in the rearview mirror at Harmony, in the backseat and held down by a seatbelt. She looked to be paying full attention to her juice box, though.“Shouldn’t we have waited to get here before giving her anything to drink?” I asked, still looking for a space to park.“It’s fine. I figured we could find a bathroom before we go in or something.”I just hummed. A moment later, I finally found somewhere to park the car, and it wasn’t too far away from the stadium. I pulled into space, and the three of us got out of the car.“Give me your hand, honey,” Adele said, holding her hand out to Harmony.Our little girl pouted. “Mom, I think I’m old enough now that we can go around without you holding my hand.”I sighed and rolled my eyes, seeing Adele pout as well. Three years had gone by, and Harmony was seven years old now. She also seemed to be going
I sat on the couch, holding Harmony in my arms. I felt a little bad for taking so long, but when we’d woken up and started getting ready for Liam’s departure, I figured it had been about time to let our little girl know that her dad would be going away for a while.She hadn't cried, but she was being pouty about it, and not speaking. I knew, sometime after he left, she’d come to me and cry, and when she did, I would cry with her. Sometimes, things just seemed to hit her late, and when they did, they hit hard. It reminded me a little of myself at times.Liam brought down the last of his suitcases and set it at the base of the stairs, then glanced over at us. He arched an eyebrow at me, but all I could do was sigh.“Harmony?” I said slowly, pulling her away from my chest so I could look at her face. She kept her head ducked down, but I tilted it up by the chin, and she finally met my eyes. “I know you’re sad that Daddy is going away, but he has to leave soon, so why don’t you say goodby
I was seated in my bedroom, on top of the bed with my laptop on in front of me. It was about time for me to go to school, and I was doing last minute checks to be sure I didn't forget something before I had to leave. I would be leaving for the city tomorrow morning, taking a few things with me to my new apartment that was closer to the school and my job. I would be coming back when I had to time off, but it killed me that I had to move away from my wife and daughter like I knew it bothered Adele.Shit, we hadn't even explained it to Harmony right that I wouldn’t be around all the time anymore. There were phone calls and video calls, but it was hardly the same.“Are you done?”I looked up to see Adele just walking out of the bathroom with a bathrobe around her and a towel around her neck as she wiped at her hair.“I can do whatever’s left once I get there,” I said, closing the laptop and setting it aside without taking my eyes off her.“I’m going to miss you when you leave,” she said w
It was getting closer and closer to the fall, and with it, nearer to the time Liam had to go off to law school. As summer was winding down, Liam had to get a bunch of stuff in order before he could leave. The one thing I hated most, though, was when he was looking for a place to stay. I knew he wasn’t leaving me, but I still hated that he had to move out of the house.I woke up one day, too anxious to sleep longer, and both Liam and Harmony came down to find me on the couch, and breakfast nowhere in sight.“I’m so sorry, honey,” I said, referring to both of them, but looking at my pouting daughter. “I haven’t cooked anything, but we still have cereal would you like that?”Immediately, she perked up. “Yay, cereal!”She shot toward the kitchen, and Liam grinned at me. I didn’t usually like her having cereal, so I tried to lessen how many times in a week she could have any, and she’d already had it twice. She preferred the extremely sweet types, and the sugar rush always had her bouncing
We had a late night, but I still woke up early. My body was too used to getting up at a certain time in the morning every day, I was up before the alarm even rang, and I reached over to shut it off before it got too annoying. Then, I turned to the woman sleeping in my arms.I hadn't moved yet, and already I could feel the aches all over my body that pretty much meant we’d had a really fun night last night. After how that disastrous dinner had been, and then the day of circling each other while I thought of how best to cure Adele of her disappointment, I couldn’t have asked for a better end to our long streak of no sex.There was still school, and I sighed as I wondered how I was going to work both that and my job into my family life. If Harmony did start going to school at the same time…it would be so much more convenient for everybody.After leaving a peck on her forehead, I slid out of Adele’s arms and went to the bathroom. The area around my upper arms and back stung from all the s
It had been a whole day since the dinner fiasco. I’d stopped crying a while back, but I was still pretty bummed out about it. Liam noticed, and he’d left me alone since then. I hated that he had, though, because he didn’t even come to the bedroom to sleep last night. I must have cried myself to sleep, and when I woke, I found him sleeping on the couch in the same outfit from yesterday with his jacket thrown over him.Since he’d ignored me first, I’d done the same to him throughout most of the day. We didn’t eat the food from yesterday, but at least I’d left it all covered, so all it needed was some warming. In fact, last night’s dinner was pretty much all we had throughout the day; I warmed separate portions for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We ate separately and stayed in different rooms of the house.I hated how it felt like we were in a fight when the reason I was in such a mood wasn’t even because of him.Is he just going to let things stay like this? I mused to myself as I lay in
It was evening already. Adele had spent most of the afternoon cooking, and I could smell all sorts of amazing scents wafting from the kitchen. I’d kept my ass on the couch and my focus on the TV, though, so I wouldn’t bother her. I could have helped, but… I was feeling a little lazy. And I was kind of uneasy over what Adele planned to do. So I left her alone. She wouldn’t give me a plate before our guests were present, but my mouth was practically watering, and my stomach kept growling in hunger.To hurry things along, I got up to head for the kitchen, and see if she at least needed help with something.“Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked while leaning against the door. Hoping that her answer would be no.She glanced at me over her shoulder, paused with her arms raised where she was reaching for plates from the cupboard. I walked across the room and reached for the same plates, glancing down at her. She was just standing there, staring at me with wide eyes.“How many do you
My mom and Liam’s dad were going to spend the day with Harmony; Liam’s birth mother was even going to join them in spoiling her, and then she was going to spend the night over with them. She was four-years-old already and didn’t exactly mind the attention, taking after her dad in one more thing, among others, including her pretty looks.She should be starting school soon…and the idea of it scared me, the fact that she's grown up so fast.Where did the time go?It was something I had to talk to Liam about at some point. For the moment, she was still going to daycare, but it would probably be better to get her into kindergarten already instead of waiting too long, or she’d end up older than the other kids in her class.I was pretty much a stay at home mom, even though I’d gone through college and gotten my degree. It wasn’t something I couldn’t put to use while staying at home, anyway. Considering how far the world had advanced already, it wouldn’t be so difficult to get a job online wi