Then There Was You: A Single Parent Collection

by Gianna Gabriela

  Less than a minute later, he got a reply.

  Standing up, he said, “I’m going to go meet Sam. Don’t wait up for me, though.” Bending down, he kissed his mother on the forehead. “Thanks.”

  Grabbing his keys from the dish by the door, he walked out to his car and got in. Sam had been his best friend since grade school. There was nothing the guy didn’t know about Max and Chelsea’s whole fucked-up relationship. He knew about the time when Chelsea cheated on Max in their senior year, and he knew the reason he had taken her back.

  He drove down to the same bar he and Sam went to every Thursday night when Max wasn’t working. Sam’s bike was already parked out the front when he pulled into the lot beside the bar. Max stared at his left hand still resting on the steering wheel; his wedding ring seemed to be mocking him. Before he got out of the car, he slid the gold band from his ring finger and dropped it into the centre console. He pulled open the door of the bar and was greeted with the familiar smells of nuts and stale beer.

  “What’s up?” Sam asked as soon as Max sat down next to him at the table.

  Dumping his phone and keys on the worn table, Max stared at his best friend. He heaved a heavy sigh, preparing himself to say the words. “She took off.”

  Sam choked on his beer. Wiping a hand across his mouth, he asked, “Chelsea?”

  “Hi, what can I get you?” the waitress asked, interrupting their conversation.

  “A shot of vodka with a beer chaser.”

  The young woman smiled at him. “You got it.”

  “Yeah, so…” He glanced up at the waitress, who was still standing there. “That’s all. Thanks.”

  “Sure.” She gave them another smile and walked away.

  Sam laughed. “Nothing’s changed.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Gesturing to the waitress standing by the bar as she pretended not to look in their direction, Sam said, “Women still throw themselves at your feet. It’s been exactly the same since high school.”

  Internally, Max bristled. Externally, he gave Sam a smug smile. “You’ve always been jealous of me.” He was only joking, but the way Sam’s mouth thinned for that split second, he thought he’d touched on a sore spot.

  “Well, you did get the girl, didn’t you?”

  At the mention of Chelsea, his mood soured once more. “Yeah,” he agreed. He was glad when the waitress returned with his drinks. She slid a cocktail napkin to him with a wink then walked away.

  “You lucky fucking bastard,” Sam muttered. Without looking, Max shoved the napkin in Sam’s direction.

  “Take it. There’s no fucking way I’m getting involved with another woman right now. Getting screwed over once was enough.”

  Sam was silent for a second, giving Max time to drink his vodka in peace. “Do you think she’s coming back?”

  Max scrubbed a hand over his face and groaned. He didn’t need this question asked of him, because he knew the answer. Saying it out loud would only make it more real. “No.”

  “Not even for Erin?”

  Max looked his friend in the eye. “Not even for her. She left her. What kind of woman would leave their own child?”

  Bringing the beer glass to his lips, Max drank until he could see the bottom of the thing. It would take a lot more alcohol than that to make him go numb, but it was a damn good start.

  “What are you going to do now?”

  “The only thing I can,” Max replied. “I’m going to get on with my life. I’m going to look after Erin like Chelsea never did and forget about the bitch.”

  2

  3 months later…

  Gigi let out a groan and let her head fall into the open book in front of her. How long had she been studying? It seemed like forever. She’d be glad when finals were over and she could graduate and get a real job. Reaching her hand out, she waited until her fingers wrapped around the can of energy drink she’d been nursing for the last hour and brought it to her lips. “Argh,” she said to herself, placing it back down. It was warm.

  It was already eight o’clock and the library would be closing in an hour. She’d hang around until then, figuring the more time she spent in a place dedicated to study and learning, the more the information she was reading would stick. All around her were students who had the same idea.

  She picked up her phone, noticing she had another five texts from her roommate, Jen, along with half a dozen missed calls. The screen lit up once more. She canceled the call and put the device down.

  “The Oxford Companion to Anthropology,” someone said beside her twenty minutes later. Gigi turned her head to find Jen standing there, Gigi’s textbook in her hand. “I think I’d rather sit through the Fifty Shades movie.”

  Taking the book from Jen’s hand, Gigi put it back onto the table. “So why don’t you go and do that and let me get back to studying?” She tried to refocus on her notes, but Jen’s hovering was hard to ignore. Tapping a pencil against her page, Gigi looked back at her. “What are you doing down here? Surely all the ignored texts and calls were enough of a clue—even for you.”

  Jen smiled, ignoring Gigi’s comment. Her eyes began roving over the other people completely engrossed in their own books. “Maybe I should come down here more often. Some of these guys look tasty.” She licked her lips appreciatively.

  Gigi huffed. “Did you come down here for an actual reason?”

  “Yeah. I came to drag you out to have some fun.”

  She frowned. “I am having fun.”

  “With your nose buried in a book? I don’t think so,” Jen replied, perching on the edge of the table and putting her feet on the seat of a chair next to her. “Besides, finals aren’t for another two weeks. You’ve got plenty of time to study.”

  “I need all the time I can get. If you haven’t noticed, there aren’t many anthropology jobs up for grabs. I’ve got to beat everyone else in my course if I want to have even a slight chance of landing a position at the museum.”

  Standing up, Jen said, “Gigi, you’ve been working so hard lately. Come out and have some fun tonight and you can get back to studying tomorrow. I promise to make it worth your while.”

  She knew it was hopeless to fight Jen once she got an idea into her head. She closed the book she was reading. “Fine. We’ll go out for one drink. That’s it.”

  Jen grinned. “One drink.”

  After packing up her books, Gigi followed Jen out of the building and into the slightly chilly New York evening. She looked up at the cloudless sky, wondering when she would get to see the stars again; the city just erased them all. “Where are we going?”

  Jen looked at her. “Nowhere, with you looking like that.”

  Looking down at herself, Gigi raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

  “Nothing, if you want to attract boring snores of men.”

  She did another once-over of what she was wearing. What was wrong with a long-sleeved plaid shirt over a singlet and jean shorts?

  “You have no idea what kind of banging body you have hiding under there, Gigi. I wish you’d let me give you a make-over.”

  “I’m fine the way I am,” Gigi replied quickly. If she was honest, the thought of make-up other than mascara, lip gloss and hair products scared her. Why did she have to primp and preen every day? She had nobody to impress, and she certainly didn’t need to look good while she studied. Besides, Jen’s sense of style tended to border on whore-chic…if that was a thing. She was always wearing tiny skirts, low-cut tops and dresses with plunging neck and back lines. And don’t even get her started on the heels.

  “Not tonight you’re not. I’m going to give you some of my clothes to wear.”

  “I think I’ll be all right,” she murmured, not wanting to offend her roommate.

  Turning to her, Jen said, “Look, where we’re going is this fancy new wine bar that’s just opened up. You won’t get in wearing what you are. You need to look the part.”

  “We could just go s
omewhere else,” Gigi suggested.

  “I’ve wanted to go to this place forever.”

  “How could you? It’s just opened.”

  Jen waved away the question. “You know what I mean.”

  Gigi looked up to see they were on their street. She and Jen shared a two bedroom apartment near the university. Jen’s parents had organized everything, ensuring they had the lease for all four years and had subsidized rent. They climbed the stairs instead of taking the elevator, and Jen opened the front door. Shoving Gigi’s back, Jen directed her into the bathroom.

  “Get showered. Shave everything then meet me out here in fifteen minutes.”

  Shave everything? Shaking her head, Gigi walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. She started up the water, hearing the pipes knocking together in the walls. After stripping out of her clothes, she got under the spray and tilted her head back, soaking her hair.

  A shampoo and condition later, her thick red hair was stuck to her head and trailing down to the middle of her back. Luckily, she’d been blessed with straight hair, which made the fact that it was red not seem like such a big deal. Picking up the razor, Gigi shaved her legs and under her arms, then paused as she looked down at her bikini area.

  “Not happening,” she whispered to herself then cut the water. Wrapping one towel around her head and another around her body, she stepped from the bathroom and went into her room. Laid out on her bed were five different outfits, all with varying degrees of fabric. Jen was rummaging through Gigi’s underwear drawer.

  “Can I help you?” she asked, irritated.

  Jen looked up, a pair of Gigi’s underwear hanging from her finger. “Don’t you have anything slightly more interesting than black and cotton?”

  Marching over, she snatched the offending garment from Jen’s finger. “No.”

  “I need to get you some new underwear, Gigi. You need to feel a bit of lace and silk against your skin.” Jen ran her hands over her stomach, hips and thighs, wiggling her ass a little. “Trust me when I say that once you get a taste for it, you will not want to go back to cotton.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with cotton.” She sighed and looked at the outfits on the bed. “Which one of these god-awful dresses am I supposed to wear tonight?”

  Jen smiled, casually dropping into Gigi’s desk chair. “Whichever one you want. Look over them all then I’ll tell you what one I want you to wear, but the final decision is yours.”

  Groaning, Gigi picked up the first dress, which was nothing but sheer lace except for two panels in the bust and hip area. “Pass,” she said, dropping the dress back to the bed. The next three were just as bad. If they weren’t see-through, they had very low necklines, were backless or were simply too short to sufficiently cover Gigi’s ass.

  The last dress, however, was perfect. It was an emerald green strapless dress that fell to just above her knees. She turned to Jen with a smile. “This one.”

  “Perfect. I was going to have you wear that one anyway. I was just having some fun with you by showing you the others.”

  Gigi wasn’t sure that was true. The fact that Jen even had those other dresses in her wardrobe was a scary reminder of what her roommate liked to wear.

  “Get dressed, then I’ll do your hair and make-up.”

  Gigi shook her head. “No way. You never said anything about that. I’ll wear the dress, but that’s it.”

  Jen pouted for a moment then laughed. “It was worth a try, I guess.” Getting up out of the chair,

  she sauntered over to the bedroom door. “We’re leaving in twenty.”

  Gigi stared after Jen, then back down at the dress in her hands. What had she gotten herself into?

  *

  Three quarters of an hour later, she was standing outside the wine bar, Jen’s arms hooked through hers. Jen had decided on an outfit that was a lot less scandalous than the ones she had shown Gigi. Her blonde hair was flowing down her back in soft waves, softening her face and the strong, bold eye make-up she was wearing. Gigi, on the other hand, had her hair in a high ponytail with very little make-up on except for some mascara to help her green eyes pop.

  “Are you ready?” Jen asked.

  “I’ve already come this far,” she replied, letting her roommate lead her inside.

  The lighting was moody, the walls blood-red. All the furniture was leather and rich, and her immediate thoughts were that this was not a place she would ever come without Jen’s coercion.

  Jen dragged her in the direction of the bar and picked up a wine list. Gigi looked over it, not recognizing one winery or variety.

  “What bottle do you want to try?”

  Gigi’s eyes bulged when she saw the price per bottle. “Let’s just stick to drinks by the glass.”

  Jen grinned. “Good thinking. We can try more wine that way.”

  The bartender couldn’t take his eyes off Jen as he poured two glasses of a red wine. Her roommate then slid her credit card across the polished bar top.

  “This round’s on me,” the bartender said, handing back her card without swiping it through the machine.

  “Thanks. When’s your break?” Jen asked, smiling at him and pushing her card back into her bra.

  “At ten.”

  Her smile widened. “I’m Jen.”

  “Ben.”

  They shook hands.

  “I’ll come find you at ten,” she replied, giving him a wink as she took both glasses, handing one to Gigi.

  “You were speaking to him for all of five minutes,” Gigi said, taking her first sip of wine.

  “That’s all it takes, Borello. Men take one look at me then fall all over themselves to speak to me.”

  Gigi rolled her eyes at her roommate then sat down at one of the tables. “So, when do you start work?”

  Jen had been working at a popular nightclub in town up until a week ago. Thanks to her boss being a douchebag, Jen had applied at a new club that was opening up, called Temptation.

  “The club opens in two days,” Jen replied. “It’s going to be so nice not having to worry whether my boss is going to try something every night after closing up…unless my new boss happens to be smoking hot,” she added with a devious smile. “Then I’d consider it.”

  “You’re unbelievable,” Gigi muttered, taking another sip from her glass. She looked out at the young professionals mingling and enjoying a drink together. They were all dressed so well, and she wondered what kind of work they were in. She couldn’t wait to actually have a job. Once she finished studying, she hoped to have one in the field of anthropology, although she was more than prepared to work in any other job until an opportunity came up.

  “Gigi, that guy at the bar is staring at you,” Jen said, jerking her head in the direction of a man who was dressed immaculately. She let her eyes peruse his body, and she had to admit that she liked what she saw—not that she was going to do anything about it; she was tragically shy around men.

  “You should go and talk to him.”

  She shook her head. “No. I shouldn’t. I’m not like you, Jen.”

  “What do you mean, you’re not like me?” her friend said in response, her words clipped.

  “I mean I can’t just flirt and talk to a guy and get his number within the same time it takes someone to tie their shoelace.”

  Jen grinned. “I am pretty good, huh?”

  “So, I’m not going to go and speak to him. I’m going to sit here and drink my glass of wine and mind my own business.” She studied her hands, looking at the short, unmanicured tips.

  Jen shoved her elbow into her side suddenly. “Look who’s heading our way,” she hissed.

  Gigi looked up and swallowed.

  “Hi, I’m Declan,” the man said.

  “Hi,” Jen purred. “I’m Jen and this is Gigi.”

  Gigi could feel his blue eyes studying her face. “Hi,” she said, her voice small and almost inaudible over the noise in the bar.

  “Do you mind if I—” Declan
motioned at the third chair at their table.

  “Of course, sit down,” Jen said. Gigi kicked her under the table, but she didn’t seem to notice.

  “Gigi is an unusual name. Is it short for anything?”

  “Gianna,” she replied, her voice a little louder than previously.

  “So, what do you do, Declan?” Jen asked, drawing the guy’s attention from Gigi. With his eyes off her, she felt as if she could breathe again. She wasn’t keeping up with the conversation at all. All she knew was that Jen was flirting like she always did, and Declan was eating up the attention. He’d obviously decided that Gigi was a lost cause.

  Thirty seconds has to be a new record.

  “I’m going to the restroom,” she announced, but she really didn’t need to bother. Declan and Jen were too engrossed in each other. Standing up, Gigi tugged her purse onto her shoulder and started in the direction of the restrooms.

  Inside, she looked at herself in the mirror. Beside her were other women, all far more beautiful than her, and looking like they all had a lot more confidence than she did when it came to men and flirting. She sighed and fiddled with her ponytail, prolonging having to go back to the table.

  “I love that dress.”

  Gigi turned to look at the woman beside her. The petite blonde smiled at her. “Thank you. I borrowed it from a friend.”

  “It goes great with your hair and your curves. I wouldn’t be able to get away with wearing that color.” And with that, the woman walked away. Gigi stared after her then left the restroom herself. She found Jen sitting in Declan’s lap when she got back to the table.

  Ben the bartender had clearly been forgotten.

  “Oh, there you are,” Jen said. “I was wondering where you’d gotten to.”

  Gigi gave her a tight smile, avoiding Declan’s gaze. “Restroom,” she announced. “Look, Jen, I’m just going to go home.”

  “What? No.” Jen’s protest was weak, and Gigi had heard that response enough times to know that Jen wasn’t particularly upset that she was leaving.

  “I’ll see you later,” she said, giving her roommate a small wave before leaving the bar.