by Tia Siren
“Thank you so much,” I said, letting her in and watching her unload everything on the counter. “You didn’t need to rush, though. He’s fast asleep in his bed. His fever has gone down a little, and he doesn’t seem to be very uncomfortable at all.”
“I know, but he looked so sad and sick on your shoulder. It broke my heart,” she said. “I felt like I needed to just get the stuff and get back to you. Besides, the place was just a block away, so I didn’t even have to take a cab.”
“You are sweet,” I said, taking the supplies.
“Well, I really care about Avery,” she said, putting her hands in her pockets. “I wanted to make sure he was well taken care of and had everything he needed to get better really fast. I hated being sick as a kid.”
“Did we ruin your plans?”
She scoffed. “No. Taryn and I were bored out of our minds, so we thought we would go do some shopping. I didn’t actually need anything. I was just trying to pass the time without going crazy while holed up in the apartment.”
“Well, thank you again,” I said. “You want to come sit down?”
“Sure,” she said, following me into the living room.
I stopped at the bar and pulled out two cans of soda before tossing her one and sitting down across from her. She smiled and opened her soda, taking a sip and looking around awkwardly. I knew I needed to start a conversation.
“So, things between you and your dad seem pretty tense,” I said. “I don’t know your father that well—we’ve only ever been acquaintances—but he seems pretty hell-bent on you going to law school.”
“Yeah,” she said. “That has been going on since I started college. He just will not let it go no matter what. I thought for a while that he had given up on trying to get me to change my career path, but over the last year, he has really ramped up his harassment. I’m assuming it’s because I’m going into my senior year and still haven’t changed my mind like he thought I would.”
“Parents can be a bit overwhelming sometimes. My parents were not at all pleased when I dropped out of Princeton with just a year left. My dad still grumbles about it.”
“But you’re, like, a tech genius with a multi-billion-dollar company,” she said.
“Yeah, but I’m not a Princeton graduate, which is what my father cared about,” I pointed out.
“Well, I really appreciate that you stood up for me at dinner,” she said. “It at least calmed the situation for the time being. He couldn’t really argue with you at that point, especially since he views you as higher up on the socioeconomic ladder than him.”
“Which is strange since last time I checked, your father’s company was way up there on the corporate list of law firms,” I replied. “Everyone who gets into some type of issue immediately calls your father’s firm.”
She sighed. “It’s all about the dollars for him. But I am determined to walk my own path. I want to be a teacher, and that hasn’t changed since I was Avery’s age and still thought that being a ballerina was a lucrative career.”
I chuckled. “It is if you are the one out of a million people who gets chosen.”
“Which I wouldn’t have been since I can barely walk without tripping,” she said, laughing.
“I do have to say, though, I did appreciate that sex,” I said, giving her a coy look. “It was more than enough thanks for helping you out with your father. That restaurant bathroom is now one of my favorite places in the city. I’m pretty sure I’ll never be able to eat there again without thinking of you and me and that cold tile wall.”
She laughed. “It was pretty cold.”
“But in all honesty, it was one of the sexiest things I’ve ever done,” I said, sitting back.
“Well, it was probably one of the hottest things I have ever done, too, even if it was in the public bathroom of my mother’s favorite restaurant,” she said. “I’ll definitely look at her future birthday dinners in a different light now. In fact, I may put in for a change of venue next year so I don’t spend her whole celebration blushing.”
“Or we could just make it a standing order to make sure I am always invited to your mother’s birthday party,” I responded with a smirk. “I wouldn’t mind looking forward to that every year.”
“I’ll be honest, though,” she said. “When it comes to sex, until I met you, things have been pretty vanilla. I’ve never done anything even remotely close to that. The fact that we were in a public bathroom was pretty arousing, knowing someone could knock on the door at any minute. With my parents just a few feet away, I felt like we were kids sneaking off to my bedroom to fool around and trying not to get caught.”
I laughed. “You sound like you had an exciting childhood.”
“Yeah, that was just an example,” she said, rolling her eyes. “My father never actually let boys step foot in the house, much less get anywhere near my bedroom. I was shocked he didn’t install cameras to catch us when we got up for a drink of water in the middle of the night. I blame myself for my father deciding the girls’ academy was a good place for Taryn. He probably figures they will keep her on lockdown.”
“Personally, though, I thoroughly enjoyed the bathroom at the restaurant, but I can think of a much nicer one for us to have sex in,” I said, leaning forward.
She smiled. “I do need to get my panties back.”
“Daddy,” Avery said from the other room, stopping us in our tracks. “I don’t feel good.”
And that was the end of that.
Chapter 12
Ella
Before I left the night before, I had agreed to stay home with Avery the next day so he could get better and Will didn’t have to miss any more work. He had some serious meetings planned and needed to make sure Avery was taken care of at the same time. I told him he needed a new nanny, as his old one had moved away, but he said he was trying to raise Avery as normally as possible given the situation. When I showed up in the morning, Avery was still asleep and Will had fixed me a cup of coffee. I sat down at the breakfast bar and sipped the hot brew.
“Thank you again for doing this,” he said. “I really don’t know what I would do without you. It seems like every time shit starts hitting the fan, here you are, home from school and more than willing to help me and Avery out. You are a Godsend with him. He just adores you and feels completely comfortable with you around.”
“Aww, I’m so glad,” I replied. “He is an amazing kid.”
“As far as last night was concerned,” he said, “that was really close, I have to admit. Had Avery not woken up, I would have definitely taken you off to the tres chic marble bathroom and replayed our sexy escapade in the restaurant.”
“Yeah,” I said, blushing. “I, um, I don’t know what came over me. It seems like anytime I’m near you, I lose control of my censor button.”
He laughed. “I don’t mind at all. You should lose that button for good for all I’m concerned.”
After Will left for work, I sat around sipping my coffee and replaying the last couple nights in my head. Between the bathroom sex and the fact that I couldn’t get Will off my mind, I was starting to feel like I was going crazy. I had promised that this was just for fun, and here I was, plagued by memories of our time together. I spent the whole day taking care of Avery, making sure he had everything he needed to get better.
“Thank you for taking care of me, Miss Ella,” Avery said as I covered him up in bed. “And thank you for giving me medicine. It makes me feel better.”
“I’m so glad it does,” I said, leaning over and kissing his clammy forehead. “We need you to be big and strong.”
“Like my daddy,” he said proudly.
“Yep, just like your daddy,” I responded, blushing.
When he woke up the next time, I brought him out to the couch and cuddled up with him to watch movies. Will got home around five, coming in the door with several bags. I helped him in and watched as he took out several containers of soup.
“There is this really amazing soup
place down the street from my office,” he said. “They make like, all these different types of soup, all expensive, but totally worth it. I figured I would get us some soup since Avery has to eat it, too. I didn’t want him to be upset because nobody else was eating it. You know how he can be, wanting to be just like us at every turn.”
“Very true,” I said, laughing. “Thank you for bringing dinner. I could have gone home.”
“Nonsense,” he said.
We ate our soup together at the table, and then I helped Will get Avery into bed, making sure he had his sippy cup, his medicine, and some warm pajamas on. When he was all tucked in and fast asleep, we made our way back out to the kitchen and started to clean everything up. I pulled the dishes from the table and started to wash them and put them in the dishwasher while Will closed up the containers of soup to store them. I finished up with the dishes and walked over to Will to take the glass of wine he was holding out.
“That was really great soup,” I said. “I’ve never really been a soup person, but that could definitely change my mind.”
“Yeah,” he said, fastening a lid on the container and putting it in the fridge. “Megan always made amazing soup. She was the one who turned me on to the place down the street from work.”
I smiled but didn’t really know what to say back to him. I wondered what it was like for him on a daily basis, what it felt like to lose a part of yourself like that. I wondered what kinds of things sparked his thoughts of her. Did he think about Megan and her amazing soup every time he got sick? Did he think about her when something good happened or something bad? Did he think about her when he was with me both emotionally and physically? These thoughts bolted through my mind. On one hand, they were uncomfortable, but on the other hand, I wanted the answers so I knew what the proper response was, how to be there in this type of situation.
I didn’t want it to seem like an issue. I didn’t want him to think I was completely thrown off or that he couldn’t talk about the woman he’d been married to, the mother of his child. Things had got really complicated really fast, but I took a deep breath and put on a happy face, deciding it was better to hide my emotions than make something big out of this. Will turned and looked at me, smiling, and walked over. He put his hands on my face and kissed me passionately, but the breathless feeling I normally felt wasn’t there. I didn’t really want to be in that place right now.
When he released my face, I smiled and wiped my lip. He brushed the hair out of my face, completely oblivious to my inner monologue. I sighed and picked up my phone, trying to think of a decent excuse to move out of this situation and into a more comfortable one.
“So, I think I’m going to call it a night,” I said, smiling. “I need to go call my dad. He’s expecting me to. I don’t like leaving things with him like I did at lunch, and this conversation has to happen one way or another.”
“You can’t just put it on hold and do it in the morning?” he asked, smiling flirtatiously. “I’m sure your father is exhausted from work.”
“No,” I replied, standing up and gathering my things. “I think this needs to be done before it gets any worse or is swept under the rug yet again.”
The reality was, I didn’t need to call my father, nor was I going to. I was still put off by Will’s comment about Megan and felt incredibly uncomfortable. It didn’t help at all that everywhere I looked there was a reminder of the woman. There were pictures on the mantle and shelves, a wedding photo album stashed underneath the coffee table, and a placard over the front door that read “The Happy Scott Family,” which I knew wasn’t something Will had bought for him and Avery. I didn’t have any right to be upset about it, but that didn’t take away the uncomfortable feeling in my stomach just from being there at all, let alone in a romantic way. I realized in that moment just how different Will’s life and mine really were.
I thanked him again for dinner and hurried out before he could kiss me more than he had already. I walked to my apartment and went inside, shutting the door behind me and exhaling as I leaned against it. I walked back to my room and plopped down on my bed, thinking about everything we had been through. My life was so drastically different than Will’s. I was twenty-one years old and just starting out, trying to find my place in this world. Will had already lived so much, between having a child, a wife, and starting his own company. He’d had life experiences I wasn’t anywhere close to approaching. It made it difficult for me to find a way to relate to him, especially when it came to understanding his attachment to his deceased wife. It was just hard for me to sort through anything I was feeling without getting irritated or upset about it.
I lay there thinking about Will, about our time together and about how he acted around me. Maybe I was just fooling myself thinking he thought about me as more than a piece of ass. Maybe he was just using me to get himself out of the funk he’d described being in more times than not. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was nothing more than an infatuation for him, a young beautiful girl, someone without strings attached. Maybe he was happy to have something simple, something that didn’t bring him worry or stress. I’d let him off the hook with all of this really easily, attempting not to make it harder than it needed to be.
I got out of bed and went into the kitchen to grab a soda before sitting down at the breakfast bar. Taryn walked in with a smile, grabbed a snack, and sat across from me. Even though I wanted to talk to her about this, I knew that at eighteen she would really have no clue what to say. I was older, and I had no idea what to think about any of it.
“How is Avery?”
“He’s getting better,” I said. “His fever went down and he’s asleep. He got some soup in his belly and then went straight to bed.”
“That’s how you know he feels really bad,” she said, frowning. “Did you have dinner with them?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “We all had soup.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” I said, taking in a deep breath. “I’ll be just fine. I’m sure of it.”
“Good.” She smiled. “I can’t have my big sister unhappy.”
“Never.” I smiled back, closing my eyes as she kissed my cheek and then walked out of the kitchen.
I sat there for a few more minutes thinking about how I hoped my sister never fell for a man like Will. Even though I had no idea how Will felt about me, I still couldn’t give up the fantasy of being with him. He was strong, sensual, mature, and I couldn’t help but melt whenever he played with Avery. His success was a huge accomplishment, and he showed rigor and strength in life even when he felt weak and sad.
I got up from the counter and turned the lights off, heading back to my room while shaking my head. I sure was starting to sound like there was more to this than just a fun fling. Maybe it was all the texting and Skyping that had led me down this path—the late-night laughter, the talks, and even the times when he was struggling and confided in me. This was supposed to harmless fun, a love affair without the love, but I was starting to think all of that had led me to more serious feelings than I was willing to admit to myself. Was I falling for this man?
Chapter 13
Will
I smiled as Avery ran around the apartment in his nicest clothes. He was feeling so much better, and that made me feel better as well. I hated when he was sick. It made me feel completely helpless. All I wanted to do was take it from him. That being said, Avery’s sickness did have another effect. It made me even more attracted to Ella than before. The way she coddled Avery, showed him love and care, it was extraordinarily becoming, and it made me have feelings for her that I wasn’t sure were in the best interest of either of us.
I regretted mentioning Megan after dinner, but it had just come out, like it was a natural thing to say. I could tell, though, afterward, that even though Ella didn’t say anything, it had bothered her. It had bothered her to the point where it completely killed the mood and she made up an excuse to leave. I had let her go, not wanting to get into that discussion and
seeing that she didn’t, either. It had been hard to let her go, though. I realized that when I watched her walk away. I had seen Ella in a different light when Avery got sick, a maternal light. That motherly instinct toward Avery heightened my attraction, but it also made things more complicated.
I was drawn from my thoughts by a knock on the door. It was my mother, who had come down to the city for Avery’s last day of preschool. I couldn’t believe he had grown so much that he was already out of preschool. I wanted to slow him down, keep him just the age he was. Every day he grew older was one day further from the last time I saw Megan. To honor his graduation, my mother and I went to the ceremony and then decided that ice cream would be the perfect way to celebrate. Avery had a serious addiction to ice cream, but hell, who didn’t? When I told him about going, he got extremely excited and then asked if Ella could come, too.
At first, the idea of taking Ella with my mother and Avery out to celebrate his big graduation seemed like a seriously dangerous idea. However, as I thought about it more, I realized that deep down I wanted her there, too. She had made a big impression on Avery, and because I didn’t bring women around him, it was the first attachment to another woman I had ever seen him have. So, the four of us met at my apartment and headed out for ice cream.
When we got there, we ordered our scoops and sat down at a table near the back. I pulled out my phone to make sure work hadn’t tried to call and then put it back in my jacket pocket. They knew where I was today, and I assumed they were doing their best not to bother me.
My mother looked at Ella and said, “Does he ever not work?”
“I’m pretty sure he works in his sleep,” she replied.
“We need to get him out more often, have him loosen up a bit.”
