by Beth Rinyu
“It’s actually a cookie…not sure why they call it bread,” I explained.
“Oh, okay, I’ll look up the recipe. Thanks.”
I could feel her eyes burning into me even through her sunglasses.
“Welcome,” I muttered.
“See ya tomorrow.” She threw me one last smile before closing the door and walking off to her car.
I waited until she got into her car before pulling away. I told myself I was doing the gentleman thing by making sure her car started up okay. At least that was what I was hoping she would surmise, even though I knew the truth. I wanted to get one last look at that cute little ass as she walked away.
Chapter 22
Faith
I arrived home, slept for two hours, showered, and made a trip to the food store all with time to spare before Cole would bring Joey home at his 3 p.m. scheduled time. Funny how a little over a month ago we didn’t follow schedules. We didn’t have set holidays mandated by the court. We worked together co-parenting, even though I was the one who did 90 percent of the work. Now here we were, behaving like a couple going through a bitter divorce, and I hated it. Cole’s whole attitude had changed when he received the papers from the court demanding monthly child support payments. He was now bitter and using Joey as a pawn to try and get his way. I never thought he’d stoop that low, but when he was faced with the alternative of growing up and acting like a real father, he deduced himself to those undermining tactics.
I struggled with my grocery bags as I made it up the stairs, surprised to find Cole and Joey standing outside my apartment door. I had checked the time when I had gotten out of my car moments ago, and it was only a little after one. Joey had dark circles under her eyes, and she looked like she’d been crying.
“Hey, cutie!” I greeted her, hoping to put a smile on her face, but she wasn’t relenting. She stood with her arms crossed, waiting for me to open the door as I fought with the bags in my hand. Cole seemed to be getting enjoyment with my struggle, taking a step back and not offering to help. Joey marched into the apartment the moment the door was open and didn’t say a word to Cole.
“Is there a problem?” I finally broke down and asked, placing my bags in the doorway.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask your daughter?”
“Oh, now she’s just my daughter?”
“When she behaves the way she did this weekend she is.”
“And what way would that be, Cole?” I wanted to slap the smugness off his face.
“You and your parents spoil the shit out of her. She has to learn she isn’t always going to get her way.”
“Goodbye, Cole.” I wasn’t in the mood to take parenting advice from the likes of him. I was about to close the door in his face when he pushed it open.
“I’m moving to California with Brittany.”
My eyes widened. Brittany? His on-again, off-again, so-called girlfriend. “You’re moving to California with Brittany?” I repeated.
He nodded.
“Why?” Why now all of a sudden? Brittany wasn’t the girl I’d caught him with in bed, and Brittany wasn’t the girl I’d seen him leaving the bar with that night. So why was he all of a sudden picking up and moving across the country with her? Then it dawned on me. “If you think moving to the other side of the country is going to get you out of paying child support, you’re wrong. The order stands, no matter where you move.”
“Britt’s pregnant,” he blurted out like it was no big deal.
“She’s pregnant?” I felt like a parrot, but couldn’t help it. I was in shock.
He nodded. “Her parents live in Santa Barbara. She wants to be closer to them, and I need to be there for my child.”
My face heated, my heart rate accelerated, and I was pretty sure there was a vein popping out of my forehead. “You have to be there for your child? What about this child, Cole?” I pointed into my apartment. “The one you choose to be a father to only when it’s convenient for you!”
“Oh, fuck you, Deenie!” he shouted.
As angry as I was, I wasn’t going to do this with Joey only a few feet away. She was upset over something already, and I wasn’t going to add to her dismay.
“You make me sick,” I whispered, slamming the door in his face.
I was cautious as I entered Joey’s bedroom. She was sitting on her bed with her back against the wall, clutching her stuffed dog.
“So what’s going on?” I asked, taking a seat next to her.
Tears spilled from her eyes. “I don’t like Daddy anymore!” she cried.
“What happened?” As if I wasn’t angry enough at Cole, I knew whatever it was Joey was about to tell me was just going to intensify my wrath.
“We were post to see the new Nemo movie today, and he said we couldn’t because Brittany needed him for something. Then he yelled at me ’cause I said Brittany is mean!” She caught her breath and continued. “’Cause she is...she hollered at me last night when we were at dinner, and Daddy didn’t even say anything to her.”
You can’t hit a pregnant woman. You can’t hit a pregnant woman. I repeated over and over again as I chewed on the inside of my lip.
“Why did she holler at you?” I tried, remaining calm.
“’Cause I had a bellyache and I wanted to go back to Me-Mom’s house instead of going to the stupid mall with them! And then when I started crying Brittany told me to stop acting like a little baby.”
Deep breaths, Faith. Deep breaths. “So did they take you back to Me-Mom’s?”
She shook her head and began to cry harder. “Then Daddy got really mad when I threw up.”
“You threw up?” I raised my voice in alarm.
She nodded and her bottom lip quivered as the tears streamed down her face. “In the middle of the mall in front of everyone.”
“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry.” I squeezed her tightly and kissed her on top of the head.
“Brittany said I did it on purpose just to get my way, but I didn’t. I swear, my tummy hurt really bad.”
My heart was shattered into a million pieces just thinking about her enduring that. I despised Cole and his bitchy baby mama with every fiber of my being. “You should have called me.” Oh wait, she shouldn’t have because I was too busy getting liquored up and trying to seduce my boss. I was a horrible mother. My baby was sick to her stomach in the middle of the mall while I was trying to get laid. If I wasn’t going to hell after last night, I was certainly going now.
“I wanted to, and Daddy wouldn’t let me. Me-Mom and him got in a big fight because I wanted to stay with her and Pe-Pop instead of going to the big old meanie’s house. Me-Mom told Daddy to just go, said she would bring me home, but Daddy said no and that’s why he brought me home early. I don’t wanna go with him on the weekends anymore.” She sobbed.
I lay down on her bed with her until we both fell asleep. By the time I awoke the sun was just beginning to set. I pulled Joey closer, watching every breath she took. I had to get it together for her. Gabe was right, I needed to set goals, and the first one was moving from this apartment and into that house. I wasn’t going to be afraid to take risks anymore. I owed it to myself and most of all, I owed it to Joey. I was the one source of stability she had as far as parents went, and I wanted to set a good example for her.
“Pretty soon, baby girl,” I whispered, resting my lips on the top of her head. “Everything’s going to be better for us. I promise.”
***
“And how is Cole still alive?” Natalia’s voice bellowed through the speaker of my phone as I drove to work.
“Oh. It took everything inside of me not to lure him back to my apartment and watch him die a slow and painful death.”
“I had no idea he and Brittany were back. Even Darius didn’t know. And she’s pregnant...OMG! That boy seriously needs to keep it in his pants.” There was a brief silence, and for a moment I thought I lost her. “Faith? When you guys were sleeping together—”
“Yes!” I replied
, knowing exactly what she was getting at.
“But I thought you were on the pill?”
“I am, but one could never be too safe.”
“Well, thank God you were with him. Who knows if these girls he’s messing around with have crotch crickets.”
“Gross!” I shouted as I pulled into work fifteen minutes early.
“So what did you do this weekend?”
Do I confess my sins to my modern-day priest? No. It was better to keep quiet on this one. The last thing I needed was for her to tell Darius, and then everyone at work would know. Even though I was dying to divulge that information to Natalia, I kept my lips sealed. “Oh, not much. Did some Christmas shopping, watched some chick flicks, and ate some ice cream. The highlight of my weekend was watching Frozen for the five hundredth time and making mandel bread with Joey last night.”
“What bread?”
“It’s a Jewish dessert. We made some for Sylvia and for my boss.”
Shit. Fuck. Damn it! I didn’t want to say that last part.
“Um...who?”
“Sylvia.” I was nonchalant as I started to gather my things to get out of the car.
“I heard that part! The second part…your boss?”
I nodded as if she could see me, finally mustering a “Yes.”
“The same boss who ripped into Darius and the rest of his marketing team the other day for one little error?”
“I-I didn’t even know about that.” I breathed a sigh of relief, now happy with my decision to not tell Natalia I almost slept with Gabe. If she was getting this pissed off over the fact I made him cookies, I could imagine her reaction if I had told her what really happened this weekend.
“Oh, Faith…what am I gonna do with you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I snapped, not in the mood for her condescending attitude.
“It’s just—oh, forget it.”
“No, Nat, you started, now finish!” I grabbed my stuff from my back seat and slammed the door.
“You just always seem to be lured to these men who are no good for you.”
“What? Because I made a dessert for my boss I’m lured to him?” She was right, but I’d never admit that. “I don’t know how he is to Darius or the rest of his employees, but he’s a good boss to me.”
“Mmm…hmm. I bet he is.”
Now she was pissing me off, and since I didn’t want to start the day in a fight with my best friend, I chose to say goodbye instead. Today was going to be a good day. I was putting the debacle of the weekend behind me. I had an appointment after work to meet with the owner of the house and hopefully come to an agreement on a lease/purchase price. My thoughts of Cole and Brittany shifted from torturing them in some inhumane way to just holding their heads under water long enough to give them a good scare. And I had baked for Gabe as a part of my penance for trying to take advantage of him while he was in such a vulnerable state. This week was going to be the start of my clean slate. I was going after my goals and wiping all impure thoughts about my boss from my mind.
I had every intention of sticking steadfast to my plan until I walked through the door and caught a glimpse of Gabe standing in Chad’s office with his head rested on the doorframe. Suddenly, memories of his tongue gliding down my neck and his hands moving freely about my body came to the forefront of my mind. The two of them looked to be deep in conversation, so I tried to sneak past unnoticed.
“Yo, Faith!” Chad beckoned as I skated by.
I dug my heel into the ground and turned around. Gabe cleared his throat and looked away as I approached Chad’s office.
“What’s up?” The intoxicating aroma of cedar and musk filled my nasal passages as I stood side by side with Gabe in the doorway. My mind was jolted back to yesterday morning, breathing in that same familiar scent when I had woken up with my head buried in his chest and his arms wrapped around me. It was oddly an awesome feeling, even if he didn’t have any recollection of it.
“Do you have plans next Saturday afternoon?” Chad asked me, never taking his eyes from Gabe.
Next Saturday was my birthday. Not a big deal. Twenty-six years of being an underachiever. “Um...I’m really not sure yet. Why?”
Gabe shook his head, but Chad wasn’t relenting.
“Do you remember Mr. Clemente, the man you did the interpreting for?”
“Oh yeah, sure!”
“He and a few of his colleagues are going to be flying in over the weekend and want to set up a lunch with Gabe and me before they sign on the dotted line for this multimillion-dollar software deal.”
“Okay.” I wasn’t following how this affected me in any way.
“Well…since Mr. Clemente seemed...how can I put this? Smitten with you, we thought—”
“You. You thought!” Gabe corrected him.
“I thought maybe it would be a good idea if you came along with us to kind of make sure the deal goes through.”
“Oh. Um…”
“Faith, it’s fine. You don’t need to be there. We can handle it,” Gabe interjected.
“Gabe, come on, man, you know he’s on the fence. He already told us he’s got meetings set up with Lincoln Software too. This is a multimillion-dollar deal. Do you really want to lose to another company who can’t offer nearly as good of a product as you can?”
The thought of flirting with a bunch of old men didn’t exactly thrill me, but seeing how much was riding on it, I was up for the challenge. “It’s fine. I just have to make arrangements for a babysitter, and I’ll be happy to help out.”
Chad gave a fist pump and directed his attention to Gabe. “Be prepared to become an even richer man, pal! And you’re welcome!”
Apprehension shrouded Gabe’s face. Figuring the two of them needed to finish discussing business, I excused myself and continued on my way.
A chill shot through my body when I opened the office door. It was about fifteen degrees colder than the rest of building. I put my belongings down on my desk and scampered to the thermostat, turning it up a few notches before Gabe came back. It was a never-ending battle. I was always freezing, and he was always hot. Yes, he certainly is always hot! Too damn hot, and not just in the literal sense.
The overhead blower kicked on just as Gabe entered the office. He glanced up at the ceiling and then back at me with a hint of a smirk.
“Um…it was like twenty degrees in here.”
A quick flash of his dimples was cause for me to smile in return. “Look, Faith, I know Chad can be a pain in the ass. I’ve got Saturday covered.”
“No, really, it’s fine. I don’t mind.”
“Okay.” He still seemed unsure. “If you change your mind, just let me know.”
“Sure.”
His stare was intense.
“Are you feeling better?” I decided to address the elephant in the room—the debacle of this past weekend.
“Oh, yeah.” A light shade of pink flashed across his cheeks. “I apologize for—”
“No need to apologize. I was the one who suggested the wine. Remember? Oh, and I almost forgot.” I reached for the plate on my desk. “This is for you.”
His eyes widened.
“It’s probably not as good as you’re used to, but Joey and I were on a roll last night with baking.”
“Thanks.” He seemed a little taken aback by my gesture, making me doubt myself for bringing it in for him. To absolve myself and make it clear to him my little offering of baked goods was nothing more than a mere act of kindness, I began to ramble—big time. By the time I stopped to take a breath, he knew the entire reason why I was secretly plotting to do bodily harm to Cole and his so-called girlfriend. I had no idea how that related to me bringing him in baked goods, but it created a diversion nonetheless.
He stared at me blankly for a brief moment before muttering, “Wow, that sucks.”
I shrugged. “Not really. In a weird way, it’s making me set goals and finally go after them.”
He seemed to be
getting into the conversation a little more, now that the topic had changed. “Like?” He raised an eyebrow.
Like I’m not going to imagine what your naked body looks like anymore. “Well, for starters, I’m going to look at the house tonight I had told you about, and if the asking price is right, I’m gonna go for the lease/purchase. I owe it to myself and my daughter to take a chance at a better life.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” His smile was genuine, adorable, and panty-dropping all rolled into one.
I let out a relieved breath, extending my arm and sticking the plate under his nose. “So, are you going to taste my baking or what?”
“Um…yeah.”
“Don’t sound so excited,” I teased. Without even thinking, I removed the plastic wrapper, taking a cookie off the plate and placing it up to his lips. I finally came to my senses when he wrapped his fingers around it and took it from my hand.
“It’s really good,” he said as he took a bite.
“Seriously?” I always doubted myself when it came to baking. My mother always said either you’re a baker or a cooker. I wasn’t sure exactly where I fit in because I hadn’t seemed to master either quite yet.
“Yeah, it is. Tastes like my grandmother’s.”
“Wow! I’m glad to hear that.”
The ice seemed to be broken, and our little escapade from the weekend forgotten once Gabe started inquiring about the house I was going to look at tonight. My head was spinning with all of the information he was throwing at me with regard to negotiating a price, and all the ins and outs of what to look for in making sure it had a sound structure. By the end of the conversation, I was feeling overwhelmed and now second-guessing myself for going after those goals. I tried to store all of his advice in my brain and even began to write some of it down once he went into his office, but it all just seemed too much. I didn’t realize so much planning and research needed to be done. I had just planned on going with the first price that was given and moving in. I was a terrible negotiator and half tempted to text the owner and tell him to just forget it. I tapped my pen against my temple when a thought struck me. It was absolutely ridiculous, and I knew I should just brush it from my mind. But as I stared down at the list of questions and demands to be made when coming up with a purchase price, it didn’t seem so ridiculous after all.
