Happily Never Forever

by Sarah Peis

  Rhett stayed through the whole thing, waiting us out. Once we parted, he stepped up and took over, not letting go of me once. He sat down on the couch, pulling me on his lap, holding me tight, the earlier distance gone.

  “We have to talk. I have to explain. It’s not all true,” I said, desperately hoping he wasn’t done with me over what had happened at the courthouse.

  He kissed my head. “I don’t care what happened. We all make mistakes. I won’t judge you for yours.”

  Nobody said much for the rest of the day. We all stayed inside, barely functioning. Oma didn’t even cook and Rhett ordered pizzas that nobody ate.

  Oma and Freddie went to bed early. I was lying on the couch with Rhett, staring at the TV screen. I was as close to Rhett as I could physically get without lying on top of him.

  “Do you want to stay at the motel?” he asked, breaking the silence. I did. I really did. But I didn’t want to leave Oma and Freddie. They needed me as much as I needed them. But I also needed Rhett.

  “I can’t,” I said.

  “Then I’ll stay here.”

  “I sleep in a single bed in a room with Freddie.”

  “I’ll stay on the couch. There is no way I’m leaving you right now.”

  I tightened my arms around him in response. We were going to be okay. We had to be.

  “Get a room. Nobody wants to see that.” Freddie’s loud voice woke me from a deep sleep. I was nice and warm, not ready to get up yet. I thought I would get no sleep at all, but I must have dozed off. The last thing I remembered was lying on the couch with Rhett.

  When I opened my eyes, it turned out that I was still lying on the couch with Rhett, my front pressed to his side, my hand underneath his shirt. He was still asleep, breathing deeply. His face looked younger, his hair was a mess and I couldn’t help but stare at all that was Rhett. If someone had told me a few months ago that I would be this close to him again, I would have questioned their sanity.

  “We’re not doing anything,” I whisper-yelled at Freddie, who was standing in the doorway to the living room, crinkling her nose at us in disgust.

  “Of course you weren’t. Only because you are fully dressed doesn’t mean you didn’t do a little something-something.”

  “Shut it, you pest. Now go away, Rhett is still sleeping.”

  “Nope, I think you woke him up,” Freddie said and ran away. I looked at Rhett with his eyes now open, and he was smiling at me.

  “Good morning,” he said and kissed me. It wasn’t just a peck either. Morning breath be damned, I wanted the kiss to last. And last it did. I reluctantly pulled back when I heard a gagging noise from the kitchen.

  “Sure you weren’t doing anything last night?” the brat yelled out to us.

  I ignored her and placed a kiss on Rhett’s jaw instead. “Morning. Do you want some coffee?”

  “Would love some.”

  I untangled myself and got up, careful not to knee anything precious in the process. We walked into the kitchen, me barely functioning and Rhett looking ready to go to the office. The only thing missing was his suit jacket and his shoes, something he had taken off last night. Gone was the messy hair, all it took to set it to rights was a brush of his hand.

  “What are you making us for breakfast?” I asked the brat and received a snort in return.

  “I’m not your housekeeper. Cook your own breakfast.”

  “I’m making pancakes,” I said, smirking, because it was something I knew Freddie loved. She eyed me suspiciously. “What do I have to do to get some?” Oh she knew me too well.

  “Clean your room.”

  “It’s clean,” she protested. We both knew it wasn’t. There were clothes everywhere. Most days she couldn’t even find her school books because they were buried under a mountain of crap.

  I leveled her with a look and started getting the flour out of the cupboard. When I got to the fridge for the milk and eggs, she huffed and left the kitchen.

  “You’re really good with her, you know,” Rhett said, having managed to stand close to me without making a sound.

  “Doesn’t feel like it. And sadly the Judge didn’t agree with you. Apparently I’m a bad influence and no child is safe in my care.” I couldn’t help the bitterness in my voice.

  “He wouldn’t have given you joint custody if he thought that. He just did what he thought was best for Josie. Anna can be very convincing when she wants to be.”

  I started putting the flour, milk, vanilla extract and eggs into a bowl. “I think I’m just going to give her the money,” I said and turned on the electric mixer, drowning out Rhett’s response.

  When the batter was as mixed as it was ever going to be, I turned the mixer off.

  “You’re not,” Rhett said as if we didn’t just have a five minute pause in our conversation.

  “It’s my decision. I can’t leave Josie with her. Once she gets money, she’ll back off. I don’t want it anyway. We were fine before I knew how much Nate had left. We’ll be fine after it’s all gone.”

  “Emmi, let me help you,” Rhett growled.

  “You are helping. But there is no way she’ll back off without getting the money. And I need Josie back. Who knows what Anna will do to her.”

  Rhett sighed but backed off. I knew we weren’t done, but this was all I could handle at this stage and he recognized that.

  The fact that he stuck around after everything and helped us as much as we let him meant more to me than he would ever know.

  We heard a scream from the bedroom and Freddie came stomping down the hall. “The demon cat peed in my shoes. They are ruined,” Freddie screeched, holding her shoes out in front of her. “Smell them.” She started waving them in front of me, and I prayed the piss wasn’t going to slush out and over the floor. Cat piss stank worse than anything, something we had all found out over the years. Celeste didn’t discriminate. She hated everyone equally.

  “Stop moving the shoes around. Just put them outside, hose them off and put vinegar and baking soda on it,” I told her. She’d done this before and knew what to do but acted like it was the first time.

  “That’s it. No more. She needs to go. It’s either her or me.”

  Drama queen was back.

  “Oma loves her cat.”

  “She loves me too.”

  “But would she choose between you two?” We’ve all seen her bake a fish cake for Celeste only because she went to the bathroom outside instead of on our clothes. She also had her own bed she never slept in, and she had at least three scratch trees she never used.

  “It’s so not fair,” Freddie wailed and threw her shoes out the back door. I guess that was one way to deal with it.

  Rhett was sitting through it all with a calm face, sipping his coffee and reading the paper. I’d say he fit in just fine. Maybe I should stop worrying and accept he was there to stay.

  The past week was agony. Every day dragged on, Josie’s absence creating a black hole in our lives that we couldn’t fill. Oma was quiet all week, cooking up a storm and having to end up freezing a lot because nobody had much of an appetite.

  The only light in an otherwise depressing week was Rhett. He worked from home. He didn’t leave my side. And he slept on the couch each night, refusing to leave. Not that anyone would have made him. He dragged us through the week, helping us keep our shit together in between working and making calls.

  On Friday, I answered his phone because he was in the shower. It was Lexie, who he had been in regular contact with all week. When she heard me answer she screeched down the line, making me drop the phone.

  “Emmi? Hello? Emmi. Can you hear me?” She was yelling loud enough I could hear her without putting the receiver to my ear.

  “I’m here, Lexie. Geesh, what is going on? Everything all right at the office?”

  “Are you kidding me? She asks me if everything is alright at the office. Unbelievable.”

  Not sure what that was supposed to mean. Rhett was still working as much as ever,
having set up his office on our kitchen table. Surely they would survive with him working from home for a week.

  “What do you mean? What’s happened?”

  “What I mean is that the unthinkable happened. Rhett is not here. It’s been nearly five days. And he hasn’t shown up at the office once.”

  I knew this since he had been with me the whole time. Cassandra wasn’t in the office and the little work I had this week, I could also do from my laptop wherever I wanted. She didn’t mind as long as she didn’t end up in Economy class again.

  “I know. What is your point?”

  “He hasn’t been here all week, is what my point is.”

  Geesh, I wasn’t getting anywhere with crazy pants screaming down the line. Super assistant Lexie was frazzled. I got way too much joy out of that one.

  “What’s the big deal?” I asked, liking this entire conversation more than I should.

  “He hasn’t taken a single day off since he took over the company.”

  “Not even to go on vacation?”

  “Definitely not. He also works on the weekends.”

  Right. Well, I had no response to that.

  Lexie huffed. “I see it is all starting to sink in.”

  It certainly was.

  “Don’t screw it up,” Lexie told me in her best assistant voice. “And tell him that he has a meeting with Stokes this afternoon at three. I couldn’t postpone it again, not if he wants the deal.”

  “I’ll let him know.”

  “You do that.” She hung up, leaving me impatiently sitting on the couch.

  But why was I waiting? Oma was at the market, Freddie was in school and I had a mission to complete. I noticed with satisfaction that the water was still running. The door was unlocked, and I walked inside the bathroom without hesitation because for once in my life I was sure this was meant to be. We were meant to be.

  I took off my clothes, choking myself in my haste to get rid of them. Rhett hadn’t noticed me coming in, so when I opened the door to the shower, he turned around in surprise. Until he saw my undressed state and his face transformed into a different kind of surprised.

  “Emmi?”

  I didn’t answer. Instead, I stepped forward and put my hands on his chest. His arms automatically went around me, and I plastered my front to his. His chest was slick, soap still clinging to him. He didn’t need an invitation to lower his head and touch his lips to mine.

  “You doing okay?” he asked, his hands roaming up my sides and up further, brushing my nipples.

  I sighed in delight and did my own explorations of his body. “Couldn’t be better.”

  That was the last thing that was spoken for a while. We kissed again, this time anything but soft, our teeth clashing.

  He lifted me up and my legs went around his lean torso, bringing him closer to where I wanted him. My back pressed against the wall, the cold of the tiles a stark contrast to the hot water coming down around us.

  Rhett was everything and more. He knew what he was doing and he knew what I liked. Never had I been with anyone as intuitive and caring as Rhett. He always made sure I came first. But with him there seemed to be no question about it. Today there was no finesse to our lovemaking, no foreplay. But we didn’t need it. Not when we were so desperate for each other. I was ready and I wanted him now. Ever the level headed one, he produced a condom from who knows where and after putting it on entered me with one quick move that made me gasp at the welcome intrusion. He stilled, breaking our kiss, making sure I was okay. When I smiled at him, he started moving.

  And it was everything and more. Perfection.

  When we finally got out of the shower, the water was freezing cold. I wrapped myself in a towel, shivering. But it was worth it. I would do it again a million times over.

  Rhett had a smirk on his face, his body relaxed. He took a strand of my dripping hair and tugged it softly. “What was that for?”

  “For you being who you are.”

  He looked at me quizzically but didn’t ask any more questions. Instead he kissed me, still as naked as the day he was born. My hands started roaming again and he groaned. “We have to stop. Oma will be back soon.”

  “I know,” I said, but my hands didn’t stop moving.

  “You are everything,” he whispered, his lips on my neck.

  I reluctantly peeled myself away and put my clothes back on.

  When we were both dressed, he opened the door and led me to the kitchen. “Have you had breakfast yet?”

  I sat down on a barstool and shook my head. “Not yet, I was waiting for you.”

  He got out a pan and went to the fridge. “Scrambled eggs on toast or fried eggs on toast.”

  I laughed and pretended to be thinking hard about it. “I think I’ll go with scrambled.”

  “Good choice, that’s my specialty.”

  He cooked the eggs and put them on a plate, pushing it over to me. After he cleaned up, he took a seat next to me. Our sides touched, his hand on my leg, and my morning looked a little less grim. We got to pick Josie up tomorrow, something else to look forward to.

  I hadn’t heard anything from her even though I tried calling Anna every day to talk to the little bean, but she would never answer. I got in my car a few times to check up on her, but there was always someone stopping me. They must have set up a rotating schedule because as soon as I left the house on my own, someone was there to ask me where I was going and made up a phony reason why they wanted to come along.

  “Why are you grinning like a honey cake horse?” Oma asked from behind a mountain of bags.

  Rhett jumped up when he saw her and took the bags out of her arms. She gave him a coy smile. “Finally a gentleman around the house. Not like that other useless flannel you brought around once.”

  Rhett was gone most of the day, having to chair a meeting he had no way of getting out of. He came back around midnight, looking tired. But at least he had come back. I had been waiting for him on the couch and he pulled me down with him, holding me tight.

  “Why is she not opening the door?”

  “Babe, calm down. She’s probably just busy.”

  “Her apartment is the size of a shoebox. It doesn’t take ten minutes to get from one end to the other. Something is wrong.”

  I pushed my ear up to Anna’s door, listening for any noise. I heard the faint hum of the television, but nothing else.

  “Maybe she didn’t hear you,” he said.

  “Bullshit. She’s not there. Even though she knew we were coming.”

  I was fuming. It was finally time to pick Josie up and she wasn’t there. I prayed nothing had happened to her. I would have thought Anna would be happy to get rid of her, practically waiting on her doorstep to hand her over.

  I knocked again, this time using my feet, taking my frustration out on the door. “Damn you, Anna,” I yelled but finally stepped back.

  There was a crash in the apartment and then a child started crying. A child that sounded a lot like Josie. I looked at Rhett, who didn’t waste any time and tried the door handle. It was locked, no surprise there, but the lock looked flimsy enough. Rhett must have thought so too because he took a step back before throwing his weight against the door. There was a crack, and after he repeated the action a second time, the door splintered and opened.

  The smell coming out of the apartment made me gag. It was bad. As in something-had-died-in-there bad. Rhett went inside first. “Wait until I know it’s safe,” he said. Naturally, I ignored his directive and walked right in on his heels. He shot me an annoyed look over his shoulder. “At least stay behind me. I’m serious, Emmi.”

  I relented because there was a time when I could get away with being stubborn and this wasn’t it. “Fine.”

  The living room was a mess, half eaten food containers and empty bottles littering the table and floor. Sitting amongst the mess was Josie, crying her little eyes out. She was still wearing the same thing she was in when I dropped her off and her hair was one big dread
lock. I wanted to cry. I wanted to hurt someone. But most of all I just wanted to hold her.

  I rushed forward, but Rhett stopped me. “Wait. We need to take photos for evidence.”

  He got his phone out and took entirely too long to take a damn picture. Josie was holding out her arms, wanting to be picked up, chanting, “Mimi, Mimi, Mimi,” in between wailing.

  I heard the click of the camera and stormed forward, unwilling to wait any longer. I picked her up, and my arm was instantly wet from her diaper. She smelled like three day old garbage. But I didn’t care and hugged her to me as tightly as I could without hurting her. She put her arms around my neck and squeezed back, burying her head in my hair.

  After we stood there for a few minutes where I was trying not to cry and Josie was clinging on to me, we managed to calm down. Rhett was close, looking as pissed as I’d ever seen him.

  “Let’s go,” he ground out. I shared his sentiment of not wanting to spend another second in Anna’s pigsty.

  I followed him out the door, making a silent promise to never let Anna get her hands on Josie again. If I had to move to Mexico, so be it. I heard they had nice beaches. I could learn Spanish. It would be fine. Absolutely fine. I’d take Oma and Freddie with me. They would love it. Everyone would love it. We’d all be one big happy family living in Mexico.

  “What’s that face you’re making? I don’t know that face yet,” Rhett said when we got back to the car. I had a few spare diapers in my bag and was changing Josie on his backseat where I had spread my jacket out for her to lie on, because leather seats and all. I slathered as much cream as I could on her, the angry red of her skin still shining through.

  Rhett was on the phone, making a call to the police that should have happened years ago.

  I couldn’t do much about Josie’s clothes, but I didn’t put her pants back on. I picked her up and Rhett moved the jacket onto her car seat. Once she was buckled in, I draped the ends of the jacket over her legs to make sure she didn’t get cold. She didn’t say a word the whole time, just watched us. She looked exhausted. And she didn’t want to let go of my hand, screaming every time I tried to get out from the backseat.