by Amy Brent
Next to that was an impressive toy display. Yeah, the kid had his own toy display. And that wasn’t counting the large toy bin right next to it. I saw the latest figures, some of them that I knew cost several hundred dollars, and even a few that were incredibly difficult to build.
“Did you put these together yourself?” I asked, not hiding how impressed I was.
“Dad helped! We try to do one a month, but there haven’t really been any good ones since last July.”
“Oh really? That’s sad. I guess I haven’t really been keeping up with merch.” For the last ten years. I finished in my own head.
“That’s okay, you’re not missing anything.” He said, shrugging nonchalantly. From there he went on to show me all of his gaming equipment, his posters and everything else he considered a prize possession. By the time we were actually sitting down and playing one of his many board games, at least an hour had gone by.
It was obvious that Rafael got his son pretty much anything that he wanted, but the boy was far from spoiled. From what I could tell, he appreciated everything he had and was fiercely proud of all of them. If I had a child, I would hope that they could be like Dom.
But after long enough, my mouth grew dry and my stomach began to rumble. A quick look at my phone revealed that it was already past noon, and I hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch.
Like he could read my mind, I heard a gentle knock at the door. It was open, so I knew that Rafael wasn’t asking for permission to enter, but rather trying to catch our attention. Huh, I had been so wrapped up in learning the rules of the new game that I had completely forgotten that the handsome man was there. It was possibly the first time he had been out of my mind for a week.
“Hey, the pizza guy’s in the lobby and heading up. Are either of you thirsty?”
“I’d love some water,” I tried to say it with a normal tone, but I had the feeling that I still sounded like a nervous little mouse caught by the cat.
“Hey, why don’t we watch a movie while we eat?” Dom asked. “You said you brought a movie!”
“That I did,” I looked nervously to Rafael and he looked just as uncertain. “But I’m not sure it’s the kind your dad would like.”
“Please, Dad likes anything we watch together, as long as I don’t ask too many questions during it.”
“That’s true,” Rafael said with the faintest of smirks. It seemed even our strangeness around each other couldn’t dull his love of his son.
“Well then, let’s go watch some wanton destruction, shall we?”
“Yeah!” Dom jumped up, fist in the air. “Dad, will you grab plates n’ all that and I’ll put the DVD in.” He stopped short and looked at me uncertainly. “It… it is a DVD, right?”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Yes, it’s a DVD, Dom. Even though I’m old as dirt to you, I wouldn’t have brought a VHS.”
“Whew, good. I was worried you might have brought a box tape. You set the DVDs by the couch, right?”
“Right,” I said to him before mouthing box tapes to Rafael.
The man just shrugged, a half-smile on his face, and offered me a hand up while his son rushed to the TV. In just a few minutes, he and I were sitting on either side of the couch, pizza in our laps while Dom happily sat between us, staring at the screen with rapt attention.
I was struck once more about how easily someone who didn’t know the situation could walk in and assume we were a family. Technically, our worlds never should have crossed, yet here I was, sitting and eating some of the best deep-dish pizza I had ever had.
By the time the movie ended, I was feeling much more comfortable. But when the credits were finally rolling, Rafael didn’t seem very happy.
“Hey, little man, your mother will be here in about an hour or two. It’s time for you to get packed.”
But Dom just shrugged, taking our plates and heading towards the kitchen. “She’s always late anyways. I think we can play one more board game before she comes. Two if it’s a bad day.”
Wow. What a terrible thing to hear a kid say. But he sounded so resigned to it that it almost made it seem like it was normal. But it was never normal to have a child so used to being a second thought to a parent.
“You don’t know that now, Dom.”
“Yeah I do.” He finished shoveling things into the trash and looked at us with wide eyes. “Please, just one game? I never get to play any of my three-people ones so this is the perfect chance.”
Rafael looked to me a bit guiltily and it was just too amusing. As dominating as he was, he would always be putty around his son’s fingers.
“Alright,” I said, standing and wiping my hands. “I’m game if you are.”
And that was how the three of us ended up sprawled across the living room floor, us adults struggling to learn a new set of rules on some game about candy while Dom was completely creaming us.
Perhaps it should have been embarrassing to be beaten by a five-year-old, but I was having way too much fun. When was the last time I had time to play a board game? When was the last time I had a friend circle large enough to be able to play a board game? Both of the answers were depressing, so I just focused on the moment and the warm happiness flowing through me.
One round passed. Then another. And then we were trying a new game entirely. By the time Rafael actually got a call from the front desk that Dom’s mother was here, it was already dark.
By my guess, she was two hours late with no call to explain why. There was no excuse for that and my temper began to flare.
Dom was just utterly wonderful, and I was clear that Rafael was trying not to trash his child’s mother in front of him. He had more strength than I did. I hadn’t felt like I had belonged in ages, but here with Dom and Rafael, I couldn’t help but feel welcome. They were both so kind, so fun. While the CEO was certainly plenty intimidating at work, he was basically one big ball of butter around his son.
“Hey,” he said softly as Dom grabbed his backpack and other supplies. “Do you mind waiting up here for a moment? I don’t want her trying to cause trouble in court because she things I have strange women over.”
Ugh, of course she would. I was beginning to think that she didn’t care about Dom at all, and the little boy was just a means for her to control Rafael. I hated things like that. It was so damn harmful to the psyche of children and could damage them into adulthood.
“Yeah, no problem. It’ll give me a chance to pack up.”
He smiled gratefully then returned to helping his son. They really were a pair, those two. I hoped that things worked out for them.
I basically was pretty much fully packed once they were ready to go, but I made an excuse about needing to use the restroom. To my great surprise, Dom ran over and threw his arms around me, squeezing tightly.
“Thank you for coming, McKenna. I had the bestest time!”
“Me too, Dom,” I said, patting his head. “Me too.”
I made the mistake of looking up at Rafael, only to see that he was staring quite intensely at me. There was no malice in the gaze, but the sheer amount of emotion behind them was immense, and I could feel myself withering slightly under it.
But then the moment was over and the two of them were heading out. I leaned against the couch, a bit breathless, and wondered what the hell had happened.
But strange stare or not, there was no denying that I had a lot of fun with the pair. More than I had ever expected. It seemed like I was totally in the wrong about dreading everything.
Who knew, maybe I could continue to be wrong about things. I kinda liked how It was turning out.
Chapter Nineteen
~Raphael~
I headed to the elevator and down to the lobby in a daze, still in shock from everything that had happened during the afternoon. If I had thought that he opened up during our lunch together two weeks ago, he really blossomed in front of McKenna. In fact, it almost made me a bit jealous.
Almost.
The way his eyes lit u
p, to the non-stop babble that came out of his mouth, to the way she listened and jokes with him about things that I didn’t quite get; all of it was everything I could hope for. She really got him. And for that I was incredibly grateful.
Why had I messed everything up by sleeping with her? It was clear that she was a bit uncomfortable around me, but she was willing to even tuck that down just for Dom. I needed her to spend more time with him, I knew that down to the core of my being, which meant I needed to get whatever was going on between us done and buried.
For the sake of Dom.
“Man, McKenna is so cool,” my little man said as we rode down in the elevator. “Can she come over the next weekend we’re together?”
“We’ll have to see what her schedule is. She works nights, so we were very lucky that she was free to hang out.”
“Yeah, but I think she came because she likes us. She has a lot of fun too; did you notice that?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that, but thankfully the elevator doors opened and saved me from having to force a response. Sure enough, his mother was standing in the center of the lobby, practically posing.
Figured. She was always trying to set scenes that put her at the center of attention. Heaven forbid that she ever dropped her guard and just lived in the moment with her own damn child.
“There you are,” she said, holding out a hand with perfectly manicured nails. They looked quite fresh and I wondered if that was why she was so late this time. It figured that her nails mattered more than her son. “Mommy’s been waiting, let’s go.”
“Actually, you were two hours late to pick me up, Mom. So, I’ve been the one who was waiting.”
She frowned and gripped my boy’s hand. “Sweetie, that’s no way to talk to your Mommy.”
“Actually, he’s telling the truth. You haven’t managed to be on time once in the past three months. If showing up on time is too much for you, I’m more than happy to readjust the time to accommodate your schedule.”
She just let out a short noise and walked off. At least Dom looked back and gave me a wave before he disappeared out of the front doors.
God! She made me so mad!
Honestly, mad didn’t seem a good enough word for it. Mad was juvenile and sounded like we had a tiff and she keyed my car. No, she was messing with the health of my child. Our child. Her cavalier attitude made me want to rip things apart and bash somebody’s face in.
But not hers. As much as I hated her, I never wanted to lay hands on her. Harming her wouldn’t make my son happy or give him the attention he deserved. In anything, she would take that right to the courts and wrest him away from me. No, not even once had I been tempted to hit her, but I did certainly hope that karma got hers.
I was bristling as I headed back to my place. I knew I needed to calm myself before I got back inside, but I was afraid I didn’t quite manage it.
“That bad, huh?” McKenna asked, a wry look on her face.
“Not the worst it’s ever been,” I admitted. For a moment I had been tempted to try to deny anything was going on at all, but I quickly realized it was no use. The cat had been out of that bag since the moment that she met my ex, so that was pretty much that.
“That still doesn’t sound that great.”
“It’s not.” I stood there for a moment, stuck in the door, before heaving a sigh. “Hey, do you want to go grab a drink, or something?”
For a moment it looked like she was going to say no, but then her face softened, and she sighed too. “You know what? Yeah. I could use one at this point.”
I didn’t expect her to say yes, so I gawked at her a moment before recovering. “Alright, good. I’ll call a cab. You have any preferences?”
She shrugged, and I tried not to clock how her breasts bounced ever so slightly in her casual outfit. I had to admit, I liked how she looked. It was different from her super dressed up look, but also different from her work uniform. It made me feel as if she was more relaxed around me, which in turn made me feel like I could be more relaxed around her. “To be honest, I haven’t had the time or funds to go out since I moved here. I know nothing.”
That made it easy then. “I’ll pick the place I guess, then. I guess I should change. I probably shouldn’t head out in my pajamas.”
“I’ve done worse things,” she said with a laugh. “But yeah, changing probably would hurt. But please keep it casual.”
“Don’t worry,” I answered casually. “I am really not feeling dressing up. At all.”
“Glad we’re on the same page.”
It was the most we said to each other since our little tryst, and it made me smile just a touch. With that, I headed to my room and picked out some of the comfiest clothes I had.
Grey sweatpants and a simple t-shirt with a zip up jacket. Warm enough if the night grew cold and cool enough if the bar was too heated. Plus, there were plenty of pockets, which was more than most women could say about their going out outfits.
My phone buzzed that our ride was on the way. We could take my car, but that would prevent me from quenching my thirst just how I wanted to. I needed a few cold ones, preferably on the double-shot side.
I headed out of my room a bit before our ride was due, and McKenna was waiting for me, her messenger bag back over her hip. She gave me a weird smile and the weirdness started to seep back in. I hoped she didn’t back out at the last minute. I was going to go out and drink no matter what, but it was always less depressing to have someone else to down a bottle with.
“Our ride’s almost here, do you want to head down to the lobby?”
“Sure,” she said with a bit of a nod. “I gotta say, it’s weird to see you look so…”
“Normal?” I supplied, holding the door open for her.
“Lower Class,” she finished instead, shooting me a prim sort of look before walking past me into the hall. Oh, so she was feeling comfortable enough with me to snark? That was good. Or at least I hoped it was.
We walked to the elevator and headed down without saying much else, but it was a relatively comfortable sort of silence. Possibly the first time we’d been relatively at ease with each other in a while.
“Is it rude to ask if we’re taking a cab, or some other sort of fancy rich people service?”
I chuckled at that. “As much as I love my fancy rich people services, I figured a cab would work best for us. My treat, of course.”
“Of course,” she parroted. “I should have assumed that.”
“Well, you know what assuming does,” I reminded her as the cab pulled up.
Once more I was opening the door for her and she slid right into the vehicle. Then I joined her, and we were just a few inches from each other.
I hadn’t been this close to her since…well, I had been literally inside her, and I didn’t know quite what to do. Normally I was so at ease with women, mostly because I treated them like people with their own lives and interests and that worked wonders. But with McKenna, it was different. She seemed so important, so… outside of my world. And I didn’t just mean that she was poor. No, it was just that we had both experienced such vastly different lives with vastly different circumstances.
I told the name of the pub to the cabby and she laughed lightly. The sound was just as appealing like the rest of her, full of light bell tones but with an alto chord beneath. “Something funny?”
“I think I heard about that place on the news,” she answered. “That it’s won best pub in the city, like, three years in a row and that a single beer costs eight dollars.”
Crap. I never stopped to think that might make her uncomfortable. “Is that alright with you?” I asked cautiously.
But she just shrugged. “Hey, if you’re buying, you can choose whatever place you want.”
“Alright then.”
Normally that kind of comment would send all sorts of gold-digger warning bells off, but I could tell that she was still much too uncomfortable to be aiming for my money. No, guessing by the look on her f
ace, she was just looking for a nice way to relax for once.
I couldn’t imagine what her life had to be like before I met her. Her ex was so bad that she had changed cities and changed her name. What all had she left behind to save herself from the man chasing her? It made me shutter to think about it.
Suddenly, I very much wanted to help her forget about all of that. I didn’t know what I could do, considering we were strangers who knew nothing about each other except for how we looked naked.
Well, I knew quite a bit more about her than she knew about me, but that was mostly due to a PI and not to her personal forthcoming.
Finally, we reached the place and I slid out of the car. It did feel better to stretch out my legs, but I made sure to turn back and help McKenna out as well.
I tipped the cabbie and headed in. There was a bit of a line, but I just walked to the front of it, flashing a grin to the bouncer.
“Ay, Raf, I haven’t seen you in forever!” The bouncer said, offering his hand in a high five. I slapped his open palm and sent him a bright smile.
