Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
“Shew,” one of my longest employees, Rod, whistled sharply. “She’s fucking hot.”
The whistle caught Eedie’s attention, and Eedie squealed. “Creole! Hey!”
Eedie hustled over to Creole, threw her arms around her, and said, “I’m so glad I got to see you. I missed you last time.”
The soft smile that overtook my face was alarming to my employees, too.
“Who is this girl?” Rod asked Dan, one of the newest employees. “I’ve never seen him smile before.”
I flipped him off. “Oh, fuck off. You know you have.”
Rod grinned. “Just glad to see you looking happy, my man. Haven’t seen you look like that in a long while.”
No, he hadn’t.
Because I hadn’t been happy in a really long time.
In fact, if I had to gander a guess, I’d say I hadn’t been happy since I was sixteen and walking in on my mom’s face half-hanging off.
Speaking of my mother, she chose to call me in that moment, making my happiness start to fade.
I contemplated not answering it, but realized that was the cowardly way out and excused myself to go stand in a deserted corner of the nearly finished corner apartment.
“Hey, Mom,” I said quietly.
I’d been ignoring her calls for a week now, unsure if I ever wanted to take another one.
But I wasn’t a coward.
“Hey, Audric,” my mother’s computer spoke for her. “Do you have time to meet with me and my therapist soon?”
I nearly said no.
But I wanted her to go to a therapist.
She hadn’t been to one ever.
She’d refused to ever even work with one.
The fact that she was willing to go made me agree, even though I didn’t want to.
“Sure,” I grimaced. “When?”
There was a long gap of time while she typed and told her computer what to say.
“I’m leaving next week, and he agreed to take me on remotely,” the computer answered. “So, preferably, in the next three or four days.”
I looked at my watch and thought about what I had to do in the next few days.
I did fully plan on getting on a plane with Creole to Hawaii Friday and planned to stay there all weekend. So that left today or tomorrow.
“I can do tomorrow,” I replied reluctantly.
“Perfect,” she typed. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Noon would be best. Love you.”
I hung up without replying to her words of endearment.
I wasn’t sure that I’d loved my mother for a long time.
At this point, she felt more like a burden. Had since she decided that her life started and ended with my sister. Since she stopped being a mother to me, and a wife to my dad.
My dad was my best friend.
And she’d been jerking him around so fucking long.
Instinctively, I called my dad and said, “Did Mom call you?”
He hesitated. “Yes. I’m going to go up there either today or tomorrow and meet with her and her therapist.” He cleared his throat. “We’re officially divorced. A judge fast-tracked it for her.”
That was news to me.
I’d always thought a divorce took a long time to accomplish, even when both parties were in agreement.
“Um,” I hesitated. “Congrats?”
My dad snorted a laugh.
“Dad,” I said quietly. “You should call her.”
My dad made a strangled sound in his throat. “I’m guessing neither one of you ever moved on. You are in love with each other. It’s time to start living again.”
Dad sighed.
“I don’t think you should go tomorrow,” I said. “I think that you need to clean your hands. Don’t go. Don’t dredge up anything else with her. If there’s anything important said, I’ll relay it. But you don’t need to be dealing with her shit anymore. I’m not sure what, exactly, this is supposed to be, but I’m not letting her keep her claws sunk in.”
Dad didn’t say anything.
“Just, trust me, okay?” I pleaded. “Go to Hawaii. Go see her.”
Dad made a noise in his throat. “I thought you were using the house this weekend.”
I grinned. “I am.”
“Are you saying I should go, and then stay with her?” He chuckled.
“If she’ll have you.”
Dad made a growling sound under his breath then said, “You’ll tell me what she said?”
“If I think you need to hear it,” I agreed.
After a few more words of encouragement on my end, and agreement on his, we hung up.
I leaned forward and rested my head against a stud in the wall when I heard, “You’re good for him.”
I twisted my head, not lifting it off the wood, and said, “It’s like trying to coax a skittish horse into doing what you want.”
“Is he going to go?” she questioned.
That’s when the smile lit my face. “Oh, yeah. Hopefully she lets him in the door, though, or we’re going to be spending our weekend with my dad.”
Her nose wrinkled. “I guess that’s better than nothing.”
I chuckled, then pushed off the wall and walked toward her.
She still had an armful of bags, and I bent over her to peek into one. “What’d you get me?”