Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 50032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
“Keep living your life, man. Things are going to work out, and if I need help, I know you all have my back. Seriously, though, come up with a business plan and get out of the hell you’re in right now before things get worse,” I offer a bit of advice. Tysen will be happier in the long run, I can guarantee that.
“Will do. I’m not on rotation this week. Doing the side gig, so I’ll be around more. Call, no matter what. I can pick up when needed.” I never in a million years thought I’d have a friend group like this. Lucky doesn’t even cut it when it comes to what we all have.
“Thanks, man. Same goes for you.” We say our goodbyes, I hit the end button and finish my drink, forgoing the tax situation. I’ll fuck with it tomorrow. The pile of papers with the words Petition for Divorce is staring at me like a bomb ready to detonate. I sit back in my seat, lift my head, and stare at the ceiling while thinking back on the times that were good, so good I knew Winnie wouldn’t leave my side. I guess all good things come to an end, except I’m not done fighting for my wife. Tomorrow, I’ll head to my parents’, talk to them, come up with a game plan, and fix my marriage.
5
WINNIE
“Look how high I fly!” After leaving Asher’s and heading back to Isla and Santiago’s, we had what I could only describe as a normal rest of the evening. We laughed, we played, we ate, and then, when it was time for Sebastian to take a bath before his bedtime, I dragged the process out. Allowing him to splish and splash longer than usual. He begged for more stories than his normal, and since he has my whole heart for my whole life, I gave in without so much as a hint of a hesitation. After a day like yesterday, I needed some semblance of normalcy.
“Oh, my goodness, you can almost touch the clouds.” I clap my hands and help him swing. Sometimes I’ll sit next to him, and we’ll do this together, but today, I’m making it all about Sebastian. Last night, once the prince was tucked into bed, a bed I currently share with him. Isla and Santiago have a three-bedroom house, meaning they have a master bedroom, a spare bedroom, which Seb and I are using, and Isla now has a room for her hobbies. She’s always had a creative flare. She paints abstract art; it’s big and beautiful. When I was working at the art gallery, I never knew this side of her, and part of me felt like an asshole for not asking the right questions. But she cleared the air and told me this is something new. She needed something to channel her energy now that everyone is settled down, Johnny doing his thing and my sister-in-law refusing to have children until she’s financially set. I looked from Santiago to my mother-in-law as we all laughed because would that ever really happen? Only if you were to marry a millionaire, and even then, there’d still be problems.
We moved the conversation away from her artwork and right into my shit. I tried to veer it away, hating talking about myself and my problems, but neither of them was having it. They quite frankly tag-teamed me, asking all the hard questions about Melanie, what has me back in Florida, and what are my plans in the aspect of the what-ifs.
It hit me as I sat down at the kitchen table last night that my phone wasn’t ringing even though I’d been checking it constantly, wondering if maybe there was something wrong with my phone. Like maybe my ringer was turned off, when it never is, when you have a little one depending on you. The last thing you’ll ever do even while at work is not have some kind of alert set up on your phone in case there’s an issue at daycare.
The what if Johnny doesn’t divorce me? The what if I’m not back in Georgia when I’m court mandated to appear on time? What if I failed the only person Sebastian ever had to rely on?
I broke down. I sobbed, I wailed, and through it all, the Gonzales family held me. The man I really wanted to wrap his arms around me is the same man I served divorce papers to yesterday.
“I touch dem, my feets touch dem.” Sebastian has a few delays we’ve been working on, some of them being his speech, the others we’ve overcome. Potty training during the day has finally become a breeze, but at night, he still has to wear a trainer. It’s not ideal, and I’ve seen the looks other parents give me when they see me check out at the store. I try to ignore them when all I really want to do is scream at them to mind their own damn business. Instead, I keep my mouth shut. The last thing I want is for Seb to feel some type of way because of strangers who can’t get their heads out of their own asses.