My Real (10 page)

Even though we spent a lot of time together in college, I never really liked Dave. I tolerated him at best. He was a douche. My feelings toward him may have had something to do with the fact that he was dating Bailey at the time.

“What are you doing here, Dave?” I ask as I walk in front of him to block his path to Bailey’s house.

“I was going to ask you the same question. You’re dating Bailey?” Dave laughs snidely.

“I’m not sure how that’s any of your business. Let me repeat. What are you doing here?” I ask again getting a little more angry at his attitude.

“I came to get my golf clubs out of the basement. Honestly, are you dating her?” he asks again with an amused look on his face.

My hands are fisted at my sides. This asshole is going to pay if he doesn’t watch himself.

“Let me give you some friendly advice. She’s as cold as a wet blanket. Run while you still can. Divorcing her was the best damn decision I’ve ever made.”

That’s it. I stalk toward him in two steps while drawing my fist back and let it land directly on his left eye. He falls to the ground at the unexpected contact. I kneel down next to him and grab his shirt to pull him up to my face.

“Let me explain something to you. You are never to step foot on this property again. You’re going to leave Bailey alone. If I ever hear you say something like that to anyone, I will personally make sure you have a bruised kidney to match your eye. Do you understand me asshole?”

He shoves my hands away and stands up brushing off his pants. “What the Hell is your problem?”

“I’ve heard the stories about the way you treated Bailey. I’m just letting you know that it’s done. You will never hurt her again,” I answer making sure he clearly understands the point I’m making.

“Whatever man, don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he answers over his shoulder as he walks back to his car.

I sit on Bailey’s front step for a few minutes waiting for my heart rate to go down.

The bell rings. He’s early. I look down at the white terry cloth robe I have wrapped around me with only my matching red lace lingerie under it.

Crap.

I walk down the stairs and open the door for Andrew.

“Jeezus Bailey. What’re you doing to me?” Andrew asks as he walks in, wraps his arms around me, and pulls me in for a kiss. I can feel him start to untie the robe, then he puts his hands on my bare skin.

“We are going to be late for our dinner reservations if I don’t go get dressed now,” I remind him.

“I can think of other things to do instead of going out to eat,” he teases.

I step away from him, debating my options. I give Andrew a sly smile and turn to go upstairs. I can hear that he is following a few steps behind me. I step up to my closet and pull out a pair of jeans, since that was what Andrew was wearing, and a baby doll T-shirt. Andrew is standing in the doorway, so I decide to put on a little show. I take a deep breath for courage and drop the bathrobe to the floor at my feet and glance over my shoulder.

Andrew’s hands are on the doorjamb and his knuckles are turning white, but he doesn’t move from his spot. He is just there to watch me dress.

That is so hot.

I bend at my hips, step into my jeans, and very slowly pull them up until they are just over my bottom. I turn to face him and cock my hip to the side. He has one hand on his hardness. I take the black t-shirt and put it on my arms and lift them both over my head so the shirt slides down slowly into place. After adding a scarf, I step into my sandals while zipping my jeans, grab my sweater, and give Andrew a huge smile.

“I’m ready.”

I made a reservation at Anthony’s, a fancy Italian restaurant for dinner. The hostess seats us at our table in the back. Then, the waiter takes our drink order. I watch Bailey as she looks at the menu. This is just too good to be true. She has her hair in a low ponytail, and it is falling over her shoulders. She is just so damn beautiful.

“This is nice. I’ve never been here,” Bailey says as she looks around. Her eyes stop on me, and she starts to say something and stops.

“Bailey, you can ask me anything. I know you have questions,” I take her hand.

“I don’t want to be nosy.”

“It’s not being nosy. You have every right to know what happened at my lawyer’s today. I don’t want there to be any secrets from the two of us. I was serious when I said I want something more for us.”

“Okay,” she smiles at me. “How did it go?”

“He feels I have an air tight case against Jessica to get full custody of Emerson. I have kept a journal of everything that has happened since I caught her cheating on me.” Just then, the waiter comes up, delivers our drinks, and takes our orders for dinner. I continue after she walks away. “He is having papers drawn up for both a mutual consent divorce and a fault grounds divorce.”

“Why both?” She questions while pouring the oil and herbs onto her plate for her bread.

“We’re hoping she decides to sign the mutual consent papers, because it takes the least amount of time. She will get joint custody. He said he’ll have the fault grounds papers drawn up so that if she decides to be a pain about signing, I’ll go for full custody.”

“You said yesterday that you thought you’d get full custody no matter what,” Bailey says as she puts bread on each of our plates.

“I’m thinking she is going to give me full custody. She never wants to have Emerson anyway. That’s what happened yesterday morning,” I explain as I take a drink of my beer. I glance back at Bailey, and she has a worried look on her face. I continue, “It was her weekend with Emerson, but she found something more interesting to do so she dropped Em off. It happens all the time.”

The waiter delivers our dinners. I continue to watch Bailey while we wait for the waiter to leave again.

“That’s really sad. Does Emerson realize it yet?” Bailey asks as she starts to cut her fettuccine. I watch her.

“No, thank goodness. It’ll work out better for Jessica if she can just schedule visits every once in a while.” I point toward her dinner plate and laugh. “You still cut your pasta? What kind of Italian are you?” I ask as I push her spoon toward her. “You’re supposed to twirl it.”

“I’m a messy eater. If I don’t cut it, I end up wearing the sauce. This is just safer,” she answers then sticks her tongue out at me. After a second she gets serious again. “It might be better for Emerson to live in just one house. I see it all the time with kids at school. When they are shuffled from house to house, there isn’t enough stability for them to thrive. Where does Emerson go while you’re both at work?”

“Right now she is in daycare all day, and then I generally pick her up Monday through Wednesday nights, Jessica gets her after work Thursday and Friday, then we alternate weekends. Another thing my lawyer told me to think about was to tell Jessica I wouldn’t file for child support if she gave me full custody. “

“Do you think she’d go for something like that?”

“It’s a possibility, but I have to figure out if I can afford it. Daycare costs an arm and a leg, and I’m not sure I can afford all of the bills on my own and full time daycare. It would get easier once school starts, because she’ll be in Kindergarten so it would just be before and after school care then. But, I have the next three months of summer to think about it.”

“I can watch her,” Bailey offers immediately. “My only plan this summer is a one week grad class. It’ll save you a ton of money,” she pauses with a grimace and looks like she wants to take back her offer. “I don’t know if it will cause a problem between you and Jessica if I watch her though.”

I watch her as she continues to explain the pros and cons of her watching Emerson for the summer. I think it’s a perfect situation. Emerson would have a great place to go every day with someone who really loves her. There is no doubt in my mind that she loves my little girl already. While my finances aren’t bad at all, it would be nice to save some money away for a rainy day. And the best reason of all is that I would get to see Bailey every day. Win. Win. Win.

“I am not worried about Jessica at all. Are you sure you are interested? That is a big commitment to take on for the whole summer,” I ask hoping she won’t take her offer back.

“Of course, I’d love to do it..”

Her whole demeanor changes as she accepts. Something’s up.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she answers quickly shaking her head. She pushes her empty plate away from her and says, “That was delicious. Thank you so much for bringing me here. I loved it.” She changed the subject awfully fast.

That was a little too close for comfort. I need to get my emotions under check. How much further should I let this get before I tell him? Really, I should tell him now, because when he finds out, he’s not going to want to continue seeing me anyway. I shake my head.

“So, where to now?” I ask as he finishes his last swallow of beer.

“I was thinking we could go for a walk by the lake.”

“That sounds good.”

We stop at Coldstone Creamery for some ice cream and bring it to the lake. There is an easy silence in the car as we drive. When we arrive, Andrew gets a blanket out of the bed of his truck, walks around with the blanket and the bag of ice cream before opening the door for me. He grabs my hand, kisses my palm, and melts my heart right then and there. We walk down the hill holding hands. He squeezes my hand tightly three times then lets go to spread out the blanket. After we sit down, he opens my ice cream, and hands it to me.

“So, tell me about Andrew post-college,” I ask as I start to dig into my Peanut Butter Perfection.

“Well, you know I got a job offer down in Georgia. Jessica and I moved down there and got married almost immediately after we graduated. The bonus was I’d get to spend time with my dad. I hadn’t seen him a lot since my parents got divorced.” Andrew starts eating his ice cream as he continues. “Jessica hated it from the second we moved and told me about it regularly. Over the next few years, she started to calm down, and she made some friends. We were happy for a while. About two months after we got pregnant with Emerson, my dad was killed in a car accident.”

“Oh my gosh Andrew, I had no idea. I’m so sorry,” I say reaching out to touch his arm.

He puts his ice cream down and leans back onto his elbows and seems to be thinking for a second. “The hardest part was that Jessica was no support at all. The day after the accident she had the balls to ask me if we could move back to Pennsylvania since there was nothing keeping me in Georgia anymore.”

“Are you kidding me?” Bailey gasps, appalled.

“Not at all. We ended up leaving Georgia anyway, because there were just too many memories there. I couldn’t find a job in Pennsylvania though. We moved up to New York when I was hired at a great lab that offered me a group leader position right off the bat. That’s when things went downhill fast.”

Andrew sits back up and starts cleaning up the trash from our ice cream. He helps me up from the blanket and then rolls it up. We walk to the truck as he continues. “Jessica was not happy living in New York either. She complained constantly again and started to become distant. I was working out one day a few months ago, and this woman walked up to me.”