What You Do To Me (Unexpected Love) (24 page)

             
“At
least,
you remember some,” she is now laughing. “
Abby,
I haven’t seen you dance like that in
years.
You
were
hot;
most
of
the tourists tried taking you home and most the townies had their jaws on the
floor.
It
was classic.”

             
“Tell me
you’re
kidding.” Please
let
this
be
some cruel joke on Lexi’s part
, I was silently pleading
.

             
“Nope, you
could’ve
knocked the one night stand off the list, but all you kept telling the guys is you have a tattooed boyfriend, who is hotter than hot with magic hands.”
Oh,
God, I’ll never recover from this embarrassment.

             
“
No.
I
didn’t. Please
tell me I didn’t,” I
was
starting to feel nauseous and I th
ought
I might puke.

             
“Sorry, no can do, because you did. Just be glad that after you called Alex and after the first few minutes of
conversation,
I took the phone from you.”
Christ,
I
was
going to be sick. I finally
opened
my eyes and
ran
to the bathroom. “Anyway, shower and get your ass home. Turn the coffee pot off.” As
I was
throwing up
,
I
heard
the door shut.

             
When I finally
made
it back into the living
room,
I
sank
to the floor with my back to the couch. I
grabbed
the coffee and
started
sipping it. I
found
my purse next to the
couch, picked up my phone,
and
saw
missed calls from Derek. I
went
to my call log and
saw
that I did call Alex last night. There
was
no way I
could
call or talk to him
today.
If
he
called,
I
was
not picking up.

             
I
jumped
into Lexi’s shower
,
and
after cleaning up, I headed
home.
Luckily,
Lexi was sober enough to drive my car back to her house last night. When I
got home,
I
walked
into the kitchen and
made
myself some toast. I
heard
car doors
slamming, and after
looking at the
clock,
I
realized
it must be the girls. I
met
the girls at the door and there
was
my mother walking up the driveway. Let the fun begin.

             
“Well, Ginger called and said you had fun last night. I didn’t believe it, but since you are still in your clothes from last
night,
I guess it is true.” I
saw
her searching me up and down
as if
any evidence of anything would be on my body.

“
Girls,
go inside so I can talk to your grandmother for a minute.” I
waited
until the girls
were
in the house and I turn
ed
back to my mother. “I am a grown woman and how I live my life is my business. You obviously do not agree with my choices or what I do, so I won’t subject you to watching me behave so poorly.” My mother’s eyes
were
getting
wider. Her hand reached up,
and she
placed
it on her heart. “I’m hoping
Dad
already told you this, but if he didn’t I’ll fill you
in.
I am no longer keeping you
as
a part of my life. You will still be a part of the
girl’s
lives, but not mine,
because
I am done.” Not waiting for a
reply,
I
walked
into the house and
slammed
the door.

             
The girls and I
changed
and
packed
up for the beach.
Again,
it
was
a quiet day at the beach, which I
was
happy
about,
since I
was
nursing a hangover that I very much
deserved
.
After we
got home,
I
ordered
us a pizza. I
gave
the girls a bath while we
waited
and I
had
them jump into pajamas. Once the pizza
got there,
I
fed
the girls dinner and
headed
for the shower. As the water
hit me,
I
tried
to remember what I did the night before, but
I was
more concerned with what I said to Alex on the phone.

             
Getting out of the
shower,
I
heard
the home phone ring.
That surprised
me
,
because nobody
called
my home phone anymore. I
walked
into the bedroom and
grabbed
the phone. “Hello.”

             
“Why haven’t you called me back?” I
heard
Derek on the other end. “You
called
me
,
obviously crying and I’ve been calling all
day.
By
all
day,
I mean that
I’ve called basically every half hour today.
Christ,
I’ve aged a good five years.”

             
“
Seriously, Derek,
if I didn’t know what a man whore you were, I would think you were gay with all your drama, not that being gay is a bad thing.”

             
“Well, it would be in my case for
you.
You
would never be able to live out your fantasy of ravishing me like you dream about.” I
wondered
if he really
thought that
in his mind at times. “Speaking of drama, what is with the
voicemail, and
then no response?”

             
“Like you don’t
know.
I’m sure you already called Lexi the minute I didn’t answer.” I
knew
this
was true.
It was
their pattern.
The minute I didn’t respond
,
they would
call the other to see what
wa
s going
on,
so
they
c
ould
try to fix
me
.

             
“
Okay
, I did talk to her last night while you two were at the bar. It sounds like I missed a lot.”

             
“
No,
not really and if you know, why call me?”
I was
starting to get annoyed and
cold,
standing in my room
talking
on the phone in just a towel.

             
“I wanted to hear from you that you were
okay
. I can’t stand knowing you are upset. When I finally heard the message last
night,
and then you wouldn’t pick up, I almost drove to Michigan.” I
knew
this
was true.
He had
done it twi
c
e before in the last eight months.

             
“I’m
fine.
The
girls and I spent the day at the beach. Hey, can I call you tomorrow? I’m not in a talkative
mood. Besides,
I just got out of the shower and I’m standing here in a towel.”

             
“Really, just a
towel.
God, why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”

Why did I give
him
that piece of information?

             
“I’ll call you tomorrow when I am fully clothed.” I
hung
up the phone and quickly
dressed
in a pair of yoga pants and tank top. I
headed
downstairs and
cleaned
up the pizza. The girls and I
curled
up on the couch and put in a movie. After the second
movie,
the twins
fell
asleep and I
carried
them upstairs. I
realized
I
wouldn’t
be doing that much
longer,
because they
were
getting way
too
heavy for me to carry anymore.

             
Lily
was
still up
awake
so I
had
her help me shut things off and lock up. I
asked
her if she
wanted
to sleep with me
tonight.
It had
been awhile since
she’d
slept with me, probably when she was last sick. When we
crawled
in
to
bed,
I
wrapped
my arms around Lily and
kissed
the top of her head. 
“You
know,
baby girl, I love you more than anything.”

             
“To the moon and back?” This was always
our
thing when she was little.

             
“Yes, to the moon and back and still some more.”
  I
kissed
her again and
nuzzled
my nose into her hair.

             
“Mommy, can I ask you something?” I c
ould
hear her voice growing smaller.

             
“
Anything,
baby, you can ask me anything anytime you want.” I
wanted
my girls to feel comfortable talking to
me.
I
wanted
them to have a relationship with
me
because
I didn’t have
the openness
with my mom.

             
“Mommy, did you and
Daddy
love each other?”
I was
taken back by this question and
I was
not sure where it
was
coming from.

             
“Lil, honey, I loved your daddy,
but
why are you asking
?
”

             
“I was at Sophie’s house and I saw her
parents. They
held hands, kissed
,
and smiled a lot. You and daddy never did any of that, how come?” I
didn’t
know if I
could
answer
it
,
because
she
was
right. David and I never did any of that
,
especially in front of the girls.

             
“
Well,
Lil, people show love in different ways and that wasn’t one of the ways your daddy showed love.” I wasn’t sure how to respond. One
day,
I would explain more. I wasn’t lying to
her.
I did love
David. He
gave me the girls, but towards the
end,
I stayed because I was married, not because my heart was there and David did the same, except he dated on the side.