Page 59 of Tough Love
“How did things go this morning?” Jess asks, stirring milk into her tea.
Mum and Dad flew back to Australia the day before yesterday, leaving me to face the first day of normality on my own. Not that I minded; it was nice doing things my own way without anyone there to give me grief about my inexperience as a “parent.”
“Yeah, he was good about it. The school said they’d ring if there are any problems.”
First step back into the day-to-day. I dropped Briar off at his classroom after it was agreed that having familiar routines would help settle him. Plus, it gave me child-free time to handle the things Mum and Dad couldn’t assist with before they had to go, like organising the shift to bring Briar across to my place, and clearing out what possessions of Kath’s we’re not going to keep before her landlord takes the property back.
“And how are you?” Jess eyes me cautiously, her wrist still rotating as she lazily stirs the cup.
“Okay. I think.” I snort a small laugh. “Dude, I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m just winging it.”
“Well, you know I’m here if you need help.”
“Yeah, I do.” I take her outstretched hand in mine and squeeze. “Plus, Evan said he’d help if I needed advice on anything.”
“You two getting close again, huh?”
If only she knew.
He left not long after my parents got home the day of the funeral, already late to pick Deacon up for their weekend together. He also admitted as we snuck a sneaky make out behind his car, that he struggled to hold himself together in the same room as me. I smile, recalling the explicit messages I got after I friended him on Facebook. Guy sure doesn’t hold back in telling me exactly what he’s thought about for the past nine years.
“I think it’s just good that we have the history we do, that we grew up in the same place, you know? He’s familiar, comfortable.”
“Girl has a crush,” she teases, one eyebrow raised.
“I never stopped crushing on the guy.” I blush as I raise my coffee for a first sip.
“You got any pictures?” She lifts her chin, gesturing to my phone on the table between us. “Quick. Hunt one out before I have to smash this down and get back to work.”
I hit the home button on my phone and look at the time. “You’ve got, like, fifteen minutes still.”
“Yeah, and I still have to buy a burrito on the way back and scoff it in the staffroom before anyone complains about the smell in the office.”
I chuckle, waking up my phone to hunt a suitable picture out. As I scroll through his Instagram (yep, totally stalked that last night too) I get a fuzzy feeling when I realise, yeah, I had that. This hottie on my screenhad his hand down my pants making me feel all sorts of crazy things. And what’s even better, is the hottie is crazily in love with me still.
Damn, I’m lucky.
“Here.” I twist my phone around, showing her one of him at the gym with a friend.
Her eyes go wide, and she wiggles her finger at the screen. “He’s the one on the….”
“Right.”
“Sure. Okay. I mean, damn, they’re both hot.” She lets out a low whistle as I whip my precious back and ogle it one last time for myself. “And you said he was skinnier in school?”
“Yeah. I mean, he was always tall, but lanky. His clothes just hung off him.”
“Brother sure don’t have any troubles now,” she states, waving her hand dismissively.
I laugh, leaning back as the waitress places my food order down. “I don’t know why you don’t get something from here and save time?”
“Because … burritos, love.”
Her inane obsession with Mexican food amuses me. Anything else, and she’s not fussy, men included. But her food? Don’t get between her and her burritos.
“When do you go back to work?”
I take another mouthful of coffee before answering. “Next week maybe. I told my boss that I wanted to be flexible if Briar doesn’t adjust well, and he said he might be able to jack up some work-from-home scheme for me if it came to that.”