Page 36 of P.S. You're Intolerable

I propped my chin on my fist and smiled at Joey-Girl in Ray’s arms. “Apparently, the bar is in hell.”

“He isn’t so bad,” Davida said with a straight face. “Remember the chairs.”

I sighed. I did miss my chair. “Like I said, the bar is in hell. One generous gesture doesn’t cancel out making a temp cry.”

Raymond lifted Joey up to his face and baby-talked in a way that always got her open-mouth smiling and drooling buckets.

“Uncle Elliot is a really grumpy billionaire,” Ray singsonged. “His piles of money are an uncomfortable throne, so he takes his aches and pains out on us peasants. Mommy sometimes charmed him into being nice. The rest of us have no such power.”

“He was never nice,” I interjected into their private conversation.

But that wasn’t strictly true. There were times Elliot was kind and considerate to me. Even generous. Then there were the tender minutes he’d held my belly, feeling Joey move with an awed expression.

Maybe he wasn’t as bad as I was making him out to be…

When I got home from my coffee date, I was welcomed by a new email from Elliot.

To:[email protected]

From:[email protected]

Catherine,

Is there a reason I don’t have a reply from you in my inbox? Is your internet down? Or are you ignoring me?

I recognize you’re on leave, but as you once told me, babies sleep a lot, so you should have ample time to reply to me.

I hope your lack of response isn’t a preview of what it will be like when you return. Should I expect to wait hours or even days to hear from you? If so, I might need to keep Leafy-Daniel around as my backup assistant.

Please tell me where the notebook you always use to write my schedule is. Daniel found one that is almost alike, but it’s longer, so it can’t be the one.

Yours,

Elliot

I sat back against my headboard, heaving a heavy breath. He wasn’t wrong. I had time to reply. I just chose not to. In a few weeks, I’d be back under Elliot’s thumb, and as entertaining as his emails were, I had to draw a line in the sand somewhere. With Joey here, I couldn’t be at his beck and call at all hours anymore, and he’d have to get used to it.

This one, I wanted to nip in the bud ASAP, though.

To:[email protected]

From:[email protected]

Elliot,

I’m not sure what you’re talking about. There should only be one notebook in my desk. If that’s what he’s using, it’s the correct paper.

As for your other questions, my internet is fine, but I was away from my computer. I still have three weeks left of maternity leave, and I plan on using them to the fullest. Don’t expect instant replies, and you won’t be disappointed.

If you feel the need to keep Leafy-Daniel, by all means, have at it. But if he’s staying, maybe try being a little nicer so he won’t shake quite as much. That sounds awfully distracting.

I hope you’re well.

Sincerely,

Catherine

P.S. I’ll now call you Stick-Elliot. You can guess where I think the stick is.

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