Page 76 of No One Like You

“Yeah. Exactly.”

“Have you thought about quitting your job and going freelance full-time?”

“Pretty much every day. I need health insurance, though. Which sucks. I guess I could take a look at what’s out there again and see if I can afford it plus rent and all.”

“Hmmm, there might be another option.” Megan’s face brightened as she was talking, and Tasha leaned forward in anticipation.

“What’s that?”

“Substitutes get health insurance and while I wasn’t a sub last school year, I was a full-time teacher and worked the required number of hours, in another district, of course. Anyway, I’m finally getting insurance and I should be able to get you on mine as a domestic partner. Let me check.”

They both whipped out their phones and started searching. Megan was slightly faster to find the answer. “Well, we meet all of the requirements except one.”

Tasha caught up. “You’re still married.”

“Yeah. I wonder if the fact that I’ve filed divorce papers will get around that.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to ask. We may also see Brad at roller derby on Sunday.”

“True… I don’t want to get into a big fight in front of a crowd. And he may not show up.”

“I think he’ll show up. He emailed me a few days ago about some books that I told him to read. He said that he was planning to come because of Sophia.”

“Wait… you and Brad have been emailing?” Megan’s tone sounded more concerned than surprised.

“Sorry, I should have mentioned it before. I told him to read a couple of books to help him pull his head out of his ass. That was part of my conditions for not giving him the bad envelope. Anyway, he read the books and we emailed back and forth a bit. I decided that he could keep the good envelope.”

“That’s… good, I guess.”

“It is. He’s still an asshole, but I think he might be having a bit of personal growth.”

“Huh.”

“You aren’t having second thoughts, are you?” Tasha experienced a sudden flash of anxiety.

“Oh, about Brad? Hell, no! No, he and I are done, outside of the fact that he’s Sophia’s father. I’ve found the love of my life with someone else, and even if Brad does change, he can’t change that.”

‘Love of her life.’ I like the sound of that.

“Really? He sounds like a lucky guy.” Tasha grinned.

Megan grinned right back. “This might surprise you, but I think that she’s a lucky girl. Not nearly as lucky as me, though.”

“Tell me more. Is she hot?”

“Super hot. Smart, too. And she’s good with Sophia.”

“Wow, she sounds almost as amazing as you.”

“She is… I, um…”

Come on, Megan. The suspense is killing me. We were playful and now she’s serious.

“What?”

“I want to spend the rest of my life with her.”

“Wow, she is a lucky girl.”

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