Page 14 of DILF

“Mr. Edwards,” she says coldly, with that eyebrow cocked upwards.

“Whose car?”

She leans out the door and turns her head toward the car in question. “Oh, that’s Lars'.”

“You have a guy in there?” I bark. She pushes me outside, much like yesterday morning, and closes the door behind her.

“What do you want, Mr. Edwards?” She throws the words in my face.

“Your dad told me to keep an eye on you.”

She leans her hip against the door frame and crosses her arms over her chest. Her eyes unabashedly roam my body. “He told you to come over at night dressed like that? You did promise to help with anything I may need.” She shakes her head slowly and does a tsk -tsk noise with her tongue.

I realize I’m not wearing a shirt or shoes, and I exhale loudly, ignoring that second part. “I rushed over when I saw the car just to make sure you’re okay.”

The door opens behind her and that asshole from the bar is standing there looking smug, and I want to throttle him. “Babe?” he says.

Babe? What the fuck? I growl deep in my throat. I don’t know if the asshole notices, but Lily definitely does by the questioning eyebrow.

“Go back inside. I’ll be right in. It’s just Charlie’s dad asking about her.”

“Okay,” he says and gives me a chin nod before he goes back in.

I shake my head and roll my eyes. “Fuck this,” I say as everything starts to spin. “You want to make stupid decisions, that’s on you.” I begin to walk away.

“Stupid decisions?” I hear her marching behind me. “I know of only one stupid decision I’ve made recently,” she says, and I know exactly the one she’s talking about because I can’t help but agree with her. What we did—it was completely stupid.

I go back inside my house, slamming the door behind me. As I’m about to face-plant onto the bed, the churning in my stomach intensifies and I’m running to the bathroom to throw up. I feel horrible. I don’t remember the last time I felt this bad. Even after expelling everything in my stomach, I still feel horrible. With the little energy I have left, I wash my face and brush my teeth, then shuffle into the bedroom where I close my eyes and pass out.

I don’t know what day or time it is, but my pounding headache is driving me insane. I sit up, trying to adjust my eyes to the light seeping in through the slits in the curtains. Then the pounding starts up again and I realize it’s not just my head that’s banging; it’s the front door.

I groan as I roll off the bed and stumble to the door just as the offending person knocks again.

Without bothering to look, I open the door and bark, “What?”

“Shit!” She drops her phone and clings her chest. “You scared me.” Her eyes are wide, and she takes a deep breath.

“You’ve been knocking. How could I have scared you?”

She shakes her head, reaches down for the phone, and speaks into it. “He’s alive, Charlotte. Nothing, he startled me when he opened the door and I dropped the phone, is all.”

I furrow my eyebrows as she looks back up at me.

“Charlie wants to know why you’re not answering your phone. Jim called looking for you?”

Jim? Shit, what time is it?

Lily is still talking into the phone with my daughter when I yank it out of her hand. She yelps “Hey!” at the same time that I say “Hello?”

“Daddy? What happened? What’s going on? Jim said you called in sick yesterday and that today you just didn’t show up for work. He’s been trying to get ahold of you. He’s worried, and now so am I. You’re not answering your phone.” She’s talking a mile a minute and my head throbs too much to deal with any of this right now.

“Didn’t feel well, got sick last night, must’ve overslept.”

“Don’t feel well? What’s going on?” she asks, and I look up and Lily’s assessing me, probably annoyed that I took her phone and that she had to trek all the way over to my house. But her eyes also soften when she hears that I’m sick. I don’t need those big puppy dog eyes directed at me. I duck back into the house, still talking to Charlotte. I hope Lily won’t follow me inside.

But of course she does. I have her phone.

“Probably just something I ate. Don’t worry about me. I’ll call Jim now.”

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