Page 3 of Not Until Her

I offend him so easily that I can already see his ears turning red.

“Just tell me! If it’s not a terrible thing, then I’ll be able to stop assuming.”

He moves to sit on one of the chairs I have by the front door. We don’t have a back patio, so I take advantage of the space up here. It doesn’t bother me that it isn’t private, the most I do out here is sit on my phone, or pretend I know how to crochet.

I don’t. But trying makes me feel like I have my shit together.

And it’s very therapeutic, even if the only result is a bunch of tangled yarn thrown in the back of my closet. Vic has been waiting for the day I successfully finish the headband I promised her for years. I don’t think that day will ever come.

Caleb motions for me to sit down, looking impatient. Not a new trait when it comes to me.

I sit, hoping it will make this go faster. I need to feed my daughter before she passes out.

“She already ate, by the way. One of those toasted subs from the shop down the road.”

I can’t help but roll my eyes. That might be convenient, but it’s not part of our agreement. On his drop off days, I always do dinner. When I drop her off, he does dinner. It’s how this has always worked.

“What if I had already started cooking? You could have let me know beforehand.”

It’s a seriously rude oversight.

He nods.

“You’re right, I should have. I just thought I was doing you a favor.”

“I don’t need favors from you,” I tell him.

“I know you don’t.”

We sit there in silence while I fume, and he pretends he’s calm. I know it’s pretending because of all the years he’s been in my life. He’s not capable of fooling me.

“Well, spit it out. What do you want to tell me?”

He clasps his hands together, looking way too serious for my liking.

Shit, this better not be about custody. I can not afford to change my life around again for hisconvenience.

“You know that I’ve been seeing Raquel for a few months.”

I nod. Sure, he mentioned he was dating a girl he’d met at work. He also told me I didn’t have to worry about him introducing her to Dahlia, because it was too soon.

Is it not too soon anymore?I guess that was a couple months ago.

“It’s going well,” he tells me with a smile.Barf.“Really well, actually. I wanted to invite her this weekend, but I hadn’t had a chance to talk to you.”

“Thanks for waiting to talk to me.”

“Of course,” he says. As if he’s always beenso reasonable.

Spoiler alert: he has not.

“Anyway, I think the best way to move forward would be for you to meet her.”

I pause. I think about this.

I know it’s probably true. I should meet her, I just don’t reallywantto meet her. Nothing against her, but how awkward would that be?

Great to meet you, I gave birth to your boyfriend’s kid.

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