Page 27 of Undeniable You

I pretended to be offended. “I would never.”

We both laughed and then Larison’s phone went off. “Hold on a second.”

Her eyes seemed to scan a message.

“Do you need to go?” I’d monopolized her time for far too long. All she’d wanted was time alone and I’d barged right in and demanded her attention.

“No, it’s fine. Just a check in with some pictures.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her to forward the pictures to me, but she would probably post them on her social pages anyway.

“Still. I’m sure you want to get back to your weekend of leisure. And I’ve got stuff to do.” I didn’t have any stuff to do, but she didn’t need to know that.

“Oh, right. Of course. It’s later than I thought it was. I have a few books that are calling my name and uninterrupted reading time is hard to come by over here.” No doubt. I couldn’t take any more of those reading moments away from her.

“Tell Juniper that I miss her, and I’ll see her on Monday. And enjoy the rest of your weekend.” Now I was in a rush to get off the chat with her.

“Yeah, sure. Will do. And you have a good weekend too, Jo.” No one ever called me by my full name, but I wanted to ask her to. I wanted to hear her say “Josephine.”

“Bye, Larison.”

I ended the chat.

Chapter Ten

Larison

My nap had messed up my sleeping schedule, so I wasn’t as tired at my usual bedtime. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d stayed up past nine-thirty, so I decided to go for it. Live it up.

Made some tea and ate the rest of my second piece of cheesecake and read until my eyes absolutely would not stay open anymore.

I didn’t get as much done as I’d planned, but then I hadn’t had a video call with Jo on my itinerary. That had been a pleasant surprise. We hadn’t really talked like that before and it had been both comfortable and exciting at the same time. Jo had this way of giving you her full attention and it was hard to resist.

I’d give up some of my reading time for more time like that with Jo. There was an ease in talking with her that made me forget that I technically paid her and she was an employee. Our conversation had been one between friends, butnotbetween friends. There was an edge, at least on my end, of something else. I didn’t speak to Sophie that way. There had been an undercurrent the entire time that things could take a turn and I could slip into flirting with her. I’d had to consciously holdmyself back from saying anything that would cross the line. I couldn’t cross the line with her.

I’d have to be more careful. More professional. Speaking to Jo like a friend might be easy, but that didn’t mean it was right.

The next morning,I slept in for the first time in ages. In years, possibly. I woke gently as the sun spilled across the floor from a few cracks in my curtains. Silence. More silence. No one to ask me for anything, but at the same time there was no warm and drowsy body to cuddle with under the covers. No one to stroke my hair and get me excited about the day.

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. Wincing, I got up even though I hadn’t had any sort of exercise on my list of things I wanted to do this weekend, but it should have been.

I got dressed and walked to a coffee shop to get an expensive coffee and a fancy breakfast sandwich that I sat at a tiny table in the window with so I could sit and watch everyone walk by. I got a second coffee and finished that while I soaked in the atmosphere around me and then walked around the neighborhood slowly.

There was no rush. Nowhere to be. No one that needed to be picked up or tended to.

When I got back to my apartment, I did some cleaning and attempted a Pilates workout in my living room that absolutely kicked my ass after ten minutes but I struggled through the rest and hopped in the shower.

I was picking Juniper up in a few hours and then I’d be back to mom mode. Weekends always moved the fastest when you were trying to savor them.

All of my focus went to reading until an alarm on my phone went off and I saw it was time to pick up my daughter.

As I stood up from the couch and stretched my now-sore body (why was Pilates so hard?), I said goodbye to my weekend. Someday I’d get to do it again. Maybe when Juni went to college.

Juniper jabbered allthe way home about her weekend and I let her go. As much as I’d appreciated the silence, I did love having my little magpie back.

“What didyoudo, Mama?” she finally asked when she’d exhausted all her words about what she’d done.

“Oh, not much. Just read some books and cleaned the house. Nothing special. I talked to Jo for a little bit and she said she missed you and she’s excited to see you tomorrow.”

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