Page 53 of Choices

He fights it, but I can see the smile he's trying to hide. He shakes his head as he lets the smile break free.

He gets in, starts it, and backs out of the driveway. "So, after last night and today, is it safe to assume you're going to leave him?" He asks, seeming anxious. It's subtle, but I notice how his hands grip the steering wheel just a bit tighter. This man is in control of hundreds of people, millions of dollars, and he's used to being in control. I can't imagine how not knowing what the future holds between us is doing to him.

I sigh. "Yeah. I mean, I'd decided before last night, but that just sort of. I don't know. Nail in the coffin maybe? Took away any doubt. Him fucking his mistress, on our bed, at his daughter's birthday party? Was such a slap in the face. I knew he didn't respect me, but that was outright hatred of me. He did it in retaliation for the picture of me and Matty walking into the club."

He curses low. "Baby, fuck. I'm so sorry. I hate that he did that because of some dumb choice we made."

I shake my head. "No. No baby. I'm mami to you."

He looks over at me and smiles.

"You'll meet with Matty tomorrow? Draw up paperwork?"

"Yeah. I'm over this. Even if the ladies’ day at the club or whatever doesn't work out. Anything has to be better than this."

He turns into the south parking lot of the school where a sign for "parent pickup" sits, and queues in this annoyingly long line.

We're forty-five minutes early and still in a line.

"Why don't they just take the bus?" He asks, irritated

"It's a social flex if your wife doesn't work and has enough time to sit in the pick up line," I say, tilting my head back against the headrest.

"Mami, I love your kids. But that's dumb."

I smile, looking over at him. He's so handsome it's almost painful to look at him sometimes. And to hear him say he loves my kids? He doesn't know them all that well, but that doesn't matter. He's decided I'm his woman, and so he loves my kids. As simple as that.

And somehow so complicated their biological father couldn't figure it out.

I sigh.

"I know. But as a stay-at-home-mom I feel like it's the least I can do."

We sit in comfortable silence while we wait. Reggaeton plays lowly in the background and Rico reaches over to drag my feet onto his lap, massaging the bottoms of them. I don't think he's used to waiting around for anything.

He works on his phone while I read on my kindle app, and again, the domestication of it all is alarming. We're like any couple, waiting for their kids in the pickup line. No one would know he's the level of a mafia, and I'm a cheating wife. That thought should bother me, but it doesn't. Alan long ago made his bed. I won't feel sorry that he'll be sleeping in it soon.

I letmy mind wander. Would this be us in a year? In ten years? Or would I just let them ride the bus home like normal kids? Would things with Rico always be this easy? Where does that leave Santiago and Matty? I can't deny the attraction growing between us. Could I choose just one of them? Would I? Would they make me?

Suddenly, the doors of the elementary school pour open and three especially wonderful children come running or skipping towards our car.

They hesitate a moment when they see Rico in the drivers' seat and not me, but I get out of the passenger seat and open my arms for hugs. Aiden's is a little stiff and short, because clearly he's too cool to be seen hugging his mom already.

They get in and we wait for the cars in front of us to gather their children.

After catching us up on their day quickly, Rico's finally able to pull out of the parent-pickup line and back into NoVA* traffic.1

"Rico and his friends have decided we're having a take-out and movie night. Isn't that fantastic?"

Jack and Viv reply excitedly. Aiden remains silent.

1. *Northern Virginia

Chapter nineteen

Santiago

"What's your favorite movie?" Rico asks as they walk through the door returning from school.

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