Page 18 of Fourth Wall

“Why, babe?” Chelsea asked.

“Ugh, I don’t know. It felt very anti-feminism to me, but like they wanted me to be this doting little housewife raising my kids, so I would give it to them. Plus, maybe I was pissed at Tyler for not telling me about Stephen, so I—”

“Oh no.” Tatum’s face dropped at the realization that this was actually true.

“Iknow,” I cried aloud and ran my hands through my hair. “I now have to somehow find a boyfriend who is cool with dating me for six months, and then breaking up with me. Yet somehow, I also have to trust them to be around the kids, because the judge recommended that my partner be the one picking them up from school if I was late.”

“Fuck.” Chels grabbed Alex’s hand, and I noticed they gave each other a small glance that looked like, “she is screwed, but we don’t know how to tell her.”

“What am I going to do?” I leaned back on the couch and sank into it while staring at the ceiling like it was somehow going to drop the answers to my questions.

“You could download Tinder?” Elio chimed, and then the room went quiet again as we all stared at him. This was a man in his fifties with his young pregnant wife talking aboutdownloading a dating app. He barely knew how to text most of the time.

“Baby.” Gianna slapped him on the shoulder and laughed. “I’m trying to get him more hip, so we talked about how people meet each other nowadays. Just ignore him.” Elio shrugged, and I was glad for the brief comedic reprieve.

“Do you guys know any single dudes who aren’t in the Mafia or some type of gang, club, or crew?” I was not interested in living with someone who was part of the underworld like my friends were, at least who was a stranger initially.

“I don’t know. I’m sure Alex could hook you up with some of the guys who work on his campaign?” Alex started to give Julian a death stare.

“Most people in the family marry for political reasons, and since you’re not already involved…” Julian added.

“I’ll do it.” The low timbre of a new yet familiar voice had us all turning our heads toward the kitchen. There was the Viking. The one person I had completely embarrassed myself in front of earlier this week. He stood leaning over the counter as if he had been listening to our entire conversation.

“Where did you come from?” I asked.

“I’ve been here the whole time, firecracker.” Then he winked at me. He fucking winked like the cocky asshole he was.

“I mean, you do already know him…” Tatum finally said, and I shot a look back at her. The corners of her lips turned into a smile, and she shrugged like she had absolutely no idea what she was doing. She knew.

“No, thanks. I think I’ll look into the guys who help Alex with his campaign,” I responded and then watched as he stalked toward where we all sat.

Alex shot me a look before Julian chimed in.

“Be logical, Maeve. Christian has a flexible job with a good boss.” We all rolled our eyes since Julian was Christian’s bosstechnically. “He can take off afternoons if you need him to get the girls.”

“I’m happy to move out of the casita. It’s getting a bit too small for me anyway. My boss just gave me a raise and a couple of weeks off.” Christian shot Julian a look that said, “Hey, I’m lying, but cover for me.”

“He sure did,” Julian added somewhat sarcastically.

"Ireallydon’t think this is a good idea, Christian." Everyone stared at me, and I couldn't exactly spill the beans that I hit on Christian when I was drunk, crashed on his lap, and that I would do it all over again if I could. The truth was, I didn't hate him at all. In fact, I still wanted to fuck him, even though I was totally sober now.

“Come on, Maeve. Your options are limited. I don’t even know if any of the guys in the campaign would be willing to come to San Diego to take all of this on. It is a lot to jump into,” Alex interjected.

I shot Alex a look of disdain. Fuck, my options were limited, but why did it have to be Christian?

“What about James? He has the same boss.”

“James?” Julian looked at me as if I had said something strange.

“Yeah?”

“He’s married, babe,” Tatum chimed in.

“Married!?” Who knew? He was never with his wife. We had all known him as long as we had known Christian. Sure, I guess he didn’t socialize as much as Christian, but I suppose I didn’t piece it together.

“It’s a long story,” Julian reassured me as I kept racking my brain because I somehow didn’t know James was already married.

“So that leaves your only option as me, baby.” Christian patted me on the knee, and I realized he had sat next to me on thecouch. He smelled like a pine forest. It was the same smell that floated through my mind when I fell asleep in his lap…accidentally, earlier this week.

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