Page 13 of Alfie: Part Two

Alfie shuddered and nodded once, and he tightened his hold on me. Then he sniffled and released me much too soon. His hands slid down my shoulders and chest before he withdrew them completely, and I stood there bereft.

“I need your permission to play dirty,” he said thickly.

I was sure my confusion was written across my face.

“I have one more card to play,” he elaborated. “A while ago, I said no because I was tryna honor our deal. I wanted to be as honest as I could be.” He coughed and cleared his throat. “This is my compromise. By giving you a heads-up. So if you agree, then I’ll…set something in motion to essentially manipulate you.”

Pardon me? I frowned. “What do you mean by manipulating me?”

“What you’d hear would still be the truth,” he said. “I just can’t call it a fair tactic to use in order to win someone back.”

To win someone…

That was the goal with his suggestion, then? To win me back?

He believed he had a way to manipulate me—with the truth?

“Do it,” I said. I couldn’t be more resolute about it either. He’d warned me. I’d agreed. I wasn’t sure one bit it was going to work, but let’s fucking try.

“Okay.” He nodded minutely and offered an uncertain, sad little smile. “I gotta go make a call—and when I get back, I propose we keep shit civil for Trip and the terrorist, if she comes back down.”

“You’re not going to explain more about this manipulation first?”

“No. You’ll see soon, though.”

So be it. “All right.”

“All right,” he echoed. He started walking back toward the terrace, and I followed dumbly. “By the way, ask me what time it is.”

“What time is it?”

“Let me check my gorgeous new watch.”

My mouth twitched. That little…heartbreaker and…goddamn bastard.

The morning after, the house felt empty without Alfie. Emptier than usual, I should say.

Even though he and I had poured all our focus into the children, Colby included, last night at dinner, Alfie’s presence had filled the house with life and laughter. It had naturally benefited me too. When he smiled, the world was a better place.

Ellie had apologized somewhat reluctantly, and she’d been very clingy for a while, going from my lap to Alfie’s until she’d been ready to come out of her shell. She’d even asked to skip camp today. But something in her behavior, particularly this morning, made me think.

I sat across from her at the kitchen table as she ate her toast and colored in her new farm-themed coloring book. The cows were white and brown. The horses were black or brown. The pigs, a pale pink color.

The farmhouse was neon pink, and the grass was blue.

When it came to animals, Ellie went for accuracy and precise representation. The children’s books she preferred were exclusively about animals. All kinds. She went bananas for every dog she came across, she aww’d at every cat, she was first in line at every petting zoo, and nobody was allowed to fast-forward commercials that had animals in them.

She may have the attention span of the child she was, and she may change her mind more frequently than I’d gone back and forth about Alfie and me, but her love for animals shone brightly every single day. It always had.

Whining and stomping her foot notwithstanding, she deserved to be listened to. And perhaps Alfie and I could come up with a compromise. Cats were easier in terms of maintenance, and they could be left on their own during a workday.

Naturally, Alfie and I would have to be ready to take care of the furball if Ellie lost her interest.

I’d like to avoid getting a dog. I’d had one growing up, and it’d taken me over a year to get over his death.

I was dealing with enough grief and instability in my life.

“I need your permission to play dirty.”

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