Page 3 of How to Prevent a Fumble

“By meeting do you mean a date?” I ask him as I stare at my phone. The idiot keeps adding his dates to our shared calendar, and I know him far too well to think it’s an accident.

“No, Briar. A meeting. I’m sure Elara will understand.”

Closing my eyes, I run my fingers across my forehead in a feeble attempt to keep my growing headache in check. Tony has been difficult our entire relationship. I was warned about him by every single person in my life including his family, but I was young. Admitting the mistake has been my hardest pill to swallow.

“Tony please, I have to get to this job?—”

He cuts me off with a scoff. “You’re a mother, Briar. You can’t constantly be unreliable your whole life. At some point Elara is going to get sick of it. I think this is a valuable lesson for you, yes?”

My fingers tighten around the phone as I nearly chuck it into the inner harbor. The cool air hitting my cheeks is the only thing keeping me from losing my mind.

“Did you hear me?” he asks, but instead of answering him I hang up, done with his cruelty.

I’ll just figure it out.

Despite what he told the court, Tony has shown the least amount of interest in our daughter. In fact, I don’t think he’s really spent time with her in months, instead spending his nights between the sheets of his colleagues. And despite what Owen’s girlfriend may say, I feel guilty leaving her with them most days lately when her father could not be bothered to lift a single finger.

Tony supplies me with just enough to get by, but after bills, keeping a roof over our head, and squirreling away pennies for Elara’s future, I have nothing. I’m barely getting by, and I’m tired of having to hide it.

Weeks and weeks of living off of a twenty-dollar bill in my wallet.

I’ve tried to get other jobs. I’ve tried time and time again, but Elara gets sick, or something goes wrong with my car, or Tony decides to sabotage me because it’s easier to say his ex-wife is a deadbeat idiot who can’t hold a job and relies on his money. If I didn’t, what would he have to complain about? What would he have to still hold over my head?

You could ask your brother for help…

No.

Owen has a heart of gold. He’d drop everything in a second to help me. But it would break his heart.

I’m not too proud. I just want to be able to do this by myself.

I have to be able to do it by myself.

I look across the water at the National Aquarium. The temperature is brisk today, but the sun beaming down on me makes me smile to myself.

Look for three things that make you happy, my therapist had said.

The water looks beautiful today. The sun is glistening offof it, the small waves rippling in are enough to send me into a trance. There’s a mother and son in a paddle boat laughing, and my heart squeezes in my chest.

There’s a caramel smell in the air, and I can’t quite place where it’s coming from, but it’s much different than the usual salty scent.

Okay, that’s two things. What’s the third?

I step back, turning to walk down the pier when something large rams into me, hitting me like a brick wall. I’m down in a second, my limbs flailing in front of me as my ass lands on the hard concrete. My cheeks immediately redden as I turn to apologize to whoever hovers above me, but when I brush my hair out of my eyes, the words don’t come.

“Jesus, are you okay?” the man in front of me asks, his muscles rippling under his damp shirt, his chocolate brown hair peeking out from under his cap.

“I’m fine,” I grit, rolling my eyes.

“Seriously, I’m sorry—” he says, extending his hand.

I slap it away. “I said I’m fine, Leo.”

“What are you doing out here anyway?” he asks, his head tilting. I watch him as he spins his baseball cap backwards and slips his sunglasses off, folding them up and holding them in one hand while simultaneously twisting the top of his water bottle off, chugging half of it before I can even answer his question. My eyes shoot to the way his bicep works before quickly finding their way back to his stupidly green eyes.

“I should be asking you that question.”

He looks around, shrugging. “I wanted to go for a run.”

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