Page 81 of All The Happily Ever Afters

YOU HAVE A PIECE OF MY HEART

A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES

TOO MUCH WORK & NOT ENOUGH PLAY

CHARLIE

Keys, wallet: check and check. My mental list doesn’t stop there as I glance at the clock in my office of the bar. I’m going to be late.Fuck. Grace is going to kill me.

Flipping through each of the order sheets, listening to the tick of the clock and trying to focus on this stack of papers and not the others, all I can think about is the last time I was late.

I missed our son’s entire appointment. My gaze involuntarily darts to a photo of our little man in a simple black frame on my desk. Besides a pen that states: World’s Best Dad, the picture is the only thing personal in this room. That and the framed photo of Grace and I on our wedding day. It’s almost been a year and time has flown by. The days seem shorter and the years faster. I don’t know how to slow it all down.

I’ve already missed more than I ever thought I would.

With the faint smell of beer and the clink of bottles being carted through the bar on the other side of the closed door of my office in Mac’s bar – my bar – I remember how Grace smiled and said it was okay. It’s not a real smile though, not one that reached her eyes.

So when she tells me over and over again that she can’t keep doing it all herself, I know she can’t. I know things have to change.

Knock, knock, knock. The thud resonates in my office and I clear my throat before telling Maggie she can come in.

With both fists on her hips, she stands in the doorway, her hair swept into a wild bun on top of her head.

“Yeah?” I question, noting that her apron must’ve just come out of the dryer. Either that or its brand new.Eric did say we needed new ones; did he order them?

“What the hell are you doing here?” Maggie’s head tilts with her question and her dark eyes narrow. “Your mother will have a fit.”

My wife will too. I keep my comment to myself, my lips thinning into a straight line as Mags crosses her arms.

Behind her the chatter from the bar is barely heard, but the clanking from the kitchen and a laugh from James lets me know the bar is in full swing.

“Are you sure you’ve got this--”

“All taken care of?” she finishes my question for me and then tells me to get lost and go have some fun.

“Alright then. I was just leaving.” Letting the stack of papers fall back onto my desk with a dull thud, I check my back pocket again and then grab my keys.

“Tell Cheryl I said hi,” Mags tells me and then turns, but quickly turns back, her hand on the door jam and asks in a hushed voice, “Is she pregnant again?”

Ooh how this small town loves to whisper.

“Have a good night Mags,” I answer her, well not so much answer as shut her down, with a grin and scoot past her.

The new equipment in the kitchen makes the old oven look even older. It’s the only thing back here that hasn’t been updated. I make a mental note to ask Eric about that too.

Too many changes, too many moving parts to keep up with now that the bar has expanded. A sigh leaves me and the keys in my hand jingle.

Time to see my wife, the thought brings a smile to lift my lips up until I see the time.

Shit.

I love Grace so damn much and I want to be the husband she deserves and the father my son needs.

GRACE

“Icannot believe it’s been a year,” Ali leans back in the plastic lawn chair, the front legs slipping up in the thick green grass of Cheryl’s backyard. “It’s crazy,” she murmurs.

“It’s been one wonderful year though,” Cheryl replies, lifting the water bottle in a mock cheers to Ali, who in turn lifts her pink vodka lemonade cocktail up and the two women wait for me.

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