Page 255 of As The Shifter World Turns

“Yeah, can I come in?” I nodded and opened the door.

“I’m not here as a friend, Martin. Know this. I think you’ve done some shitty things lately. I also think you feel trapped.” For someone so young, he saw so much. “I need to hire someone for the app business. Someone to manage it. Ryder can’t handle the stress right now.”

My phone rang, only it wasn’t a whistle it wasAnswer Meindicating it was either the school, Neil, or my boss.

“Sorry.” I swiped to answer, noting the number as my boss. “Martin here.”

I kept the call as short as I could. He wanted to tell me about a pretty big campaign he’d booked me for. It meant some travel, but also a lot of zeros.

“I’m sorry Ivor. Want some coffee?” He shook his head. “You were saying you need a manager.”

“And I thought maybe you could do it.” How had I not seen that coming?

Because I was too busy making a financially solid career move.

“I don’t think so. The app is still growing and is still pretty new. The risk of being jobless and penniless is too great,” I explained. It looked like it was doing well and my time working on it had shown it had promise, but my new campaign had a lot of zeros.

“And your job?” He asked pointedly. “You could lose it all in an instant. Someone new in the modeling world might come along who takes work away from you. Or you might have an accident and your career would be over.”

A flash of the car nearly running me over flashed through my head. His accuracy was terrifying.

“But until it does, I can secure my sons’ future.” Toby and Charlie. I wasn’t like the other models. I was saving as much as I could. Did I need to go out and wear certain clothes? Absolutely, but I was still growing that nest egg.

“You really need to think about your priorities, Martin.” He walked towards the door. “You’re so close to losing everything and you don’t even see it.”

He was so wrong. I did see it. I just didn’t know how to do anything different.

I crumbled to the floor and let the tears fall.

The next day I discovered Ivor had offered the job to Archer. And Archer had accepted.

115

HOMECOMING

Neil

This won’t be awkward having Martin at a manor family social gathering.

When he was living elsewhere, he didn’t come to Friday nights on the roof. He was always busy. And since he’d been living in 3B, he’d avoided it. Again, he was usually out because when we were on the roof, I would check to see if his car was there and it never was. Whether that was because he was working or he didn’t want to hear everyone having fun on the roof, I had no idea.

The phone beeped. The one person I was thinking of. My mate. We’d made little headway with working out our issues and as much as I missed him, the longer we were apart, the less I felt the need to make any changes. But it wasn’t just me in this relationship. I had to think of Toby and Charlie.

On the other hand, staying together for the kids wasn’t an option. Martin and I would be unhappy and that would ‘infect’ the entire family. Better that we were content and hopefully happy to be apart, but willing to act jointly as parents and be civil to one another when we were together as a family. Some separated couples managed it, others didn’t.

I can skip the housewarming if you want.My mate and I were thinking alike. My finger hovered over the phone wanting to type,OK. But our kids needed to see us in the same room. Toby, especially, would be disappointed if his dad wasn’t there.

The Sunshine Manor extended family had been invited to Archer and Micah’s housewarming. While they’d been gone from the manor for a while, their home was in the next street, but now they were back, living on the other side of the manor, we were living side-by-side. I loved it. A row of three houses.

No. Please come.

That was the grown-up response and as I hit send, I wished I could take it back. Perhaps I needed to schedule more sessions with my therapist. I’d been avoiding the therapist using Charlie and work as an excuse. But that was me putting off dealing with my issues until tomorrow. Always tomorrow.

As well as discussing my own problems, I should drag Martin to attend couples’ counseling. But that was a battle for another day.

“Hey, TD. Are you ready?” Toby was dressed and had Charlie by the hand. Both my boys were growing so fast and I hugged them as tears streamed over my cheeks.

“No need to cry,” Toby told me as Charlie leaned against my legs.

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