Page 20 of Falling Together

Chapter 7

Erin

Erin jumped when loud banging suddenly started on her bedroom door. In actuality, it probably wasn’t that loud, but after being in the quiet of her room for the past two hours, anything seemed loud. “Mommy! Mommy! Lunch, Mommy!”

Erin groaned as she looked at the time on her computer.12:30. She had made the mistake of telling Nolan they would go to the pool after she finished all of her work. It was a Friday, so she was working from home while Blair watched him. When she made that promise, she didn’t realize a huge project would come up that suddenly had to be done as soon as possible. Even though her stomach was growling and yelling at her to eat, she knew if she wanted to keep her promise to Nolan, she needed to work through lunch.

Before she could get the words out to tell him that, Nolan burst into the room. He jumped up on her bed where she was sitting with her laptop open. “It’s time for lunch, Mommy.”

Erin pulled Nolan up against her and sighed. “I can’t today. I’m sorry. If I want to have time to take you to the pool, I need to work through lunch.”

Hearing that the pool was on the line was clearly all Nolan needed to know because he shrugged and jumped from the bed. “Okay, Mommy!”

Erin heard the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, and a moment later Blair was in her room. She put a hand on her hip and took a deep breath as if she had been running. “Dude. I thought we were playing hide-and-seek. Why are you up here?”

Nolan pointed his little thumb at Erin. “I was getting Mommy for lunch, but she can’t eat because she’s taking me to the pool.”

Blair looked at her with furrowed eyebrows. “You’re not eating lunch today?”

Erin looked at the computer sitting in front of her. Just in the time since Nolan walked in, she had received three more emails. There was no way she could take a break if she was ever going to finish. “Too much to do, sorry. Besides, I’m not even that hungry.” Her stomach betrayed her by letting out an obscenely loud growl at that very moment.

Blair chuckled. “Are you sure about that?”

Erin shook her head. “It really doesn’t matter. I promised Nolan the pool, so that’s more important than food.”

“Okay.”

Blair stared at Erin for longer than seemed necessary, and the whole time, Erin had to ignore how that stare made her feel. How being the center of Blair’s world, even for a few seconds, was like floating away in the clouds.I know it’s been a long time since you’ve had someone, but stop lusting over the babysitter.This was a reminder Erin had been forced to give herself way too much lately, especially after Blair dropped everything last week to come over and help Erin take care of Nolan. Blair had let Nolan snuggle up against her on the couch until he drifted into a deep sleep. It was only then that Erin was able to convince Blair it was okay for her to leave. When she walked her to the door, everything inside of Erin was screaming at her to kiss Blair, as if this had been a date and she was dropping Blair off at her front door. Instead, she turned around and grabbed her purse to find cash to give to Blair. After all, this was the babysitter.And nothing else.But Blair had put her hand on top of Erin’s and told her she didn’t want the money. She just wanted to help. Blair’s soft touch didn’t make the urge to kiss her any easier to control, so Erin said a quick thank you and opened the door for her. She took a few deep breaths as soon as she closed the door behind Blair. It was like being near her had sucked all the oxygen from the room and Erin could finally breathe again. The problem was that she really didn’t want to…

“Come on, dude. Let’s let Mommy get work done.”

The sound of Blair’s voice snapped Erin out of her daydreams, but by the time she was able to look over to where Blair had been standing, she was gone. Erin sighed even though she knew it was for the best. Sheneededto get this work done.

Unfortunately, only forty-five minutes later, there was another knock on the door. “Honey, Mommy isn’t done with work yet. I just need a little more uninterrupted time.” She tried to keep her voice level, because she didn’t want Nolan to know she was annoyed. It wasn’t his fault. He was too young to understand.

He was clearly also too young to understand directions, because the door slowly creeped open. Only, the person standing there wasn’t Nolan. It was Blair. Blair, who was currently holding a tray of food.

She held the tray in the air. “I’m really sorry to interrupt, but I figured you could use this.”

When she set it down beside Erin, Erin began to laugh. “Ramen noodles and microwave pizza? It’s been forever since I’ve had that. I didn’t even know we had any in the house.”

“You didn’t.” Blair chewed on her bottom lip as though she was nervous for some reason. “I normally bring my own to make myself for lunch since it’s really all I can make.” She shrugged. “I also love it.” Now, she cringed. “I guess you probably have a much more refined palate than I do. Youarean adult.”

Yes. She was an adult, ten years older than the girl standing next to her bed doing something sweeter than anything she could ever remember her ex doing for her.Ten years younger is the important part, Erin.Still, she needed to let Blair know how much the gesture meant to her. “I might be an adult, but who doesn’t love ramen noodles and microwave pizza?”

“Serial killers?” Blair asked with a laugh.

Erin laughed along with her. This was the first time all day she didn’t feel like she was on the edge of a panic attack. “They’d have to be to not like this meal.” She waited for her laughter to subside to say the next part, so Blair knew how sincere she was being. “This is seriously so nice, though. Thank you. You’ve gone above and beyond. Last week you helped when Nolan got sick. This week you’re making me lunch. I really don’t pay you enough.”

Blair shrugged. “It’s not about the money for me. You do so much for Nolan. I’m happy to help where I can.”

“Well, thank you. It means more to me than you’ll ever know.”

It really did. Blair was doing this for no reason other than the fact that she was a really fucking good person. Now if only she were ten years older andnotNolan’s babysitter…

***

Thanks to being fueled by ramen noodles and pizza, Erin was able to have her work done by three, which gave her plenty of time to satisfy Nolan’s pool itch.

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