Page 95 of Mr. Infuriating

“Hey, I just remembered I need to take my daughter something.”

I glanced over to find Gabe standing at the doorway leading to the entryway, holding his closed computer. “I’ll call you tomorrow, maybe we can schedule lunch or something this weekend?”

It was painfully obvious he was lying. I wasn’t sure if it was the naked boy, the way I’d scolded the naked boy, or the fact that he’d had time to reflect about what he was doing spending time at my house that triggered him. Yet I couldn’t find it in me to muster feeling anything more than mild annoyance.

I knew I wasn’t going to hear from him again.

“Yeah, sure.”

And just like before, he was gone.

****

Gabe

“You look like shit,” Derrick remarked when I sat down at Flannigan’s bar.

“I feel like shit.”

“Dude, when are you just going to man up and call her?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “I actually just left her house.”

“Oh.” My brother’s eyes got big. “Ohhh. I’m going to guess she told you to pack sand.”

“No, actually, she was gracious and accepted my apology. She even made me dinner.”

Derrick pulled a mug from the freezer and placed it under the draft spout.

“So, what happened?”

“I’m not sure. Her son was there, and—”

He pushed the tap to stop the flow of beer and looked over at me.

“You freaked out again.”

“No, well, not at first.” Derrick set the beer in front of me and I took a grateful swig before continuing. “I followed Dr. Frank’s advice and concentrated onJake. He’s a sweet kid, and I enjoyed being around him.”

“This sounds promising…”

“Then she gave him a bath because he was covered in pudding.” I smiled at the memory of Jake’s face and hair smeared with the dessert and how Gretchen had held him at arm’s length when she carried him to the bathtub. “After his bath, he came running through the house naked, like little kids do, and I was still good, not thinking about Bodhi, just Jake.But he started running around the coffee table, and she yelled at him. Which made him stop.”

Derrick stared at me for a beat, then lifted his hands. “And?”

“Then she told him if he got hurt that would make her sad, and my mind went to what if he did get hurt? What would we do? We’d have to take him to the emergency room. Which, then of course, took me to the last time I was in the emergency room, and… I left.”

My brother looked at me in disbelief.

“You left?Again?”

I stared at the condensation forming on my mug.

“Yeah.”

“With no explanation?”

“No. I tried when I first got there, but she cut me off.”

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