Page 109 of Games We Play
Gina took over while Leah filled out an order for the little girl’s upcoming birthday cake. Originally, the girl wanted a Princess Jasmine themed birthday, but Leah’s cute cakes had instantly changed her mind to Lego Mania. Leah asked the girl if she wanted one large colorful block or an assortment of “blocks” her friends could stack at the party. Naturally, the girl wanted that, but her mother suggested it might be too messy. A large red block it would be.
“You’re soslammed!” That came from Melissa, who brought up the rear of the line. Thank God a lull was soon to follow. Must’ve been the lunch hour, which was ironically a slow time around that neighborhood. “This is amazing, Leah! You must be so proud!”
“I’m too tired to be proud.” Leah offered her friend a free sample of cake, but Melissa insisted on buying one of the Minion donuts. She then shrieked to see a small collection of flower-shaped cake pops in the back of the case.
Shortly after Melissa left, Sloan’s new assistant sauntered in with coffee refills. She bypassed her boss and approached Gina and Leah directly. Sloan winked at her girlfriend from her corner of the small bakery.
This day was almost too good to be true. Too bad Leah knew it was only going to get more anxiety-inducing as soon as…
“Hi, Leah.” A man said from the counter. He took off his cap and offered her the same smile she foolishly fell for when she was twelve. “Hope I’m not too early.”
She smiled back at Daryl. “Not early at all. She should be here any time.”
He awkwardly smiled before ambling to the empty table on the other side of the room. Sloan leaned away from her seat and glared at him before getting up and joining her girlfriend behind the counter.
“He couldn’t dress better than that?” she whispered.
Leah finished washing up and put her hands on her hips. “He works for a construction company. What do you think he’ll look like on his lunch break?” She asked Gina to get him some water and one of the danishes they had reserved for this moment. Daryl expressed genuine surprise when Gina brought everything to him. “It’s fine. Maybe Karlie will take to him better if he looks like anormalperson.” That was directed at Sloan, who clacked around the bakery in her Chanel suit and Louis Vuitton heels. “By the way, you can’t be near the work station. Your fake hair is gonna get in the cake batter.” Would it be uncouth to tell her girlfriend to wrap her wig up in a hairnet?
“Is he intimidated by me?” Sloan leaned her hand against the table and continued to glare at Daryl, who patiently waited to meet his daughter for the first time. “Because he shouldn’t be. I wore my nice feminine lady wig today. Who the hell is afraid of a woman with long black hair?”
“Julius Caesar, probably.”
Sloan snorted. That sound heralded Karlie’s arrival.
Leah hurried to the door and greeted her daughter. Karlie gasped at how decimated the case already was – she had stopped by earlier that morning to help her mother set up before going off to meet her friends at the mall.
She now glanced at Daryl in the corner. The recognition was instantaneous.
This meeting had been a long time coming, but Leah still wasn’t prepared for the day when her daughter met her real father. When Karlie expressed genuine interest in meeting Daryl, Leah had been afraid that the girl hadn’t been ready – or that Daryl wouldn’t want to involve that part of his past with his current life. Luckily, his wife knew about the baby he helped create when he was a dumb kid. His younger children hadn’t been told yet, though. The parents wanted to see how this meeting played out first.
Karlie shyly waved at the man who looked more and more like her the closer they came together. Leah broke the ice with brief introductions before leaving them to have a private chat while she remained close.
“Seriously,” Sloan said when Leah returned, “I don’t look intimidating, do I? Because I’m only alittleirritated. I thought I put my bitch face away this morning…”
Leah licked her thumb and smoothed down her girlfriend’s stray wig hairs. “I see you’ve reached another hump in your quest to quit smoking.”
“I haven’t had a relapse in two weeks. I don’t know what else you want from me.” Sloan leaned both elbows against the counter. “For God’s sake, how did you find out I relapsed?”
“Because you become incorrigible when you tried quitting again. Besides, it stinks. My father smokes. You think I don’t know what it smells like?”
“God.”
Leah glanced at Karlie and Daryl sharing photos before pulling out her phone and bringing up a photo of her own. “By the way,” she muttered to her girlfriend. “I found something I think we should check out.”
“Tell me more, kitten. Anything to take the topic off my worst vice.”
Leah rolled her eyes.I’m not happy she relapsed, but I understand why she did.Aaron had picked the last moment of their divorce proceedings to leave a raving, drunken message on her phone that threatened to destroy her life and her career. Turned out, Christie Yearwood had finally left his ass after realizing Sloan was taking over 75% of what they had built together. Her lawyer wasthatgood.
“Check this out.” Leah slid her phone toward her girlfriend. “App controlled. You can get meanywhere.”
Sloan held the phone close to her face. “What’s wrong with the remote-controlled one we’ve got?”
“Anywhere,in the world!”
“Are you seriously telling me you want me to turn on your sex toys when I’m in Shanghai?”
“Yes.”
