Page 8 of Murphy's Laws of Attraction
“Don’t hey baby me. I called you hours ago Savannah. Your daughter needed you.” She waved her hand in my face as she made her way inside and plopped down on the couch.
“I was busy. What was so important that you had to call me so many damn times.” How had I stayed married to this woman for so long and not seen what a complete shitshow she was I will never know. Rubbing my hand over my face I try to get my thoughts in order before I yell obscenities at her. I have to remind myself she’s not worth it.
“Your daughter started her period today and could have really used her mother.” Savannah jumps up from the couch swaying slightly.
“Seriously that’s why you called!” Just as I’m about to lay into her, Mira and Paisley come walking through the door smiling. Paisley’s smile falters as soon as she sees her mom.
“Who the fuck are you?” Savannah asks while staring at Mira with venom in her eyes.
“Hi Savannah, long time no see.” Mira gives her a hesitant smile, while Paisley just stares at her mother. I can’t tell what’s going through her head right now.
“Ohmigod it’s Mira, chubby Mira from high school. I see not much has changed in that aspect.” Savannah laughed, making a waving motion to Mira’s body. Paisley’s eyes grew wide with shock. She’d never heard her mom act like this before; I’d kept her away from it. Mira’s cheeks turned red with embarrassment.
“Knock it off Savannah. Mira here was nice enough to take Paisley out shopping for what she needed. She’s the nurse at the high school and offered to help when Paisley needed it.” I’m trying to be nice, I really am, but Savannah is pushing my fucking limits of control.
“Oh this is rich. You couldn’t have him in high school, so you thought you’d have my sloppy seconds. Really Mira, did you think he’d want you after he’s had this for years. It would bea total downgrade.” Before I can say anything Paisley steps between Mira and Savannah.
“Mom, you need to apologize to Ms. Gordan. While you couldn’t be bothered to answer your phone, she was there for me. She was giving me advice while you were too busy to help your daughter. Basically she was doing your job better than you ever did.” Savannah is sputtering looking back and forth between me and Paisley.
“You did this.” She points her finger at me with anger in her eyes. “You turned our daughter against me and then you have your whore taking her out shopping.”
“Get out Savannah.” I walk to the door and open it wide before pointing towards the outside.
“She’s my daughter, she’ll never be yours. And enjoy my sloppy seconds, I’m sure he’ll be comparing you to me when he’s fucking you.” Mira’s mouth gaped as Savannah made her way out the door and I slammed it behind her. As soon as the door was shut Mira went to Paisley, wrapping her in a hug.
“Honey, I’m so sorry you had to hear that. I’m sure your mom didn’t mean it, she was drinking and sometimes when people are drinking they say things they don’t mean.” Even with the vicious things Savannah said to her she was trying to make excuses to make Paisley feel better.
“It’s okay Ms. Gordan, I’ve known for years she’s not a good person. Dad tries to hide it from me now but while he was deployed I saw the real her more than he did. No offense dad but you were blind. Anyway thanks Ms. Gordan for taking me shopping, anytime you want to go I’m your girl. And my dad would be upgrading, not downgrading just saying.” Paisley came over and gave me a quick hug before disappearing into her room, leaving me slightly shocked.
Chapter Eight
Mira
I stood there awkwardly staring down the hall at Paisley’s retreating figure. In the span of not even thirty minutes I went from having a great time with Paisley, to being called a whore. To then having Paisley defend me, and to finally being embarrassed Finn now knew I had a crush on him in high school. If I stood still long enough maybe he would forget I was even in the house and the floor would open up and swallow me.
“Shit, I’m sorry Mira.” Finn moved toward me and I put my hand up fending off his advance.
“It’s fine Finn, I should go. Savannah made it pretty clear she doesn’t want me around Paisley or you.” It hurt to say that, but I didn’t want to come between Paisley and her mother. Even if she wasn’t much of one. I adored Paisley, and Finn well that crush hadn’t gone away in all the years he’d been gone.
“Fuck what Savannah wants or doesn’t want. She doesn’t get a say in who is in our lives anymore, she made sure of that.” I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but it was clear Savannah wasn’t over Finn. They would probably get back together soon based on how she acted tonight.
“I’m sure you don’t really mean that Finn. She was your wife for fourteen years; you can’t just turn off those emotions.” As much as I would love for him to be able to say he didn’t have any feelings toward Savannah anymore, that wasn’t possible. You couldn’t be married to someone for as long as they were and still not have leftover feelings.
“Mira, when I say we are through I mean we are through. I didn’t fall out of love with my wife; she killed our marriage. Come sit down and I’ll explain what happened. If afterwards you still want to leave I won’t stop you, but please just hear me out.” Finn reached for my hand and I reluctantly gave it to him. As soon as our hands touched it was like a spark of current went through my entire body. Yep, definitely not over the crush I had on this man. It’s probably even stronger now that he’s all grown up and still a hottie. I let him lead me over to the couch and we sat facing each other.
Over the next few minutes Finn explains to me what happened from him getting injured to the divorce and everything in between. How could Savannah do that to him? How could she do that to Paisley? I was angry and hurt for both of them.
“I’m so sorry Finn, I had no idea.” I reached over and squeezed his hand in comfort. The last year couldn’t have been easy on him or Paisley. It made me want to go down the hall and hug her again.
“So you see Savannah has no say in how we live. I try to stay on good terms for the most part because of Paisley, but she honestly doesn’t have any rights where she’s concerned.” I can tell Finn is hurting for his daughter. How can a mother not want to be in her child's life?
“Clearly Savannah thinks she still has some kind of stake where you two on concerned. Maybe she’s realized she made a mistake. I don’t want to come between Paisley and her mom.” I also want to scratch Savannah’s eyes out for what she’s done to them, but I’ll keep that to myself.
“Well Paisley made it very clear tonight that she wants you around. Savannah will either have to get over it or piss off. Especially after Paisley's revelation about how Savannah actedwhile I was deployed. Paisley was right. I was blind, because I thought Savannah loved us. I was wrong. I’d really like it if you would continue to be a friend to Paisley, I think she needs someone in her life she can depend on, that's a woman.” This time he reached over and squeezed my hand and gave me a panty melting smile. Why did this man do crazy things to my insides? Wake up Mira, he wants you in his daughter’s life he didn’t say anything about his life. Besides, like Savannah pointed out, I would be a downgrade from her.
“I’ll be there for Paisley whenever she needs me. Tell her to call me day or night and I’ll be happy to talk or go shopping with her.” There I could make it only about his daughter. I could ignore my attraction to him, totally doable. Keep lying to yourself Mira, I’m sure that’s healthy.
“I’d like you in my life too Mira. That is if you want to be.” He gave me a wink then grinned at me, and I couldn’t help but return it. Yep, totally going to be able to ignore my feelings for this man.
