Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 85154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
“Good to know she’ll drop me for berries.” I laugh. “Here is her bag.” I place the bag on the door. “Call me if anything comes up,” I say and then put my hand to my mouth and blow her a kiss. “Love you.”
“Blow a kiss to Auntie,” Sylvia urges and Cici smiles her gummy smile at me and blows me a kiss. “What a good girl.” She kisses her cheek and quickly turns away. I watch for a few seconds before turning and walking back toward the door. I have my head down as I walk out, obviously not paying attention to where I’m going when I run into someone. His musky smell hits me right away. Looking up, I see the same man who held the door open for me.
“I’m so sorry.” I embarrassedly laugh at myself. “I was on the moon.”
“No worries.” His voice comes out gruff as I look up into his brown eyes. He holds out his hand for me to walk in front of him.
“Thank you,” I tell him as I walk, trying not to look over my shoulder to see if he’s checking me out. I push open the door, holding it for him with my left hand. My ring is hitting the sun at the same time as I look at the man, who is right behind me.
“Thank you,” he says to me and I just nod at him, feeling really guilty for even talking to him.
I get in my car, ignoring that I feel guilty and chalking it up to me being exhausted.
It’s just been a really weird couple of days. Moving Cici’s things into my home for good. Then Levi coming home and us starting to live together in my space. Him waking with me last night, and then him crawling into bed with me. It was dumb, we’ve been friends for a long time. We’ve even slept in the same bed once when we were drunk on vacation. But that is only because neither of us could get up without falling over, so sleeping next to each other seemed like the safest thing to do. I was chalking it up to being sleep deprived for feeling so out of whack. Even this morning when he came upstairs with a coffee for me while I was in the bathroom. Grabbing Cici from me so I could get dressed and then walking out of the closet wearing a suit. The fact that our clothes are now mixed with each other’s is again throwing me off. It has been a very unsettling couple of days. I need a good night’s rest and I will be back to normal.
Getting to work, I put on my smile as I walk in, making sure no one knows that anything is wrong. This is my workplace, and if I expect everyone to leave their problems at the door, I can’t very well drag my ass into work and wallow. Nope, no one has time for that. “Good morning,” I greet, walking back toward my office, saying hello to a couple of people along the way. I put my purse in the chair in front of my desk before walking around it toward my office chair.
The knock on the door has me pausing as I sit down. Raquel comes in with a binder in her hand. “Are you ready?”
“I forgot that I was off today,” I say to her. “I mean not off, but I wasn’t going to be with clients but instead going over admin work.” I clap my hands. “Love this time of the month.”
“No, you don’t,” Raquel reminds me, “the last time, you booked clients that day just to be rid of this duty.”
“Well, good news,” I tell her, leaning back in my chair, “no clients today.”
She nods at me as she opens her binder. “Good, because we have two months to get through.” She smiles at me. “Also, it’s wedding season soon.”
The day flies by faster than I thought it would. There were a couple of minor issues we had to deal with. At four o’clock we are wrapping up our meeting and I’m about to grab my purse and leave when my phone beeps with a text.
Levi: Be home at five and will help with dinner.
I smile at that, then text him back.
Me: So domesticated. What do you want to have for dinner?
Levi: If you want something I can throw on the grill, then I can cook.
Me: Oh, steak sounds good.
Levi: I’ll leave work now and head over to the butcher. Let me know if you think of anything else.
I ignore the way my heart speeds up and the way my stomach knots.
Me: Will do.
I carry my phone to my purse, grabbing it and walking out of the office. I stop by every room and station before heading out to make sure everything is okay. I drive with the windows open all the way to the daycare, walking in without bumping into anyone. When I walk over to Cici’s class, she is sitting on the floor clapping her hands as Sylvia sings a song. I smile at the sight and she must sense me because she looks at me, and gone is the smile on her face and in its place is her crying. “Oh, that’s a faker right there,” I say as Sylvia gets her and brings her over to me. “Hey there, baby girl,” I greet, kissing her neck. “How was her day?”