A slew of hands pop up as the kids talk over themselves. I would find this quite adorable if it weren’t for the fact that it feels like I lost my one chance at having a family. I’ll never open my heart up to another man.
“1, 2, 3, eyes on me,” Marcia says, grabbing their attention once again. “Let’s let Ms. Cassidy read, because I think she may or may not have brought some special guest readers of her own, with her today.”
Little gasps of excitement spread throughout the group as I stay grounded in my spot. “Go ahead, Reynolds. Get up there and fuel those young imaginations,” Halloway says, coming to my other side and nudging me with his elbow.
I plaster the fake smile on my face and walk to the storytime chair. Taking a seat, I introduce myself to the group of anxious toddlers. I flip over the book Marcia gave me earlier and immediately regret doing this altogether.
Cinderella. A fairytale. A rags-to-riches story. One with a happily ever after. Should be easy enough to get through. Right?
Yeah—not so much.
“Cinderella,” I say, starting to read the book page by page. Slowly and silently choaking on the words as I read them aloud.
“I have found you,” Vince says.
“Um…” a little blonde interrupts as I near the end of the story. “Who’s Vince?”
I stare at her, my cheeks heating in embarrassment as I try to refocus on the story. “I’m sorry. I meant to say, said the prince. Then he whisked her away to his castle where they…” I say, flipping the page, expecting it to say happily ever after, but the final page had been ripped from the book. I drop my head and chuckle. “Well, that’s peachy, now isn’t it?”
“How’s the story end?” a little boy shouts from the back of the room.
And that’s when I snap. Losing the last thread keeping the mental breakdown I’ve been having for the past week in check. I drop the book on my lap as a manic laugh slips past my lips. The tears I had at bay are burning the back of my eyes as I try to calm myself from doing something I know I’m going to regret.
“I’ll tell you how the story ends,” I say, leaning forward, elbows on my knees. “He takes her back to his castle, and he kisses her. And for the first time ever, she finally feels loved,” I say, as a few tears slip past the threshold. “And wanted. But then she sees him knocking boots with the melon lady and before you know it, she’s kicked out of the castle.”
My hands move animatedly as I drop the book to the floor, sitting back in the chair. The kids all stare at me with unreadable expressions on their faces. “Uh… The melon lady?”
“You bet your sweet ass the melon lady,” I say, as I scoot closer to the edge of the chair. “And now, she’s just fixating on every teensy-weensy little thing. All her mistakes. All the money she spent on flights, makeup, blowouts, and clothes,” I say, as I just release every thought running through my head. “Oh, and heels. The heels—let’s not forget about the heels. I’m supposed to walk around on these to make my legs look longer and ass look perkier. Let’s not forget that I’m not supposed to have any hair here,” I say, gesturing all over my body. “But I’m supposed to have tons of it here.” Gripping strands of my hair, I pull at it. Unclipping the extensions I spent hours trying to get right. “Tons of it here. You think this is all real.” Another manic laugh slips past as the kids stare at me horrified as I continue pulling extension after extension from my head. “And Spanx!” I screech out before dropping to my knees and crawling toward the little blonde who interrupted me earlier. “Never wear Spanx. Because at the end of the day, they’re just going to take them off anyway, and then the prince is going to see all your dumplings. And there’s nothing less attractive than trying to shimmy your way out of something that’s basically a human sausage casing.”
I stand up from the floor, moving over to the table next to the storytime chair. Grabbing a pair of scissors, I try cutting the fabric from my body. “Are you kidding me?” I say, lifting the scissors to my line of sight before a very concerned Halloway grasps my wrist.
“Those are kid scissors.”
“Yeah, well, they don’t work.”
“If your Spanx were paper, they would.” He’s finally ripping the scissors from my grasp before turning to see the kids, who are all horrified by what’s happening. “And they all lived happily ever after. That’s how the story ends. Parents, Brooks Miller is up front, giving out free autographs. Sorry about this,” he says, as I continue to make grunt noises behind him wrestling with my Spanx as parents frantically usher their children away from the storytime corner. “And you… hey, hello,” he says, gripping my shoulders tightly. “Reynolds, I need you to chill. You scared all the kids. Terrified some of the parents,” he says, smirking at me as some of the parents who are more pissed than terrified come toward me. “Let’s get you out of here before you get your ass kicked.”
He ushers me toward the back door of the bookstore and down the street to an Irish pub, sitting me down at the bar like I’m a toddler being put in timeout. I should be in timeout. As far as mental breakdowns go…
It was epic.
“What can I get you guys?” the pretty little bartender says as she pushes her breasts toward Halloway a little more than she should.
“Two whiskeys, neat,” he says, avoiding her advances completely. “That was pretty epic what you did back there, Reynolds.”
The bartender places the two drinks in front of us before sulking away. I bring the amber liquid to my lips, welcoming the burn as it slides down the back of my throat. “What can I say… I’m full of epic surprises lately.”
We sip our drinks in silence before he turns to look at me, and I mean really look at me. “I think you need to take that trip like you planned.”
“I told you I’m not going by myself.”
“You won’t be going by yourself,” he says, taking a long pull of his drink. “I decided… I’m going with you.”
He’s kidding, right?
A week in an island paradise with Channing Halloway…
Reliving the moment we had when I first started working for the Skipjacks. He had just been traded and just like Hayley, we clicked instantly. However, it wasn’t in the best friend type of way. It was in the take my breath away type of way, while he slowly walked into a room with the faint sound of Dreamweaver playing behind him. Just like that scene in Wayne’s World.
