tabby
“You’re seeing Sebastianagain after school,” Itold Greyson, as I stuffed another sorry-looking peanut butter and jellysandwich into a paper bag.
“Why?”He dropped into a chair at the kitchen table and poked at the corn muffin I’dgiven him.
“Whynot?” I countered with a dash of impatience.
“Youdon’t like him,” Greyson snickered, glancing over his shoulder.
“That’snot true.” It was very true.
“Yeah,okay.” Sarcasm dripped from his voice as he turned back to the muffin.
Hurryingto the mirror beside the front door, I swiped on a coat of lipstick and blottedmy lips together as I begrudgingly allowed my thoughts to drift to Sebastian.
Iwasn’t proud to admit that he had lingered in my mind long after I’d fallenasleep the night before, bringing on dreams I would rather keep to myself. Mybody reacted to him in ways that I found eerily familiar. While we think weleave the past behind, the past never truly leaves us. Types don’t change as muchas we think they do, and Sebastian was my type through and through. He remindedme of my youth, before work and age and tragedy. He reminded me of guys I usedto date, while also reminding me of why I no longer allowed myself to fallvictim to those lustful feelings.
Menlike him are trouble. They don’t want serious. They don’t want forever.
Still,Sebastian had surprised me. For someone with the maturity level of a child, he hadhandled himself well with Greyson, albeit somewhat abrasively. I’d have to talkto him about his choice of language. Greyson might’ve picked up on some choicewords from his mother, who’s idea of discipline was having cake for dessertinstead of ice cream, but that didn’t mean it was appropriate for Sebastian tospeak so frankly.
Cappingmy lipstick, I turned back to Greyson as he basically pecked at the muffin. Onecrumb at a time.
“Hey,come on,” I urged him, hurrying toward my briefcase on the counter. “We need toget going.”
“Fine,”he huffed, cramming half of the muffin into his mouth as he stood up and threwthe other half away.
Ifelt the creases between my brows forming as my lips curved into a frown. Hestood there, staring at me. Challenging. Daring me to scold him for wastingfood, for acting out. But, I remembered our therapist and what she had saidabout allowing him to bully me, or to egg me on, and I squared my shoulders andlet it run over me.
Pickyour battles.
“Let’sgo.” I pulled my briefcase from the counter and led the way to the front door.
***
“Alex,we’re putting the Worthington house online,” I announced, as I walked throughthe door of the agency.
“Oh,finally,” he groaned, rolling his eyes dramatically. “What’d you have todo to convince her?”
“Ilit some candles at Church and promised to never say the Lord’s name in vainagain,” I muttered, my words dripping with sarcasm as I hurried into my office.
“Youknow, I was just thinking to myself about how hilariously unwitty you are,” Alexquipped, his tone dry and flat. “I’m genuinely curious here. That old ladylooks at the computer like it’s the damn devil.”
“Iknow,” I emphasized, dropping into my chair and unclipping my briefcase to pullout my laptop. “But I told her how this area just isn’t pulling the number of potentialbuyers as we’d hoped for from local paper listings alone.”
“Andthat did it?” He tipped his chin, eyeing me with doubt.
“Okay,andI promised to run out and grab Sandy a new cage today beforestopping by the house,” I relented with a roll of my eyes. Alex cackled. “Hey,it was worth it. We’ll definitely find a buyer now. I do need for you to runthe listing on the usual sites, though. Can you manage it?”
“Honey,just give me the pics and info. Anything to help lighten your load. You’redoing enough as it is,” he replied softly.
Ismiled gratefully. “Thank you.” Reaching into my briefcase, I pulled out thesheet of paper with the information he’d need. “And I’ll forward the picturesto your email.”
“Perfect.I’ll get those up today.” Alex gave me an affirmative nod, hugging the paper tohis chest. “Now, before I run along and do that, why don’t you tell me aboutyour dinner with the baby daddy?”
Themention of the wordsbaby daddysent Jess running into my office withenough gusto to help her win a marathon.
“Yes,yes,yes! How is Thor?” she asked, her voice thick with enthusiasm anddesire.