Julianna
After Jake left my house, I laid my head against the door for a few minutes, just trying to get my thoughts together. The whole day at the park felt like a fairytale. Jake had brought us food, a Barbie and frisbee for Caley to play with, followed by ice cream at the same parlor we used to go as teens.
To top it all off, Caley really liked him too. I couldn’t stop smiling.
“Mommy,” Caley called to me from her bedroom.
I walked upstairs and peeked around the door frame into her room. “Caley Belmont, it’s time for bed.”
She was on the rug playing with her new Barbie from Jake. I scooped her up, tucked her in, and placed the doll on her nightstand. “Goodnight, Sweetie.”
I turned off the lights before leaving her room, grabbed a big, fuzzy blanket from the hallway linen closet, and made my way downstairs.
After pouring myself a glass of red wine, I sat on the couch and called Annie. My mind was racing, and I needed to get so much off of my chest.
“And how was the date,” Annie said as soon as she picked up the phone.
“It was amazing, although I don’t think it counts as a date if it includes your daughter.”
“Date or not, I still think it’s great that all of you spent the day together. The fact that he’s going out of his way to get to know Caley, well, most men aren’t like that.”
I took a big sip of wine and nodded my head, thinking about how Cam had also been at the park.
“I wonder if he’d have even called me,” I said while swirling the wine around. “I mean, what if he was just looking for a hookup and thought well, she’s married, so I’m not gonna waste my time? Imagine if I hadn’t agreed to go out to the bar that night.”
“He would have called you, Julianna. You two go so far back.” Annie was way surer about it than me.
“And he’s turned into a womanizer,” I snorted.
“Maybe he’s changing his ways. I heard men do that sometimes. Didn’t he play dress-up with Caley?”
I smiled and thought about how I’d walked in on the two of them putting on a fashion show.
“It was so adorable, Annie. And you know that Cam never would have done something like that. It would have hurt his precious, so-called alpha male ego.” I downed the rest of my wine. “Speaking of which, guess who else was at the park today?”
Annie gasped into the phone. “What? Are you serious? You didn’t tell me he was back in town.”
“That’s because I didn’t even know he was back in town,” I said while resting the wine glass on the end table. “And you should have seen the look of hurt in Caley's eyes. Actually, it turned to anger pretty quick. I’ll tell you something that girl is more mature for her age than I was.”
“And let me guess, his girlfriend was there?”
“Of course, she was. I doubt Cam even goes to the bathroom without her.” I could hear Annie laughing into the phone. I was amused and saddened as I spoke the words. “She didn’t say a single word, either. She just stood there, holding onto his waist as though she were claiming her property.”
“Yeah, well, she can have him. You know what they say about men. How you got him is how you’ll lose him.”
I smiled and thought about how satisfying it would be if one day, long after our divorce was finalized, I found out that he cheated on Lydia too. “If he ever does the same thing to her, I’m celebrating… talk about karma.”
“You know he will. And Jake seems like such a better father figure for Caley than Cam.”
I could feel that nerve in the pit of my stomach. “He is, and that’s what scares me. Annie, he’s going to have to eventually leave. Is it fair for me to bring him around and have her get attached, only to have him leave her the way Cam did?”
There was a long silence on the phone, the kind that only reaffirmed my fear that Jake would do the exact same thing to Caley because he’s a selfish man. “But what if he doesn’t, Julianna? What is your intuition telling you right now?”
I closed my eyes and thought over the past few days about everything that had happened. “You should see the way he interacts with her, Annie. But his job is so far away.”
“He just might stay, Julianna. He’s clearly smitten with you. I say keep seeing him and let your guard down a little bit.”
After I hung up the phone, I turned on the television and tried to just listen to the news. But my mind kept going back to Jake, Caley, and Cam. What really stood out to me was how I wasn’t hurt by seeing Cam at the park, even though Lydia was with him. If Jake hadn’t been there, who knows how I would have reacted. I had almost broken my phone after so many angry calls, yet seeing him with her didn’t make me depressed.
