“You look happy.” Jake, my boss, enters my office, right as I’m packing my things.

“It was a really good presentation,” I say. “I can’t believe we got the Chicago Burger account.”

“You got the Chicago account. Not anybody else,” he says.

“Thank you, Jake,” I mutter.

“It’s good to see you smiling again. For a while there, I thought we might lose you,” he says. Lose me? “But now, you seem fully invested. It’s really great. Thanks for being a team player, Erica.”

He walks out of my office before I can get a word in. So, I guess those days of being sick really hurt my reputation around here. Jake being nice wasn’t Jake actually being nice. It was him holding something over my head. Great.

Despite that little interaction, I feel pretty good. I mean, on the one hand, I shouldn’t jump into this thing with Walker again. I need to hold him at a distance, until he really proves himself. On the other hand, I finally have some life in me again. I feel real, not like I’m just Aidan’s mother.

Renata is much more skeptical. “Do not. I repeat, do not do this,” she says. “You want your heart smashed into a million pieces again?”

“No,” I sigh. “Of course I don’t. But what the hell am I supposed to do? Aidan has his father back.”

“Aidan does not need to know,” she says. “Imagine if he found out he was his dad and then he just mysteriously left again. Imagine what that would do to him?”

“Yeah.” I lower my eyes. “I know. I guess I shouldn’t be hopeful.”

“Just be wary and keep your eyes peeled for signs,” she says. “Because once he starts feeling weird about the whole daddy role, he’s going to dip. Trust me, men are like children.”

Her boyfriend just broke up with her, so I have to take some of what she says with a grain of salt. Still, she does have a point. I need to be extremely cautious. Aidan is my baby. I need to think of him above all. “You’re right,” I tell her. “I’ll be careful.”

She leans back on the couch and looks at me weird, for a good few seconds. “What?” I laugh. “Why are you doing that?”

“Because I want to know,” she says. “Was the sex incredible?”

“Ren,” I laugh. “I thought you said I shouldn’t engage with him anymore. Now, you’re asking me if I thought the sex was incredible?”

“Well, I need to know! I haven’t had sex in a week. Greg dumped me and I’ve been a wreck. Let me live through your excitement, dammit!” she exclaims. “Or not. What do I care?”

“It was amazing.” I smile and think back on it. “It was passionate and sweet. Heavy and…” I can’t think of the word I want to use.

“Deep?” Renata asks.

I cover my mouth and blush, nodding. “Very deep,” I admit.

“Ugh,” she sighs. “Well, he is really hot. I get you on that. I just worry about you, baby girl. I don’t want to see you hurt again. These last six years have been rough.”

“Oh, come on,” I smile awkwardly. “I haven’t been that bad. Have I?”

She looks at me like I’ve had a blindfold over my eyes for the last six years. “Are you serious right now? You’ve been a fucking wreck,” she says. The truth hurts. “Not trying to be a bitch, but the only times I’ve seen you get cheerful is when you’re playing with Aidan. I’ve missed seeing you this excited.”

“Yeah, well. I’ll probably all crash and burn soon enough,” I say. “It seems to be a reoccurring pattern for me.”

“Stop that,” she says. “Who knows? Maybe we were actually right this time. Maybe your luck is turning around for you. Maybe this time he’ll stay.”

“Do I even want that?” I ask, more to myself than anyone else.

“I don’t know. I can’t answer that one for you, babe,” she says. I look outside the window and see Aidan running around by himself. He’s got a huge imagination, but he’s lacking in friends and role models. Not that he doesn’t look up to me in a lot of ways, but he wants his father. It’s the one thing he brings up nowadays, more than anything.

“I hate that he’s good with him,” I say. “He’s trying hard.”

“It would be damn cute to see Aidan with his dad,” she nods.

“I just get the sense that he’s not telling me the full truth,” I say. “Like, maybe he’ll stay, but he’s hiding something from me. I don’t even know what it is, but there’s something.”

“Another woman? Women? He did do that service. You sure he’s done?” she asks.

“Ugh,” I sigh. “I don’t think it’s that. He seems to want to be around me all of the time. If he was working, I’d know it. I can’t put my finger on what it is. It’s just that something is off and if my intuition is right, all hell is going to break loose.”

“Leave it to me,” she says. “I’ll get to the bottom of it.”

“Ren, don’t. Seriously, I’ll figure it out on my own,” I say.

“Okay.” She side-eyes me. “I’m curious though.”

“Please don’t. I don’t need any more trouble.” I tell her.

“We’ll see,” she says. “We’ll see.”