FAITH

Noel took a drink of her wine, which had all three of us doing the same. I was getting a little buzzed or maybe I was just having fun. It was only my second glass and we’d only been chatting for about ten minutes, after having to wait a little bit until Abbey was ready for our group Skype.

“So a good kisser then?” Emma asked, totally into my retelling of last night—which I blabbed about in our chat thread and then recounted again as soon as we were on camera.

Good? Finding a twenty tucked in an old pocket was good. Kissing Aaron was...

“Ah! Look at your face,” Noel teased before I could answer.

I did my best to rein it in but was failing because I hadn’t stopped smiling that day. “It was good, but guys, I can’t be doing that again. Having him over like that with Delaney asleep in the next room? What if she would have woken up?”

“Why? Are you a screamer?” Emma teased.

Quickly, I glanced over the iPad into the living room where my child was watching Moana for the millionth time. A tornado could have hit and she wouldn’t have noticed.

I laughed. “I’ve never screamed. Thank you very much.”

Noel pointed at the camera. “Yeah, but when was the last time you had good sex?”

I thoughtfully nodded and took another sip before putting my glass back down. “Point taken. Seriously, though. Won’t this be confusing for her?”

Abbey interjected, “Trust me, if she feels weird about it you’ll know. She’ll ask questions when she has them. Just feel it out. You can’t sneak around or hide it. Do you think you’re just going to start seeing this guy and she’s not going to notice?”

Emma threw her thick red hair up into a bun and it looked like she’d spent an hour on it. When I did that it just looked like shit. “She’s got a point, Faith. Delaney has been your whole life. You can’t keep them separate. Maybe just ease into it, but I wouldn’t avoid them being around each other. That’s not realistic.” She readjusted in her chair and marveled, “I still can’t believe he bought you tires. That’s so weird and random, but still so freaking hot. I can’t even.”

I glanced at Abbey on the top left corner of my screen. She was wearing earbuds and smiling, but she kept eyeballing something that was going on around her, distracted.

“Yeah, those aren’t cheap,” Noel added. She was outside on her ninth story balcony. The sun was setting, but I could see Tampa and a sliver of the ocean behind her.

I agreed with them about the tires. “Tell me about it. He wouldn’t let me argue though. I think I’m just going to pay him back. I mean, I have the money; I just didn’t want to spend it.”

Abbey announced loudly, “I do that too. Squirrel money away. Just in case.” She’d said it to us, but loudly, as if she wanted Scott to overhear.

“Yeah. I’m really trying to save,” I stated.

“Aren’t we all? So, Em, when can you take a pregnancy test?” Noel asked.

Emma and her husband were trying for a second child. They were pretty much the best-case scenario for a couple who unexpectedly got pregnant after only three months of dating. They’d just celebrated their first wedding anniversary and were excited to add to their family. They weren’t too worried yet, but they’d been striking out for a few months in the pregnancy department.

We were interested because she was trying this at home ovulation kit and we were all eagerly waiting to see if it worked.

“I don’t think for a few more days at least,” she answered. “I’m kind of nervous to do it.”

“Why?” Abbey asked sympathetically, the first to jump in. She was the only one of us who had two kids. The only one of us who’d gone through pregnancy twice. 

“I don’t know. If it says we’re not, I’ll be disappointed, and I just have a feeling I’m not.”

I couldn’t imagine what that was even like—trying to have a baby.

“It’ll be fine,” Noel said. “You guys are doing it all the time. Odds are it’ll happen. The stress won’t help though.”

“Yeah, don’t worry yet,” I added.

“I know. I know.” She waved us off, taking another sip. She was drinking out of a coffee mug that had the words This is Wine written on the side—her wine mug.

Abbey pulled the earbuds out and covered the speaker, shouting something at someone. Then blurted, “Hey, I’ll be right back.” A second later, she was out of sight.

“What is going on with her?” Noel leaned forward, asking what all of us were thinking. “I think Scott has been going out a lot again.”

Of course, Emma and I had already talked about it, but having a third person mention it only meant soon all of us would be asking Abbey about it together.

“Yeah, she’s been quiet lately. I feel awful for her. He’s a jerk sometimes,” Emma said.

The three of us leaned into our screens like we were discussing a top-secret conspiracy or something. We were so dumb, but when it came to one of us really being upset we always came together.

“Let’s wait and see if she brings it up before we say anything. I don’t want her to feel like we’re attacking her,” I suggested. I’d been there before. Been the one who wouldn’t listen. It’s scary when things are so out of control, yet everyone thinks they have all the answers.

Emma nodded. “Yeah, sounds good.”

“I want to throat punch him. He doesn’t know how good he has it.” Noel wasn’t as subtle as us. Then again, she didn’t know what it was like to work at a relationship. She and her baby’s daddy, Nick, had a very amicable fifty-fifty arrangement with their son, and it seemed to make them both happy. It also allowed her alone time, and time to date casually, which she did now and then. She also had close friends where she lived and her lifestyle was still that of any normal, single twenty-five-year-old.

Well, every other week.

We moved on to other topics, and after a while Abbey finally came back, only to tell us she had to go. We didn’t give her any shit though. Sometimes life was hard, and the group was our retreat from the many crazy things we’d been through.

Shortly after that, Emma disconnected. Lying about having to load the dishwasher or some bullshit after her husband came up behind her and said hello to Noel and me. They were going to get it on, and we all knew it.

“Isn’t it weird that the married one of us gets laid the most? I thought marriage killed your sex life,” Noel joked when it was just the two of us left.

“How in the hell should I know? It’s been almost five years since I’ve been laid.”

My friend made a gagging face and shook her head. “I cannot wait until you have sex with this Aaron guy. You guys really never messed around in high school or anything?”

I’d been over it dozens of times with them, but I was still dying to talk about it. About him.

“Nothing. We’d never even kissed until last night.” Thinking about how intense it was, how tightly he held onto me, how attracted I was to him even after all this time, it was like I was in high school all over again. Not the awkward parts, but the young and adventurous ones. Okay, I was still awkward as fuck. “I don’t even know when I’m going to see him again. He works just as much as I do, if not more. How will that even work?”

“You’ll figure it out. Back to this make out sesh—so what else did you do? You can tell me.” She settled into her patio chair and held her wine glass in front of her mouth with two hands, as if she was prepared to hear some juicy story.

“Nothing. We just kissed.” Well, a few kisses actually. The Slow and Steady—as I was calling it in my mind—one in the truck, and The Hot and Heavy version in my house. They’d been completely different, but equally possessing.

“Come on. You didn’t feel it?” Noel wagged her perfectly shaped eyebrows hoping for details. “Is it big?”

“I didn’t feel it. I mean, not with my hand or anything. I felt it pressed against me, though, when I was on his lap and when he picked me up.” Being in his arms was better than I’d ever imagined. I snuck a look into the living room and Del was passed out on the couch. “No under the clothes stuff or anything.”

She shook her head. “You disappoint me.” Her quiet laugh made me giggle. It was fun talking like that with someone, having stories they wanted to hear.

I came clean. “Not that I wouldn’t ...” I’d be lying if I told her I hadn’t thought about it ... because I had. A lot. I’d wanted Aaron for as long as I could remember, and knowing how he kissed and how it felt when he touched me had only made it harder to get him off my mind.

“All right. Fine, but you have to tell me as soon as it happens. I’m a needy bitch.”

“Deal. If anything happens, you’ll be the third to know.”

“That’s right.” She sat forward. “Hey, we didn’t even work on your resume.”

It was getting late and the Madame needed to get in bed. I had a full day off the next day and I didn’t want to waste it. I had plans to get up early, clean, and maybe a trip to the park. “That’s okay. I’ll let you know if I need help. I’ll get it done this week. The guy is on vacation anyway, and I’m tired.”

She sat up and smiled. “I’m so excited for you. New job. New man. It’s like my baby’s all grown up.” Her hand fell over her heart.

She was getting way ahead of herself, but I liked her optimism.

“Good night, Noel.”

“Good night, bitch.

I turned off the iPad, removed the books I’d piled behind it so that it sat up without having to hold it the whole time, and then placed my glass in the sink, flipping off the kitchen light as I left.

Delaney was already drooling and sweaty by the time I carried her to her room. I sat on the edge of her bed and tucked her in really tight, the way she liked. Her hair still smelled sweet from her bath, and I kissed her.

Her eyes fluttered open.

“Shhh. Good night, baby. I love you.”

“Love you, Mom. You’re the peanut butter.” God, I loved that girl.

“You’re the jelly.”

She rolled over and I wondered if she was too sleepy to remember the last part, but we’d said the same thing almost every night. “Yeah, I’m grape.”

I replied, “I’m chunky.”

She didn’t laugh like usual, but it still warmed my heart.

#

SURPRISINGLY, I SLEPT like the dead. Then again, I probably had Barefoot Moscato to thank for the peaceful night’s rest. It was probably also to blame for the sinful dreams I had about a certain fireman.

If he was half as skilled in real life as he was in my dreams, I wasn’t sure if I could handle it. One thing was certain, though: Noel would eat it up. 

On mornings when Delaney was up first, usually she wandered into my room and turned on cartoons, but my television wasn’t on, and there wasn’t a four-year-old lying sideways in my bed, so I knew it had to be early.

My phone said it was only six, but for some reason I was okay with that. I’d wanted to get up early anyway, and I felt great. After slipping my bathrobe over my nightshirt, I wandered into the kitchen to start coffee. I stretched as water filled the decanter, noticing something yellow out of the corner of my eye. I turned off the faucet and leaned over the sink to get a better look.

There was a sticky note stuck to my window. On the side facing into the house there were two words, Good Morning, and an arrow pointing down. Even on my tippy toes I couldn’t see what it was pointing to, but my heart hammered as I bound to the door for my flip-flops so I could go out and investigate.

I walked around the back of the house to the kitchen window and saw an envelope sitting on the rocks below with Fay written on the outside. I was smiling so hard it hurt.

Inside, there was a piece of paper wrapped around a plastic card.

I wasn’t sure if you had my number or not. So, just in case, here it is.

555-6703

One minute at a time.

Aaron

The card was ninety prepaid minutes for my cell phone. How did he make such everyday things so special?

Naturally, I did what any other normal woman would. I did a humiliating dance, in my bathrobe, in the backyard. Then I snapped a picture of it and sent it to my friends. It took those hos thirty minutes to wake up and celebrate with me.

Coffee tasted better than it ever had. I didn’t mind doing laundry. Cleaning didn’t seem like such a chore, and not only did Delaney and I go to the park, but we stopped for ice cream on the way home.

For once, I wasn’t thinking about what I was missing out on. Instead, I just enjoyed everything I had.

Things were looking up.