Mommy dates were the one thing I would always look forward to. Dani, myself, and my sister would watch over our children together and use that time to catch up on each other's lives.

Our non-mommy friends appreciated this little hangout, asking us to get it all out in their absence.

"It's so funny," Dani said. "I never noticed how much we talk about kids' stuff with Rachel and Kelly before they called us out. It's nice to hang out with just the mommies sometimes."

She was right. I'd been obsessed with my son since he'd come into my life and his wellbeing was still dictating my actions every single day. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be stressing over my meeting with Wayne tomorrow.

Jessica handed me a cup of green tea, and I blew on it, waiting for it to cool down a little before taking my first sip.

"But I don't only want to talk mommy things today." Dani giggled, hiding half of her face behind her cup.

"Yes." Jessica rubbed her hands together and sat between the both of us. "Catch me up, will you?"

Dani placed a hand on her shoulder and told her about how Brad got all "macho and protective" when Arthur hit on me.

"I wouldn't say that he was hitting on me," I corrected her, to which I got funny stares in return.

"Please, Heather." My sister showed me her hand. "You're completely oblivious sometimes. I hate to admit it because I still think that I'm the prettier sister, but you're not so bad yourself."

I smacked her arm and she laughed.

"I don't even know whether to take that as a compliment."

"It is a compliment," Dani chimed in. "And Arthur is pretty darn hot himself, girl. You've got three men swooning over you at the moment."

The vibe became awkward because we all knew who the third man was. Max's father and the biggest asshole in the world.

"Sure, whatever."

Jessica changed the topic immediately, asking Dani to complete her story.

"So yeah, anyway, Brad was like ‘Get away from her. She's mine.’ ”

"He did not say that." I laughed, but my cheeks blushed anyway.

Dani shrugged. "He definitely thought that though."

"Brad even had a chat with Zander, and I heard them talking about your previous job at InitialConcept."

I let out a deep exhale. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss it.

"How's it going, by the way?" Dani asked. "Being a therapist and all?"

"You gotta do what you gotta do." I dodged her question. Though, what I really wanted to tell her was that I hated my job. I hated listening to people whine, sometimes about the most mundane and stupid things. I hated that I would silently judge them and then feel terrible about it later.

"She hates it," Jessica answered for me, and I looked at her with tight lips.

"What?" She spread her arms and stood. "It's pretty obvious that you hate it. I've never heard you talk positively about your workday."

"That might be because I listen to negativity all day long,” I said. "Can be a wee bit hard to not bring that home with you."

That sounded weird because I worked from home, speaking of which, I'd been disheartened to let my clients know that I was going to be seeing them back at my old address.

"Do you miss it?" Dani asked as if she'd just read my mind. "Miss Bradley's apartment, I mean."

I half-smiled and shook my head.

"His apartment? Sure, who wouldn't?"

Her eyebrows rose.

"What?" I asked her.

She set her cup down and leaned into me. "It's okay to admit that you miss him too. There's no shame in being honest about how you feel. Hell, you really are the world's worst therapist."

I couldn't argue with the last part, but I was a bit annoyed at my sister for mentioning that I hated my job. It only made it awkward between Dani and me. Before I quit working at her husband's firm, she'd tried to convince me for days to not resign because I was on my way to a serious promotion. But I didn't listen because I knew that she'd feel obligated to do me huge favors like have someone babysit Max while I was at work or something equally ridiculous like that. Since then, she'd stopped advising me to come back to the firm, but my dissatisfaction with my current work situation would only bring a frown to her face.

"Fine," I said. "I'll admit it. I miss him. I just hope Rachel doesn't hate me, though. You know, for the drama that happened at her party."

"Please." Dani waved her hand. "You know Rachel. She thrives on drama. I bet she was thrilled to see a hot guy defending your honor."

I narrowed my eyes at her and heard Jessica laugh all the way from the kitchen.

"You have no idea, Jess," Dani said. "Brad is literally the kind of guy that women wait for their entire lives."

"Oh, I don't doubt that for a second," my sister replied, placing a tray of chocolate chip cookies on the table in front of us.

Dani loved to bake and would bring me a huge batch of cookies every time she came over.

"You're never going to let me lose my mommy weight," I joked, taking a bite of the heavenly goodness and sounding like I was having an orgasm. I probably was.

Jessica began scolding Lily for commanding Jeff and Max to do as she said because she was the older cousin.

I inwardly laughed at how serious my sister's face became when she told her daughter that there were going to be consequences for her actions. Dani and I were watching our sons playing together when she brought it up again.

"Are you taking him with you?" she wanted to know.

I shook my head.

"No. I don't want him to meet Max before I meet him first."

Dani nodded.

"Maybe you should ask Brad to accompany you. I would offer but I know you would never let me come along."

"It's not that. I need to do this on my own."

"You don't need to do everything on your own, Heather," she replied. "You know, I really admire you. You're a single mom and you've taken responsibility for a lot of things. But sometimes, it's okay to ask your friends for help. Or your boyfriend."

I twitched my lips. "This is getting really old now. Brad is not my boyfriend."

"You just said you missed him," she replied.

"I give up. You clearly hear what you want to hear."

She grinned. "I really think you should have a talk with him soon. About yesterday. Poor guy probably feels terrible."

"I was a little too hard on him, wasn't I?"

Dani raised an eyebrow. "A little? From what you told me, you were a complete B to him whereas all he'd done was be a cute little jealous puppy."

I snorted and continued to binge on the cookies while promising to myself that I would make things right with Brad tomorrow, once I was done with the terrifying meeting.

* * *

I woke up before the sun did. In reality, however, I didn't think I'd gotten much sleep at all. My eyes had been shut all night and I had to open them once to feed Max, but other than that, I'd been tossing and turning in bed for the past seven hours.

The last thing I wanted was to meet Wayne and have him see dark circles under my eyes. I wanted for him to be under the impression that I'd had everything under control and was, indeed, living the life of my dreams. The latter might have been far-fetched since most single mothers were not living the lives of their dreams, but I wanted to do whatever I could to make him believe that I was happy as fuck.

I was fidgety that entire morning, through my first few client meetings as well. I watched as Jessica snuck out the door to get to work and waved at my client before she shut the door. I was certain that if it were just me, I'd have pleaded for my sister to take the day off and spend it with me. Or at least the first half.

I was meeting Wayne at Central Park, which was pretty far from Brooklyn. I wasn't sure why I'd suggested that place, but it was the first one that came to mind at the moment.

I changed several outfits before deciding on one particular combination of grey and orange. It wasn't too out there and still looked like I was living a cheerful life. The grey skirt matched the loud blouse perfectly. My hair was down, and I tousled it while running my serum-laden fingers through the rough ends. I was nervous and it was written all over my face.

I tried practicing my smile in the mirror. The one that I was going to spread across my face when I saw him. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to smile at him. He didn't deserve it.

My phone buzzed on the bed and distracted me. It was a text from Jessica, telling me that her babysitter was on her way and should be on time to look after Max and Lily while I was gone.

I nodded, bringing myself back in front of the mirror. I ran my hands over my outfit and swallowed, then saw my son's face and frowned. I never wanted to let him down, no matter what happened.

Once the babysitter arrived, I gave Max a kiss on the cheek and told myself that I was going to do well. That I wasn't going to collapse with anger the instant I saw his father. I thanked the babysitter and explained to her everything she needed to know about my son, what he liked and what he didn’t. I also made sure to point out that there were multiple cameras in the living room, not-so-subtly indicating to her that I'll be watching her at all times.

I took the train to Manhattan, still feeling stupid about suggesting Central Park as the meeting place because it was an hour away. Though, it was going to be better than meeting at a restaurant. What would we even do at one? Share a bowl of salad while talking about how he’d screwed me over and abandoned his son?

My insides turned into fire when I thought about my conversation with him after he’d accepted the offer to go to Europe for his stupid film project. Sure, I was happy that he had a big dream for himself, but how could your dream become bigger than the love for your own flesh and blood? I knew I could never forgive him, that I didn't want to, but I would try and be civil for the sake of Max if it came to it.

I walked briskly toward a bench and watched people strolling around and enjoying the slightly chilly yet pleasant fall weather. The world just seemed to have been moving at its usual pace even though mine had come to a standstill at the moment. I sat cross-legged, people watching and glancing at my watch over and over, waiting for the asshole to show me his face.

I pulled out my phone after fifteen minutes had passed, wanting to dial the number that he'd called me from earlier. But instead, I decided to give him another ten excruciatingly long minutes. I couldn't believe that he was late, that he wouldn't care enough to even show up on time.

By the end of those ten minutes, my annoyance had reached the point where I didn't even want to give him a call. I stood and searched for him one last time.

But instead of Wayne, I saw Brad and found him walking toward me.