There’s nothing like a good nap to settle the difference of your day. Except I’m not sure I even took a nap. When I wake up, I’m surrounded, not only by my ex-wife, but also by Lisa and Susan. “Wait,” I mutter, trying to jump up from the bed.

“Sit down, dammit,” Susan angrily replies. My chest feels numb. Shit, my whole body feels that way.

“What the fuck happened?” I ask.

Emily. I look up at her and she’s fucking gorgeous. “You slipped in the…” She turns her head toward Susan and cuts herself off.

Susan interjects, naturally. “You fell in her shower. Why you were over at a coworker’s home is beyond me,” she says.

I start to rectify the situation as best I can, but in my head, I know that the truth is what is needed. I can’t run away from how I feel about this woman. “We had—”

“We had just picked up some materials and he hadn’t showered all day. I said he could use mine if he wanted to, while I was at the store. When I came back, I found him on the ground,” Emily says.

“It’s weird.” Susan sighs. “But I’m too tired and emotional to deal with this right now. You had us worried sick.”

“Well, shoot,” I whisper. I glance at Susan angrily for cussing in front of the kid, but it’s not like she hasn’t heard it come out of her mouth all her life. I mean, I guess I did it too. “Am I okay?”

“You slipped,” Susan repeats.

“Yeah, but he didn’t hit his head,” Emily says.

“So what the hell happened?” I ask everyone. “Can someone explain anything to me?”

Blank stares. A few shrugs. “You’re okay, Daddy,” Lisa whispers. She runs over and throws her arms around me.

“I know, baby. Daddy’s okay,” I tell her.

In fact, I do feel pretty fine. The only thing is that I don’t know how this could have happened. I’ve never blacked out before like that. After minutes of trying to come back to reality, the pieces start to connect. The shower. Her beautiful, gorgeous ass. Her soft, hourglass figure. All of those things come back into my vision and I can’t help but smile.

“Don’t smile,” Susan scoffs.

“I’m just really confused,” I mutter. “Seriously.”

“You should probably see a doctor,” Emily says. “But I think you’re just stressed out. There’s a lot coming up that you have to deal with.”

“Great. Why don’t you take him to the doctor’s then?” Susan says.

“I can if you want to…” Emily mutters back. I close my eyes, waiting for Susan to fire back with enough animosity to blow up a small country, but she doesn’t. Instead, she turns her head and takes a deep breath. She gathers her thoughts and picks up Lisa.

“I should go,” she says.

“I should get up,” I say, scratching my head. Emily helps me up, but I shrug it off and stand up. “I’m fine. Seriously. I don’t feel bad at all.”

“Next time, take him to a doctor, sweetie,” Susan says, before slamming the door.

I turn around and laugh. “I’m sorry?”

“Don’t laugh, Michael. I was freaking out. I thought you were having a heart attack or something,” she says, with heavy eyes. “I should of called 911.”

“I’m glad you didn’t. It wasn’t that bad. I feel okay. Trust me. Sorry, I guess I’m just surprised, myself. I didn’t expect to wake up with everyone around me like that,” I say.

“Susan.” She rolls her eyes. “I really hate that woman.”

“Yeah, well… she’s Susan.” I give a hard frown.

“She knows about us, I think,” she says.

“I think she has an inkling. It’s a good thing. Trust me,” I say.

She doesn’t, of course. But she takes my hand and we walk to her backyard. We open the door to the outside world and I sit down. “I should be at work,” she says.

“I guess. I’m sure Hanson has it taken care of,” I tell her.

Some time passes before I can figure out the right words to say. Here I am, a strong man, and I fucking passed out right after sex? Frankly, I’m embarrassed and don’t know how to approach the subject. “Was it good, at least?”

A faint smile forms around her mouth. “You’re a pig,” she laughs.

“Well, true.” I smile back.

“It was great.” She rolls her eyes.

“Must have been.” I shake my head.

“Don’t worry, you were all man. You probably passed out when you realized what you said right when you—” She trails off and bites her tongue, but the cat is already out of the bag.

“What?” I smile. “What did I say?”

The situation completely eludes me. What I remember are cut out pieces of scenes, like in a movie or something. I remember how she felt, how she tasted, how incredible she looked. I remember clawing at her skin, biting her ear and holding on for dear life. I don’t remember any words spoken. The images fall from my head and I’m left, grasping at straws.

“You don’t remember? Seriously?” she asks me.

“No, am I supposed to? I passed out,” I say. I rest my head and close my eyes again. “Shit, everything is crazy right now. Isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” she nods her head. “I guess it’s crazy to love a girl like me, huh?”

“What’re you talking about?”

She puts her legs around my waist and rubs her hands against my chest. She starts massaging me, making me feel like I’m hers. I start to let go and all the stress starts to slip away. “You told me you loved me,” she whispers.

My body tenses up for a split second. My eyes open and I’m staring at her, unable to say anything. How the hell could I forget something like that? I sit up and hold her balanced. “I did?” I ask.

She whispers, “Yes, Michael. It’s okay. I get it. You were in the moment. You got carried away.”

“Wait.” I grab her as she tries to slip away from my grasp. “Don’t do that.”

“I don’t want to talk about this. It seems like whenever we get somewhere, we always hit a roadblock. Maybe if we just, like, remain silent about things, we can finally be happy,” she says.

“I love you, Emily,” I say the words as if I’ve always known they were true. I love you. I never thought I’d be saying those words to anybody else, ever again. I thought I’d be a lonely carpenter, until I died, just waiting for the day I could watch my daughter walk down that aisle, or graduate from college, or have a child of her own. I never did things the right way. I thought she could. She could be the one to live a good life.

“Don’t say it if you don’t mean it,” she whispers. She’s damaged. I’m damaged. Fuck. We’re all damaged in this life, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have options to turn it all around.

“I mean it,” I say. I grab her waist and pull her closer. “I love you, Emily Carter.”

I wait for her to say it back. Her eyes dart from side to side. Does she believe me? Probably not. She’s dealt with a lot of hurt from her last boyfriend. Every single day he must have woken up and told her he loved her, right before telling her what he needed her to do that day.

She falls into my arms. Not a word is said. I don’t need her to say anything. Not yet, at least. I just need her to be here with me. I just need her to hold on a little longer, until we figure this all out. The trust will come. I have faith in this and faith in myself.

“Just see a doctor,” she whispers, shaking her head.

There are ways to get to where you want. Sometimes, all it takes is opening your eyes a bit wider and seeing what’s in front of your face. Other times, it’s falling on your ass and realizing just how much she’s worth. I feel it for the first time in forever. Love. I feel love.