After another long day, Tinley is starting to get tired of going in to work every day. Marek did say he didn’t care if she quit her job, but she likes having her own money, and just because they’re having a baby together doesn’t mean she’ll feel right about him supporting her. Maybe if they were married, she would be okay with it, but they aren’t, so it would just feel weird. And now that Dakota has moved out and she’s living on her own, her bills have doubled. She definitely needs the money more than anything right now.

She drops down into the front seat of her car and instantly takes her shoes off her feet. They’ve started swelling up during the day, and she’s been contemplating wearing slippers instead of her Converse. The tight fit of her shoes isn’t helping with her circulation one bit, not to mention it’s starting to become a struggle to bend down and tie them. Who would have thought that your belly doesn’t bend or fold when your pregnant like fat does. That’s definitely not something that ever crossed her mind. Soon enough, tying her shoes won’t even be a possibility anymore.

Sliding her phone out of her hoodie pocket, she notices a text waiting for her. She groans when she reads the text from Marek. That is the last thing she wants to be thinking about.

He’s right. Her twenties actually sucked. If anything she’d love to go back and re-do them. Have more fun and stress less. She definitely wasted her time doing a whole lot of nothing.

She knows she’s being dramatic, but it’s a hard pill to swallow. Nobody wants to grow up and get older, at least Tinley doesn’t. She wants to stay young forever, minimal responsibilities and all of that. Besides, with the freshness of her huge blowout with Dakota, she doesn’t exactly feel in the celebratory mood. How can she enter a brand new decade of her life without her best friend by her side? It just doesn’t seem right. She doesn’t tell Marek that though, because he already feels responsible enough as it is.

She laughs and tosses her phone onto the passenger seat then starts up her car. Fortunately, she doesn’t live very far away from work, so it doesn’t take her long to drive the short distance to get there.

Tinley opens the front door, and when she shuts it, something feels off…different. She’s not sure what’s changed while she was at work today, but as she walks farther into the apartment, it doesn’t take her long to figure it out. She collapses on the recliner, and the emptiness of the room surrounds her. Every single item in the room that belonged to Dakota is gone, and things feel kind of bare. It makes her uncomfortable, and the last thing she wants to do is hang out here. She doesn’t even think further. With an extra amount of effort, she pushes herself up from the recliner and walks out the door. Staying in her apartment has zero appeal when she’s all alone.

Raising her hand, she knocks on the door and seconds later she’s pulled into Marek’s arms. “This is unexpected, why didn’t you say you were coming over?”

She shrugs as he pulls her into his house. “I wasn’t planning on it. I went home, and it was too empty and depressing there. Now that I’m here though I realize how rude it was for me to just show up.”

“Stop talking. I don’t care if it’s four in the morning. You never need a reason to come over. If you would just move in with me already, you wouldn’t have to worry about going home to an empty apartment.”

She’s tempted. So, tempted to just tell him yes, but she can’t. She wants to prove to herself that she can be an adult and live by herself. In her almost thirty years of life, this is the first time she has ever lived alone. She went from her mom’s house to her college dorm room, to living with Dakota. For once she’s going to do the hard thing rather than take the easy way out.

Luna comes running and she must have heard the conversation because she says, “Daddy, Tinley can’t live here where would she sleep? She cannot have my bedroom. No way dude.”

Marek picks his daughter up from the floor. “Nobody is taking your room from you, sweetie. Why would you think that?”

She throws her hands out in front of her and says, “I don’t know. Because I’m ridiculous.”

Tinley doesn’t even know how to respond to that. She immediately starts laughing. Full-blown belly laughing. Who is this girl? She laughs so hard and—shit.

“Oh my God.” She can feel her face get hotter and no doubt her cheeks are currently bright red. Without a backward glance, she takes off running and locks herself in Marek’s bathroom. She whips her pants down and yep, sure enough, there’s a little bit of pee in her underwear. How does that even happen? She’s twenty-nine for crying out loud and she literally just wet herself. Luckily it was just a dribble or that could have been really embarrassing. She goes to the bathroom to hopefully prevent this happening again and she cleans herself up as best she can.

Glancing up in the mirror above the sink, naturally, her face is redder than a tomato. She splashes her face a few times with cold water and attempts to calm herself down. There’s no way she can go out there looking like this and what the heck is Marek even going to think? One minute she’s laughing like an idiot and the next she’s fleeing the scene like a freaking bank robber.

She paces the small area in front of the sink and with a huff turns to leave the bathroom. She can’t hide out in here forever or else Marek will come looking for her and drag her out of there anyway. When she steps foot back into the living room concern is etched all over his face.

“What was that about? What just happened? Are you okay?”

He throws a million questions at her that she can barely keep up with them. Taking a deep breath, she collects herself and says, “Everything is fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“Tinley, don’t do that. If something is going on just let me know. I’m going to worry until you tell me.”

She sighs. Why can’t he just drop it? “Marek, stop. It’s no big deal.”

He places Luna down on the floor and takes a step closer to Tinley. He wraps his arms around her. “Please just tell me what’s going on. You’re starting to freak me out here.”

She feels like she’s suffocating in his arms and she wiggles out of them. “Dammit! I peed okay. It’s no big deal, but now I’m really embarrassed, and I didn’t want to say anything. But of course you had to force it out of me.”

“You—”

“Yes. I’m twenty-nine years old and I peed my pants. I was laughing so hard that it just came out. You try having an organ filled with a child pushing against your bladder. It’s kind of hard to keep control of it. Apparently.”

Her face is no doubt red again as her emotions go haywire. She’s pissed off that he pushed her and she’s incredibly uncomfortable with the fact that not only does Marek know, but Luna does too.

“Daddy, I think we need to get Pull-ups for Tinley.” As she says it, Luna dramatically falls to the floor laughing like a crazy person. Over exaggerated laughing.

Great, she’s being made fun of by a toddler. There’s no way things can get any worse for her. Right?