AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Pulling his work bag over his shoulders, he makes his way to the employee entrance, only to be accosted by Kimberly.
"I was waiting for you! I think if we walk in together, no one will notice you were late." She says. He rolls his eyes internally. What the heck is she up to.
"Did you seriously sit in your car and wait for me to get here, Kim? What if I had been out today?"
"Of course I did! I don't want you to be the only one getting chewed out for being late. I wouldn't let you go through that alone. Plus I pulled up your schedule on the calendar, I knew you had a 10 am scheduled." She announces proudly.
"I'm not late. I am still a little early. You, on the other hand, are actually late. Get inside." God, she is just killing his mood. He opens the door for her, indicating she should walk through it quickly. She makes moon eyes at him, fluttering her fake lashes.
They walk in and go their separate ways.
He can hear her chatting to the other secretary about how 'she and Graham' just walked in. Purposefully trying to give people the wrong impression.
He was too busy, his thoughts on other things, more important things, to be pulled into that shit show. He pulls up the file for his next patient and gets lost in his rounds. Counting down the seconds to when he has to meet Melody at the apartments.
Melody
___________________
She had never been more nervous in her life. Okay, so that may be an exaggeration; getting pulled into an emergency C-Section was pretty scary. She had a birth plan, for crying out loud, and it definitely did not include major surgery.
However, something about going back to the same high school she attended in her youth filled her with dread.
She was, pretty much, the most average student on the planet. She never made any waves and flew mainly under the radar. Aside from Ms. Rosa, no one knew she existed, and now she has to try to convince the principal that while she may have been an average student, she was somehow an extraordinary teacher.
She had worked at length with at-risk youth and knew she was more than capable. She channeled her experience, and she thought she nailed that interview. And if she hadn’t, then there was always the bookstore. She had seen a sign up that they were hiring. Maybe she should swing by for an application, just in case.
Melody had sent the address to Graham by text this morning. It was the same phone number he had from all those years ago. She had deleted him from her phone book to avoid texting him, and it seemed like he had done the same.
Back then, she hadn’t wanted to get lonely and call him. She made the right decision. His life is so put together, he finished school, he has a great job, a freaking house!
He was doing a hell of a lot better than she was, that's for sure. But she always knew that would be the case. She hadn’t wanted him to squander the opportunity by being saddled with a child during those pivotal years.
Yes. She had done the right thing.
She felt guilty in the beginning, wondering if she was somehow doing him a disservice. Maybe she should have told him sooner. Or let him be part of the babys' life, even if only part time, but he would never have gone for it, she knew that even then.
Pulling up to the apartment complex, right behind Graham's truck, she braces herself. It's a nice complex, but it doesn't really have any outdoor space for Ollie to burn off his energy. She googles the address in the reference to the nearest park. More than ten miles away, it's not worth the drive in this traffic.
She gets off, already more than a little dejected at the location.
"Hey, gorgeous." Graham greets her. His smile is infectious. "What were you thinking about so hard in there?"
“Were you watching me, stalker?" She throws back at him playfully, hands on her hips.
"Always." He says unapologetically. "Always."
She huffs, but not really upset about it. “Nothing, just that there isn’t a lot of space for Ollie to run around, and the nearest park is over ten miles away." She lets the disappointment bleed through.
"Okay. Well, maybe the inside will blow your mind." He says optimistically, putting his hands on her shoulders in reassurance.
"I guess."
The inside did not, in fact, blow her mind, and the property manager was a little creepy, asking if Melody was single and if she and Graham would be living together. At first, she thought it was part of the apartment questionnaire. However, the way his gaze lingered on her chest was not promising.
"Absolutely not," Graham says as they walk out of the building. "Your first impression was spot on, this place sucks."
She laughs at his pouting.
