AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Wanna let me tie you to the hoop next time?
Luca:
I could be persuaded
Did you have anything specific in mind?
Sunshine:
We’ll talk about it later
I have to start class
Later gator
I had no issue if Luna wanted to tie me up and have her way with me. There was certainly a lot of creativity we could get up to with our combined strength and her flexibility. All it would take was a willingness to play.
By the time Saturday rolled around, I had to chide myself every time I brought my phone out so I didn’t invite Luna to go for a walk or for lunch or to a movie. I wanted to be in her presence, but I had to be patient. If she wanted the rules to change, she would tell me.
It was going to be a long existence if my brain was going to make me crawl from one Tuesday to the next. The next time I saw Luna, I would clarify the terms a bit better. If I was allowed to text freely, that might help. Part of me considered seeing if I could wrangle my second day off to be Thursdays so I could get a double dose of Luna with the excuse of attending one of her aerial classes, but I didn’t want to push. This would be so much easier if we were dating normally, but I had meant what I thought when I had agreed. Secret Luna was better than no Luna, and now that I had fully experienced her, I knew that was even more true.
Realistically my boss, Lux, probably wouldn’t have any issue with adjusting my schedule. As intimidating as she came off at first, the alpha was a hopeless romantic, and even if I didn’t give her any details, I doubted she would mind helping me rearrange things so I could spend a little more time with Luna if it ever came to that.
Truthfully, the gym was starting to wear on me a little. I didn’t hate it, but I was growing less and less excited about coming to work. I had been here for years, in part because Lux was such an easy boss, but in my experience, once this feeling started, it only ever got worse. I couldn’t quit without having something else to fill my time with.
My therapist had told me that I made my entire life about work and about what I could do for others. But wasn’t that the point of work? The work we did was in service of others, or at least, I thought it should be. What else would I even do? My childhood friends had moved away, and the people I’d met in university had fallen by the wayside as they returned to their own cities to work. Unfortunately for me, the bonds made with weekend binge drinking and stress studying hadn’t lasted outside of those circumstances. Mom kept telling me I should take up a hobby. I wasn’t very good at that either.
Rest didn’t come naturally to me, and I had packed my schedule so full that it was hard to think of anything that would alleviate the guilt of taking time for myself. What could I do that I loved that much? Luna was the first person to make me want to drop my responsibilities, but I could hardly call her a hobby. I definitely needed something though. I was going to make myself stir crazy if I didn’t.
Irevved my engine as I parked outside of Rodney’s townhouse. I hadn’t even gotten out of the car before my nieces were sprinting out the door, barrelling toward me. Nova crashed against me and little Aurora toddler-ran behind her to cling to my leg.
Rodney rolled his eyes as he marched down the walkway with their weekend bags. I flipped him the bird behind Nova’s back before laying my hand over Rory’s head.
“How are my best girls?”
“They’re both in a mood today.” Rodney sauntered up. He dropped both of their bags at my feet and stood with his hands on hips. “I don’t get a goodbye?”
Rory clung tighter, and Nova tensed in my arms.
“Girls!” Rodney snapped.
Nova spun in my grip and kept her back pressed to my chest. “Bye, Dad.”
Rory’s little face was buried against my thigh. Apparently none of us were a fan of Rodney today. I’d have to dig out of Nova what kind of bullshit he’d pulled this weekend. She usually got chatty over ice cream, so that would be our first stop.
Every second weekend they went with him since he had moved out, and he never drove them home, preferring to make things as annoyingly difficult on Stella as he could. I was more than happy to get the girls out of his presence as quickly as possible, so I always picked them up to get a head start on auntie time.
“Rory, if you wave bye-bye, we’ll go get ice cream,” I promised my littlest niece. She flailed one arm out in his direction. That was as good as he was going to get. “Okay, into the car.”
Nova dashed away and plunked herself into the passenger seat, pleased as punch that she was finally big enough to do so. I scooped up both of their bags and lifted Rory into my arms, turning my back on Rodney and marching away. Once I got Rory settled in her car seat, I whipped away from the townhouse and toward the girls’ favorite ice cream shop. We never chatted much right at the beginning. They always needed time to decompress after seeing their dad.
Before the split I had made a point of leaving my Sundays open for them, knowing that as much as Stella tried to conceal the fighting from them, they had to have known. Kids always knew. Now that Rodney was out of the house, our special Sundays were always capped off by family dinner with Stella before I had to leave and prepare for my next week.
Once we got inside the ice cream shop, the energy started returning to the girls, Rory wiggling happily in my arm as I held her up to look at the flavors.
“What are you gonna get, Supernova?”
“Torn between tiger tail and pistachio.”
