Page 23

Please

I fucked up Blaire

I stare at the screen.

Drunk Simon.

I haven’t dealt with drunk Simon in years.

I look up too fast. My expression must give something away because Johnathan's face shifts immediately into concern.

“Everything okay?” He asks gently.

“Uh…” I stand, clutching my phone tighter. “I don’t know. I need to step out and make a call.”

“Do what you need to do,” he says easily.

I nod quickly and head toward the restaurant entrance, already pulling Simon’s contact up before I even make it outside.

I hug my arms tighter around myself against the chill as the phone rings.

Right when I think it’s about to go to voicemail, he answers.

“Sweet girl.”

My blood runs cold.

“Simon?” I say immediately. “Are you alright?”

Silence except for muffled music in the background, people talking somewhere nearby, and his breathing.

“Simon?”

“I fucked up.” His words are heavy and slurred enough that my stomach tightens.

“Simon, where are you? Are you okay?”

“I’m a bit drunk.”

A small laugh slips out before I can stop it. “Yeah. I can tell. Do you have—”

“Can you come get me?”

The question cuts right through me.

I glance back through the restaurant windows. Johnathon is still sitting at the table, waiting for me to come back. And here I am standing outside an expensive restaurant in heels and a nice dress, taking a drunk phone call from the father of my child.

“Simon,” I say carefully, “What’s going on?”

“Please come get me,” he repeats, words dragging together more with every sentence.

I close my eyes briefly before I look back through the restaurant window again.

Johnathon is still waiting. Probably assuming there’s an emergency with Theo. Not that the emergency is my ex who seems to have gotten drunk and decided he remembers the pet name he gave me when we were sixteen.

“Okay,” I say quietly. “Yeah. I’m on my way. Send me your location.”

His exhale crackles through the speaker, relieved enough to make my chest ache. “Okay.”