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“Hey Tasha…did you hear that we’re going to have…” his face fell as he reached us. His eyes honed in on her and probably noted the tears in her eyes. “Is something wrong?” he asked. He looked at the door and the fact that we were heading to it. “Are you leaving?” he asked.
Tasha smiled and looked down at him. She still had a few tears in the backs of her eyes. “Hey, little man.” She knelt in front of him, and I was forced to watch the beginning of her breakup with him.
“You know how I love you, right?” he nodded and that’s really all I could take.
“She wasn’t leaving, Cody. She was just grabbing something from the car, right Tasha?”
Tasha looked at me wide eyed, as if she were silently asking what I was doing, but she nodded. “Yes, I left my phone in there.”
“Great then. While she grabs her phone, what do you say that we go get those steaks started, Cody?” I asked.
Cody nodded, and the grin returned to his face.
Tasha looked up at me and she seemed confused, but so was I. I just knew I couldn’t let her leave, when Cody was looking forward to it. Yeah, that’s what I told myself. I told myself I was pleading with my eyes for her to stay because of Cody, and that I would figure out what we needed to do later. For now…I had food to prepare, and my separation from Tasha was prolonged, at least until the end of dinner.
Chapter Eighteen
Tasha
Aftermath
It was nice enjoying a good dinner with my two favorite guys, but then I had to keep reminding myself that chances were the good feeling was going to be short-lived. Matt wasn’t going to let me slide by this DVD situation, without having some consequences along with it. I didn’t know how he got the DVD. I couldn’t fathom who would stoop so low as to send it to him. Of c
ourse, it then came rushing back into me and I knew exactly what happened. I thought all the DVDs were burned, but Melinda was connected to Harper Finley. I wouldn’t put it past her contacting him and bribing or paying him for a copy.
No, knowing Melinda, she probably had a copy all along. She was always in somebody else’s business and when Harper and my relationship blew up, she more than likely caught wind of it. She most likely preserved a copy of the DVD he’d shown several people, for her own sake. Maybe she used it when she needed a good porn, or maybe she kept it just in case she would ever need it for the type of carnage of my heart that she was causing now. Seeing me with Matt gave her motive to use it. After all, Matt just got her fired from her job, right?
That was bound to anger her to the point where she would do anything to seek her revenge. That anything was in the form of making sure I looked bad, and there was no doubt in my mind that this made me look like a desperate, horrible woman.
“Tasha? Tasha?”
I had zoned everything out and didn’t even realize Cody was calling out my name. “I’m sorry bud, what’d you say?” I asked, turning to him. From my peripheral vision, I saw that Matt was staring at me and I felt like I did when we first met. It was once again awkward being there with him.
“I was just saying that I had a great time in Atlanta. Are we going to go back?”
He was so eager and happy, and I didn’t want to spoil anything for him. I glanced at Matt and he just slowly nodded. He would want me to say anything to Cody, just to make sure he didn’t suspect something was wrong between us and got upset. That was why I was still invited to dinner after he had walked me to the door with the look of despair in his eyes earlier. He didn’t want Cody to have to deal with that pain of loss again, and that made him a great role model for his nephew, but it also was wrong, because it gave Cody a false sense of security.
“Of course, little man,” I played along. “I know that my family would want to see you again, too.” I smiled at him and he was beaming, but deep down I was thinking that everything I loved was slowly getting washed away and I hated we got to this point.
As if Matt was thinking something similar, he got up from the table and started to clear away the dishes that were empty.
“I’ll help,” I mumbled, trying to be uplifting and positive…and a bit fake because I felt neither.
“Don’t bother! Enjoy your conversation with Cody.” Matt moved away from the table quickly.
I took that as a slap, stating that I needed to enjoy the time I had, because this would be the end of it.
“I was wondering when I could invite my friends over again,” Cody stated, interrupting my thoughts. “It’s been awhile and they’ve kind of been pressuring me about it.” He was getting excited, and I had to smile at it. If I knew I was going to come back, I would have promised him that we could do just that this weekend, but the truth was, I couldn’t promise him something that I couldn’t deliver.
“Well, that does sound like fun,” I said. “We’ll see what your uncle has to say about it. We have some time to figure that all out.”
Cody grinned. “You’re right, but last time wasn’t too bad, was it?”
I had to think back to it. When his friends slept over last time, I was still fairly green when it came to babysitting knowledge. I had certainly come a long way, so the next time was bound to even go better. “Last time was perfect,” I said, thinking as long as Cody had fun, I was all for it.
He grinned. “I thought so too.”
The longer we talked, the more I felt him slipping away. Then, Matt came back to the table and looked at Cody. “You should get washed up for bed.”
