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“Well, it sounds like an interesting plan, Mom. I hope it goes well,” I said with a reassuring smile. I turned to carry on tidying up the kitchen after myself.
“Thanks, Rylee,” she replied and gave me another hug before retiring upstairs to put away the things she had bought on her shopping trip.
By the time she came back down the stairs, dinner was almost ready and the doorbell rang. I had the oven door open and I was turning over some of the vegetables to check how they were cooking, so I called to my mom, “Mom, can you get the door?”
“Yes, dear!” came her reply. I heard her footsteps down the stairs and then the sound of the door opening. Muffled greetings sounded from the hallway and although I could tell our dinner guest was clearly a man, there wasn’t much more I could distinguish other than that.
While my mom sorted out our guest, I pulled everything out of the oven and began putting it into dishes ready to serve. I put cutlery on the table along with napkins and began to set the dishes on the table. Feeling satisfied that everything was ready, I smiled and began to untie my apron.
“Rylee! Our guest is here!” my mom called as she came back through from the hallway. “This is Spencer, Spencer Reid. He’s one of my oldest friends!”
I turned around ready with one of my fake customer service smiles when I realized who was standing there. Spencer. The man who I’d fucked in my old work place! The man I’d lost my virginity to! The man who was the father of my child… I couldn’t believe my eyes. I felt like I was going to pass out from shock or something. My eyes widened and my mouth gaped at the sight of him. Before my mom could twig, however, I quickly straightened myself up and put on a brave face again.
“Oh, Spencer, it’s nice to meet you,” I said with a small, tight-lipped smile before turning away and hoping to avoid his gaze for most of the evening.
“Likewise,” was all he said and I didn’t know whether that meant he felt just as awkward as I did or that he wasn’t interested in catching up with the girl he’d knocked up all those years ago. Except, he didn’t know that he’d knocked me up. We didn’t exchange numbers or last names. I had no way of contacting him and since he never came back to the coffee shop again…
I tried to push away all the thoughts that were racing through my head and instead, I took my usual seat at the table and began serving food onto my own plate. I kept my eyes on the table the entire time and tried to ignore the way that Spencer’s husky, deep voice made my heart race and the way my knees trembled every time we accidentally made eye contact.
“So, how do you propose we convince Archie that our ‘relationship’ is serious?” my mom asked Spencer as she cut up a piece of chicken on her plate. “After all, I don’t think he’ll be convinced so easily. I know what he’s like and once he’s set his mind to something, he’s like a dog with a bone!”
I dropped my fork and it clattered loud against the ceramic plate beneath. I was so shocked because I’d completely forgotten what Spencer was doing here. He was supposed to pretend he was my mom’s boyfriend.
My mom’s boyfriend.
Oh God, I think I’m going to be sick. This was so, so fucked up. It was bad enough that Spencer reappeared after five years of radio silence, but now, I was going to have to watch my mom parade him around on her arm?!
“Well, how about I take you on a date to the little French restaurant in the middle of town? What’s it called?” Spencer began, tapping his finger to his chin as he tried to summon a distant thought.
“Les Petit Gourmet?” my mom said with an excited glint in her eye. “Well, that sounds like a great idea! Not only will I get to eat some of my favorite food, but everyone knows Archie used to take his ex-wife there too, so the staff know him and it’s sure to get the word back to him!”
Just hearing them planning it all was enough to put me off my food. I moved the potatoes around on my plate while I thought about Jayden and the fact that his father – the man I never thought I’d ever see again – was sitting across from me. Jayden had never had any kind of father figure before. I’d never even dated anyone after Spencer. I was too busy freaking out about the pregnancy and then dropping out of college and then looking after the baby!
