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“I’m losing my mind.” Blake cheered, and I shook my head. “That’s not a good thing, pal.”
One minute, I was telling Patrick to piss off, the next I acted like we’re best buddies. The problem was, I wanted a friend. I’d isolated myself from everyone. It was exhausting pretending to be fine when I was anything but. I was tired of the sympathetic looks too. People didn’t mean them to be rude, but I took them as such.
Patrick was like a bulldozer. He didn’t avoid the hard things. He was persistent. My family had pretty much thrown in the towel on me, but he didn’t give up. And he didn’t try to change me. Every time he pointed out I was being awful, he did it for my own good. There was no other explanation. He didn’t get anything out of it.
“This is us.” I stopped at the entrance to the Union Square subway station to rearrange for the decent.
Just as I bent to pick up Blake, my phone chimed. A fizzle of excitement popped beneath the surface.
I’m not bringing pizza to New Jersey
I bit my lip to keep from smiling.
How about your place? Is that too far out of the way?
Those three dots flashing couldn’t go away fast enough for me.
Did I leave my door unlocked?
I laughed, the sound foreign to me. He was too cheeky and charming for his own good. But I liked that he was throwing my unlocked door back in my face. I liked that we could argue and then tease one another. I liked that he let things go.
Bring pizza. I’ll see you there.
I put my phone back in my pocket without waiting for a response and changed direction.
We saton the front steps to his townhouse. Every taxi that approached caused my heart rate to speed up and then slow as it passed. When one finally stopped, my pulse pounded in my ears.
Patrick emerged with a pizza and a smirk, while I forced myself to remain seated.
“If it isn’t the two no-shows.” He ruffled Blake’s hair. “I can’t believe you’d be in on this,” he said to my son, who grinned back.
“It was his idea.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute, Wicked.” He swiped his thumb across my cheek. “Why is your face blue?”
“New makeup I’m trying out.”
He tilted his head to the side, studying me, but didn’t comment further. “I’m not just going to hand this over. You want it, you’ve got to work for it.”
“What did you have in mind?” Oh my God. Had I just flirted with him?
He winked at me. “Come inside and you’ll find out.”
I got to my feet. “Let me hold that while you unlock the door.”
He held the pizza box out of my reach. “I’m not as smart as you, but I’m not falling for that. Do you have any idea the excuses I had to make up to ditch your family to get you this pizza? I’m exhausted from the effort.” He put the back of his hand to his forehead.
“You were in high demand?” I asked wryly.
“As always.” He held open the door for me, somehow maneuvering the stroller inside while holding the pizza box.
Patrick made it look easy as he scooped up Blake with one arm.
“I’ll take him.”
“No way. Now I’ve got two bargaining chips.”
“Do I even want to know what you want?” I trailed him to the kitchen.
