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“Exterminator at eleven. Bills, lawn work.”
She could tell by his vague reply that he was no longer listening, pulled from the conversation by work. It should probably upset her, but honestly, she’d gotten used to it. This was her life. “I’ll let you go,” she said.
“Sorry. Yeah, I got to talk to Mike.”
“See ya later,” she said but the line was already dead. Placing the phone back, she grabbed her coffee and headed upstairs to dress.
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Gage slowed his sprint to a jog as he approached his house, waving to one of his early rising neighbors when he did. He kept a steady pace until he reached the back patio, where he halted his steps. His hands to his knees, he took in a few long deep breaths, the burn feeling good. Looking at his watch, his girls would be up, getting ready for the day.
Swinging the back door open, Velvet tried to run out. He caught the little dog with his foot, edging her back in the house, trying to take a few steps inside while dodging the dog’s excitement that he was home.
“Dad. Mom said I can’t go to the movies this Friday because it’s your birthday,” Scarlett said as her morning greeting.
Heather put the almond milk she was holding back into the fridge as she reiterated, “I already told you, Grandma and Grandpa are coming for dinner.”
“Wait.” Gage held up his hand, and with his other wiped the sweat from his brow.
The girls ignored him, continuing their conversation as if he wasn’t there. He looked at Heather, his wife: her hair perfect, makeup done to the nines, dressed in a tight black pencil skirt matched with a deep blue button-down blouse. His eyes kept moving down to her strappy black heels, ones he had fucked her in… once, a long time ago. She whipped her head toward him, her bob-cut blonde hair swishing when she did. “Are you listening to me?”
He wasn’t. He was lost in thought on how repetitive their lives had become. He pointed to the ear buds in his ear and blamed his not listening on the music that wasn’t playing. He pulled one out. “Sorry, forgot to turn my music off. What’s up?”
She cocked her hip and tilted her head. “Do you want to do dinner with your parents for your birthday or not? I need to know now so I can confirm it with your mother. You know how upset she gets if she doesn’t have a plan in place.” She ended with a shake of her head, impatiently waiting for his response as she tucked energy bars into her purse.
As if his birthday, which was the same as everyone else’s, once a year, was a major catastrophe. He inwardly chuckled because he couldn’t even get a day where his family wanted to spend it celebrating him. He recalled taking his daughter to a Pink concert for her birthday and dealing with a headache for two days afterward. But, he’d do it again in a heartbeat. For his wife’s birthday, he had taken her away for the weekend to a spa retreat, where he spent most of it alone while she was off getting pampered. All that, and his family was falling apart because they had to take a Friday night to have dinner with him for his birthday.
Jesus.
Gage waved a dismissive hand. “I think Dom is planning something, keeps hinting about it.” He lied, walked to the coffee pot and saw Heather had only brewed enough for her two cups. He’d stop at the convenience store on the way out and grab a cup or two… maybe just steal the pot. “You girls do what you want. I’ll be forty six all year.” He forcefully smiled.
“Oh good,” Heather said, then leaned back against the counter like a hundred-pound weight had just been taken off her shoulders. “Marcy asked me to go to this jazz bar in the city, and I’d really like to go.” She threw him a wide smile. Did he want her to go? No, but he knew if he voiced his displeasure about her spending his birthday with her friends it would only earn him a day of her pouting.
“Go,” He told her as he grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge. The bulb was out again, he needed to change it.
“Cool,” Scarlett said and hopped down from the stool. “This means I can go to the movies and spend the night at Rachelle’s.”
Gage swallowed the gulp of water, barely getting it all down, before he choked out, “You said only the movies.”
A horn beeped. Scarlett grabbed her backpack off the floor, tossed it over her shoulder and informed her parents, “Rachelle’s here, gotta go.”
“Be careful,” Gage said to his daughter’s back.
“Chill Dad, I get my license next year.” She threw over her shoulder.
Fuck. She did. It wasn’t a topic Gage liked to talk about. Not only because his little girl was growing up, but the thought of her behind the wheel of a car terrified him.
He turned to his wife, who was paying no mind to them, busy placing papers into her briefcase. “When did she grow up?” He asked before gulping down the last of the water.
“While you were cutting lawns.” She threw back, as she poured the rest of her coffee from her large mug into a travel one.
“I don’t cut lawns, Heather. I own a landscaping business,” Gage said with a hard tone, proud of the successful business he had built. Unfortunately, Heather, somewhere along the line, forgot to recognize all the years of hard work he’d put in to get them to where they were. She always teased him about being a glorified lawn boy, even when he worked his ass off to put a roof over his family’s heads, clothes on their backs, and food in their stomachs.
She rolled her eyes. “I know what the hell you do, Gage, it was a joke.” He began to think it was more a dig than a joke. Since his wife took a job four years ago, working her way up to head teller, he had suspicions that his wife now wanted a husband who worked nine to five, wore a suit to work and carried a briefcase. That wasn’t Gage. Grabbing her designer lunch bag and purse, both costing almost as much as the new weed eater he had to buy last week, she started for the door. She wasn’t there six months before she felt the need to dress like she worked on Wall Street. The problem was they couldn’t afford for her to do that; she didn’t care, though, she just used plastic. And a lot of it. “Girls at work and I are going to dinner tonight. Frozen pizza is in the freezer. See you tonight.” Then he watched the woman he had fallen in love with walk out the door without as much as an ‘I love you’ or a kiss goodbye.
Gage took the stairs two at a time, went to the master bath and stripped down. He jumped into a hot shower hoping to scald away the morning’s brush off of his upcoming birthday. Not to mention, how his and Heather’s lives had changed in the past years.
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