AllFreeNovel
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“That…was really good,” she whispers in my ear. As she giggles, I pull away and I’m looking down at her flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes. I lean in and kiss her one last time before she pushes me away and slides off the counter, pulling down her skirt.
As we zip and button up, I say, “You’ll call me if you need anything, right?”
“I will,” she says with a wink.
“Yeah, I mean…if you need anything else.”
She tilts her head a little at me, then says, “Okay. See you later?”
“See you later.”
I head back to my office and get back to work, my body still tingling from the afterglow. It’s hard to keep my mind on my work, given that I can still smell her on my clothes. But it’s worth it. If I could feel like this every day, I would.
I worked in bliss all day. I even did a little overtime. Before long, I was looking at the clock with the feeling that I’d forgotten something…
Martin.Shit.I forgot to pick him up.
Quick as a flash, I left my office and rushed out of the building like it was on fire. All the while, ordering another Uber on my phone.Jesus, how can I forget him?!
When I reach the school, I spot Martin almost immediately. He’s sitting on the bench in front of the school, his little feet swinging back and forth. A feeling of guilt hits me hard. There’s a teacher out there with him with a crease of concern on her forehead. I turn to the driver, “On second.”
I open the door and Martin’s face lights up. “Daddy!”
He turns to the teacher and says, “Bye Ms. Landcheck,” before jumping off the bench and running towards me gleefully, his blonde hair flapping in the sunlight.
“Hi, Daddy. You’ll never believe what happened at school today!” Martin shouts as he gets into the car with me.
“Tell me all about it, son,” I say.
We ride all the way back home and Martin is telling me about one of his classmates who brought a pet hamster in for show-and-tell.
“He was small,” he was saying, “and fuzzy like a carpet. Can we get a hamster?”
I chuckle. I’m so glad he’s not angry. I still feel guilty, though. “No,” I say. “Not yet, anyway. Maybe when you’re a little older.”
He seems a little dejected, but it’s not bad. He shrugs a little and says, “Okay.”
Once we’re dropped off at the apartment, I look up at the late afternoon sky and I think that maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea for a treat. At the very least, it would help this cloud of guilt that was hanging over my head.
“Hey, would you like ice cream?” I ask him and his face lights up like Christmas.
“Yeah, but can I get a chocolate ice cream?”
“Sure thing, kiddo,” I say.
We walk to the ice cream parlor, hand in hand, enjoying the warm breeze and fresh air. The ice cream shop is only a block away and that suits us just fine. When we get there, I order a double scoop of chocolate for him and a scoop of butter pecan for me. We walk back, ice cream cones in hand, eating them gleefully as the sky starts to ascend into its twilight colors.
Once we’re back home, we crash on the couch and watch cartoons until we drift off to sleep.
When I sleep, I dream of Sarah. I see us together in a ranch house with a neatly manicured lawn. Sarah’s in a porch swing with the baby in her arms and Martin’s playing with his trucks out front. I’m sitting with Sarah and there’s the smell of lilacs in the air.
My eyes open on their own accord as the cold breeze blows from the open window. It’s just past six o’clock. We’ve only been sleeping for about an hour, but that’s longer than I was planning. I get up and close the window. When I turn around, I see Martin fast asleep on the couch
I wake him. “Hey buddy, come on. Time to get up from our nap.”
Martins stretches his little body and yawns. “Okay, Dad.”
“Why don’t you practice your reading while I cook dinner for us?”
