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“Get ready?” he asked.
I nodded, “Come on then, can’t be late for daycare.”
I laughed as he hurried ahead of me to his makeshift bedroom. It was part of the living room I’d partitioned off. One day I’ll be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment at least. I dream of the day when he has an actual bedroom, and I have one of my own. An apartment where we don’t have a stove with two burners broken and lights flickered because I couldn’t afford to replace them.
I dream of having sheets and socks without holes, and I don’t have to buy everything we need from discount stores.
Yet, that time in our life is still a long way off. Knowing that I work with his father, a man who could help supplement his son’s life whether he wanted to or not, was so tempting.
But I didn’t want to rely on anyone else. I have had no reason to so far. And the thought of upending everything, because Aldric may wish to be a part of Ciro’s world scared me to death.
I would have liked to say I felt calm on my way out from dropping off Ciro. But as soon as he left, everything from that morning came crashing back down on me. Without his cheerful voice singing along to the radio and babbling words that weren’t quite anything, I couldn’t help but remember the stack of bills on the counter.
I imagine the numbers in my savings draining away into the negatives. My jaw wiggled back and forth as my hands gripped the wheel tighter. I was starting today off sowonderfullywell.
It wasn’t a surprise that I was on edge when I got to the campus and walked through the office door. My irritation levels were sky-high. And it was only made worse by the realization that Aldric was running later than usual today. He left a scattered pile of notes and information on my desk.
Of course, it took up far more room than necessary because it was haphazardly spread out. A muscle in my cheek ticked as I stared at it dumbly.
I placed my stuff next to my desk and began collecting everything into a clean and manageable stack. It wasn’t large, and there was absolutely no reason for it to have spread everywhere as it had. Absolutely none.
“What an ass,” I murmured.
As if summoned from the depths of his disorganized desk itself, Aldric walked through the door with a low whistle, “Hm? Ass? Talking about me, are you?”
I whipped around. Clenching my hands so tightly that I could feel the bite of my nails into the meat of my palms, “Yes, actually. What the hell do you think you were doing? Why would you throw papers on my desk like that? There’s barely enough room as it is?! What if you lost something important in the process?!”
After spitting out my disdain, I drew in a breath, glaring at him like he was the cause of everything. He was, technically, in a lot of ways, at least.
He was the cause of the immense joy in my life.
He was the cause of my stress, not being able to support my son, and being stuck lying every day about who I was. It was all this man’s fault. And on top of it, I got buried under the hospital bills from years ago when my mother finally passed. All this was somehow his fault.
“Oh,” he raised a brow. “Touchy about your desk, are you? It seems like you’ve already fixed the problem, though.”
I could scream, but instead, I snarled, “There shouldn’t have even been a problem, to begin with. If you just observed people and cared enough to be a decent human being, there wouldn’t have been!”
I was raging, and that unbearable anger was unfairly pointed at Aldric, but I couldn’t care. I was blinded by my inability to stay afloat in my life.
“And taking two seconds out of your day to straighten some papers is really that much of a burden,” he asked, his voice cool. “Are you sure something else doesn’t have your panties in a twist?”
I did scream then, though it was muffled as I tried to keep it lower in volume. I threw up my hands and stalked away to my desk in hopes of getting prepared for the day.
But I could barely focus since I could hear Aldric shuffling around behind me and repeatedly clicking the top of his pen. He normally did this, fidgeted, and made incessant noises that made me desperate to reach across the room and smack him. Though I often was able to ignore it with no more than a grimace.
But today, I couldn’t deal with it. Today I actually couldn’t force it down; instead, I reacted like an idiot.
“Seriously, what are you, a child?” I hissed, clasping my head in my hands and digging my nails into my scalp.
“I thought we had already agreed I was at the park the other day,” he shot back. “For liking fruit cups.”
“Just,” I sighed, trying to relax my heaving chest. “Just stop being so annoying.”
“If you could point out what it is I’m doing, that’s more annoying than usual?”
“Oh my god,” I huffed. It was only mid-morning, and I felt exhausted. How could this man turn me into a bratty teenager in two seconds? “Stop clicking your damn pen.” I chucked an eraser at his side of the room; it fell harmlessly to the side of his desk. But it gave me a sense of relief with just the action.
“Who’s the child now?” he asked, resting his chin on his knuckles with a smirk curving his lips.
