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“I mean…” She shrugs. “I don’t think it’s reallybadnews that your mom is coming here for the weekend.”
My eyes widen with a mix of shock and happiness.
I have missed my mom since I left Vermont. We havebarelyspoken on the phone because she picked up a second job as a hostess at a local restaurant to make up for the lost income while she was out.
I try to help her as much as I can, but city living itself is expensive.
“Shut up, Peyton. Tell me right now that this isn’t a joke.”
“It’s not a joke. Thomas and James should be back any minute from the airport. They went to pick her up.”
I quickly shuffle around the island, to pull Peyton in for the biggest hug.
“Thank you,” I murmur in her ear. “I’ve missed her so much. This is going to be the most perfect day ever.”
“Honey, I’m home, a male voice bellows from the foyer.
“Marc,” Peyton yells annoyingly. “This is not your home, and I am not your honey. But she’s in here.”
“I amnothis honey either,” I whisper shout at her.
“But you’re having so much fun pretending.” She winks. “I’m going to get the rest of the food from the outside refrigerator.”
And then she leaves the kitchen the same time Marc enters with grocery bags in hand full of cookies and potato chips. Looking like a whole snack while holding snacks.
His eyes immediately find mine and a wicked smile forms on his face. A smile that tells me that he’s actually happy to see me.
Why do I get this smiley side of him at Peyton's house?
But at work, I get nothing but a scowl?
“There’s my girl.” He beams with a smile that reaches his eyes.
“Marcus,” I playfully swat his arm when he reaches me. “You do know that everyone here knows that we aren’t really a couple?”
His arm wraps around my shoulder as he pulls me in for a side hug. I want so bad to shift in his arms and wrap mine around his waist and hug him the way a hug should be. The thought of that terrifies me. He’s had his fingers deep inside me, but we’ve yet to embrace in an actual hug.
Probably for the best.
“Let’s pretend for today,” he whispers down in my ear.
“Why?” I ask, pulling my head away from him to look up at him.
“I heard there's a single PTA mom coming today who’s desperate for some rich dick. I am not about to be the one giving it to her.”
“Peyton says she’s sweet.”
“Thomas says she’s desperate.”
I step out of his hold. Giving myself space from him that I need to breathe. Lately, whenever I’m in his presence, my brain feels like a pinball being bounced around from one side of the machine to the other.
“Listen.” I stare down at my bare hand. Fiddling with my watch that sits on my left wrist. “I know I set the rule of seeing no one else. But I know first hand that a person has needs. If you need to take care of them, do what you have to do, boo.”
He throws his head back and laughs.
“Boo?”
“Yeah, you know.” I lightly laugh back. “It kind of rhymes. You do you, boo. Get it?”
