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“Relax, chief!” She touched my shoulder, massaging it. I don’t think either of us expected the electricity that sparked between is at that touch. She drew her hand back abruptly and we both looked away. “I completely agree with you. I could get my father to give me a loan, or even buy me an apartment. But I want to try and make it on my own this time. It matters to me, for my own self-esteem, and I want to be a good example for Maddy too.” Then a frown clouded her face. “I hope Kayla liked me. It didn’t seem like it yesterday.”
“You’ll have a chance to bond with her more today and tomorrow,” I said.
“I’ll see how it goes. I’m doing my best,” she said. “And listen, Alex, thanks for the job. I know I didn’t seem very appreciative at first, but I am really.”
“No problem,” I said, “and I appreciate you being here. I do actually need the help.”
“Glad we got this cleared up,” she said then, giving Maddy a big push. “And if there’s anything else I can do, just shout.”
That’s when I had the idea. “You could come to some PR launch thing with me on Saturday night at The Latham,” I told her. “My buddy Bryce got it through the grapevine from my PR that I need to be seen out with a hot woman, for my profile. But like I just said, I don’t want to date.”
She thought about it. “I could do that,” she said. “It’s stretching the job description a little, and I’d have to ask Clare to watch Maddy, but I could.”
“It’s a night out,” I said, “with adult company. A chance to get dressed up, hit the town, have some fun – and no offense, but you look like you could do with it.”
She smiled. “Hey, I’m doing you the favor here, right?”
“Just saying.”
“You’re right though.”
“Free haute cuisine three course meal in their award-winning restaurant. Fine wines. Being waited on. Probably some kind of spa products goodie bag…”
She laughed. “Okay, okay. Count me in. Where do I sign?”
Maddy began to grizzle in the swing then and reach her arms up to be lifted out. Mary-Beth gently pulled her out and held her up in her arms with such tenderness, it melted my heart a little. Then, “Lunchtime for this little one,” she said. “And hopefully a big nap – she didn’t get one yesterday, thanks to her no-good useless father, and that’s why we had fireworks at bedtime.”
“Is your ex causing you problems?’ I asked, and again I felt that desire to protect and defend her rise in me.
“Don’t even go there,” she said, as she strapped Maddy into the stroller. “Talking about him is a waste of breath. And it’s okay – I’m handling it.”
We headed off out of the park, and I opened the little gate for her so she could get the stroller through without having to fight with it. I was so glad we’d cleared the air and put a boundary around anything else happening between us. And, in the short term, just while I needed her, it seemed like she might turn out to be a good nanny for Kayla too. She’d even solved my PR event problem. Maybe, just maybe, this was going to work out after all.
7
MARY-BETH
“Come on, old friend, it’s not time to go into retirement yet. Let’s show them we still got it.”
“Are you talking about me?”
I whirled around and found Alex standing in the doorway. I’d been rummaging in the wardrobe and hadn’t known he was there. Mads was in her playpen in the living room – Kayla had said she’d watch her for me.
“No, you definitely need to go into retirement,” I joked. “I was talking about this dress.” I pulled out a long, sexy red velvet dress with a killer classy but low neckline.
“Wow,” Alex gasped, then gave a little whistle. “Lucky this isn’t a real date or I’d be telling you how hot you’re going to look in that. Like Lana del Rey.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Do you have a Lana thing?” I asked.
He looked cutely awkward for a moment. Yes, definitely, then. “Well, I’m human, straight and male, so basically, yes,” he joked.
I held the dress away from me and gazed down at it. “I almost gave this faithful friend to goodwill,” I told him. “My breasts got so huge when I was feeding Maddy that I couldn’t get in it, and once they went down again I couldn’t think where I was going to wear it.”
I glanced across at him and noticed that he looked super awkward, and… was he even blushing? I cringed. Had I just talked about the effects of breastfeeding with my hot, male and very new employer? I know women were supposed to be open about it now and feed in public and everything, but maybe this was a step too far. I’d be talking about leaky breasts and cracked nipples next…
But no… becoming a mom hadn’t taken over everything. Not quite yet. I hadn’t given the dress away, for one thing. The dress that made me feel like a million dollars. The dress that made heads turn when I walked into places and got me offers of drinks from mysterious guys down the bar. The dress that got me compliments from women, too, who’d often asked me where I got it from (it was a vintage store one-off – sorry, ladies). I remembered back to those days – when I felt confident, and sexy and sure of myself. Before giving birth, and battling exhaustion, and being knee deep in dirty diapers and baby vomit.
As I slipped it off the hanger, I felt the old thrill of getting ready for a night out ripple up my spine. “I feel like an escort,” I said. Again, TMI in a different way, and completely unsuitable employer conversation.
