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“I don’t need one,” Jordan said before she turned to me. “I ordered pizza. It’ll be here in an hour.”
My heart sank further. I had hoped this would be a brief visit, but it looked like she was getting ready to settle in for the evening.
So much for the plan I had to spend the night watching a movie with Lucy.
“So, what are you even doing anyway? Just sitting around letting her put shit in your hair?” Jordan asked.
“I actually took the day off to spend with her,” I said. “I’ve been working quite a bit.”
“If you could even call what you do work,” she remarked.
I knew she was pushing my buttons on purpose, and I had little doubt she was trying to get a fight out of me. But I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction. I had for years been trying to keep all the arguments we had away from Lucy. I didn’t want our daughter growing up knowing that her parents couldn’t be in the same room with each other without it turning into an argument.
But Jordan didn’t seem to care about any of that. She was happy to start shit as soon as she walked through the door, andwould easily have begun arguing with me if I took the bait. While it took all I had in me to prevent that from happening, I was still glad that the pizza arrived when it did.
“I told them you’d be paying with cash,” she said. “And that was pretty fast, so if I were you, I would be giving them a nice tip.”
“Yes, dear,” I said as condescendingly as possible. I hoped she’d take the hint and back off, but she continued with her micromanaging.
“Lucy, go wash your hands. It’s time for dinner.”
“Yay!” Lucy shouted as she ran for the bathroom.
I handed the guy more than twice the amount for the pizza. “Keep the change.”
“Gee, thanks, mister,” he said. He was about to say something else, but I closed the door in his face. I was far from in the mood to deal with anyone, and Jordan was only making it worse.
Heading back into the living room, I took the chance with Lucy in the bathroom to tell Jordan not to just show up like she had.
“It works a lot better for me if you at least text me before you come over,” I told her.
Jordan gave me one of her dismissive looks.
“You’re telling me I now have to schedule a time to see my own kid?” she asked. “It’s not enough for you that you get to live with her and be with her all day, every day. Now you’re going to tell me that I have to text you to see if it’s okay with you for me to show up?”
“All I’m saying is that I need to know what to plan on,” I told her. I could tell she was once again trying to pick a fight with me, and I wasn’t going to get drawn in. Everything with my ex was steeped in drama, making it difficult for me to ask her to do anything that wasn’t already her idea.
“Okay,” she said with a grin I immediately didn’t like. “I’ll be staying all week then.”
“What?” I asked, hoping I hadn’t heard her right.
“It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to spend any time with Lucy, and if you want to know what to plan on, then what better way for you to do that than to have me here all week? Think of it as me making up for lost time.”
I opened my mouth to tell her it was out of the question, but before I had the chance to say anything, Lucy came bouncing back into the room, yelling about the pizza and how she wanted to put on the movie.
She sat on Jordan’s lap, and I had to ignore the look of triumph Jordan gave me in response. I could put up with her for a week if I really had to. It might be nice for Cassie to have the week off anyway. She’d already mentioned how busy she was with classes, and this could give her the chance to catch up.
I’d pay her for the week even if she wasn’t here watching Lucy, anyway.
I grimaced, settling in on the other side of the room to watch the movie.
This week was going to suck.
Chapter Fifteen
Cassie
Iwoke up Friday morning after being off work all week.
