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I tried not to let my panic show in my voice, but I was starting to feel I had made a horrible, horrible mistake.
“What do you mean?” I asked shakily.
“I spoke to the man who complained about you, and he regrets getting you fired, especially after I told him about Rose. He’s not a bad guy, you know. He’s willing to admit that it was a misunderstanding, and he’s ready to call Bo right now and make things right for you. All you need to do is tell me where Tia is hiding.”
It was him all along!
I should have gone with my first guess. Brandon had set this up. He had cost me my job and jeopardized our daughter’s future, and he was still using it to blackmail me.
“I’ve always known you were stupid, Brandon,” I said snidely. “But I didn’t know you were this stupid. You had it so good. You could meet your daughter without paying a cent towards child support. And you risked it all for Arjun. I don’t know what he has on you, but it won’t matter by the time I’m done with you. I will take you to court and make you pay everything you owe me in child support even if you have to sell your house to do it. I’m sure the judge will love to hear how you got your daughter’s mother fired and tried to blackmail her into helping you get out of trouble.”
“You can prove nothing, Celine. I was just trying to help you out of the kindness of my heart,” he blustered. “Don’t mess with me unless you’re ready for payback.”
I hung up without replying, wondering how I could fix this.
I had to apologize to Marcus, but an apology wouldn’t even begin to cover it. I had allowed my lack of trust to destroy the best thing that had happened to me.
But as a struggling single mother, did I even have the luxury of trusting anyone blindly?
I had no business getting into a new relationship at such warp speed. I should have gotten to know Marcus better before I slept with him. I should have worked on building my trust in him. Maybe then, I wouldn’t have gone off the deep end like I did.
With shaking fingers, I pulled up his number on my phone and called him. He declined the call.
My stomach twisted on itself as I realized that Marcus had meant what he’d said earlier. When I accepted that he was blameless, it would be too late to do anything about it. I wished I had someone to talk to right now. Someone to reassure me that it was just a fight, that Marcus would get over it and come back to me.
But it was too late to call anyone.
I tried Marcus’s phone one last time, and when he declined the call again, I let my phone slip from my hands as I lay face down on the couch and sobbed my eyes out. I couldn’t cry in bed because I didn’t want my guttural sobs to wake Rose. I had to put on a happy face for my baby because none of this was her fault.
After I’d cried myself out, I washed my face and got back to the important business of finding a job. Two weeks later, I still hadn’t found anything because it was Christmas time, and no one was going to be hiring until the new year. Out of desperation, I made a list of my talents and strengths and tried to figure out a way to make some money until I found another job. That’s when it hit me.
I could teach pole dancing! Right from the privacy of my own house.
The next day, I put on my big girl pants and printed out some flyers for pole dancing lessons. I had my first call within one hour of posting the flyers all over my neighborhood and scheduled my first trial class for two days later. I just had two days to turn my spare bedroom into a mini-studio.
First, I turned the folding bed that Marcus had used back into a couch. Then I used some of the money from my severance pay to install a sturdy pole and mirrors along the wall. There was just enough space in there to swing around the pole, thankfully. I had my studio ready in time for the first class.
The client liked it enough to book four more sessions with me to be spread out over the next thirty days. I hoped the classes would pick up soon because those four classes wouldn’t even buy a month’s worth of groceries.
I took Rose to the petting zoo after the client left and then to the Met Museum. I knew she was too young to appreciate it, but it was as much an outing for my soul as it was for hers. On the way back home, I bought a few canvases and paints because I still had to kill time when Rose was in daycare. This was my chance to rediscover the side of me that I had buried under all my responsibilities. It was way better than sitting around moping over Marcus.
I used to paint a lot before I got pregnant. In fact, that was how I met Tia. At a free art lesson that I offered as a prize for the DA’s office fundraiser. Tia bid for the lesson and we hit it off after I led her through the basics of watercolor painting.
I made Christmas as special as I could because even if I wasn’t in the mood to celebrate, Rose certainly deserved it. I took her to see Santa, and showered her with presents, trying not to think about Marcus celebrating Christmas with his family. Was he even thinking about me? I pushed that thought away and took some more pictures of Rosie dressed as Santa’s elf.
Two days after Christmas, I was setting up my easel to dry near the window in my living room when my phone rang. I jumped to answer it thinking it might be Marcus. But it wasn’t. It was an unknown number. I guess I had to accept that he would never call me again, I mused as I answered the phone hesitantly.
“Celine, it’s me,” said Tia.
“Oh, thank God! I’ve been so worried about you. What’s going on?”
“I’m fine. I’m still hiding from Arjun, and I’m so sorry for all that you’ve suffered because of me. Marcus told me you lost your job. What happened?”
I told her what Brandon had done, and she was furious on my behalf.
“I always knew you were too good for that dickhead! I’m going to set Leo on him,” she snarled.
“Umm, hold up, girl! What’s going on between you and Leo? Isn’t he the guy who broke your heart three years ago?”
