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“If I can have a large coffee, I’m in,” Emma said, finally closing her book.
“I’m buying, so you can have anything you want,” Harrison answered, trying to please her.
“Cake?” Violet asked with excitement.
“He said anything,” Sera replied in a tone that sounded like he would regret the offer.
Emma got up and said, “I’m sitting at my own table. I don’t eat with pervs.”
Sera’s only reaction was to shoot her daughter a look and shake her head. The girl shot the same look back at her mom, and they just stared at each other. A standoff.
“Me too.” Violet jumped down from her chair. She rushed ahead of them with her black curls bouncing to hit the button for the elevator, then bounced as she waited for them to come. Emma, on the other hand, ignored the adults and put headphones in her ears as she followed them.
The elevator was quick since the building was mostly empty, and soon, they were heading toward a coffee shop a few blocks down that Harrison didn’t even know about.
Sera walked beside him but had remained silent as they went, letting Violet dominate the conversation, which the kid was an expert at. She had a lot to say about almost everything, and as she spoke, her little feet were constantly moving.
Then she ran ahead to the end of the block, only to turn back around and run back. “How do you even keep up with her?”
“Emma was the same way until twelve, then it wears off and turns snarly.” She shot her oldest a grin, but the kid ignored her mom or didn’t hear.
Harrison took Sera’s hand in his, and he was happy she didn’t pull away. She just letting their steps match as they strolled. “Five more years?”
“It goes quickly,” was all she said, watching the girl run.
“So, how old were you when you had Emma?” He chanced a look back at the teen still walking behind them.
“Almost twenty.” Sera also looked back with a smile.
“Married at nineteen and a baby right away?”
“I was already pregnant when I got married,” she admitted, but knowing how young she was, it didn’t surprise him.
“Have you ever introduced them to anyone?” He wanted to know if she kept them from everyone or just him because he worked with her. She never brought her personal life with her to work if she could help it.
“Both of them? No. I did introduce Emma to a man before I had Violet,” she said, letting Violet push the button for the crosswalk.
“Weren’t you still married?” He knew she was. Her divorce was six years before, and this kid was almost eight.
“It was an unusual marriage…. I don’t want to go into it right now.” She dropped his hand to grab a hold of Violet’s as they walked across the street. Once across, she let her daughter’s go and took his again.
With her evasive words, he wanted to push. What had made the marriage unusual? Had she gone through a long divorce just like his, and they accidentally had a kid in the middle of it? So many questions, but with her kids near, there would be no answers.
Emma finally picked up her pace as the coffee shop drew near, bumping his shoulder as she passed them, and not by accident. He let her; she was just protecting her mom the only way she knew how. And for some reason, he liked her doing it.
In line, the girls chatted with their mom about what they could order. Sera once again picked up Violet and pointed at stuff on the menu. The girl seemed too large to be held like Sera was, but Harrison didn’t know much about kids, so he didn’t say anything. But when Sera put her down, Violet asked Harrison to pick her up. With an odd flutter, he picked her up, and it felt like they had done this a hundred times. Like she was his kid.
With orders placed and tables chosen, Emma’s across the walkway from theirs, Violet snuggled back into her mom’s arms, just looking at him.
“What grade are you in, Violet?” he asked.
“No grade,” she said with the most serious face.
“Don’t be stupid. It’s summer. She will be in second this fall,” Emma answered, even if her headphones were in.
“I am not stupid, Emma. I am smart—my teacher says so,” the little girl argued. It seemed they argued a lot, and it didn’t bother their mom in the least.
“All teachers say that, Violet.” Emma opened her book and buried her nose back in it.
