Icame to pick up Addison from her preschool, and I smiled when she held up her artwork while waiting impatiently in her class line for parents to greet the teacher and check out their children. I gave her two thumbs up, watching her small group of friends laughing and giggling at my daughter’s enthusiasm.
“Thank you, Jeanine,” I said when Addy jumped up into my arms. “Was she on good behavior today?”
“Always,” the young teacher said. “See you on Monday, Addison.”
“Bye, Ms. Jeanine,” Addy said, hugging me tightly. “Momma, I made it for you.”
I took the finger-painted project and smiled at my daughter’s multi-colored, scribbled artwork on the coarse paper. “Wow, Addy. What is it?”
“Guess,” she said in her sweet voice, trying to pique my curiosity by sounding mysterious. “You have to always guess, Momma.”
I let Addy down and held her hand after shouldering her pony backpack. “Well,” I said, walking swiftly toward our car to beat the parent pickup traffic, “I think it’s a beautiful picture of palm trees and the ocean.”
“No, silly,” she scoffed. “It’s your castle that you played in.”
My stomach tightened. I thought I could come home with memories and move the hell on from what I shared on my vacation with Jim. In fact, I did pretty fucking awesome, and that’s why my daughter knew Mommy got to play in a castle in England. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Addy held onto that. We’d built enough sandcastles on our beach days for her to be excited that I stayed in a real one. Why did I have to remain emotionally attached to it all, though?
“I think it looks more like the sandcastles we make at the beach,” I said with a smile.
“Can we go to the beach?”
“You get to go to Papa and Grandma’s this weekend.”
“Ugh,” she said in annoyance. “I wanna go to the beach.”
“You’ll mind your manners, young lady,” I said.
Addy pointedly ignored me after that. The one thing she hated hearing out of my mouth were those words.
“I missed you today, Addy,” I said, bringing her over to the beat-up Volkswagen Rabbit I owned. Poor car was barely hanging onto dear life.
“I missed you, Momma.”
I buckled her into her car seat, and we went for our usual Friday treat before I dropped her off across town at Derek’s parents’ house. Derek hadn’t been on a bender for at least two months, and thank God for that. I didn’t need his bullshit. We pulled into a drive-through and got soft-serve ice cream cones to last the fifteen-minute drive across town.
When I pulled down the street to where Larry and Annette lived, I saw a brand new—lifted—full-sized truck. Fucking Asshole! I thought, knowing this dick still lived with his parents, didn’t pay child support, and this was probably an underhanded move to try and beat me out for custody if we finally did make it past threats and into court.
“That’s Daddy’s new truck,” Addy said.
“I gathered that,” I answered, but immediately feigned excitement. I wasn’t pulling Addy into my drama. “I bet it’s a lot of fun to ride in.”
“Daddy says it’s sixty billion dollars for it.”
“Sixty billion, eh?” I said, getting out and pulling Addy out of her seat. “Wow, I didn’t know Daddy had that kind of money.”
Addy laughed. “Daddy says he bought it for me. It’s big and fun.”
“Hey, Avery,” Larry said. “There’s my baby girl.” He squatted down and held his hands out to Addy.
“I’m a big girl, Papa,” she exclaimed.
“Everything cool?” I asked, wanting to get the fuck out of here.
Then, out came my ex. He looked like death warmed over. His face was swollen, his once muscular body was overweight and bloated, and his formerly tanned skin looked pasty, almost ashen.
“Hey, Dad. Bring Addy in the house,” he said, kissing our daughter on the head. “We’ll go get ice cream later.”
Addy didn’t question her dad blowing her off. She happily went with her grandpa because the truth was that she hardly ever even saw this asshole. If he was at home, he slept all fucking day. How his parents hadn’t kicked his ass out of their house yet, I’ll never know. Addy only knew him as daddy, and I could see by her lack of wanting to hang back and reunite with him since my sister dropped her off for his birthday last Friday, she didn’t give a shit. She’d rather be with her papa. He was more of a dad to her anyway. He was also the only reason I played along with this custody arrangement.
“Like the truck?” Derek asked.
“It’s a truck. If it keeps Addy safe, then yes. It’s also a nice way to bury yourself in debt while living with your parents.”
“Do you always have to be a bitch to me?”
“What do you want? Your daughter is here for exactly forty-eight hours, and the clock is ticking on that.”
“Who’d you fuck in London?” he asked.
“What the fuck did you just ask me?”
“You know what I asked. Britney said you were off with some man-whore in London. Who the hell was it?”
“You lost the right to ask those questions after we broke up two years ago. I’m leaving. You bring shit like this up to Addy, and it’ll be the last time I play nice, dropping her off.”
“So you did fuck some stranger then. You’re such a fucking slut, Avery.”
“I’m not listening to this.”
“That’s always the easiest way out for you, isn’t it? Well, I hope you left that baggage in London because I’ll kick anyone’s ass you bring around my daughter.”
“Our daughter, asshole, and I think I can make those calls in my personal life without your drug-induced, absent brain.”
“Yeah, whatever, slut.”
That’s how I left the asshole—once again. Now, here I was, driving back to my apartment, my hands trembling, knowing that Derek was never going to let our relationship die. Ever.
I called out to my phone and asked to call Derek’s mom.
“Annette?” I questioned once she answered.
“Avery, everything okay?”
“Keep an eye on Derek, please. He’s already flaring up over my trip to London. Don’t let him around Addy—or just call me if he starts acting weird.”
“Everything’s fine. You know Derek. He gives you trouble because he knows he lost a good thing.”
“I’m just saying, it never ends well like this.”
“We’ll watch him. Besides, he’s going out for some work party tonight.”
“Wow. You can’t be serious. He gets his daughter for a weekend and takes off on her?”
“He’s playing with her right now.”
“Good. Father of the year. Bye.”
I hung up. Fucking liar. He’s going out to get his fix tonight and get loaded. All he needed was to think I’d slept with someone to validate him going off the rails. At least his dad locked his ass out if he was like this. I hated being stuck with him, and I hated being paralyzed by my fear that the court would deem us both unfit and put her in the system.
I pulled into the driveway and saw my sister’s BMW. She popped out as soon as I parked in my designated space. The place was a shit hole, but my OCD tendencies had my apartment so damn clean, you wouldn’t know it—from my unit at least.
“I have good news, sis,” she said. “Excellent news.”
“I need all the good news I can get. I just had to deal with Derek finding out I slept with that Jim guy in London.”
“Oh, God.” She rolled her eyes. “Well, I’m sure he’s excited about that.”
“My daughter is at that fucking house. If he loses his shit on drugs and booze over this and she—”
“Annette and Larry would call the cops if Addy were in danger. You know them well enough to know that. Just because they don’t like that you left him and aren’t trying to help him overcome his addiction doesn’t mean they’ll allow anything to happen to Addy. They adore that child.”
“True.” I exhaled. “What’s this news you have?”
“Let’s get inside. No offense, but I hate this neighborhood.”
“Sorry that my rich sister wouldn’t hire me into her blooming business.”
“Shut up.” She laughed. “However, that’s what this is about.”
“You’re hiring me?” I questioned.
“No,” she said, “but the company that acquired mine is hiring. I just got out of a meeting, going over reports and shit, and on my way out, the head of their PR department, Stefanie—she uses my products, of course—she asked if I knew anyone who would be interested in being her administrative assistant.”
“Where is this place? Isn’t that company Mitchell Incorporated or whatever? Aren’t they in downtown LA?”
“Yes,” she said as we walked into my studio. “Listen, they have an advance they give to all their employees to help move them closer to the office. Their wages pay more than that company you work for.”
“It’s called Blessed Hearts Living,” I said.
“Right, the convalescent home. You’ll have eight-to-five hours, and,” she pushed the paper across the desk, “starting pay for the position is five thousand a month.”
“What the living fuck?” I answered. “I don’t have a degree to warrant this sort of pay.”
“You don’t need one. I talked to Stefanie already. She even said that they have a preschool and daycare there. It’s for working parents.”
“That’s wonderful,” I said. “But Addy loves her school and friends.”
“Avery.” Britney stared at me dryly. “These offers don’t come around all the time. Call me your fairy-fucking-godmother. The only reason I have this for you is that Stefanie is a friend, and she hasn’t posted the job publicly yet. Yet! Someone will take this position in a heartbeat for the on-site preschool alone, not to mention the fact that most people with four-year degrees don’t get paid this much. You’ve got to be out of your goddamn mind for even thinking of a reason you might not want this.” She joined me on the couch. “Listen, this is life-changing for you and Addy. I even looked up living costs. Torrance is closest, and it’s the best deal for you. It’s also farther away for when Derek goes on benders and shows up here.”
“Which could be tonight. Now that he knows I screwed Jim…” I looked closer at the brochure that she handed me about this building, the company, and its CEO. “Holy mother of fuck,” I said in disillusionment.
“Pretty hot for a CEO, eh? I’ve never met him though. I’m sure I’d fall apart then and there if I had. God, look at his—”
“Brit,” I said, stopping her as I pointed to the handsome man in the photo who was labeled the owner and CEO of this business. “This is Jim. My Jim, from London.”
“James Mitchell?” She laughed. “Like fuck, this is the guy you slept with for nearly a week? The guy who spoiled your ass?”
“The very damn one.”
Her eyes widened. “Get the fuck out of here! Do you know who that man is?”
“I’m getting a clear-cut idea and pretty quick.” Jesus Christ, I guess I should have done the math on how important he was as a business man. The security detail he had follow us out of London. The castle he owned as a vacation home. The suits, cars. It was all in front of my face, but I was too fascinated with him and not all the company bullshit he was chained to. “Yeah, I can’t work there. Not for him.”
“The hell you can’t,” she said. “You’ll never see him anyway. Trust me. He works on the top floors. I haven’t even met the guy, and he acquired my business.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m not sure, but who cares if you see him again?” she said. “You both ended it, right?”
“On bizarre fucking terms,” I said.
“You need to do this for you and Addy, period. You haven’t had an opportunity for a win like this in a long time. Take it.”
“You’re right.”
“There are two massive skyscrapers that Mitchell and Associates own. His office is on the top floors of the Howard Tower, and like I said, even if you worked in the same building as he does, you’d never see him. The place is massive, like sixty or seventy floors. Hotels are on the lower levels, with amenities like coffee shops, restaurants, and boutique stores…shit like that to entertain international travelers. It’s enormous, so you won’t see him. Trust me, they have those buildings set up to entertain and you’ll be in a world of your own on your own floor.”
“You do see how gorgeous the man is, right?” I asked.
She laughed. “Goddamn, do I ever. Now I really want to know what the sex was like.”
“He was amazing.” I smiled at the memory of seeing this face, laying back on the table—his look right before he came while I rode him. “All I can say was that the man I spent a few days with,” I pointed at the picture, “smiled a lot wider than this, and he didn’t look like such an arrogant dick the entire time.”
Britney covered her mouth. “What if you see him again?”
“We ended it, remember? You keep talking like that, and I won’t take the job.”
“Get the fuck over yourself. You’re doing this for Addy. Now, housing is so hard to find, but there is a studio available. Let’s go look at it. I’ll cover the down payment, and we’ll get the process underway.”
“What if I don’t get the fucking job?”
“I already told Stef you’re in. She trusts me, and I know you’ll be a perfect fit. You’re more than qualified for this anyway. There’s no way I would let you pass this by.”
“Stop trying to do shit for me,” I growled.
“I’m helping you, Avery. Stop fighting people who want to help you. There’s no weakness in saying yes. You have said more than once that you want out of this shit hole and a job that could fucking pay the bills. This is a golden ticket, and you know it.”
I slumped against the couch. “Well, as long as you put the deposit down, you’re out the money if I don’t get the job.” I pursed my lips. “What am I doing there, anyway?”
“Mainly paperwork and computer shit. You’ll probably be setting appointments for Stefanie and doing personal shit for her too. Easy stuff.”
“Fine. Let’s go look at this place in Torrance you’re raving about.”
