I sat up and stretched, finally waking up. “Okay.”
“I’ll put Amelia in her crib.” She gently pried Amelia from Ethan’s grip.
He began to stir as my mother walked away with Amelia curled up, sound asleep, in her arms.
“Ethan, wake up,” I whispered, hoping not to startle him.
His eyes opened slowly, and he looked around. “Crap. I fell asleep, didn’t I?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I did, too. Even Amelia passed out.”
He sat up and rubbed his eyes. “I need to head home.”
“No, you can stay here. My mom made up the guest room for you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said she was evil.”
“She is, but apparently, she’s decided to shelve that attitude for the evening.”
“Wow, I don’t know what to say. Tell her thanks, I suppose.”
“You can tell her yourself in the morning.” I stood and held out my hand. “I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping.”
He stood and followed me out of the living room and down the hallway to the spare room that was next to mine.
I helped him get settled before whispering, “Good night,” and slipping from the room.
I walked to the kitchen and grabbed a glass out of the cabinet. I filled it with water and ice from the refrigerator. When I turned around, my mother was standing in the doorway, watching me.
“I just want a drink, and then I’m going to bed. I don’t want to fight tonight,” I said, hoping she’d let me go without a fight. I was too drained to deal with her.
“I don’t want to fight with you. I just want to talk.” She crossed the room and sat down on one of the kitchen chairs.
“Talk?” I asked, bewildered.
“Yes, talk. Sit down,” she said.
I cautiously walked across the room and sat down on the chair across from her.
She watched me for a moment before sighing. “I owe you an apology.”
I nearly choked on the sip of water I had just taken. “I’m sorry. What?”
“You heard me,” she grumbled. “But you have to understand where I was coming from. I was thinking of Amelia first. That little girl deserves all the happiness in the world, and I thought that you were being selfish and taking that away from her for your own happiness.”
“Amelia will always be my number one priority,” I told her. “She’s my daughter, and I will always try to do right by her. My decision to leave Joey wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. It had been building for years.”
“I realize that now.” She hesitated. “I’m sorry that he cheated on you. That must have hurt.”
I shrugged. “Surprisingly enough, it didn’t hurt all that much. That alone should tell you how much I’ve distanced myself from Joey already. I was more upset that some strange woman was holding Amelia than I was over Joey cheating on me.”
She chuckled. “You’re a strong woman to face that and not let your emotions get the better of you. I’m proud of you for that.”
I looked across the table at my mother, unsure of what to say. My mother had never said she was proud of me.
“Uh, thanks,” I finally said after a moment.
“You’re welcome.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, I just wanted to apologize and to tell you that your father and I are both here for you while you deal with all of this.”
“I appreciate that,” I said, stunned.
She nodded before standing. “I think it’s time for bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I watched her walk away. When she was gone, I finished my water and put my glass in the sink.
I chuckled to myself. Today just keeps getting stranger and stranger.
As I lay in bed later that night, I thought about everything that had happened in the last twelve hours. My precariously balanced life had taken a nosedive. Things had fallen apart, and within hours, they had repaired themselves.
For the first time, I felt like I finally had a chance to start over. Joey would no longer be holding me back.
I smiled. Joey and I would go our separate ways, and I could move on with my life, move on with Ethan. If that wasn’t something to smile about, I didn’t know what was.
THREE MONTHS LATER
Three months—that was how long it had taken for my divorce from Joey to finalize.
That was thirteen weeks or ninety one days or two thousand one hundred ninety hours.
Our years together had ended in what felt like no time at all.
We hadn’t fought, not even once. That would have been an unbelievable feat a few months ago.
The thought of Joey and I getting along back then had been laughable. Now, it was our new normal. It was strange. When we weren’t constantly around each other, all the petty shit that had driven each of us mad had finally faded away.
Although the things Joey had said and done to me over the years stayed with me, they didn’t bother me as much. Maybe it was because I’d stopped caring about what he thought. Or maybe it was because I no longer felt the need to make him happy. Whatever the reason, I was relieved.
With the help of my dad, Amelia and I had found a place of our own. It was a tiny house a few miles away from the apartment I had shared with Joey. When I’d said tiny, I’d meant tiny. It was a one-bedroom house, barely nine hundred square feet. I hated that Amelia didn’t have a room of her own, but I knew the house was only temporary. One day, I would have enough money saved up to put us into a two-bedroom home. I couldn’t complain about the house anyway. The rent was dirt cheap.
The day I received the letter in the mail, telling me that I was officially free, I did the only thing I could do. I drove straight to Ethan’s house. When he opened the door, I held up the letter with a ridiculous grin on my face.
“You’re free?” he asked.
I nodded. “I’m free.”
It took him all of five seconds to pull me to him and kiss me on the lips. I gasped in shock as his lips covered mine. We were standing on his front porch where anyone could see.
But then I remembered that it didn’t matter. We didn’t have to hide anymore.
When he finally released me, I had to fight to remember how to breathe.
“So, I’ve been meaning to ask you a question,” he said.
“What question would that be?”
He grinned. “I was wondering if you’d like to go on a date? I mean, technically, we’ve already been on one, but that didn’t turn out so well.”
“No, it certainly didn’t,” I said, remembering just how horrendously that date had ended. “And I’d love to go on a date with you.”
“I was hoping you’d be agreeable.” He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“And why is that?”
“Because I can finally tell the world that you’re mine. No more hiding, Caley. From now on, I’m going to let every single person who looks at you know that you belong to me.”
“Hmm…don’t I get a say in that?” I teased.
“Of course. If you’d rather no one knew for a while, we can wait.” His playful expression was gone. Now, he looked dead serious.
I laughed. “I was just kidding. You can put our picture on a billboard, for all I care. We don’t have to hide anymore.”
“Good to know.” He smiled.
“So, what happens now?” I asked, suddenly unsure of myself.
Since that one and only night I had spent in Ethan’s bed, I had made it a point to keep enough space between us, so it wouldn’t happen again. It had been hard to do, but somehow, we’d managed.
When I’d explained to Ethan that I wanted to wait until things were settled, he had understood, never once questioning why I had slept with him, only to take a step back.