“You guys staying the night here?” Zach asked.
“As much as your mother wants to, I don’t think we will.”
“Someone should be here, Alex,” Zach’s mom said. “I don’t want our baby to wake up all alone.”
“I know, Amy, but you know you can’t stay all night.”
“Mom can stay with me,” Zach suggested, looking between her and his dad. He knew his mom’s multiple sclerosis was the reason his dad wouldn’t let her stay here. It was too hard on her, and his dad wouldn’t ever leave her by herself, especially overnight. “I can come back and pick her up later, and Dad can stay with Abbey.”
“We’ll talk about it,” his dad answered.
“Okay, well.” Grabbing the diaper bag, Zach lifted it and set it on the table, then stood. Cael stuffed the lidded bowl and container of fruit puffs into the bag, then winked up at Zach.
“All yours, Pook.”
Zach rolled his eyes, hiding his smile, and zipped up the bag as Cael held Taylor against his chest and stood. They said a quick good-bye to his parents. As Zach leaned down to hug his mom, she whispered something in his ear he never could have expected in that moment.
“You need to open your eyes, Zach, before it’s too late.”
***
With every pound of his feet on the asphalt path through the park, Zach felt a little normal again. Running outdoors kept him level-headed and gave him the time he needed to think and rebalance, so why he’d stopped doing it when Megan left him, he didn’t know.
Actually, he did know.
Zach had met Megan on a morning similar to this one. A couple years out of college, he had an apartment not too far from here and a solid job as a user interface designer for BlackRock, an entertainment company that had entered the massively multiplayer online role-playing game—MMORPG—industry a few years prior where he still worked to this day. He’d been out for a run in this very park when Megan jogged up beside him and asked if she could join him, and well, the rest was history.
After Megan left him, Zach stopped going on his usual morning runs through Belmar Park. She had been the second girl he’d dated that he’d met while out on a run, and he hadn’t been looking for a third.
That hadn’t changed. Zach still wasn’t looking, but he had needed to get out of the house and run for a good long while, so that’s what he did, and it felt fucking fantastic. The difference this time was that now, he had Taylor cruising along with him in the jogging stroller he’d found at Abbey’s apartment yesterday evening, though he didn’t realize he would be using it so soon.
Fuck. Abbey…
Zach had been trying not to think about her, especially since there was nothing he could do other than take care of Taylor and hope to fucking God she would come out of it with little permanent damage. He didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if she didn’t. So right now, he kept his focus on Taylor, and Abbey would come back to them soon. She just had to.
After a thought-provoking and re-energizing, six-mile run during which no one approached him, thankfully, Zach headed back home, knowing he’d have a shit ton of things to do today. First thing on his list: breakfast.
Zach parked the stroller inside the front door then strapped Taylor into her portable, booster-seat already secured to one of the dining room chairs. Grabbing the container of puffs Cael bought yesterday, he scattered a handful on her tray and began process of finding something in order to make them each a decent meal. He hadn’t been to the grocery store in a couple weeks, having been surviving on mostly fast food and pizza lately.
Item number two on his list: grocery shopping.
His stomach rumbled, and Zach cursed under his breath.
As if I need it to remind me that I’m fucking starving.
At least Taylor wouldn’t starve right away.
After using his shirt to wipe the drying sweat from his face, Zach grabbed the egg carton from the fridge and opened it to find one egg. He opened the bag of bread, noting it was four days past the best-by date, and counted three pieces, two of which were the heels. He had no milk, half a box of Golden Grahams, and not a single piece of fresh fruit in sight. It didn’t surprise him. Zach usually, if he had time, stopped for breakfast on his way to work, almost always ate out for lunch, and either stopped for dinner on his way home or ordered in.
Fuck it.Zach didn’t feel like having to strap Taylor in the car just to get some breakfast. The bread was decent. He could make toast. At least he had butter. And he would scramble the one egg. He hated cooking pretty much anything, but at least he could manage the basics.
As he popped the non-heel piece of bread in the toaster, figuring he’d make that one for Taylor, his phone rang, vibrating on the counter and flashing with Cael’s profile pic.
Zach answered. “Hey.”
“Hey. Will you open the door? My hands are full.”
Zach didn’t even question why Cael was on his doorstep as he headed toward the front of the house, keeping an eye on Taylor at the same time.
