“Yes. Absolutely. I just have to deliver one thing. No, don’t glare. It’s a part that didn’t get out to the job site and they need it ASAP. I’ll be back in an hour, hour fifteen tops.”
“Great,” I said, and it didn’t sound great at all. “I’m off at four. Plenty of time.”
“Delaney.”
“No, it’s good. Works with my schedule too. Dinner at five.”
“I could take it out there maybe in the morning…”
“No. Go. I’ll keep the chicken warm and throw the beer mugs in the freezer.”
He paused, eyes zagging to measure my mood. “You sure?”
“I’ll see you at home, Bailey.” I closed the distance and gave him a kiss on the cheek which felt a little weird, but I just couldn’t shake the sadness sitting lead-heavy in my stomach.
He gave me one last puzzled look, which I couldn’t decipher, then raised one eyebrow. “You know we’re okay, right?”
That was a landmine I refused to set off in the middle of a grocery store. I smiled. It was fake, but I wasn’t sure he would notice.
“Sooner you leave, sooner we get chicken,” I said with forced levity. “Fair warning, you’re eating all that salad. It’s full of peas.” I stuck my tongue out and that seemed to erase the worried look on his face.
His hands, which had been clenched at his sides, relaxed, the lines at the corners of his eyes smoothed out. “Hour, hour and a half,” he said, relieved.
“Drive safe.”
I watched him go, enjoying the swing of his toned shoulders and the way those work jeans cupped his ass and made his long legs look even longer.
“Think he’s going to get home before midnight?” I asked the dragon pig. Itoinked.
“Yeah, me neither.” I sighed and headed to the checkout.
* * *
The glass of wine was still half full. I’d taken three sips from it, just to see if Crow had any idea how to pick out wine.
He did. It was delicious.
When eight o’clock rolled by, I stabbed a piece of cold chicken with a fork and ate it over the sink. Then I packed away the food and placed the beer mugs back in the freezer.
The wine glass was still on the table, a testament to the “soon” that hadn’t come.
When nine o’clock rolled around, I lifted the glass, took one more small sip, then poured the rest of it down the drain.
I ran the water, staring as the deep maroon liquid went crimson, rose, blush, and was gone. Diluted into nothingness. Weaker than water.
Was this how our days would go? Moments of something wonderful watered down by the mundane until we were thinned out, invisible?
I turned off the water and dried my hands. Maybe that was the way other relationships ended, but not mine. Not with the man I’d loved for so many years. If we were going down the drain, we weren’t going down without a fight.
Spud and the dragon pig were sprawled across the big leather couch taking as much room as physically possible. Both were sleeping, a soft buzzing snore coming out of the dragon pig.
“All right, you slackers, scoot to one side. We’re gonna watch a movie.”
Before I could wedge my way into the corner of the couch, my phone rang.
“Delaney,” I answered.
“Perhaps you could assist me.” The voice was stuffed up, as if the speaker couldn’t get any air in through his nose.
