“He said that his second in command has wanted apple fritters every single day this week. Doesn't that make you wonder why that is? It seems a little shady to me.”
Laura agreed. “So, what are you going to do?”
Again, there was no answer. She had no idea what she was going to do. It all it was too complicated and made her head hurt. Couldn't Laura see that?
“Wow. This was not at all what I was expecting when I came over here.”
“What were you here for?”
“I was here to tell you that I wasn't going to be able to pick up Ethen. I have a doctor’s appointment that I really need to go to. Do you think you can figure out another way to get him?”
While she had known that it would one day be an issue, Mallory had not liked to think about it too much. How was she supposed to get her son and not be seen? That had always been the biggest problem. It was because she was so afraid of running into Vincent. Considering what it was like when she did, she was right to be nervous.
“I don't know what I'm supposed to do, Laura.”
“I can miss the appointment if you really need me to go get him. Maybe I should. Especially with him running into you like he did.”
Mallory said no, Ethen was hers. She was just going to have to figure something out. Whatever it was that Laura was going for, she wanted her to get it taken care of. It was one small thing, and it was her own son. She would just have to figure something out.
After Laura left, Mallory was left wondering what that something was going to be. She didn't quite have a handle on it yet, but convinced herself that she would by the end of the day.
***
Mallory just ended up calling Nathan and telling him that she was going to pick up Ethen a little bit before the end of class. She didn't mention the fact that he was setting her up. All went quite well, and she started to wonder if she was just being overly cautious. She was so convinced that bad things would happen when he found her. Maybe that wasn't the case at all.
Ethen was excited as always about school and told her all about what he had learned. He even mentioned Vincent by name. Telling her that he really liked him.
Alarm bells went off in the back of her head, but it didn't seem to be that sort of problem. Nothing had been said to Ethen about who he actually was. Instead, it all seemed to be a coincidence. She was quite sure that if he would have known that Ethen was his child, he would have said something to her the several times he was at her job. The man had never been too good at keeping his thoughts to himself. That's what made her believe that it surely had to be just a coincidence. He didn't know about Ethen. So, how strange was it that the two of them seemed to be bonding so well?
I felt like it was a sign. Like it was what was supposed to happen.
Mallory pulled her mind out of that thought process, knowing it wasn't going to do any good. She told herself that she would stay the course. It was the only way.
***
She looked up to see Vincent smiling at her, and Mallory just kind of sighed to herself, like she knew that it was coming.
“What are you doing here, Vincent?”
“I'm here to get an apple fritter.”
“Did you ever think that maybe you should go to another place?”
“Can you at least answer me why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you so bent out of shape to see me? I thought we ended everything on a pretty high note. You're still single from what I hear.”
“Why would you hear anything about me?”
He told her it was because he had asked, and she was a bit surprised that he was so honest about it. He seemed a lot different than the cocky and over- sure man that she knew from the past. Had things really changed that much?
“I don't know what to say half the time. You're a bit confusing.”
He chuckled and asked her if that was true. Mallory agreed that it was.
“Maybe I realized that I made a mistake all those years ago. I should have said something was off with you and Balthazar and fought harder for you, Mallory.”
