“Have you got ID?”Wait, what?
I looked up for the first time at the boy that stood behind the till. He smiled as he waited. He was deadly serious.
What the actual fuck?
I continued to stare at him, an eyebrow raised but he wasn’t budging. It was only when I handed over my driver’s license did his facade break - he winked at me.
Oh, dear lord.
“Don’t look a day over eighteen, if I do say so myself.”
Oh, dear ruler of heaven and hell, please don’t tell me this boy is flirting with me. I smiled tightly out of politeness as I took back my ID.
A split second to check him out and I swore I felt a gag coming on. He was young, it was a troublesome thought but he almost looked young enough to be my son. Or maybe that was just because I felt older on the inside than the outside. I could’ve only imagined what my sister would have to say about it when she heard. The memory of Ava asking for a brother for Christmas was burned in the forefront of my mind.
Then again, she was also asking about her father.
Fat chance in either of them showing up wrapped in a bow for Christmas.
I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. I was almost one hundred percent certain that he was not what Ava had pictured for a brother.
Quickly handing over the cash, I told him to keep the change and rushed out of the store as fast as I could physically drag myself. I peeled out of the parking lot and was pulling onto my sister’s driveway within five minutes, and I was still giggling my ass off. The way I was going, I thought I might not have even needed the alcohol. I was still riding on the coattails of my own amusement.
I gathered a shopping bag in one arm and my purse in the other. Standing by the front door, I fiddled with my keys until the lights of my beloved Audi flashed back at me.
“You have to hear this! You’re going to love it.” I burst through Naomi’s front door, clicking the door closed before making my way to the kitchen. “What’s that smell?”
Blake must have been baking again. He does that from time to time, usually before he has a business trip. It’s the sweetest thing, one of the things I envy my sister for. I’m not naive enough to think that they’re without their issues - the biggest not being a secret, their fertility issues. But I knew how much Blake adored my sister, you could see the love between them.
I wouldn’t trade Ava and Hallie for anything, but their conception wasn’t the most timely. It would have been nice to be in a long term relationship first, maybe even married.
Despite my envy, our situation also saddened me. At first, it made me feel guilty but I soon realized that that was silly.
My sister was in a shit situation, she might never have been able to conceive children. And there I was, six years ago, pregnant with twins without any intention. We didn’t speak for about a month after I told her. It was the longest we’d ever gone without speaking. The time apart was the worst but it only proved to bring us closer, all of us.
Now, she was the favorite - and only - cool aunt Naomi. We were a close-knit little family unit. We didn’t have the quantity but we definitely had the quality part down.
Giving my sister a side hug, I put the grocery bag down on the counter and that’s when I spotted them. “Ooooh.”
I dropped my sister like a hot cake to take off across the kitchen to the plate of homemade cinnamon rolls. My mouth watered at the sight.
“Count on you to be all over the cinnamon rolls.” She rolled her eyes and continued unpacking a bag full of tacos.
“It’s not like you’re going to eat them, you hate cinnamon.”
“Hey, I’m not complaining. Have them all for all I care - I was going to take them into work anyway.”
“I can’t believe you still haven’t told Blake that you hate cinnamon. You’ve been married for an age, and together for an age longer than that. How is it even possible that he doesn’t know?”
Naomi shrugged and I laughed at her around a mouthful of delicious roll. I seriously needed to find myself a man that could cook, or bake.
Hell, maybe not. Maybe just a decent human being would’ve been nice.
“Why is it that I have such bad luck with men?” It was a rhetorical question but my sister's face took on a look of pity. A look that I’d seen too many times whenever it came to the topic of my love life.
I wasn’t after pity or even an answer, I was after a solution. It had come to the point where I was starting to truly believe that I was cursed.
The only successful relationship I’d ever had was with Callum, who I’d lied to the entire time we were together, and then let walk away. Ironic really, that I let the love of my life go only to be left with his offspring.
