I wetted a hand towel from the attached bathroom and sat down next to her.
“Are you all done?” I asked and pointed at her food. Or what was left of it.
She nodded, not looking at me. I took her bowl, set it on the nightstand and went about cleaning her up. I picked off the bits of macaroni stuck to her face and shirt and brushed off any pieces smashed onto the bed cover.
“I think we have to change your PJs. They’re all wet from the towel. Sorry,Spatz.”
She lifted her arms, indicating her approval. I pulled her top off and tickled her belly, making her giggle and squirm. “No, Mimi,” she told me between giggles, bending her little body so she could continue watching the TV.
I left her in her night Pull-Ups and searched the bag for a change of clothes. Her second pair of PJs were at the bottom and by the time I’d found them, the contents of the bag were strewn all across the floor. “Got them,” I exclaimed triumphantly and held them up.
“Did you leave anything in the bag?” Rhett asked from the door, holding a bowl in his hand.
I scrambled to my feet and got back on the bed. “They were at the bottom. I had to get everything out to reach them.” I pulled the top over Josie’s head. “Arms up.” She did as instructed, looked over at Rhett and waved, halting my efforts to put her hand in the sleeve.
He smiled at her, a genuine light-up-his-face smile that left me breathless. “Hello, Josie. How was your dinner?”
“Good,” she said and I finally managed to wrangle her into her PJs. “Sit,” she said and pointed at the screen. “Pukl.” She still hadn’t figured out how to say the name properly, and I didn’t blame her. It was a long ass name that didn’t make any sense.
He shot a questioning look my way and I translated. “She wants you to sit down and watch her show because that’s what we did for dinner. The main character is called Pumuckl. But it’s okay, you don’t have to –”
I didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence before he sat down, his back to the pillows, legs stretched out in front of him.
Who was this person? “Are you feeling okay?” I asked, genuinely curious. Let’s just repeat that he was sitting on a bed, watching a show in a language he didn’t understand and wearing a thousand dollar suit, all while eating mac and cheese. And he looked perfectly comfortable doing it.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be? Are you going to finish your dinner?” He lifted the fork to his mouth and continued eating.
“I guess so,” I said and sat down on the other side of the bed, Josie sprawled out in the middle. My food was cold but I didn’t care, I couldn’t taste anything anyway.
Josie continued to repeat sentences, making me laugh. I had finished my dinner, stacked my bowl on top of Josie’s and was leaning back into the fluffiest pillows known to man. I was smiling because how could you not when you had the cutest two year old next to you. My moment of peace was interrupted when I made the mistake of looking at Rhett. And he was watching me. Like there was nobody else in the room. Like we were more than old friends. Like he thought I was special.
He needed to stop. “Don’t look at me like that,” I said, squirming under his intense scrutiny.
“How am I looking at you, Emmi?”
“You know how.”
“And here we go with the non-answers again.”
“Just watch the show.”
“What if I’d rather watch you?”
“Don’t. You have a fiancée,” I couldn’t help but say.
“How would you know that?”
“It’s public knowledge.”
“No, it’s not.” He sat up and grinned, looking way too happy. “Have you been stalking me?”
“Of course not. Someone must have mentioned it.”
At that his smile dimmed. “Couldn’t imagine who would that have been.”
“Hah, I knew it. You do have a fiancée.”
He sat up straight. “I don’t have a fiancée. There has always only been one girl for me and it wasn’t her.”
