He gave me a curt nod. “Ms. Alicia.” Then he went back to raking the grass. I put Chloe down and picked Carlee up, giving her the same amount of kisses as I did Chloe while her little giggles filled the air. I put her down, then slowly approached Basil.
“Hey, can I talk to you for a second?”
“What’s up?”
I walked a little ways away from the kids and summoned him over. I made sure the kids were out of earshot before I spoke. “I went to the bank today to withdraw some cash for Carsyn’s trip, and I checked my account.”
His eyebrow raised, and he gave me theand?look. “Did you put money into my account?”
“I did.”
“How and why?”
“I saw your account information on your desk when I went to clean your office one day. I did it because I wanted to.”
“But that’s your money, Basil. I pay you to be a manny to my children, not to do all of this work for free.”
“It’s nothing, Ms. Alicia. I don’t need it for real. I do this because I enjoy it, not because I need the money.”
“But don’t you have employees to pay?”
“They’ll get paid regardless. Like I said, it’s nothing.”
I folded my arms in frustration. “I’m going to send it back. You put too much in there anyway.”
“Then I’ll just send it right back. Like I told you before, I don’t want to play ping-pong with the money. The bank will eventually think something fraudulent is going on, then you’d have to call customer service and go through the process of unlocking your account, just for me to send itrightback. Is that what you want?”
“Why are you being this way?”
“What way? Because I’d rather not take your money and take care of your kids for free?”
“Yes. I don’t want you working for me for free.”
“Why?”
“Because you do a lot and deserve to get paid for your services. It’s not an obligation; it’s a job.”
He chuckled and went back to raking the grass. “I’m going to Home Depot once I’m done with this to grab some grass seeds and flowers. I was going to text you to ask what kind you like, but since you’re here, you can tell me what kind of flowers you want in your flowerbed.”
“No,” I said, defiantly.
“Then I’ll just take a wild guess.”
“Uugh! Whatever, Basil.” I turned, walked away from him, and headed inside the house through the patio doors. Before I closed them, I stuck my head out and yelled, “And I like daisies!” Then I proceeded inside the house. Even though I didn’t want him doing all of this for free, it made me a little happy inside that he had given me this much dialogue. He had been so dry since Sunday, and I didn’t like it.
Later that evening, after the kids were down and Basil left, only giving me a soft goodbye, I marveled over the work he’d done to my flower bed. My feelings were conflicted because I could see how much he truly cared for the kids and me. It was just hard to accept because I kept holding on to the bullshit from the man I thought was my forever.
I took my shower, put on my pj’s, then got on a four-way FaceTime call with my mom, Raeley, and my aunt Alexis since I wasn’t sleepy. I missed talking to my aunt, who was worse than my mother when it came to not having a filter.
“I miss you, Aunt Lex. When are you coming to see us?”
“I miss you too, baby. And whenever this man let me damn breathe.”
I smiled. “How is Uncle Charles?”
“A pain in my ass, but don’t tell him I said that. I need him to keep giving me that disability check.”
I laughed. “What? Uncle Charles isn’t disabled!”
