And I had a feeling she was getting fed up with it.
“I won’t pin this one on Tony.”
“You need to tell Lena what’s going on with Darius.”
“Are you high?” I screeched.
Everyone looked at me.
I hid behind my mojito.
Toni let it die down before she said low, “I think more, youneed to figure out what’s going on withyouand Darius.”
I hated to admit it.
But she wasn’t wrong.
I knew it’d take patience, but this was crazy.
And nothing I was doing was working.
Sure, we had great sex that never got old because it couldbe a month, even two, between times we could get together.
And no, it wasn’t just sex.We talked.He ate up everythingI could tell him about Liam like my words were mana from heaven.He asked aboutmy new job at the law firm now that I’d finished my degree and landed aposition as a paralegal.He asked about Mom, Dad, Lena, Toni.
He did not talk about himself.
He was a master at avoiding it.
Half the time, I was kissing him goodbye before I realizedI’d had him again and gotten nowhere.
Liam was now nine.Toni and Tony had gotten pregnant and hada baby girl.Lena had been through five new guys before she latched onto thisone.
And although I had Darius’s number, and I texted him everyday, and spoke to him just because on occasion, and he always took my calls andnever left my texts hanging, we were no closer to the important things.
Like telling his family he had a child.
Like telling my family he was in my life.
Like introducing him to his son.
Oh sure, I had excuses.
First, it was having a kid and studying for my degree andhaving a full-time job, and those were all good excuses.
Then, it was my kid growing up and getting into activities,while I was still studying for my degree and having a full-time job whileshuffling him to peewee football and junior basketball and piano lessons (don’task me, my mom made us do it, Liam hated it, but we both promised her twoyears, and he was closing in on the end of year two, so we just had stick itout).
Then it was interning, and a full-time job, and a kid, andactivities.Then having a new job and needing to put in the hours, which wereextensive, to make myself part of the team.
In the mix of all that was keeping a house, groceries in thecupboards, good, cooked food on the table, time with my boy and his homework,laundry, the oil needing changed on the car, yadda, yadda, yadda.
I mean, life was life.It was full.Things got away fromyou.
But this was getting ridiculous.
“They’re worried,” Toni said.
I mentally shook myself out of my thoughts and asked, “Who’sworried?”
