“Are we past twenty thousand views?” April asked, cringing inside. Usually, she had to work her ass off to get to that kind of number with her soothing meditation video series.
Rachel didn’t even have to look at her phone. “You passed that a while ago.”
April shivered. The whole viral experience made her skin crawl. Which was pretty standard for any kind of virus, really.
Still, April’s heart fell to her knees, and she immediatelystoppedasking for updates because there was no way she’d be able to keep any sort of tranquility with those kinds of stats.
Each view was another nail in the coffin of her career. Another reason for Kent to have to continue helping her out. More proof that she’d failed, again.
“How do I even keep going with this?” she whispered. The whisper wasn’t at her normal volume because she was just now realizing that she couldn’t put herself through another round of live video. Definitely not on the biggest parenting web show out there. No more live anything for her.
Definitely not this kind of live…the kind that messed everything up for those involved.
“We all have times when we’re embarrassed,” Rachel assured, rubbing April’s arm. “It’s part of the human experience.”
Easy for her to say. She wasn’t the wild-eyed, not-so-calm influencer trending on MyTube.
“My kid’s pee is all over the internet,” April moaned. Did anyone understand how hard it was to meditate when her life was self-destructing?
“Yes, I know. Andyouknow you didn’t have to clean it all by yourself,” Rachel murmured, her lips against the edge of her wineglass. She still seemed a touch perturbed that April had insisted on cleaning it up alone. But while Rachel may have technically been hired as April’s executive assistant, her job description said nothing about bodily fluids. Whereas April’s job, as the child’s mother, did.
“You weren’t there as my friend, you were there as a professional.” That was April’s stance, and she stood by it.
“Couldn’t I be there as both?” Rachel asked, tilting her head to the side.
April slid her gaze out the picture window to the backyard. The kids had combined all the piles into one giant leaf mountain and were diving right in.
Except…Rohan. Rohan sat to the side, flicking his tongue against a leaf.
April’s throat clogged. She needed to deal with that, too.
There was always so much to deal with. None of it simple.
“Trust me when I say that accepting help when it’s offered is a good thing,” Rachel said.
Yes, theoretically, she understood this. But that moment at the store hadn’t been theoretical, and she didn’t want someone else to clean up her mess.
“My mess. My job.” April closed her eyes. Kent used to be such a great partner with the kids. Until that something in him cracked, and he decided he didn’t want to do it anymore.
At all.
Not even every other weekend. Taking them out for dinner twice a week hardly counted as partnership. Kent didn’t do things halfway, so he didn’tonlyhave a midlife crisis. No, he pulled them all through his midlife catastrophe with him. Moved out. Got a damn condo and a girlfriend. Shattered little hearts. Well and truly broke the family they’d built side by side, leaving April alone to dig through the rubble and rebuild all by herself.
While he came out on the other side, the rest of them were still in the middle of the wreckage.
Still finding their way out.
This chance at being an influencer had been her golden ticket. A golden ticket she’d worked so hard to earn. Spent hours building. Hours she hadn’t spent with her kids. Hours she hadn’t visited with her friends. Hours and hours of time…wasted.
Like her marriage.
“You should know, the pee isn’t the part trending. It’s the‘goddamned dad’ part.” Rachel scrolled through her cell. “And your expression when she said it. And…after she said it.”
“How bad do you think this will be for me?” April asked no one in particular, but everyone all the same. “On a scale of Justin Timberlake to Justin Theroux?”
“I’d say we’re a solid Bieber,” Rachel said with a hefty dose of remorse. “Still volatile, but it’ll probably be okay.”
Probably be okay. This was what April’s professional life had come to. To be honest, her personal life wasn’t much better.
