I gave her a look. “Ploy.”
Reek’s head turned toward me. “When she did what?”
I waved her off, shaking my head. “She’s exaggerating.”
Ploy pointed at me. “I no exaggerate. She sit right there all the time. Look out window, eat little bit, think too much. I say, ‘Ava, you sad’. She say, ‘No, Ploy, I’m tired’. Always tired.”
Reek got quiet beside me.
Ploy finally looked at him fully. Her eyes moved from his face to Cairo, then back to his face again. “This baby daddy?!”
Reek slid his shades to the top of his head, grinning. “Yeah.”
Ploy studied him with no shame. “You handsome.”
His smile deepened. “Thank you.”
She pointed at him. “You give her trouble?”
“At first he did,” I answered before he could lie.
Reek looked at me, fake offended. “You had to put me out there like that?”
As I giggled, Ploy nodded like that told her everything. “I know. Handsome men always trouble.”
“You hear that?” I asked him.
Reek shrugged. “I heard her call me handsome twice. That’s all I’m taking from it.”
Ploy laughed and reached for Cairo’s little hand. “Baby look like both. Nose like daddy. Mouth and eyes like mama. He look like he boss already.”
“He is,” Reek boasted.
“He gets it from his father,” I added.
Ploy clapped her hands once. “You sit. Your table is open.”
I walked toward the same spot by the window. It was still tucked near the glass, close enough to see the street but far enough from the door that I couldn’t feel the heat.
I slid into the seat facing the window. Reek sat across from me with Cairo still strapped to him, and for a few seconds, I didn’t say anything.
I could still see myself alone, pregnant, and too proud to admit that I missed Reek. I could still feel the distance between what I wanted and what I thought I had to accept.
Back then, I never imagined Reek would ever be sitting across from me in this restaurant. I never imagined he would be holding our son. I never imagined I would come back here with my family.
Reek watched me closely. “You good?”
I nodded, but it took me a second to answer. “Yeah. I’m good.” Then I blew out a sigh of relief. “When I was living here, I would sit here, pregnant, mad, emotional, and scared.” I looked at Cairo, then back at Reek. “I never thought you would be here with me one day.”
Reek’s jaw flexed as I saw the guilt blanket his eyes. “I should’ve never made you feel that way.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But you’re here now.”
He looked down at Cairo and rubbed his back through the harness. “Yeah, I’m here now, and I’m never going anywhere.”
Ploy came over with a menu and placed them on the table, but said, “I cook for you. No menu.”
Reek lifted a brow. “Hold on now.”
