“She said, how do you guys do it? You and Lizzy, you guys are like the gold standard for co-parenting.”
Normally, I would agree with her. But right now, I wasn’t so thrilled with Lizzy. She’d sensed blood in the water and had attacked. Sure, I was being dramatic. But this was the dozenth playdate I’d been on in six months, and I was only halfway through the hell I’d signed up for just so I could go to my fucking reunion.
“We both love Hannah very much, and always put her first.” I responded the way I always did when I was asked that question.
“Yeah, but you guys seem like friends, too.”
“Family. Lizzy and Ryan are my family,” I corrected her.
I caught my mistake as soon as I saw cartoon hearts floating around Heather’s head.Shit.Why did women always swoon when I talked about Lizzy and her husband in a favorable light?
From my limited dating experience, the bar that other men were setting had to be pretty fucking low considering the shit I said or did that women were impressed with or thought was sweet or romantic.
Heather leaned over and threw her arms around my neck. It was the fifth unprovoked and uninvited hug that she’d given me. Her arm kept brushing against mine and she reached out and touched me every chance she got. She’d just earned the nickname Huggy Heather.
I didn’t want to be a dick, but there was such a thing as personal boundaries. If the roles were reversed, I’d be seen as a predator or a pervert for giving a woman unwanted attention. But somehow, because I had a penis, the rules weren’t the same.
“Daddy, look!” Hannah, who was the best wingman in the world considering she always broke up any conversation I was having with a woman or anytime she saw a woman getting too friendly, called out. I guessed that made her the anti-wingman, and I loved her for it.
I leaned away from Heather. “I’m watching, Peanut!”
She swung from one side of the monkey bars to the other and I gave her a thumb’s up. When she hopped down onto the ground, I checked my phone, hoping that this playdate was almost over. When I saw that we’d only been at the park for thirty minutes I wanted to scream.
Actually, I wanted to claim that I had a business emergency and had to go. But when I looked up and saw Hannah and Willa giggling as they ran up the steps of the slide, I knew that I couldn’t do that.
This was the price I had to pay for deciding to go to my reunion just to get my heart trampled on. Again.
“Anyway, after I found out about his cheating, I threw him out. So, I’m single. Very newly single.”
“Great.”
“How long did you and Lizzy date?”
“About five years.”
She looked at me with pitying eyes. “And you haven’t been serious with anyone since?”
I wasn’t ever that serious about Lizzy, not that I would share that with Heather. She wasn’t the first woman to think that Lizzy was my Totga, the one that got away. I understood why people who barely knew me assumed that, since I hadn’t been with anyone since she had Hannah. But what they didn’t know was that I hadn’t been with anyone seriously before or during my casual relationship with Lizzy.
“Between work and Hannah, I don’t really have time for a relationship.” It was my standard answer.
Heather put her hand on my knee and batted her fake extension lashes at me. “For the right person, you could make time.”
I was about to move away when a text came through. I looked down, and even though it had been six months since I’d messaged Peyton and she still hadn’t responded, my heart still jumped every time I got a notification. Pathetic. I know.
It wasn’t her. It was work. My assistant Samara was just reminding me that I had meetings scheduled this evening with the new crop of interns. I always liked to meet each one personally before they were officially selected, although once they made it to the meeting with me, the position was theirs to lose. They had to do something really fucked up to not get hired.
The message didn’t require a follow up, but it gave me an excuse to put some space between myself and Huggy Heather.
I stood abruptly causing Heather’s hand to fall off my lap. “Excuse me, it’s work. I need to make a call.”
“Of course.” She nodded her head and smiled.
As I walked out of earshot, I felt like such a prick. Heather seemed like a nice enough woman. From what I had observed, she was a good mom. She had a decent sense of humor, and even courtesy laughed at my bad dad jokes. And she was clearly interested in me.
But I wasn’t interested in her. Or anyone. And I did not want to go through six more months of this crap.
I pulled up recent calls and hit Lizzy’s name.
