Page 18 of Tailored for You

Enzo was bigger in both height and muscle. He looked like he was built to knock people out. Charles was a few inches shorter and had a runner’s build, but it was unearned.

After spending time in close proximity with Enzo, any ability Charles had to intimidate me on a physical level was long gone.

Thank god for small mercies.

“I have work to do. If you want to see Harper, I’ll bring her out. If you only want to bother me, you need to go.” I pointed at the door.

“I’ll show up whenever I want. Since when do you think you can order me around?” Charles snarled.

“I’m not telling you to go. I’m giving you an option,” I said, trying to keep the peace. We’ve had our fights, loud and yelling, but I always made sure Harper wasn’t home when it happened.

“You’re damn right I have a choice. If I want to take all this away,” he said, waving his hand around, “I can. My alimony paid for all of this. If you break the terms, you have to give back every penny.”

He made it so easy to hate him.

“The alimony you paid out was because of pain, suffering, and inexcusable behavior unbecoming of a man of your status. I don’t know how you’ve made it this long without basic reading comprehension, but you can try to take this away from me,” I waved my hands as he did, “and you’ll fail. You don’t own me or anything I’ve built.

“Regardless, this is an optional day that you’re supposed to talk to me about.” I tried to get control of my anger, partly because Harper was somewhere in the area and I didn’t want her to ask questions about why we were fighting. Mostly, though, I hated giving him the satisfaction of getting any emotion out of me.

He opened his mouth, but there was a cry of “Daddy!” from behind us.

The sneer fell off Charles’ face as he looked over my shoulder.

I glued my feet to the ground instead of blocking Harper’s path to Charles.

He was here now, and with Harper having seen him, I couldn’t deny her time with her father. She would grow to resent him in her own time, when he didn’t keep his promises. I couldn’t hide what a disappointment he was forever.

Harper crawled between my legs, bounced up, and ran to Charles, latching on to his legs.

I glanced up, catching Enzo’s gaze, which happened to be on me. Intently. Knowingly. I shook my head, attempting to convey to him that I had to stand down. As much as I wanted to keep Harper from the hurt her father would cause her, she was ecstatic to see him.

Despite knowing our divorce was iron-clad, I needed to look at the papers again. Charles had resources and money, two things I lacked. If he were motivated enough, he’d use them to tear my world apart, starting with taking Harper.

“Come on, let’s go get dinner with Grandma,” Charles said. Relief washed through me. He was going to follow through, for once.

After almost a year of never taking her on his optional day, he showed up after we had a standoff in front of his friends. Or maybe he remembered he had a daughter to take care of. There were too many options to speculate on, and it was a waste of my time to think about.

“I’ll get my shoes.” Harper jumped from Charles’ arms, dove between my legs, did the same to Enzo, who was standing behind me, and ran back into our apartment.

“Keep testing my patience, Serena. I didn’t push back the first time because I had better things to do. If you insist on pissing me off, we can go back to court and revisit our custody agreement. I’m sure she’d love to spend more time at my place.”

Harper ran back in, and I had to stifle a laugh. I turned to find the same judgmental expression on his face that was there when he tried to belittle me.

He caught my gaze. I narrowed my eyes at him, daring him to say something or ask her to change.

Charles opened his mouth, glanced over my shoulder, and promptly closed it. Enzo’s stare screamed murder.

In the short time she was gone, Harper managed to change from her shorts and t-shirt to blue sparkly leggings, an orange shirt so bright it hurt the eyes, mismatched socks, her signature gold ballet flats, which were falling apart, and a wide-brimmed sunhat.

She turned to Enzo and struck a pose. “How do I look?”

“Perfection. You’re ready for the runway,” he said.

She turned to me, and I gave her a thumbs-up. At least this time she didn’t forget to put on pants. We were making improvements.

“Let’s go. Let’s go. Hurry.” She pulled Charles’ arm, but he stayed put, wrinkling his nose at her attire but wisely didn’t comment.

“We’ll be back around 8:30.” He turned, picked Harper up, and carried her out.