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Chapter Twenty-Six / 2013


Nick

I got about three hours of sleep that night for a combined total of maybe five hours over the past seventy-two hours. When I woke up the last time at about six, I wanted so bad to just roll over and go back to sleep but even as I tried the world set out to stop me. Hotel room doors slammed and kids ran through the hallway, parents shouted at their heavy-footed children, and water hissed and hummed through the walls, carrying hot water to various showers. Plus, in my mind, behind my eyelids, ran a continuously looping video of Lauren fucking the brains right out of Travis. In my house. In my bed. In front of my dog.

It was the thought of poor Nacho cocking his head as he watched Lauren's naked, sweaty body writhe beneath Travis's lumpy ass that made me get up. If for nothing else, I had to get out of bed to save my dog. I threw on the same clothes I'd been wearing since I left the house and drove down the 65 to Cool Springs. Every turn that brought me closer to Lauren made my stomach churn all the harder. When I pulled up in the driveway and saw hers wasn't the only car on the cobblestones, I felt like throwing up.

I got out of the car and walked up the path, my fingers clutching my keys, and I opened the door. My hope was that Nacho would come running out an all I'd have to do is scoop him up and run for it. But he didn't come to the sound of the door opening. I stood there awkwardly in my own hallway, feeling like an unwanted, unexpected guest in my own house. I swallowed and stepped in further.

"Nacho," I called out, desperately hoping that I would be able to locate the pug before Lauren ever realized I'd been there.

I heard thumping on the steps and I looked up to see Nacho rushing down them, his little stubby tail whirling in circles in excitement. I crouched down as he reached the bottom step and scrambled over to me, his tongue lolling out. Then Lauren's shadow fell across the carpet and I realized she was there behind him, reaching the last step as Nacho arrived in my grasp. I wrapped my arms around him and picked him up, hoisting him onto my hip for leverage.

"Nick. You're here," Lauren said, surprise in her voice.

I shook my head, "I'm not staying."

She didn't even make a motion to stop me.

"I'm taking Nacho."


"Nick," Lauren said, "We need to talk. Please. I don't want to lose --" There was a creak at the top of the staircase and I looked up. At the top, Travis was just coming around the corner of the hallway, rubbing his hair with a towel. My towel. Around his waist hung another of my towels. I made a mental note that those towels were trash.

I stared up at him.

"Babe, you really blew my mind in there, I've never been so turned on in my entire --" Travis stopped mid-sentence upon spotting me and he stood there, all hairy-chested and wide-eyed for a long moment before turning and rushing back down the hall the way he'd come.

Lauren glanced back from having turned to look at him, too, and her face was as red as anything.

"I need you out of here by the end of the week," I said, and I turned toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Lauren demanded.

"What does it matter to you?"

"Was I right?" she asked.

I turned away without answering, grabbed the knob of the door, and carried Nacho out across the lawn to the car. Lauren followed me. "You went there, didn't you?" she shouted across the lawn, "You went there because that's where you belong, with her."

"Stop martyring yourself," I yelled. I opened the car door and shoved Nacho in. "You're not going to make me feel guilty for going to see my kid. My kid, Lauren. It's the right thing to do, being there for him. I'm not the one that broke us. You are. So stop acting like I've wronged you somehow 'cos I ain't done nothin'."

And I hadn't. I truly hadn't.

Lauren was standing about halfway down the walkway in bare feet. It was pretty cold outside, cold enough I could see my breath in the morning light. The sun was up but it hadn't quite struck the lawn yet. Lauren and Travis's cars both had frost on the windshields. It was as I turned back from he door after closing Nacho in that I realized Lauren was wearing a pair of boxers - not mine - and an old Journey t-shirt - my old Journey t-shirt. My throat ached at the visual reminder that she was both with him and with me at the same time.

As I was reaching for the driver-side door, Lauren asked, "Nick. If I hadn't cheated... if she hadn't shown up in our lives... would you have still married me in March?"

I stared at her over the roof of the car. "I asked you to marry me, didn't I?" I demanded.

Lauren wrapped her arms around herself to block the cold. "Yeah. But... you were gone from this relationship way before your kid became a part of the equation." She took a deep breath and sighed it back out, the air turning to a cloud all around her. "You stopped being fifty percent of 'us' before you even proposed. A diamond was like glue you were using to put us back together."

"Maybe I was," I replied. "I don't know. But at least I tried to fix it instead of taking a fucking hammer to it." I shrugged, then, before she could say anything more, I got in the car and I left Lauren there on the front lawn in Travis's underwear.




Abbey

I caught Matty trying to throw tater tots onto the fan when I returned to the dining room after leaving to refill his milk glass during lunch. "Jeraldo looked hungry," Matty explained, staring up at the blades overhead as I picked several tots up from the carpet with a paper towel. "I'm a bad thrower."

"Jeraldo can get his own food," I answered, "I'm sure he eats during the night or something." I put the tots into the trash bin. "Let's not throw our food, okay?"

"Okay," Matty agreed.

There was a knocking at the door and I pushed Matty's glass of milk to him and went to answer it. After glancing through the peephole, I opened the door up for Nick, who was standing there with his hands in his pockets. "Hey Nick," I said, stepping back to allow him into the apartment. I smiled, trying to look reassuring because he looked down.

"Hey," he said. His eyes swiveled to Matty. "Hey buddy, how're you?"

"I'm good," Matty answered. Then he glanced up at Jeraldo. "Thank you for asking," he added politely, "How are you?"

Nick glanced up at the ceiling fan, "Whoaaaa... is that an elf?" he asked.

Matty nodded enthusiastically. "That's Jeraldo, he's an elf from the north pole and he's making sure I'm not being naughty. He's funny. He came yesterday. He put up all them lights on our porch!"

"No way," Nick replied. "That's insanely cool. What's he doing on the fan?"

"I dunno," Matty answered, "Sleeping, it looks. He sleeps during the day. I think he might be nop-turtle."

Nick blinked trying to figure out the last word. "Nocturnal," I supplied. Nick's face dawned with realization.

He smiled, "Well, I'd imagine he'd feel kinda jetlagged if he's from the north pole. I sleep a lot when I get somewhere after traveling too." Matty stared up at the elf and absently nibbled on the tuna melt sandwich I'd made him. Nick glanced at me. "Can I talk to you a second?" he asked.

"Sure," I replied. I turned to Matty, "You finish your lunch. I'm going to talk to Nick out here in the living room a second."

"Uh huh..." Matty was still staring up at the elf, evidently imagining him flying to our house from the north pole or something, fully distracted. I probably could've danced around in a chicken suit and the kid wouldn't have noticed it.

Nick and I ducked out to the living room. "What's up?" I asked, trying to stay light hearted. Nick's face looked fallen now that Matty was in the other room, and I noticed the bags under his eyes, the redness to them. He looked exhausted.

He sighed. "I have an immense favor to ask you, and it's okay if you say no. I'll figure something out, but --" Nick was staring at his hands. "I went home this morning to get - to get something - and Lauren was wearing his boxers... and... I took my dog home with me, and the hotel doesn't allow dogs and --" He looked at me with pleading eyes.

I'd seen pictures of the dog - a fat pug named Nacho.

"I need somewhere to keep him until I can get home. Just until the end of the week. I told her I want her out by then."

"He can stay here," I said.

Nick's eyes lit up with relief, "Really?"

I nodded. Then I added, "For that matter, if you don't mind the couch, so can you."

He blinked in surprise.

We both stood there in this weird silence that fell between us. I wasn't sure why it was weird, why there was a silence falling there. It was like an awkward pause, but I wasn't sure why. After all, I hadn't suggested anything too weird, had I? He was a friend - the father of my son - and I was offering him to stay on my couch for a week with his dog until he could get back into his own house. Why would that be awkward?

Because of the tension, I thought, remembering the sexual electricity that had passed between us outside of the hospital on Friday. It seemed like an eternity ago, so much had happened since that moment, but it still hung there between us at the suggestion of him sleeping over.

But it made sense, I argued with myself. Matty would love it, that was for sure. And the project of moving Jeraldo around would become far easier for him to do. And then he could have a place to be with Nacho and I wouldn't have to take care of the dog. It would only be until Lauren got out of the house at the end of the week.

I voiced all these perks to him, counting them off on my fingers as I spoke, "There's a huge pros list," I concluded.

"You're sure?" he asked, "I wouldn't be putting y'all out?"

"Of course not," I replied. "It'd be nice to have a man around the house for a couple days."

"I can pay you," he said.

"Stop being silly," I answered.

"I'll pay you what I'm paying at the hotel."

"Nick, seriously. You're my friend. You're staying here. It's not a hotel." He had his wallet out already. He hesitated and slipped it away in his pocket again at my persistence. "Where's Nacho now?" I asked.

"In the car," he replied. "I'll go get him."

I nodded. "You might have trouble getting him away from Matty when you leave," I laughed.

Nick laughed, too.

When he went outside, Matty asked me, "Where's Mr. Nick going?"

I took a deep breath and sat at the table. "Nick's going to get his stuff. He's going to stay with us for a couple days, is that okay with you?"

"Like a sleepover?"

"Exactly," I replied.

Matty's eyes got wide. "This is gonna be so cool."