Nick was avoiding the park. He’d managed to come up with a lengthy to do list for himself that had to be completed before he could go anywhere.

Olivia hadn’t seemed to notice yet. She had her aunt there to play with, which had her distracted with tea parties and movies. It was tea party time just then, he noticed as he walked into the little girl’s bedroom to see the two of them sitting on the floor around a small plastic table.

“So is this what you do all day?” Gina asked him. Her question seemed innocent but he knew it was loaded with sarcastic undertones.

“Clothes don’t clean themselves,” he shot back, setting a laundry basket down on the dresser. He carefully watched his rival from the corner of his eye as he opened up drawers to start filling them with Olivia’s clean clothes.

Gina just chuckled and continued to watch him fold the laundry and put it away in the appropriate drawer, “When I first met you I just never pictured you as someone quite so domesticated.”

Nick tossed a t-shirt back into the basket and turned to his sister-in-law, “What exactly do you want me to say? I’m just rolling with the punches here. I never thought I would be a stay at home dad but that is just how it has ended up. What is so wrong about that?”

Gina stood then joined him at the basket, helping with the folding, “I just don’t really get why you’re okay with sitting at home babysitting when you could actually be contributing to your family.”

Nick looked at her in complete shock, “I’m not contributing? Do you expect Olivia to take care of herself? It’s not like we can afford daycare.”

“And why is that?” Gina wondered, looking over at Olivia who was feeding Mittens a cookie happily, “Why is it that my sister works her ass off, works her fingers to the bone every day to support Olivia, and support you, while you sit around here? Don’t you think you might have the cash to pay for child care if you got a job?”

He couldn’t believe she was attacking him as if she knew what was best for them, “Who do you think you are? Did Holly say something to you?”

“She didn’t need to,” Gina scoffed, “She told me about your financial situation, and how you’re taking off to expensive hotels for the weekend like you don’t even care what the repercussions of that are. I don’t like that my sister makes herself sick trying to get the nerve to ask me for money.”

This was news to him. He wasn’t under the impression that they were well off, but he didn’t know they were in a situation where Holly would need to borrow money from her sister. He’d thought they were comfortable, “I don’t have anything to say to you. I don’t need to justify myself, or the decisions I’ve made with my wife. You don’t know me.”

“I know you well enough,” Gina boasted, raising a thin brown eyebrow in his direction, “and I know my sister. For some reason she won’t take my advice when I tell her to dump your ass. You’re just a bum, pure and simple. Your life is so simple. Someone else pays the bills while you follow your grand dreams. The day I see you finish something you start... I’ll eat my shirt.”

Nick gave her a once over then laughed curtly, “Lucky for you half the things you wear are clearly too small, so you won’t have too much to scarf down. Olivia, it’s time to put the toys away, let’s go to the park!”

~*~

“Benji!” Olivia yelled excitedly, squirming out of her father’s arms so she could run towards the playground.

Nick tried to grab at her as she took off, “No running!” he huffed but she ignored him and continued on her way to the sandboxes.

“Way to get a handle on things, Dad,” Gina laughed sarcastically and Nick turned and glared at her.

“If you’re going to follow me around all day the least you can do is shut the fuck up.”

Hissing at him like an angry cat Gina just kept walking, picking up the pace to make it to the playground ahead of him.

“Bitch,” Nick muttered, watching her go. He nearly stopped in his tracks when he noticed Alaina. He knew she was there because Benji obviously wasn’t at the park by himself, but seeing her was difficult. He knew she was going to want an explanation for him just up and leaving their weekend away, but she wasn’t going to get one. With Gina there it was going to be impossible for them to have an open and honest discussion, and they certainly wouldn’t be going back to her place for nap time.

“Hey,” Alaina said as Nick finally reached the group.

“Hi,” he replied awkwardly, sticking his hands in his pockets, “How are you?”

“Good,” she replied, arms crossed across her chest, “You?”

“Wonderful.”

Gina looked between the two of them, sensing a fair amount of tension, “Hi, I’m Gina. Nick’s sister-in-law,” she introduced herself to the other woman, taking a moment to take a good look at her.

Alaina could feel the other woman’s eyes on her so she stepped away uncomfortably, “Nice to meet you. I’m Alaina, Benji’s mother.”

“I got to meet Benji yesterday actually when he was here. Olivia seems to be very fond of him,” Gina said with a false smile, “My sister and I were just talking about you guys last night, actually.”

“Oh, you were?” Alaina asked curiously, wondering what they could have been saying.

Gina turned to look up at Nick, opening up the opportunity for him to invite them over but he stayed silent. He was still just looking at Alaina, “Nick?” she prompted, “Weren’t we just talking about them last night?”

Looking back and forth between the two women Nick cleared his throat, “Um, right, we were,” he nodded, “My wife, um, Holly, was wondering if you and Brian would like to join us for dinner sometime soon?”

Alaina raised her eyebrow and Nick knew it was because she was royally pissed. First he had taken off without a word, and now he was passing along his wife’s invitation for dinner.

“Sure,” Alaina nodded, turning back quickly to take a look at the children, “that would be lovely. Name a time and it’s a date.”

‘It’s a date’ reminded him so much of when he’d first met the woman; earlier in the summer when he was absolutely obsessed with her and those words had sent him into frenzy. Now the end of summer was within sight and he was trying to figure out how he really felt about her. Having her and her husband over to his house probably wasn’t going to help that.

“How does Friday night sound to you?” Gina piped up, having already talked to Holly about when they should have the mystery parents over for dinner, “I’ll take both the kids out for a little while to a movie or something so they aren’t in your hair.”

Alaina was clearly put on the spot and she shifted from foot to foot quickly as if trying to stall for an answer.

“She probably needs to check with her husband first,” Nick tried to alleviate but Alaina stopped him by holding up her hand.

“I don’t need his permission. I’m sure he’s probably free and if he’s not then I’ll make sure to change his plans. Friday sounds wonderful!”

~*~

With a glance around the empty kitchen Nick sat down and started lacing up his sneakers. He’d been doing a lot of running as a way to not only spend some time alone and get in shape but also to just be able to think for a while without any distractions.

Considering how the day had gone there was never a time he needed to be alone and think than right then. All evening he had been overwhelmed with the thought that he was going to meet Alaina’s husband, and she was going to meet his wife. He had never really been overly keen on meeting the other man. He just wasn’t sure what to expect of the guy. He wanted to hate him because Alaina made him seem like such an asshole but was worried that, given their similar marital situations, he might actually like the guy. Then he would feel like the asshole in the whole thing.

“Where are you going?” Holly asked as she came into the kitchen from the backyard. She had Gina had been chatting out on the deck for the better part of the evening.

Nick was surprised that she even addressed him since she’d barely said two words to him the whole day, still obviously mad over him losing his wedding ring.

“For a run,” he answered shortly, his fingers now working on the laces of the other sneaker.

He didn’t hear any response but before he could get up out of his chair a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind.

“Don’t,” he heard Holly whisper against his ear, “Stay.”

“You been drinking again?” he asked, knowing what the answer was considering how many bottles of wine were missing from the fridge.

Holly sighed, “I’m not drunk. I feel bad for being upset about the ring. I know you wouldn’t have lost it intentionally and I should be the first to know that sometimes people lose things. I’ve made a career out of finding lost stuff.”

“Look for my ring then, would you?” he joked, relieved when she laughed in return and hugged him tighter.

Holly moved around his body and sat in the chair opposite his, “I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted. I’m sorry too, you know,” he said honestly, squeezing her hands quickly, “I’m still going for that run though. I need to get rid of all the energy that would be better spent on killing your sister.”

“I don’t know if you’ll want to do that,” Holly warned him teasingly, “because I think she’s got plenty of that energy when it comes to you and I’d hate for you to be at a disadvantage.”

Nick smiled slightly then decided to take advantage of his wife’s good mood and probably ruin it, “Why did you ask her for money?”

Holly’s smile immediately turned into a frown but she didn’t pull her hands out of his, “Did she tell you that?”

He nodded, “She told me you made yourself sick trying to get up the nerve to ask her for money. What do we need money for?”

With a shrug she looked down at their hands and Nick thought she almost looked ashamed, “Nothing really. I was just hoping we could get a little bit ahead. It’s so difficult to put money away because we’re living paycheque to paycheque and it’s so tight right now. I thought if I could get ahead of the bills then maybe we could put some money into savings. Like, for a trip or something.”

“We’ve discussed this. It’s pointless to bring Olivia on trips at this point in her life. She’s not going to remember going away somewhere. She’d be more than happy to go to the beach house and hang out with her friends. Going to Disney World or something isn’t going to change that,” Nick said, remembering all the times that he had suggested they go somewhere as a family but it had been Holly that shot the idea down.

“Not for the three of us,” she corrected, “for you and I.”

“Why do we need to go on a trip that we can’t afford?” he asked her point blank.

With a sigh Holly shrugged again, watching Nick’s thumbs run over the backs of her hands, “Because... I feel like I’m losing you.”

“Is a trip really going to change that?”

Looking up into his eyes she shook her head, “I don’t know, you tell me! What was this weekend if not an opportunity for you to get away? Why can’t I get away too? Why can’t we get away together?”

‘It’s official,’ he thought, ‘I’m a terrible husband.’ He was suddenly feeling incredibly selfish. All along he had thought that Holly was putting him on the backburner but he never thought about being in her situation. She was, after all, the sole breadwinner in their family and worked her butt off to do so. And he had ignored everything she’d done for the sake of his own unhappiness.

“This weekend would have been a thousand times better if you had been with me,” he told her honestly, “So... let’s go away. Together. Just you and me. I promise you, you’re not losing me.”

Holly smiled and Nick swore he saw tears welling up into her eyes. She stood quickly and leaned over, kissing his forehead, “Enjoy your run.”

Nick watched her walk out the door and let out a heavy breath. He had thought that Holly was impenetrable, a force that couldn’t be shaken and he had been proven wrong. She was suffering as much as he was except he had taken the coward’s way out. He had to make it up to her. But first, he had to make it through Friday night alive.