Page 48 of With Wine Comes War

Maggie agreed, “Yeah, same.”

I screeched out of nowhere, probably trying to distract them from talking about Roman. “Luke texted me this morning.” My friends are not fans of my ex.

“Did you punch him through the phone or send him the middle finger emoji?” Maggie sounded mad.

Abby’s tone was more irritated than mine, “Oh hell no! What did that asshole want?”

“Just to say hi, he said he wanted to talk, said he figured enough time had gone by.” I laughed knowing my friends could literally bring me out of any bad mood.

Maggie and Abby said, at the same time, “And what did you say?” I heard someone yell jinx and then they both laughed.

“I just disagreed and said bye.” What else was there to say? I mean I guess I could’ve gone off on him, but he just isn’t worth it.

“And he let it go?” Abby sounded shocked. Yeah, he wasn’t one to let things go. I don’t know how he let me divorce him so easily, really.

Maggie asked, “Why haven’t you blocked him?”

“Good question. You know, I think that would be a great idea.” In fact I’ll do that right now as we speak. I scrolled through the messages and blocked him then deleted him from my contacts.

Maggie asked, “Do you and Roman want to come over for dinner on Saturday?”

“We, actually, have plans to go to Deja Vu.”

“Roman’s going clubbing?” Abby asked as she snort laughed. Sounds like we all have a good idea who Roman is and who he isn’t. He was definitely not a club guy.

“Well, we weren’t both going until he found out I was. But now I guess we’re going together.” I said sarcastically. I put my head back down on the counter.

“Were you going with Shay and the boys?” Maggie and Abby knew all my friends from work. My go-to friends for partying since Maggie and Abby had the kids and couldn’t go partying with me anymore. Plus, their husbands definitely weren't fond of my nightlife.

“Yes, but they have dinner plans, and I have training that will run into dinner so I figured I would just meet them after. Then we got thefun news Tanner was getting out so now here we are.” I refilled my glass of wine as we finished up the conversation and said goodbye.

Roman entered just as I was hanging up with the girls and he made a comment about my drinking and it really hit me, I felt so overwhelmed with everything that all of a sudden, I had no words. I started to choke up.

“Do you want to stop at your place and grab some things to have here?” I nodded silently. Thinking about staying at my dad’s without mom there was not ever going to be an option and I totally zoned out. Next thing I know I’m crushed against his chest still nodding and we’re in the elevator. Oh no, he’s still in a suit and I’m wearing this, ‘I don’t give a shit about life’outfit. I burst out laughing.

He starts laughing too and says, “What’s so funny?”

“Me next to you.” He looked totally confused.

“I’m lost, don’t have a clue what you mean.” Of course he doesn’t. The guy isn’t phased by anything.

“It’s fine, I’ll change when we get to my place.”

He said, “What’s wrong with what you have on?”

“Seriously, look at what you’re wearing to your moms and look at what I’m wearing.” I swung my arms up and down trying to get him to notice the difference.

“First of all, my parents aren’t like that. They don’t care what you’re wearing and second, the only reason I didn’t change is because I didn’t want to let you go. Otherwise, I’d be in shorts and a tee shirt right now.”

Great, now I’m so damn needy the guy can’t even change his clothes.

“Oh, sorry about that. You should’ve told me you needed to change.”

“It’s not a big deal. Let’s just pack up your clothes and go.”

We got up to the apartment and I put a suitcase full of clothes together. I told Roman what to grab from the bathroom and tossed him a bag to put everything in. This felt so weird.

I felt like I was twelve again and Maggie, Abby and I were packing me up to run away and go live with them after one of my mom’s drunken episodes. My dad knew I was going to be staying with Maggie’s family for a couple of weeks because he had already talked to her parents. Abby and Maggie’s parents were aware of my situation and always on standby to help out. Mom had to go to a rehab facility in North Carolina, so dad was going to stay down there with her for a couple of weeks. That was one of the scarier of her drunken episodes for me. I watched the EMT’s perform lifesaving CPR and other necessary medical procedures on her before they put her in the ambulance and took her to the hospital after she fell in the bathtub breaking most of the bones in her face. Whenever she recovered the doctors were all amazed and couldn’t believe her body could survive that kind of abuse. My brother’s and I used to joke that we were going to sell her to science and that we wanted to trade her liver for ours because hers was indestructible. I guess that wasn’t entirely true, was it?

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