Page 74 of Sunday

“Me either.”

She blew out a loud breath, which let me know that she had some things on her mind.

“I’ve been talking with Penny, the VP of marketing at work. Although my degree is in HR management, I’ve been considering a change in careers.”

“Like what?”

“Moving to their marketing team. They are expanding the department because of the company’s growth. She’s creating a position for a social media analyst, and she thinks I’ll be a great fit.”

“What about you? How do you feel about it?”

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity because it will give me a chance to learn something new, put existing skills to workin a new way, and the beautiful part is that I’ll get a fifteen-thousand-dollar annual salary increase. I’ll be making eighty grand.”

“The position hasn’t been created, and you already know the salary?”

“When I said we’d been in talks, this has been happening since the week that you and I separated. We’ve had detailed conversations. She’s creating the role regardless of if I take it or not, although she really wants me to.”

“What does Heather say about it?” I asked about her existing manager.

“She’s supportive of it.”

“So what’s the holdup?”

“I wanted to discuss it with you first.”

“Even knowing we weren’t in a good place, you put the role on hold?”

“Even then. I hoped that we would work through our differences.”

“Okay, what about your schedule? Will you still be able to work from home a few days a week?”

She broke into a wide smile as she licked her spoon, prolonging the answer.

“I’ll be one-hundred-percent remote. It’ll be up to me if I want to come into the office for any reason.”

“That’s wassup, baby. So, if you’re just looking for my approval, shit, you got it. That way, you can be home with our boy until we’re ready for him to go into daycare.”

“Yeah, I was thinking somewhere around two or maybe three years old.”

“Sounds good to me.”

We sat back and finished our ice cream. I pulled her out of her seat when we were finished and set her in my lap. Nuzzling her ear, I sucked it into my mouth before I asked a question.

“Do you know why I call you Sunny?”

“Yeah. As a nickname for Sunday.”

“Nah, I call you Sunny because you’re easy, like Sunday morning. Slow and easy in temperament, full of happiness, joy, and all the sweet promises that the day holds. Your smile radiates sunshine, and your easygoing personality has brought sunshine into my heart, giving me hope that I could love again. Even when we went through our darkest times, you made me want to experience love and believe that it could be worth fighting for.”

“I’m so sorry that I took you through all of that, CJ. I never meant to hurt you. You’re such a good man, and all I’ve wanted is to love you and take care of your heart.”

I wiped her tears with my thumbs and brushed my lips against hers.

“Like I said, life comes with its challenges, and nobody’s perfect. We all make mistakes, baby. What I don’t want to do is make another mistake.”

“What do you mean?”

“After we learned that you were pregnant, I told you that I’d do whatever it took to make sure you and my baby were good, including giving you my last name. I threw that out there randomly, but it wasn’t really random, Sunny. Long before you were pregnant, I knew that I never wanted to lose you from my life. We had this attraction that we played around with, but I didn’t think I could ever be comfortable enough opening my heart again.

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