Page 48 of Mr. Almost

“Yeah, they had a giant red flag waving in their faces, and they turned a blind eye. Then again, I’m sure not all clowns are serial killers.”

Only in this instance, the killer clown was a serial killer whose real name was John Wayne Gacy Jr.

It doesn’t matter if they are serial killers or not. Clowns are creepy as fuck. Both of us have such a fear of them that we almost skipped this episode of our favorite show because of it. We decided we needed to be adults, though, and watch it anyway. Let’s just say it reaffirmed why we hate clowns.

I pick up my phone off the comforter and check the screen again.

“Has he texted you?” Chloe asks as she takes a drink of her wine.

I shake my head. “No.”

“That’s probably because he has it under control,” she reminds me.

“I’m sure he does, but that trust doesn’t appear overnight. He is earning it, but it’s not fully there yet. I mean, I only ever leave her with you or day care, so it’s hard to not check in a million times,” I confess as I put a piece of cheese and meat on a cracker.

Chloe picks up the remote and pauses our serial killer documentary.

I’m sure when Mason offered to stay at home with Ari so I could have a girls’ night, he thought that I would go out to a bar or somewhere. That’s what most girls mean when they say girls’ night. Going out and partying the night away.

When, in reality, I’m eating a girl dinner and getting wine drunk while watching serial killer documentaries with my best friend in her bed.

“Has he asked about what he missed?”

I shake my head. “Not really, no. I brought it up, but he told me he wasn’t ready yet. He feels cheated knowing he missed things but thinks it would be worse if he knew actual details. I told him to ask when he’s ready.”

I sigh and check my phone again. Still nothing.

“It might be weird now, but you’ll get used to it. It’s for the best.”

“I know.” I sigh.

Chloe turns toward me, giving me her full attention. “He has put in effort. I mean, even I have to admit that I was skeptical at first. I wanted to nut punch him the moment you told me that he knew about Ari. Especially since he seemed to want to be in her life after abandoning you all those years ago. Only, all of that was a lie. Something his mother did in order to push you out of his life. Tell me, do you honestly think that if he knew about you back then, he would have left?”

I chew my lip for a moment. “Since the moment he found outabout her, he has wanted to be here. He would live with us if he could, I think. He’s all about being a dad. I think he would have been back then too.”

“Exactly. I can see that, and so can you. So as hard as it is, you need to work on moving past the past.”

“It’s hard to when those words from that vile woman have played over and over in my head for years. It’s like being told the sky is purple for so long but finding out it’s really blue. It’s a shock. You don’t believe it right away. It takes time to see it being blue over and over for it to sink in.”

“That’s true. You aren’t going to get over it overnight, but you can remind yourself that it was a lie every time you question him. When you have doubts, you can talk to him. Let him dispel them. Give him a chance to be the man you want him to be.”

“I just need him to be a good dad for Ari. Everything else doesn’t matter.”

“Psh, like you don’t want to get under him again,” she teases.

I can feel my cheeks turning bright red.

“Wait? Did you? Are you fucking him?” she gasps.

“No. We aren’t fucking,” I say confidently.

She rubs her chin. “You have done something, though. Spill, hooker.”

“He kissed me at work.”

“Oooh, how was it?”

“Okay, I guess?”

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