Page 102 of Summer Breakdown
“From Mike’s. It’s three-something, and you’re ages away. I’m assuming that’s why you called.”
She chews on her lip. It is three-something, and she’s supposed to pick them up at four. Mike would have no choice but to keep them until she could get there, but she hates the idea of them feeling unwanted. She’s been thinking about getting full custody. Mike would fight it just to fight it, but she’s not sure he’d do it for long. Lani would be sad in the moment, but she’d get past it. Maybe.
“Yeah, but I was just venting to you. I didn’t mean you had to do anything. I just like talking to you.”
Frankie laughs. “You know you’re my girlfriend, right?”
Jasmine smiles, her heart beating faster. Jasmine is thirty in a few weeks, and she’s blushing in her car alone because the woman she’s falling in love with said she was her girlfriend for the first time.
“I am?”
“Don’t be cute,” Frankie responds. Jasmine hums, slipping her sandals off and pulling her knees onto her chair.
“You’re allowed to ask me for stuff.”
Jasmine doesn’t call her out on her hypocrisy, because she’s trying hard. Jasmine knows that.
“I know.”
“You’re allowed to ask me for stuff that’s not just me eating you out.”
Jasmine rolls her eyes. “You’re so ridiculous.”
Frankie laughs, then shouts, “Johnson, run that pass again.” It’s Friday, so practice is until five.Frankie would have to cancel and deal with the fallout. Jasmine hadn’t even considered asking her to drop everything to pick her kids up.
“Sweetheart?”
“Huh?”
“Hi, you’re back.” Jasmine loves that she knows Frankie is smiling. How nice it is to know someone so well.
“Sorry.”
“That’s alright,” Frankie replies. “So, can I get them? You know Lani adores me, right? Marcel thinks I’m at least half-cool. And you know I’d push anyone in front of a bus for them, you included.”
Jasmine smiles, and she’s sure Frankie knows that too. “I’m not sure why I’m being attacked right now.”
Frankie hums. “Do you need to call Mike? Do I need a password?”
Jasmine rolls her eyes. He’ll probably have something to say, but he’ll want to get the kids out more than he’ll care about it. Jasmine has told him Frankie exists because she’s polite and trying her hardest to coparent. He doesn’t offer her that decency. “You have practice, and it’s the last quarter of the season.”
Frankie blows the whistle again. “Lads! Practice is cancelled. Go home or run laps, I don’t care.”
“What?” Ezra shouts. “Why?”
“I’m going to pick the kids up.” Frankie’s smiling again. Jasmine won’t call her out on it. She matches her.
“Oh. Alright.”
“Right,” Frankie says, talking to Jasmine. “I don’t have practice now. So, what do you say?”
Jasmine has no issues with Frankie being alone with her children. She’s just getting used to letting someone do something for her without feeling like a burden. Frankie adores Lani and Marc. She fights Jasmine for bedtime reading, and she wins because Lani is a little traitor and Frankiedoes good voices. Jasmine isn’t worried about what they might do; she just wants to be there.
She takes a deep breath. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I’m going to let Lani eat ice cream.”
“Okay,” Jasmine replies. “Um, I gotta call Mike.”
