Page 38 of Rooster

Is everything okay?

Ronin:

Yeah, all is good.

I just have to take care of something.

Me:

Gotcha.

Well, I hope it all goes okay.

I waited for a response,but there was nothing more. I thought it was sweet that he took the time to tell me that he was going to be gone for the day. It was a far cry from what I dealt with in the past. There were times I couldn’t get in touch with Chad for hours, especially when he was at work, and it was beyond frustrating. I could only assume that those were the times when he was off somewhere with Crissy, but I’ll never know for sure.

Not that it mattered now.

My time with Chad had come and gone.

I’d moved on to greener pastures, and it was time for me to put all thoughts of him behind me. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. It seemed like every time I turned around, I would hear his voice in the back of my mind:

‘Maybe if you put me before the kids once in a while...’

‘Maybe if you took better care of yourself...’

“Maybe if you put some effort into making me happy...then I wouldn’t have felt the need to go looking for someone else to fill my needs.’

It was those words that haunted me in the thick of the night, making me wonder if I was the reason my marriage fell apart. I could feel myself starting to spiral when Ryan called out to me, “Hey, Mags! Your ten o’clock is here!”

“Okay. Coming!”

I quickly shook the negative thoughts from my mind and rushed over to greet my client. I was thankful that it was a busy day, and I didn’t have time to get lost in my head. Once the last customer had gone, the girls and I worked together to close for the night.

By the time I made it home, I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed. Sadly, that wasn’t going to happen. Samantha had volleyball practice and math homework, and Nathan had a science project that was already a day late. I decided to make life easier on myself and grabbed some Chinese takeout when I went to pick up Samantha, and we all sat at the kitchen table and ate while we worked on homework.

It was a long day that turned into a long week.

The only thing that kept me going was the late-night phone calls from Ronin. He would tell me about his day, and I would do the same. The conversations were brief, but just being able to talk to him lifted my spirits. I felt even better when we finalized our plans to get together on Saturday night. While I was nervous about taking such a big step with the kids, he assured me there would be nothing to it and that the kids would have a good time.

I did my best to feel out the kids, and they seemed to be okay with going to meet him—until we made it to the pizza place, and they actually saw him. They were right by my side as we walked through the front doors, and they hovered close as I quickly scanned the room, searching for Ronin.

When I spotted him in the back, I nodded my head in his direction and whispered, “Oh, there he is.”

“Wait.” Nathan took a step back. “That’s him?”

“Um-hmm.”

“Holy shit, Mom.”

“What?”

“He’s massive,” Nathan fussed. “Look at him.”

“Yeah,” Samantha’s eyes were wide as she muttered, “He could totally kick Dad’s ass.”

“Samantha,” I scolded.

“Well, he could. Bet he was a linebacker.” Worry marked Nathan’s eyes as he asked, “Are you sure about this guy?”

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