Chapter 11
eleven
HARLOW
Cal has been avoiding me for almost two weeks now. We speak enough to go over Cora’s day, but that’s it. I can’t even blame him for it.
He’s not being rude or mean. He’s just distant, and I hate it. I’m the one who put the boundaries there, and he’s respecting them.
But I miss him. Fuck, do I miss him. I miss the way he would tease me or sass me right back. The way he would smile when he saw how much fun Cora and I were having playing with him. I even missed the way his lips felt on mine. The heat his touch would leave hours after it was ever there.
“What do you say us girls have a nice day? Maybe go shopping and get cute new outfits?” I ask Cora as I feed her another spoonful of the gross smelling baby cereal. She claps her hands in response, making me laugh. She just learned to clap yesterday, and it’s her new favorite thing to do.
I’ve had this job for almost two months, and I’ve absolutely fallen in love with this adorable little girl. It’s that fact that I hold on to at night when I want to be held by her dad.
I pack Cora up in my car and head to the mall. There are usually one or two paparazzi at the gate to the community. Since Shattered Halo has been working on a new album, and Belle started dating Kai, they’ve been interested in getting a story. But for a rock band, they like to keep things pretty low-key.
It’s nice that the jerks behind the cameras have no idea who I am or that Cal even has a daughter. It allows me to come and go as I please. They just assume I’m some rich housewife that lives here. It helps that Cora looks so much like me. If anyone sees me with her, they assume she’s my daughter.
I mentally add lack of privacy to the list I have running of why being with Cal is a terrible idea. I just wish it was a longer list.
“What do you think of this one?” I hold up a pair of purple overalls. Cora claps, and I take that as her approval. Just like I did when she clapped at everything else I’ve held up in her size. “I agree. It’s Daddy’s treat, so you can get whatever you want.”
Cal gave me the credit card for Cora’s expenses. A shopping spree in this bougie kid’s store isn’t exactly what he meant. Maybe I’m hoping he’ll see an astronomical charge and get angry enough to have a conversation with me.
Maybe I’m regretting pushing him away.
Maybe I hate seeing him every day and not being on the receiving end of his warmth. It’s damn cold where I am now, and I hate it.
“What do you think, Cora girl? Matching shoes and bows for every outfit?”
“Da!” she yells and claps. I look around, worried that Cal somehow found out about my shopping spree already, but we’re the only ones in the store other than the bored-looking teenager behind the counter.
I sigh. “You miss Dada?”
“Da!” Cora says again with a small giggle.
“Me too, pretty girl.”
After filling our cart, plus a special bonus cart that’s waiting for us at the register, with everything in the girl’s section, plus a few items from the boys’ section, I’m ready to test out this credit card.
“You know, girls are allowed to like dinosaurs and footballs too,” I say to the disinterested girl ringing up all the items as I place two pairs of ‘boys’ PJs on the counter. “They also like trucks and sharks and robots.”
Cora claps in agreement. So I take that as encouragement and keep going. “And boys are allowed to like flowers and kittens and the color pink.”
The girl finally makes eye contact. “Okay?”
“I’m just saying. It shouldn’t be restricted by gender,” I mumble.
“Didn’t seem to stop you,” she says, going back to scanning and bagging everything.
“Right. Well, I suppose it didn’t,” I admit.
It’s awkward standing here for as long as I have been while she bags everything up. So long that I think about going on another rant about baby clothes.
“Your total is $6,342.”
I snort and tap the card against the reader. “Your dad is going to be so pissed,” I whisper to Cora.
“Da!”
“You’re right, Cora girl. He can’t be angry when he sees how cute you look in all of this.”
The cashier seems surprised when it’s approved. I catch my reflection in the mirrors behind the desk. Ah. That’s probably why. I’m in leggings and an old, faded college sweatshirt that has a stain on it from Cora’s breakfast. My hair is tied in a haphazard bun on the top of my head.
I’ve looked . . . better.
“Can I see your I.D.?”
I chuckle to myself but dig it out of my wallet and hand it over anyway. The card is in my name, and I’m thankful Cal thought of doing that instead of just handing me one with his name on it. The cashier studies it a lot longer than what’s probably standard.
“I look like a hot pile of garbage today. I get it. You don’t need to be so rude about it.” Cora claps, and I shake my head. “That wasn’t really a clapping occasion, Cora.”
The cashier hands me my license, along with the receipt. I look at all the bags and flinch. “I don’t suppose you’d be able to help me get these to the car?”
“Can’t. Only one working.” She picks up her phone and goes back to ignoring me.
“Alright. Just me and you, Cora girl.”
“Cart stays in the store.”
“Can’t I use it to bring my bags out? I promise I’ll bring it back.”
She just points to a sign next to the exit. “The wheels lock if I push the cart past the threshold? Are you serious?”
I strap Cora to my chest, grateful that’s how I decided to carry her in here in the first place and load my arms up with bags.
It works well enough. I’m sweaty, and I think some of the handles from the bags have cut into my arms, but I’ve made it back to my car.
I’m breathing heavily by the time I get Cora strapped in. Of course, now my phone is ringing. I pull it out of my purse to see Cal’s face on the screen. It’s a picture I took of him with Cora. They were playing with sticks and leaves in the backyard. They looked so happy that I snapped a picture and immediately set it as his contact picture.
Guess it’s time to face the music.
“Beautiful daughter you have there.”
I jump, my phone hitting the pavement.
I spin to see a man dressed in an expensive black suit. He has dark hair peppered with gray around his temples and eyes so dark they’re almost black.
“Thank you,” I stutter. I don’t like the way he’s looking at me, the way his eyes roam my body. He’s a predator, but not in the predictable sense. This man wants nothing from my body. He’s assessing, calculating. Hopefully finding me severely lacking.
“The smallest scandal can end a career these days. Sad, don’t you think?” the man says, hands in his pockets, making no move to come closer. My key fob is still in my hand, and I quickly lock my car, keeping my eyes trained on the stranger.
He laughs. The sound is one of the scariest I’ve ever heard. I move to the side, putting myself between the man and Cora’s door. I don’t think there’s much I can do if he tries to get to her, but I will do anything I can to stop him.
“Do I know you?” I ask. Something about him is familiar, but I can’t place it. I need to keep him talking. Maybe someone will walk out to this weirdly empty parking lot. That’s what I get for having a breakdown over my employer in the middle of the day on a Wednesday. No one is here.
The man chuckles darkly. “Your generation doesn’t pay attention to the world. Just yourselves, and your selfish desires.”
My phone continues to vibrate on the pavement. Cal isn’t giving up on his quest to yell at me for spending so much, but right now, I wish he was here to do it in person.
The stranger takes his eyes off me long enough to glance at my phone. Whatever he sees there makes him smile.
It’s horrifying.
“Callahan always did have a type,” he says, and I blanch. My phone must have landed face up, and I just gave this stranger proof that Cal’s daughter is in my car.
“What do you want?” I ask him, willing to give him just about anything if he leaves Cora alone.
“Nothing you can give me.”
He walks away then, leaving me shaking against my car. I grab my phone, which has stopped vibrating. Cal has given up and is probably getting ready to let me have it when he gets home. With a deep breath, I quickly make my way to the driver’s side of my car and get in, locking it again as I do and starting it immediately. I call my dad and then start driving. I need to get Cora back behind the security of the gates and her house.
“Hi Harlow,” my dad’s happy voice comes through the phone.
“Dad! I was just confronted in the parking lot of the Southside Mall. I parked in front of 4-Ever Kidz. The man was tall, probably at least six feet, wearing an expensive black suit with dark hair. He looks like he has enough money to take care of any security footage, so I need you to get to it first.”
“Did he touch you? Are you being followed?” My dad asks after a short pause.
“No to both. I’m heading back to Cal’s. But Dad, he knows about Cora. I think he suspected, but then he saw the proof on my phone.”
“Get back to Cal’s, and I’ll get that footage. Text me when you get there.”
“I will. Love you.”
“Love you too.”