Chapter 15
The rumor about Brock was going around town and since Olivia worked in a very popular place, most everyone she knew visited her at work over the next few days. Most of them, she knew, were just checking in on her. Others wanted updates on any gossip she may have.
Since most people who walked through the doors also purchased something, she didn’t mind. All the foot traffic made her days go by much faster.
The rumor about what Eric had done to her car had also made its rounds. Especially since she was driving around town in her new Subaru.
Simona had been thrilled about the new car, and Olivia believed she’d kept the news about what had happened to her old car away from her daughter.
Thankfully, she had been able to sell her old car to the man who had hauled it away for more than she’d expected. She figured that if she was able to add one more workday a month, she’d pay the car off a full year earlier than expected.
She hated being in debt. Thankfully, she wasn’t the kind of person to rack up credit card debt, so her house and car were all she owed on.
Brock had always applied for every credit card he could. Then, within months of getting the cards, he’d max them out. When they’d been married, most of her paychecks had gone to paying them each month.
She’d lucked out during the divorce since all of the credit cards had been in his name and not hers.
She’d also been lucky when the judge had decided to make the debt Brock’s responsibility due to the circumstances and Brock had been stuck with the payments instead of her.
She’d been happy to hand over all of Brock’s debts to Bethany since she knew he wouldn’t be paying any of it himself.
Shortly after Brock and Bethany had separated, she’d found out that he’d learned that lesson of having things in his name and, during their short relationship, had maxed out several of Bethany’s credit cards.
Word was floating around that Bethany had to file bankruptcy shortly after she’d dumped Brock.
It was hard to stop herself from comparing Todd to Brock. During empty moments in her workday, those comparisons deepened into every aspect of her knowledge of both men.
The physical differences between the men were obvious—Brock was shorter and bulkier. Todd was tall, lean, and full of sexy muscles the likes of which Olivia had never gotten to enjoy before.
Todd seemed far more organized than Brock had ever been in the years she’d known him.
They were night and day, even when it came to how the men had dealt with Simona. Sure, Brock had been an average father and, to her knowledge, he’d never harmed Simona. But the way he’d talked to their daughter was proof that he’d never fully loved her either.
She’d been… a thing. Something he could use to get attention. After the divorce, Brock had used their daughter as a prop to get women. He’d even gloated about it on several occasions.
“I’ve got so many women lined up to be with me,” Brock had said one evening when he’d dropped Simona off.
“They all want to sleep with me. Too bad you’re missing out.
Who would want you now that you look the way you do?
” He’d meant her stretch marks from giving birth.
She had tried everything to hide them from Brock after Simona had been born.
But he’d noticed them. He’d noticed every single one of her imperfections.
He’d made fun of her for each and every one of them their entire time together.
At one point, she’d tried to fight back, to point out the fact that he’d been gaining weight, getting a beer gut, but that had turned out worse. He’d bent her fingers back, twisted her wrist until she’d believed it would snap, then slapped her until she’d almost blacked out.
She’d never mentioned any of his imperfections again, even after they were divorced.
There had been so much that she couldn’t do around Brock. For years she’d felt like her true self had just… disappeared.
How long had it taken her to feel like she could be herself again? Until she’d felt like she was free to purchase items without asking for permission.
Even simple little things like spending money on groceries had caused guilt for the first year after the divorce. Then Brock had started embedding himself in their life again, and she’d sank back into her old ways.
So much of who she was was because of how he’d treated her. Now that she was free of all that, she didn’t want that to happen again. No way did she want to feel like anyone was in control of her or her daughter. Never again.
It was one of the reasons she wanted to keep things casual between her and Todd. She’d trusted before and had paid the price for it.
At least now Brock was locked up and, if the rumors were true, he wasn’t going to be getting out anytime soon. He’d not only broken the terms of his parole, but he’d broken the law and, according to one report, had caused an accident.
There was no way he was going to be in her or Simona’s life for a while now. They were safe once again.
She was slightly surprised to see Todd come in one afternoon for a massage. Since she was busy with a customer, he smiled at her, held up a bundle of purple flowers and made a show of setting them on the counter for her, then waved as he headed to the back room.
After the customer left with their purchases, she walked over and buried her face in the flowers as she glanced over the appointment books to see that he was marked down for two massages that week.
This was twice now that he’d gotten her flowers. If she wasn’t careful, she could become used to it.
When he came out of the back room, he walked directly over to her and wrapped her in his arms.
“Thanks for the flowers,” she said as she held onto him.
“I saw them and thought of you. Now I feel one hundred percent.” He kissed her.
She smiled. “Problems?”
“I’ve been working on the flooring, which means a lot of hours bent over.” He stretched his back. “The massages help.”
“Yoga would help even more,” she suggested. “Tomorrow morning, I’ll be here in yoga pants.” She smiled.
“You make a very compelling argument.” He pulled her back into his arms. “What time do you get off work?”
She glanced down at her watch. “Half an hour. Kayla’s going to bring Simona by, and we were going to grab some pizza.”
“Care if I tag along?” he asked, making her smile.
“We’d love it.”
“Good. Until then, I have some stocking up to do. I’m supposed to get…” He pulled out a slip of paper from his pocket. “Some oils and lotions to help with my soreness.”
She took the paper from him and walked over to grab what he needed while he shopped for other items.
By the time she was done checking out all of his items, Amy was there to take over the store.
Kayla walked in a few moments later, looking a little flustered.
“Sorry,” she said quickly. “I’ve been running late all day.” She rolled her eyes.
Olivia scooped up Simona in a hug and kissed her.
“How’s my girl?” she asked her daughter. Simona’s dark locks were messy and falling out of the braid she’d done earlier that morning.
“Good.” Simona pushed her away and then ran over to Todd, who was there to scoop her up for a hug. “Can Todd come with us for pizza?” she asked.
“Maybe you can ask Todd?” Olivia said with a smile.
“Can you?” She turned her face to his.
“Pizza?” he asked, his voice low as if he was thinking about it. “What kind of pizza?”
Simona giggled. “With pepperoni and olives.” She leaned closer to him and lowered her voice. “My favorite.”
He smiled. “Mine too. I guess I can tag along then.”
She had never had as much fun eating pizza before. Todd seemed to love to entertain them both with stories of his childhood or places he’d traveled to.
“So, that’s why you should never climb to the top of a pyramid,” Todd said, finishing up his latest story. The pizza was gone, and Simona had been eagerly listening to him, but Olivia could see that her daughter was growing very tired and knew that bedtime was quickly approaching.
“There really aren’t mummies, are there?” Simona asked.
“There are, but they don’t walk around like in Scooby Doo,” Todd answered.
Simona’s eyes grew wide. “You watch Scooby Doo?”
Todd chuckled. “Who doesn’t? Saturday morning cartoons are still my favorite.” Todd winked at Olivia and she smiled. She highly doubted the man sat down and watched cartoons, any time of the day.
In her house, they were usually going at all times of the day when Simona was around. Not that she let her daughter watch television that much. Half the time Simona wasn’t even in the room. She lost interest in them often and would head to her bedroom to play.
She’d tried, at first, to be one of those parents that had limited her daughter’s television time. But as a single parent, life was so hectic that, half the time, she was right there with her daughter, relaxing.
She always planned fun outings for the two of them on her days off. They often went hiking, to the beach, or on playdates with friends.
Next year, she was determined to have Simona start dance or a team sport, whatever her daughter showed interest in. She knew in the end it would make her life more hectic, but she didn’t mind.
As Todd continued to talk, Simona climbed up into his lap and fell asleep.
Todd acted like it was the most normal thing in the world to be holding Simona. She knew that the two had grown close last week when she’d been sick.
Simona liked Todd. That much was fact. She was almost infatuated with him. When they were alone at home, she would often ask her if they could call and invite him over for dinner or to watch movies.
Each time she’d made the excuse that he was busy fixing up his house.
Simona had even asked Todd before their pizza had arrived if he was done fixing his house yet. As she explained it, she wanted more time to hang out with him.
Even her daughter enjoyed his company. How was she supposed to fight against falling deeper in the hole when everything was against her?