Serena
This wasn’t real. It had to be a figment of my imagination.
I could count on one hand the number of times Charles willingly came to my apartment since we divorced four years ago. Each time he did, though, it upended my world.
Whatever he was here for now was in retaliation for the coffee shop. He was never one to be slighted or one-upped by someone he didn’t know.
I glanced at Harper, who was watching herself dance in the three-way mirror. I leaned over, turning the volume up on the speakers a few decibels.
Charles was here for a fight; I knew it in my bones. Harper shouldn’t have to see or hear any of this.
Charles still viewed me as his, even though I never was. I was his girl of the moment who couldn’t get a clue and ended up pregnant, married, and alone. My family was never going to help me when times got tough.
Once I turned eighteen, they’d been largely absent. A few calls here or there, mostly money-related, with my mom, who rarely asked after Harper. Which was fine with me.
I was better off without my mother’s constant judgment and ridicule.
In fact, I had a distinct memory of my mother lecturing me about how men will be men when Charles’ many infidelities came to light. He didn’t even care that I filed, only about how it made him look.
“Hi,” I said, attempting to be cordial. Nerves wracked me as I prepared for Charles to deliver something awful on my doorstep. “What brings you by?”
“Can’t a guy check on his girls?” Charles smiled—the same smile he'd given me when he threatened full custody.
Stay calm. This is what he does.
“No. We aren’t your girls. Why are you barging into my studio and disrupting our day?” I asked. This wasn’t the first time Charles barged in, demanding to be acknowledged, but it was time I let him know he was crossing boundaries.
“I wanted to have a word.” He took a step closer, and Enzo blocked my view with his big body. Again.
Didn’t he understand that the more he goaded Charles, the worse this would be for everyone? It didn’t matter that Minnie and Charles Senior supported me; I just wanted Charles to go away, and the easiest way to do that was to pacify him.
Nudging Enzo, I moved through the small space he gave me and pointed to an open space next to a mannequin.
Taking a deep breath, I turned back to Charles. I maintained my calm demeanor because Charles thrived on getting reactions from me. “Now, why are you here?”
His fake smile dropped. “Is it a thing for you? Fucking your clients?” He took a step closer—his way of trying to intimidate me with his size.
Yes, I’d been hired to tailor both men’s suits, but Charles was the one I’d made the mistake of taking beyond a professional relationship into an intimate one.
I sized Charles up and couldn’t help but compare him to Enzo.
Charles didn’t measure up in any sense of the word.
Enzo was bigger in both height and muscle. He looked like he was built to knock people out. Charles was a few inches shorter and had a runner’s build, but it was unearned.
After spending time in close proximity with Enzo, any ability Charles had to intimidate me on a physical level was long gone.
Thank god for small mercies.
“I have work to do. If you want to see Harper, I’ll bring her out. If you only want to bother me, you need to go.” I pointed at the door.
“I’ll show up whenever I want. Since when do you think you can order me around?” Charles snarled.
“I’m not telling you to go. I’m giving you an option,” I said, trying to keep the peace. We’ve had our fights, loud and yelling, but I always made sure Harper wasn’t home when it happened.
“You’re damn right I have a choice. If I want to take all this away,” he said, waving his hand around, “I can. My alimony paid for all of this. If you break the terms, you have to give back every penny.”
He made it so easy to hate him.
“The alimony you paid out was because of pain, suffering, and inexcusable behavior unbecoming of a man of your status. I don’t know how you’ve made it this long without basic reading comprehension, but you can try to take this away from me,” I waved my hands as he did, “and you’ll fail.
You don’t own me or anything I’ve built.
“Regardless, this is an optional day that you’re supposed to talk to me about.
” I tried to get control of my anger, partly because Harper was somewhere in the area and I didn’t want her to ask questions about why we were fighting.
Mostly, though, I hated giving him the satisfaction of getting any emotion out of me.
He opened his mouth, but there was a cry of “Daddy!” from behind us.
The sneer fell off Charles’ face as he looked over my shoulder.
I glued my feet to the ground instead of blocking Harper’s path to Charles.
He was here now, and with Harper having seen him, I couldn’t deny her time with her father. She would grow to resent him in her own time, when he didn’t keep his promises. I couldn’t hide what a disappointment he was forever.
Harper crawled between my legs, bounced up, and ran to Charles, latching on to his legs.
I glanced up, catching Enzo’s gaze, which happened to be on me. Intently. Knowingly. I shook my head, attempting to convey to him that I had to stand down. As much as I wanted to keep Harper from the hurt her father would cause her, she was ecstatic to see him.
Despite knowing our divorce was iron-clad, I needed to look at the papers again. Charles had resources and money, two things I lacked. If he were motivated enough, he’d use them to tear my world apart, starting with taking Harper.
“Come on, let’s go get dinner with Grandma,” Charles said. Relief washed through me. He was going to follow through, for once.
After almost a year of never taking her on his optional day, he showed up after we had a standoff in front of his friends. Or maybe he remembered he had a daughter to take care of. There were too many options to speculate on, and it was a waste of my time to think about.
“I’ll get my shoes.” Harper jumped from Charles’ arms, dove between my legs, did the same to Enzo, who was standing behind me, and ran back into our apartment.
“Keep testing my patience, Serena. I didn’t push back the first time because I had better things to do. If you insist on pissing me off, we can go back to court and revisit our custody agreement. I’m sure she’d love to spend more time at my place.”
Harper ran back in, and I had to stifle a laugh. I turned to find the same judgmental expression on his face that was there when he tried to belittle me.
He caught my gaze. I narrowed my eyes at him, daring him to say something or ask her to change.
Charles opened his mouth, glanced over my shoulder, and promptly closed it. Enzo’s stare screamed murder.
In the short time she was gone, Harper managed to change from her shorts and t-shirt to blue sparkly leggings, an orange shirt so bright it hurt the eyes, mismatched socks, her signature gold ballet flats, which were falling apart, and a wide-brimmed sunhat.
She turned to Enzo and struck a pose. “How do I look?”
“Perfection. You’re ready for the runway,” he said.
She turned to me, and I gave her a thumbs-up. At least this time she didn’t forget to put on pants. We were making improvements.
“Let’s go. Let’s go. Hurry.” She pulled Charles’ arm, but he stayed put, wrinkling his nose at her attire but wisely didn’t comment.
“We’ll be back around 8:30.” He turned, picked Harper up, and carried her out.
My heart was lodged in my throat, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Tears blurred my vision. I tried to calm down, to blink and think rationally about what Charles said, but I couldn’t.
He had threatened to take Harper from me. He barely showed up, never kept a promise, always had someone new on his arm, but he thought he could take her?
“Calm.” A big, warm hand landed on my back and rubbed circles.
Enzo. I’d know that voice anywhere. The deeply accented husk pulled me out of my panic as he spoke to me in Italian.
Embarrassment, hot and twisting, filled me. He had witnessed not one interaction with Charles but two. In both situations. I had allowed Charles the upper hand.
What must he think of me?
He crowded me, continuing to rub circles on my back. His hand was big and warm. The repetitive motion was soothing. Leaning into it, I took a moment to gather myself.
It didn’t take long for me to come back.
I turned my head, looking up. He was too good to be true.
Why did nothing ever go my way? Was I born unlucky, or did I break a mirror and get a hundred years of bad luck?
First, my awful ex threatens me. Then the guy I've had the biggest crush on since Jonathan Taylor Thomas watched all of it go down.
No wonder that site said I was undatable.
I covered my face, taking another second to collect myself, before looking up at Enzo through my fingers.
“Looks like you have the night off,” he said.
I nodded. “Yeah, looks like I’ll be able to knock out some work.”
He nodded and leaned back against the table behind him.
“Are you going to take a break to eat?” he asked, not taking his eyes off me.
At that, my stomach rumbled. I wanted to crawl into a hole. Why me?
“Yeah,” I said, glancing at the half-finished piece hanging off the mannequin. Then I remembered Harper and I were supposed to go grocery shopping.
Enzo had his phone to his ear, barking what I took to be orders in Italian. As soon as he left, I was going to download Duolingo.
He walked to a table, grabbed a bag I hadn’t noticed, and handed it to me.
“Here,” he said.
Gingerly, I took the bag. When I opened it, I did my best not to squeal in delight. It was Thai food from one of my favorite places in the city, along with a Thai iced coffee.
“How did you know this was my favorite?” I asked, ripping the carton open.
Enzo shrugged, grabbed a chair, dragged it over to the table, and sat on the other side. He jerked his chin when I hesitated.
“Eat.”
Normally, I don’t take commands like that, but I was too hungry and excited to do anything but comply.