28. Lee
Lee
Somehow, the weeks after the gender reveal flew by. I stayed busy with work, baby stuff, and everything else I had going on, and next thing I knew, it was Valentine’s Day.
By three o’clock, I had checked my phone so many times I was starting to get on my own nerves.
Every time it buzzed beside my lamp, my eyes went straight to it.
Every time somebody knocked on my suite door, I caught myself wondering if it was a delivery before remembering I had clients coming in and out all damn day.
I kept telling myself I wasn’t waiting on anything, but apparently some part of me was.
My first client came in carrying roses her husband had sent to her job.
Another spent half her appointment showing me pictures of the hotel room her girlfriend had decorated for them that weekend.
By lunchtime, my social media was full of flowers, candy, dinner reservations, and women showing off whatever somebody had done for them.
Meanwhile, I hadn’t gotten shit. Which shouldn’t have mattered because I was single. I had made sure of that.
Still, somewhere in the back of my mind, I figured JB would do something. That man had spent months acting like the word breakup didn’t apply to him. Flowers, jewelry, some ridiculous delivery I would complain about while secretly being a little pleased he had thought about me.
And then there was Van. I didn’t know what I expected from him, which was probably part of the problem.
By the time my last client slid her hands under the lamp, I had finally stopped looking toward the door every time I heard somebody outside. She was admiring her red chrome nails when she smiled at me.
“You got plans tonight?”
“Nope.”
“Girl, me either. I’m going home, ordering wings, and watching bad reality TV.”
“That actually sound perfect.”
She laughed. “Exactly. Can’t disappoint yourself.”
I smiled and wiped the last bit of oil from around her cuticles.
Once she left, I cleaned my station, shut everything down, and stood there with my purse over my shoulder for a second longer than I needed to. I looked around the suite like some last-minute delivery might magically show up before I locked the door.
Nothing. No flowers. No candy. Not even one of those stupid oversized teddy bears I wouldn’t have known what to do with anyway.
I locked up and headed home, telling myself the whole drive that I didn’t care. Nobody owed me flowers or candy just because it was February fourteenth.
Still, the second I turned onto my street, my eyes went straight to the porch before I had even pulled all the way into the driveway.
Empty.
I sat behind the wheel for a second and laughed under my breath. “Well, damn.”
Apparently I was really single.
Like, for real.
I got out and went inside, where Holly was already scratching at the gate between the kitchen and living room.
“There go my Valentine.”
Her whole body started wiggling the second she saw me. I dropped my purse on the counter, kicked off my shoes, and opened the gate. Holly came flying out like I had been gone six years instead of a few hours, jumping against my legs until I picked her up.
“See? This what I need. Somebody happy to see me.”
She licked my chin, and I laughed. “Exactly.”
I clipped her leash on and took her around the neighborhood. By the time we made it back, she had finally stopped trying to fight every leaf that blew across the sidewalk.
After I fed her and cleaned up the water she somehow managed to splash halfway across the kitchen floor, I took a shower.
By eight, I was in clean pajamas stretched across my bed with Holly lying over my legs like she paid rent. I picked up my phone and opened Instagram without thinking much about it.
The first post on my feed was JB. My thumb stopped.
For a second, I couldn’t even make sense of what I was looking at. There was a huge WILL YOU MARRY ME? sign behind him, rose petals all over the floor, candles everywhere, and JB was down on one knee in front of Hannah while she stood there crying with both hands over her mouth.
I stared at the picture longer than I meant to before swiping. The next one was Hannah holding her hand toward the camera, showing off the ring while JB stood behind her smiling. Then a picture of them kissing.
My stomach dropped.
“No fucking way.”
Holly lifted her head, but I barely noticed. I swiped back to the first picture and stared at it again like maybe I had misunderstood what I was seeing.
I hadn’t.
JB had proposed to Hannah on Valentine’s Day.
Last month, this same man had pictures from our gender reveal all over social media. Him standing behind me, his hand on my stomach, both of us cutting into that blue cake while everybody celebrated our son. Now he was on one knee asking Hannah to marry him.
I locked my phone, then unlocked it again a few seconds later even though I had no idea what I expected to change. The post was still there. Same pictures. Same ring. Same man I had spent half my life loving.
The part that pissed me off most was how stupid I felt.
I had broken up with him. I had told him over and over that we weren’t getting back together.
I refused his gifts, refused the shop, and told him he could be a father to our baby without being my man.
So why the hell did seeing him ask Hannah to marry him feel like somebody had kicked me in the chest?
Maybe because fifteen years didn’t disappear just because I finally got tired. Maybe because some stupid part of me had still believed I was the person JB would always come back to. And maybe because he had spent all this time making damn sure I believed it.
My phone started vibrating in my hand, and when I looked down, Anika’s name was on the screen. I let it ring, and before the screen even went dark, a text from Wren came through.
You seen it?
Then Nina.
Lee call me
Anika called again. I stared at the screen until it stopped.
Of course they had seen it. Everybody probably had by now, and somehow that made the whole thing worse. I wasn’t just sitting in my room feeling stupid by myself. Anybody who knew our history could look at the same damn post and do the math.
January, me and JB all over social media at our gender reveal. February, him down on one knee proposing to Hannah.
I turned on Do Not Disturb and tossed my phone beside me. Holly crawled higher up the bed until she was pressed against my hip, and I rubbed behind her ear while trying to convince myself I was fine.
“I’m good,” I told her.
She looked up at me.
“I am.”
She kept staring.
“Mind your business.”
That lasted maybe two minutes before I reached for my phone again.
I didn’t want to talk to Anika. I definitely didn’t want to get on FaceTime with Wren and Nina and have them staring at my face trying to figure out how hurt I was.
But I still needed to talk to somebody, and without really thinking about it, my thumb went straight to Van’s name.
I called once and got his voicemail. The second call went unanswered too, and that bothered me more than it should have. By the third time, I was already starting to feel stupid for calling that much, but before I could hang up, he answered.
“Lee?”
His voice was low enough that I sat up a little. “Hey.”
“You good?”
“Yeah. Why you talking like that?”
He hesitated before answering. “I’m on a date.”
That shut me up. “Oh.”
“I stepped away because you called three times. Wanted to make sure it wasn’t an emergency.”
Of course he was on a date. It was Valentine’s Day. Why the hell wouldn’t he be?
I looked down at Holly stretched across my legs. “No. It ain’t no emergency.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Lee.”
I already knew that tone. “I said nothing.”
He didn’t push, but I could tell he didn’t believe me. “I can call you when I’m done.”
“No, you good.”
“You called me three times.”
“And you answered. I’m fine.”
“You don’t sound fine.”
That irritated me, mostly because he was right. “Go back to your date, Van.”
“Aight. I’ll call you later.”
“No need.”
“Lee.”
“Have fun.”
I hung up before he could say anything else and sat there staring at my phone. After a second, I laughed because apparently my choices were laugh or throw the damn thing across the room.
JB was somewhere putting a ring on Hannah’s finger, Van was somewhere having Valentine’s dinner with another woman, and I was in bed with my dog.
Beautiful.
I opened JB’s contact and blocked him without thinking twice.
Van took a little longer because, irritatingly enough, he hadn’t actually done anything wrong.
He had never told me he was waiting around for me or promised he wasn’t dating anybody else.
Hell, I was the one who kept pulling back every time things between us started feeling too real.
None of that changed the fact that I didn’t want to picture him sitting across from some woman on Valentine’s Day, so I blocked his ass too.
Holly lifted her head and looked at me.
“Don’t. I already know it’s childish.”
She blinked a couple times before putting her head back down.
“Thank you.”
I plugged my phone into the charger, turned it facedown, and slid farther under the covers.
Valentine’s Day could kiss my ass.