“DAAADDDDY!!” A squeal breaks through the restaurant.
A tiny girl in a princess dress, golden hair in little ringlets, runs up and wraps her arm around Eric’s neck.
An older woman that I would immediately know was Eric’s mom looks at me with a huge smile on her face. It even seems genuine. “Elia!” she says, and she hugs me. Like wraps her arms around me and squeezes me. “So you’re the girl that finally tamed my dastardly son, Eric!”
“Mom,” Eric says, but he’s smiling.
“I had a feeling by your secretary’s pissy tone that you were here with Elia. You really should have hired a man, since that girl is so hung up on you that she can’t think straight. And you don’t even notice!”
A waiter brings a kid’s plastic cup of water and a glass goblet for Eric’s mom.
“I’m Virginia. So nice to meet you finally. Eric has told me so much about you.”
Okay, I really am crying now. It takes me a second but I finally sputter out, “I’m Elia.” I wanted to introduce Eric to my parents, but this is incredible. Eric told his mother about me? She brought Rose here, knowing I would be here. This was all a test.
I kind of love this woman. That’s the ballsy move of a woman that wants her son to settle down.
Well, me too.
“Hi Lee-ya!” Rose says. She hands me a picture.
There’s two princesses and a prince, and she wrote ‘Mommy and Daddy with Rose’ on it. “Don’t cry Lee-ya! Gammaw says you’re probably going to be my Mommy because Daddy doesn’t date any girls but he likes you.”
“Well, that’s very nice of Gammaw to say. I’m so glad to meet you, Rose,” I say. I know it must be incredibly awkward for Eric, so I decide to put the picture in my purse and start telling Rose facts I know about sharks and random sea life. I read a lot of the fun facts books in the children’s book section, and it seems like they’re finally going to come in handy.
I haven’t been around kids much except for the ones that come in the store, but I immediately like Rose. She’s smart and loves laughing and really reminds me of myself when I was little. I think she’s just about the sweetest little girl I’ve ever met.
The one second that I look up from the conversation with Rose, only because I’m grabbing the dessert menu, I see that Eric is holding Virginia’s hand, and they are both beaming.
Well…I guess they’re both grateful that this didn’t turn out to be a total disaster. I know that I am. For tonight, the problems with work seem to be so very small, because I’m excited.
If Eric wants it, too, I could be little Roses’s mom. And while I know that Eric is a wonderful parent, I also know that a little girl should have a mom.
I don’t know if I would be a good mom, but I want to be, and that’s got to count for something. The stakes in this relationship just got incredibly high. I have to make sure that Eric knows that I’m all in.
“Chocolate cake?” I mouthe to Eric.
“CHOCOLATE CAKE! Please, Daddy,” Rose says. She folds her hands in her lap and sits pretty, and I swallow the giggle I have at just how cute that whole display was.
“Yes, Rose, of course you can have something special as a treat for your first day back with Daddy,” Eric says. He beams at his daughter.
I think my heart could swell right out of my chest, I am so in love right now.
And don’t judge me, but seeing Eric as a father is the biggest turn on that I have ever seen in my life. If he thought I was turned on before, good grief, my engines are revving now.
“I have to go!” Virginia says, kissing the top of her son’s head, then Rose’s, and giving me a hug. “So lovely to meet you.”
“You as well, thank you,” I say, giving her a broad smile. My face is almost hurting from how hard I’m smiling. But I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my life.
Eric
When I wake up, I hate discovering that I’m sleeping alone. This is a thing that I used to do all the time, and it’s second nature to me. Sleeping alone used to be the best thing ever; now it’s the fucking worst.
God!
Maybe Jessica’s right and Elia’s put a magic spell on me.
I grab my shorts and then decide to go on a five mile run on the treadmill. I soon change my mind when I enter the room. I grab my sneakers and decide to go for a run around town. Today’s a big fucking day, and I need a clear mind. Ryan's signing over the store and getting the money that he wants, that’s the good news for him. The bad news for me is the fact that everyone’s jerking my chain over it.