Nice Buns (Cheap Thrills 7)

“If you don’t want the responsibility of being a parent, I don’t want the responsibility of being your kid when you feel like it. All my friends’ dads do things with them, but you can never be bothered with me. Their dads go to stuff and are proud of their sons, but you’ve never once done that. You just sit there, looking bored and playing on your phone.”

Instead of putting Cody’s mind at ease, Neil just sighed. “Let’s not be dramatic. Everyone finds going to school for their kids boring. I’m not the only one who’s found a way to get through it with my phone.”

I opened my mouth to tell him to stop, but Cody got there first.

“Rot in hell.”

Straightening up, Neil glared at him. “You’ll have some goddamn respect when you—”

“Why?” Cody yelled, his arms rigid at his sides. “You just said you didn’t want to be my dad, so why do you get respect?”

Looking from him to me, Neil sneered. “You disgust me. I don’t know how I stayed married to you for as long as I did.”

I blinked at the hatred in his voice, wondering what I’d done to deserve it, but most importantly, I felt anxious about not wanting my son to witness this.

“The marriage has been more of a co-habiting arrangement for years now, Neil. You know that as well as I do.

“Now, for the sake of my son, I’d appreciate it if you could please hold back anything else you’ve got to say until he’s not here to hear it.” I kept my tone even and my voice low, hoping it would diffuse the anger in him and save Cody from being hurt further.

“No, Mom, I want to hear what he’s got to say. I think I deserve it,” Cody said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

My poor, poor boy.

“Sweetheart, why don’t you—"

Of course the bastard had to interrupt me.

“You’ll always be alone, Evita. I mean, look at you.” He looked like he’d tasted something disgusting as he scanned me from head to toe. “Good luck, you’re going to need it.”

“Leave my mom alone,” Cody screamed, completely losing it.

Storming over to where he’d dropped his stuff as he came in, I scooped it all up and walked back to where Neil was standing and dropped it at his feet.

“You need to leave. I’ve paid for more of this house than you have, and I’ve got a child who lives in it.”

Yeah, I earned more as a hairstylist here in Pflugerville than he did in his job in Austin, but I’d also had savings my grandparents had started for me when I was born that’d paid for a substantial down payment on the place. I wasn’t losing one cent of it to him.

“Once we’ve found a new place to live, I’ll put this one on the market, and whatever the lawyer says you’re eligible to receive from the sale, you’ll get.”

Neil went to interrupt, but I didn’t give him a chance. “Now, as the resident of the property, I’m asking you to leave. If you need to collect anything, you can do it when my dad’s present to ensure you don’t take what you’re not entitled to.”

He’d never seen me like this. I’d always been the one to roll over and go with what he said, but not this time.

Not any other time.

Wisely, Neil chose not to say another word as he picked up what I’d dropped in front of him and stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him.

Instead of running to me like he usually did when he was upset, Cody turned and ran to his room. When he did this, it was his way of not wanting but needing time to himself.

It killed me to do it, but I gave my boy all of thirty minutes before I checked on him to find him gaming with his headset on. He was laughing and taking part, but there was a sadness about him.

He shouldn’t have heard any of what had been said tonight or have the burden of it anywhere near him. I hated that it hadn’t worked out that way.

Later on, when he came through to my room and lay across my bed with his head on my stomach, I promised I’d make his life the best and happiest I could, and we made plans. What our house would look like, how he’d have the chickens he’d always wanted but that Neil had said hell no to, and how our dogs would be able to run around in the garden without him losing his mind for no reason about it.

We surfed the internet, finding dinner plates we both loved, cutlery to die for, glasses Cody insisted we had to have… Hell, we even got excited about the small trash cans for the bathroom and holders for our toothbrushes and toothpaste. All of these were things that’d been denied to us until now by a fucked up bully who never wanted to spend any money, and who went for the ugliest and shittiest stuff he could find.