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Get to the door, cough up an excuse, ask if he’s married, and then throw yourself at his feet, prostrating yourself for help, twenty bucks, whatever, she thought wretchedly, sobbing. How low can you limbo, bimbo? She practically sang in her head, because she was about to sink lower than the lowest low – a negative limbo-esque event.
She was going to beg.
Beg.
Racing up to the doorway, with the blanket covering Zane to keep him from getting soaked or chilled, Eris knocked and waited. It was a few moments later that she shushed Zane softly, knocked again… and saw a light turn on in the distance.
“Oh gosh…” she whimpered, drawing in a deep panicked breath as she heard the deadbolt unlock, a chain dragged against the wooden door, and the hinges creaked slightly.
Colton’s shocked face stared at hers.
“Eris?” … and his eyes slid to Zane less than a second later. “Are you kidding me?”
Her son, not to be outdone by Fischer-a-la-Prime, sat up from her shoulder where he’d been leaning, covered with the blanket, and he yanked it off proudly, grinning and exposing his little teeth as he wrinkled his nose.
Hazel eyes stared into hazel eyes. Like looked upon like… and her son exclaimed happily in the silence echoing between them.
“You tiddding me, wady?”
“I couldn’t have said it better,” Colton said hoarsely – and laid a hand on the door to steady himself. “Eris, what’s going on?”
“Can we talk?” she said shakily, trying not to cry if he said ‘no.’ “Are you married? Am I disturbing you? Colton, can we really talk – I have no one else to turn to and…”
“If he’s who I think he is, then yeah… we really do need to talk,” he said simply and held open the door for her.
5
* * *
COLTON
Thursday
He was pretty sure he was dreaming when he peered through the peephole of the front door and saw Eris standing there, sopping wet, in the middle of a thunderstorm. She had something wadded up and bundled on her shoulders, and he fully expected her to say, ‘Here – you forgot this!’ and shove it at him before leaving him once again.
What he never expected was to see his own eyes staring back at him. He had a son – and she never told him. That much he was able to piece together but everything else in his brain was a scattered mess.
If someone was able to take a peek inside his head, they would be shocked. It had to be every single coherent thought was now its own little minion in his head, screaming frantically and running around with their hands up in the air. Oh, and the imaginary floor in his mind was swallowing them whole like a bad case of hungry, hungry hippos. Every time they took a bite – then they were on fire… while spitting fire. There was item after item, thought after thought, popping up in his brain randomly… like little flames dancing. Yeah, every thought in his head was literally screaming… with lots of mental fires to put out.
Not. Good.
“So… hey,” Colton said numbly as they stood there looking at each other, shutting the front door. “You’ve got a kid now.” He could practically see her face shutter in that second as she took a deep breath and started to crumble before him. “I didn’t mean anything bad, but rather, I’m acknowledging there is a short male version of… um, yeah… well, me, right there in your arms.”
“His name is Zane.”
“Zannnneee…?” he drawled expectantly, waving his hand. “Zane what?”
“Zane Fischer Landry…” she whispered, looking away.
“Oh.”
He nearly doubled over at the immense cramp that hit his gut at that moment as he realized she didn’t put him on the birth certificate. Did she hate him so very much? If so, then why was she here?
“Who’s… ah,” he cleared his throat and hesitated. “I bet you’re cold and him, too. Um, do you want to borrow a shirt, or do you have stuff in your car that you need me to get?”
“Colton, my apartment burned to the ground yesterday,” she began in a warbling voice that told him she was really close to bawling hysterically.
He nodded, stepping forward awkwardly, and hugged her lightly. It was like hugging a corpse – cold and stiff because neither ended things on good terms. It wasn’t like she was running here to resolve things. She’d just had her life turned upside down and had nowhere to turn to – and flinched again.
