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***Fiona***
Never taking her eyes off me, Megan slowly smiled. “You’re cute, I guess. If you’re into that chubby babysitter kind of thing. How old are you?”
Chubby babysitter? I just stared back at her, blankly, and wondered how I’d gotten to where I was in my life.
“Oh, god. Are you stupid, too? Do you understand the words coming out of my mouth? Whatever.” She straightened and I heard her lay into Jake. “If you’re going to fuck some dumb little chunk, the least you could do is make sure she’s got a hot face. Do you know how embarrassing it’ll be for me if it gets out that you’re dating that now? God, Jake, do you ever think of anyone other than yourself?”
My mouth was still hanging open. I looked down at Lucy and forced it closed while trying to think of what to say to make the situation less mortifying.
“Shut up, Megan. You’re not going to bully my girlfriend. It’s pretty transparent, by the way. Just check on Lucy and get the fuck out of here.” Jake hesitated and then it sounded like his anger won out. “What the actual fuck were you thinking giving a group of teenage girls liquor? Have you lost your mind?”
“Here comes the morality police again. Great! They’re teenagers, Jake! They want to have fun and blow off some steam. It was better that I give it to them than them blowing a loser outside of the liquor store to buy it for them. Right?”
Lucy sat up and groaned. “Mom!”
“I was your age once, Luce. I know what happens. I’m not going to feel bad for not letting our daughter blow someone outside of the liquor store, Jake, and you can’t make me! Neither can all of those dud parents you tattled to.”
“You broke the law, Megan! More importantly than that, you put our daughter at risk. There was a grown man all over her!”
Megan laughed and the sound was somehow the embodiment of condescension. “You mean Eric? That’s her boyfriend.”
“You knew she was dating that asshole?”
I blew out a big breath, quietly, and forced a smile at Lucy. “You okay?”
Megan stuck her head back in the car. “She doesn’t need you checking on her. Her mother is right here. If you think you’re going to try to be Lucy’s bestie to get Jake to keep you around for longer, you’re mistaken. Lucy is loyal to me. Go back to whatever trailer park you crawled out of and don’t talk to my kid again.”
The level of nasty she was coming at me with was nothing I’d ever experienced before. Not even Sara had been so nasty. I was a kind person but it didn’t feel right to let her talk to me like that. “I’m not sure what I did to offend you, but could you leave me alone?”
“Get away from my vehicle, Megan. I need to get Lucy out and get her up to the loft.” Jake tried to move her aside but she wasn’t budging. Not when she’d found her new favorite toy, it seemed.
“You walked into my party, bitch. This is my family. If you want to be left alone, you can go.” Megan shoved Jake’s hand off her shoulder and pointed her finger in my face. “I know girls like you. You think you can waltz in and take everything. Fuck the first wife, huh? Not here, honey. Not this man.”
“Mom, stop! Please!” Lucy pushed at her mom’s shoulders to get her away from the door but Megan had the strength of a thousand angry ex-wives, it seemed.
“Oh, wow. Are you going to cry? Aren’t you a little Pollyanna? Is that how you’re doing it? You let those big eyes fill with big tears and beg Jake to wrap his big arms around you? Pathetic.”
To my horror, I thought I was going to cry. My hormones couldn’t handle a woman coming at me with so much vitriol. I looked past her at Jake and saw a man who looked utterly helpless. Short of physically removing Megan from the truck, he couldn’t do anything. I imagined a woman like Megan who used everything to her advantage would use him moving her as a weapon.
Feeling like I was cornered, I did the only thing I could think of. I rambled. “I’m pregnant and my hormones are all over the place. I’m not crying because you’re being a bully, even though you are. I’m crying because this sucks. I don’t like being yelled at. I especially don’t like being yelled at by bitter exes who treated their men like trash yet feel a sense of ownership over them months and years later. My head hurts, my back aches, and I’m a few minutes from sprinting out of here like a track star to get away from you. Please, get your finger out of my face and yourself away from this vehicle.”
Lucy took her shot while her mom was stunned by my response and pushed her away. She shot me an apologetic look before shutting the door and leaving me inside by myself. I could hear mother and daughter arguing a few seconds later and then Jake opened my door and shook his head.
“I don’t even know where to start apologizing. I have to take Lucy up to the loft. Do you want to come with me or stay here? Megan can stay with Lucy while I take you home.”
I nodded, knowing I wasn’t going to be there when he got back. “Sure. I’ll just stay here.”
He leaned in to kiss me and I turned my mouth so he got my cheek instead. “Shit.”
I stared straight ahead and clenched my fingers together in my lap. “Go make sure Lucy is okay, Jake. She threw up again.”
He swore again but after a few seconds of staring at me, he shut the door and I watched through the rearview mirror as the three of them stepped into an open elevator and disappeared. They made a beautiful family.
I nearly drop-kicked the door open and then I sprinted to the nearest bus stop with a bus waiting at it and climbed on, not caring where it was going. I just wanted to be away. I sat at the very front and leaned my head against the window, not minding when the bus hit a pothole and my head bounced off the glass.
I never wanted to have another interaction with Megan. I’d never known anyone so mean. She’d insulted me more in five minutes than any other person in my life ever had. I didn’t know what that meant for my relationship with Jake. I liked him a lot and I wanted to be a part of his life but I wasn’t sure I could handle taking that kind of abuse every time Megan came around.
