Page 74 of Mommy

I get another chaste kiss, before Derek pulls back and starts preparing dinner.

I’m about to head upstairs to take a hot shower and slip into my pjs, when another question has me stopping short.

“Did you get home safe?”

A muscle in my cheek twitches.

“Of course.” I say, cautiously. And then I flee upstairs, before he can say or ask anything else.

Only once the bathroom door is firmly shut behind me, I allow myself to remember today’s ride.

It’s not the ride home, I’m thinking about though. It’s my way to work this morning. The one, where I got yelled at by a stranger like I had personally offended him when all I had done was go past him.

But Derek doesn’t know that.

And it’s not a big deal.

Taking off my clothes and slipping into the shower, I try to shake off the memory, but…

Something isn’t adding up.

Why would Derek ask me, if I got home safe when I in fact already was home safe?

By the time I’m rubbing myself dry in one of the fluffiest towels I’ve ever touched in my entire life, I’m sure that somehow Derek must’ve sniffed out that something happened when I was out today.

So, you might as well tell him.

Easier said than done. Even when all he does is listen, the words don’t really line up in the right order when I try to explain the situation to him over dinner.

As soon as the last word is over my lips, I’m so confused myself, I think there’s no way Derek understood any of what I tried to tell him.

He surprises me, when he nods slowly.

“Calling you names like that is not okay, Ivory. You could sue him,” he says without looking up from his plate.

“Yeah, but I have no evidence.”

I didn’t even know that there was a law supporting me in this, but it doesn’t matter. No judge would believe me on my word alone.

Derek surprises me again.

“You actually do.”

When I don’t ask, he finally looks up from his steak and potatoes. There’s a hint of guilt in his half smile.

“There’s a dashcam in the car. It recorded the whole thing.”

That explains why he asked.

The dashcam must be sending video material to his phone and that’s why he knew something had happened.

“You can sue him, you have all the evidence you need. Though I wouldn’t recommend it.”

My expression goes from hopeful to defeated, brows drawing together in disappointment.

“Because I’d lose?” I ask.

Of course. The world doesn’t work like that, even when the law dictates something, humanity won’t be bothered to correct mishaps like that.