Troubled Indeed

CHAPTER NINE

I wake up with my body aching. I realize I'm still on the couch in Anthony's embrace, almost on top of him. That's not a healthy way to get a good night's sleep. I look up at him, he's still asleep. I notice his phone on his other side and check the time, it's 6:30, and there are three missed calls. Why would someone call him in the middle of the night? This makes me restless in so many ways, but I guess all I have is trust. I try to slip out of Anthony's grip, but he pulls me in tighter.

"Good morning," he mutters, his eyes still closed.

I shuffle myself up and kiss him. I get a swift kiss and a smile in response. He opens his beautiful sleepy eyes and keeps smiling.

"Someone had a good night's sleep," I whisper and caress his jaw with my fingers.

"I did, I'd like to sleep like this for the rest of my life," he says, grinning.

"Sure, but then after ten years we might need to undergo back surgery," I reply.

He laughs out loud. I love that we have the same sense of humor.

"Yeah, I guess," there's a mischievous smile on his face and I don't get it.

"What?" I say, smiling.

"Did you know that you talk in your sleep?" he asks.

"Um...no, I did not know that. What did I say?"

"I do."

"What?" I don't understand.

"You said "I do" when you were drifting off last night," he says, smiling.

I remember thinking about how much I love him and need him in my life. I never realized I said something out loud. Something that would typically scare him off, but for some reason he takes this as a joke.

"I'm glad you're enjoying this...," I say with the sweetest smile, "Because right now I do not." I bat my eyelashes at him and get up to stretch. Good God it's good to move around after sleeping in one position through the night. From the corner of my eye, I see Anthony scanning me from head to toe as I stretch.

"Do you like what you see?" I ask out loud.

"Oh, babe, definitely, but I would like it even more with less clothes on."

I fake a gasp and as I'm about to move closer to him, I hear a door open and two little feet pattering in our direction. Benji is up. I shrug at Anthony as an apology.

"Maybe another time," I say playfully and wink at him.

"Damn," he whispers and then smiles as soon as he sees Benji storming in.

***

I loved our little fake family playing around in the morning. But it's Friday, and all of us have something to do. So, we said our goodbyes to Anthony as we got into our separate cars. He, as usual, had something very important to do and took off in a hurry. Maybe one day I will find out all about his work.

I had to go to Lesh in order to meet Alexi and share some ideas about the remodeling. But first, I had the most nerve-racking drive to daycare, checking my rear-view mirror every other second. I dropped Benji off, looking behind every corner of the building, in hopes of not seeing the one person that shouldn't be there. Luckily, he wasn't.

Lesh is busy as usual, serving brunch and taking care of customers. The first person I see as I walk in is Emily. Of course. The stars have aligned once again. I have a thing or two to say to her about her messaging my man, like what the hell, who does that?!?

"Emily, can I see you for a minute?" I say as politely as I can, but inside I'm raging.

"No. I'm busy, and you're not the boss of me!" she says quickly as she moves past me.

What the hell? She knows exactly what's coming, that's why she's acting like a total bitch. I go after her and stand in her way.

"I'm Alexi's assistant, and Alexi is the owner of this place. So, technically, I am your boss, and you have to listen to me."

"Or what...you're going to fire me? Hah, not in your wildest dreams. Keep dreaming, princess," she replies rolling her eyes, and tries to go past me, but I step in her way again.

"The only princess here is you," I try to say as quietly as I can, not to disturb our customers, "And maybe I can't fire you, but I can take away your monthly extra bonus, so don't push me. Let's go in the back, right now," I say sternly and turn around, hoping my authority works on her and she follows me.

She stays behind for a second, baffled. But then she says something inappropriate under her breath and follows me. Now I've finally got her attention. I decide to let the last comment go, I won this argument and it's good enough for me.

"What?" she says the moment we're alone.

"Why did you DM Anthony?" I get right to the point.

"Oh well, well...aww, don't tell me you guys had a fight because of this?" she says in a nasty toddler voice.

"That's none of your business," I say dryly.

"Oh, but it is, everything going on in this place is my business," she says looking at her fake nails, then points one at me, "You should know that by now – I know everything that happens around here."

"You need to mind your own business, and not interfere in people's lives," I say and decide there's no point in arguing with her. I might as well just talk to a wall. I turn to leave.

"Did you cheat on Anthony?" she says out of the blue.

It takes me by surprise, and I don't know how to respond to her. Whatever I say she will use against me one way or another. But before I can answer her nonsense, she just keeps on going.

"I mean, what is going through your head – you have this gorge man by your side, who's ready to bring you the stars and the moon, and here you are, chatting up another nice-looking guy. And talking about either keeping or losing the baby? Of course I'm going to contact Anthony, he deserves so much better than some cheater. I would never cheat on him if he was my man," she exclaims, clearly pleased with herself.

Finally, it dawns on me - she's trying to break me and Anthony up. All this time when I thought she was my friend, she was keeping an eye on my man. She was always jealous of our relationship, but this is a whole new level of low, even for her.

I turn around and I couldn't be more pissed at her. There she is, miss I-got-my-fake-nails-and-tan, trying to break something so solid. She would never even stand a chance with Anthony.

"You listen to me, and for your own good I'm going to say this as politely as I can, butt the fuck out of my business or I'm going to make sure you will never have another job as a waitress in this state again."

We both know that my threat is empty, but something about either my tone or my facial expression makes her back down.

"Jeez, lighten up...," she tries to turn this into a joke, the way she usually does, that two-faced snake.

"This is the last time we talk about my life. From now on we only talk about the restaurant. That's it, got it?" I look at her, all my facial muscles are tense.

"Fine," she rolls her eyes again and walks past me. It's good that she moves quickly because I'm only a few seconds away from grabbing her by her fake hair and shaking some sense into that empty balloon on her shoulders.