Rumor Has It

Part 36

Bradley shivered, thinking back to the talk he had with his mother only yesterday. A knot had formed in his stomach when Gloria lost her patience and directly brought up the topic she had been dancing around without mentioning it a few times before. "So what ARE you doing for Christmas now, this year?"

"I haven't made any plans yet." He explained, which was the truth.

"You didn't even ask Irina if she has anything planned? Maybe..."

His jaw tensed at the suggestion, at celebrating Christmas as some kind of pretend-family and he found himself cutting his mother off. "It's her year, that's how we had agreed on it. There's not much I can do if I don't want even more conflicts."

The holidays were coming closer and closer and becoming unavoidable to talk about. Last year had been his according to their agreement and before that, they had all spent it together. This was the first year he would be on his own and Lea didn't seem to be aware of it, even though he had mentioned it already. Something in her still appeared to think that everything would magically resolve itself.

While writing her letter to Santa, Lea had asked Gloria if she had any wishes of her own this year and his mother had, without thinking about it for very long, carelessly said she would be happy if she would get to spend it as she always did.

Bradley had considered asking if they should all spend it together, for Lea's sake, and maybe that would have been an option before their latest falling out. Before, when Irina had suggested they could have been a team and he had declined her harshly.

The dinner with his mother was the sole reason he found himself here, standing next to Irina at the playground on a sunny evening. Meeting in person on neutral ground took some of the edge off and had been the beginning of a peace offering. Spending time with her here, surrounded by kids and with a chatty Lea that kept coming up to them...it reminded him of the early days, when they were still married and their daughter was young enough to not even fully notice the world around her she was growing up into.

The initial softness in her face when he met her threw him off at first. But after talking a little, his ex-wife seemed to be just as stressed as he was and he suspected she had to be growing tired of the everlasting conflicts too. But even now, the peace wasn't lasting very long.

"We can discuss Christmas after this weekend." She suggested when he brought the topic up and broke their eye contact to find Lea between the other screaming kids on the playground again. "I was going to ask if I could pick her up on Friday anyway?"

Bradley furrowed his brows in a scowl. "That's very short notice. We have plans already and I'd hate to...."

"I guess you're going to spend it at her place again?"

He shrugged, not seeing any point in keeping it a secret anymore after they had been seen in those photos. "Yes, Lea was going to bring that doll you got her. She loves it and she's been showing it off everywhere because it kind of looks like her."

Bradley tried to force a smile onto his face, only to be met with a tired glare. "I know you mean well, but I'm going to ask you very nicely to have her keep some distance from people where I suspect she picked up some of that colorful language. And the ideas about tattoos and...."

"They're kids, she's likely picking up more from one trip to the park." He interrupted her, nodding at two other kids Lea was talking to, completely out of their earshot.

Irina dug her shoe into the shallow sand and didn't meet his eyes. "Think about the level of attention someone like her gets. Just imagine it for a minute. We're annoyed at paps taking pictures, now think about what would happen with her around." She motioned with her hand towards the playground where other parents were letting the evening fade out peacefully. "This. Could you do this? Simply taking your child to the playground in peace, without getting harassed? People taking your and her picture?"