Watermelon

Posie

"Have you heard from your mom about the house yet?" Camila asked, stabbing her fork into her takeout salad. She had made a last minute decision to grab lunch and head to her husband's office so they could eat together during their break. They both sat on opposite sides of the big couch in his office.

"Not yet," he sighed. "Hopefully we hear something soon. I'm getting impatien—"

As if on cue, Shawn's phone vibrated against the coffee table with a call from his mom. He glanced hopefully up at Camila and grabbed the phone, answering the call and putting it on speaker.

"Hi mom."

"Hi honey! Is Camila there?"

"She is; I have you on speaker."

"Oh good! So I heard back about the house..."

"And?" Camila perked up.

"They have a counteroffer. They want $15,000 more than your offer."

Shawn looked up at his wife, shifting uncomfortably where he sat. Camila considered the price for a moment and slowly nodded.

"Are you sure?" Shawn mouthed silently to her. She nodded again. Shawn cleared his throat and let his mom know their decision. "We can do that."

"Perfect! I'll let them know. I assume they'll accept pretty quickly since they're the ones who made the counteroffer. How exciting! I just love this house so much and I know it'll be perfect for you. Honey, do you think you'll have any issues breaking your lease on the current house?"

"No. I've been doing month-to-month rent for a while now so we'll be good."

"Ok perfect. I'll let you two know as soon as I hear back that the offer has been accepted and we can get the ball rolling on finalizing the sale."

"I'm so excited!" Camila was giddy just thinking about calling that house their home. She hadn't been able to stop thinking about how perfect it was since they saw it.

Shawn looked down at his phone, realizing he was getting another call. It was someone he knew from a child services agency he had worked with previously. "I've got another call I need to take, mom."

"Ok, no worries! I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything. Bye! Love you both!"

"Love you too!" They both replied in unison. Shawn ended the call and took it off speaker as he switched to the other incoming call, holding his phone up to his ear. Camila didn't think much of it. He got work-related calls fairly often. She just continued eating her salad as he talked.

Camila watched him sigh and run a hand through his hair, a telling sign that the call was stressing him a bit. She started paying attention to what he was saying, hoping to pick up on enough of the context to find out what was going on.

"Mhm, yeah, that makes sense."
"Just temporary?"
"Do you know how long?"
"I'm sure we can make it work."
"Let me talk to my wife about it and then call you back."

Camila anxiously awaited to learn what he had to talk to her about that also happened to be work-related.

"What was that about?" She asked as he ended the call and tossed his phone back onto the coffee table in front of them.

"Remember how I told you once that I love my job but that it can sometimes come with a lot of curveballs?"

"Yeah..."

"How do you feel about taking in another foster?"

Camila's eyes widened, but before she could give any kind of verbal response Shawn continued explaining.