After Stevie had made up some lame excuse about Lori coming to get her in the middle of the night to ride around and talk, things went back to normal... the new normal, that is.
It was a routine, kind of similar to the way things had been before she went to Hawaii at the beginning of the summer. It was just her and Karen most days, her fiancé was there in the evenings, she hadn't heard from Lindsey in days, Constance was trying to get back on her feet and Becks only came over when she needed to drop Silas off. Business as usual.
Except there was one small difference... Her house. That home was driving her up the wall. She had gotten papers in the mail at the start of the week, just a couple of days after they'd gotten word someone was interested and already, she needed to sign what seemed like a thousand documents for the house to sell, which made her sick to her stomach.
It was starting to feel real- way too real. She'd heard from her realtor that the buyer had agreed to everything- didn't even want a home inspection, which she thought was insane on their part... Who would want a home that was built sometime in the 50's not to be inspected? Crazy.
But whoever it was, didn't seem to care. They just wanted it off the market and that nearly destroyed her.
"I talked to my mom this morning..." George was sitting on the living room sofa, Stevie curled up on the other end as her eyes stayed focus on the cartoons that played on the flat screen.
She had Silas that entire afternoon, but Becks was set to get off at ten, so she was picking him up after her shift. Until then, they had decided to order pizza, make a puzzle, race matchbox cars and watch the same movie Silas wanted to watch every time.
It was a pretty typical night at grandmas, but like most children, it was his favorite place in the world.
Raising a brow, she lightly shifted as she turned to look over at him. "How's your mother?" That was an entirely different situation that didn't sit well with her too.
Margaret was 72, which meant she was only five years older than Stevie and was not the most enthused about their marriage plans... As you can imagine.
"She's good." He nodded softly, rubbing her foot through the blanket. "She was wondering what we were planning..." he lingered with a very faint smile on his face. "For the wedding." He added, a hint of excitement in his voice.
He couldn't wait to marry her, but suddenly, she didn't feel the same way that she had a couple of months earlier.
In all honestly, she hadn't even considered getting married again until he came along and still, she was surprised when her asked her so soon.
What was the point of getting married, anyway? She couldn't remember the last time she'd met a truly happy couple and the last thing she wanted was to grow old and miserable with someone.
"Oh..." she forced a little smile, trying to be more cheerful than she had been.
He could tell something was off, but when he would ask her about it, she just told him that she had been tired, because the truth was unbearable to try and explain.
She couldn't possibly tell him that she was very much in love with someone else- the same someone else that she'd been having an affair with for like forty- five years. And on top of that, they also had this secret house in Maui, where they snuck away every summer and pretended their real lives didn't exist for a couple of months... That didn't seem fitting to share either.
"We'll have to really think about it and then decide what we want to do." She mentioned, which felt like a good thing to say since it didn't really pinpoint exactly what she meant.
He figured that she was going to think about where they wanted to throw the reception, not about the fact that she wasn't sure she wanted any of this anymore.
She needed to decide where she belonged...
"Whatever you want, I'm sure it'll be wonderful." He assured, still letting off the warmest grin.
She sighed softly, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she began to stare off into space.
But her thoughts ran short when the sound of the doorbell caught her attention and pulled her back into reality.
"Pizza!" Silas shouted, jumping up off the living room rug.
Stevie chuckled, pushing herself up to stand as well. "I'll get it and see you in the kitchen." She told them as she wrapped her sweater around herself tighter and moved through the room.
She picked up two light up shoes, a Spider-Man backpack and a teddy bear off the floor before she even got into the foyer, where whoever it was on the other side of that door had grown incredibly impatient, being that they'd rung the bell once more.
Creasing a brow, she pulled back the curtain of the side window carefully, shocked to see who was standing out on the welcome mat... it definitely wasn't the pizza delivery driver. "Oh my gosh..." she mumbled to herself as she unlocked the door and pulled it open. "Are you okay?" Her eyes met the other woman's instantly, heart beating a mile a minute.
To see Carol standing outside her home was concerning... to say the least.
"Where is my husband?" She asked, not at all in the mood to catch up.
It looked like she'd been sitting at home in comfy pants with an old sweater on, relaxing when she decided to jump up and race over... It really caught Stevie off guard.
Her shoulders sank down, shaking her head softly. "I don't know." She didn't and suddenly she was kind of glad. "I haven't spoken to Lindsey in days." She wasn't lying and she usually didn't when Carol asked, which is why they'd had so many issues in the past.
Pursing her lips to the side, she slouched down lightly. "I think there's someone else then." She admitted in a low tone, obviously feeling a little defeated.
With a heavy sigh, Stevie opened the door for her to come in. "I'll make some tea."
