The Book Of Me & You

"I'll Be Tryin' To Deserve Your Heart Of Gold"

"Would you stop looking at that thing, your constant sighing is bringing down the mood." She huffed as her son looked at his watch for the tenth time in the last half hour. His sigh indicated he was getting upset at the fact that his girlfriend still wasn't there yet. "She'll be here."

Shaking his head, he rubbed his temple, "I told her 12:30. It's almost 1, and she's still not here." Glancing around the small space of strangers, he turned back to her and looked at his watch again, "John's going to come out any secon-"

"I'm here! I'm here!" Amy rushed in quickly, slightly out of breath as she stepped over a desolate chair and went to sit beside them, raking her hands through her ponytail with a ramble, "Traffic was a nightmare and there was a wreck on the highway causing a detor -" and getting the infant's attention, "Hi baby!" Emma lunged for her, slamming her head smack into her jaw. Wincing, she settled her on her lap and lifted his wrist to get a better look at the time, "Has John come out yet?"

Pursing his lips, Ricky shook his head, "You couldn't have called?"

Trying to keep the squirmy child on her lap, who was determined to get down on the dirty ground, she rolled her eyes at his annoyance, "I was a little too busy trying to find an alternate route to pick up my phone."

He rolled his eyes in repsonse, drumming his fingers on his jeans to allivate some of the frustration starting to trickle. They'd been at odds with each other that whole week because Amy was spending more time at work, and talking to her therapist, than being with him and the kids, and it was starting to grate on him. Ricky didn't want to spend every waking second with her, but he expected a few hours a day at least. Instead, he was met by excuses - she was too tired, she had to pick up an extra shift, or she had something important to take care of. Usually, it was the second one, taking on more work in the insistence that she was picking up more hours to earn extra money with Christmas coming up. And maybe that was true, but he knew her well enough to know that she was hiding something.

After the debacle with Ben, they had made a pact with each other to divulge every dirty secret of their time apart so there would be no more surprises waiting around the corner. Amy told him everything about Adam, while Ricky shared everything about his relationship with Clementine. Everything was out in the open and they seemed to be on better ground.

That was until she started being dodgy with her time and kept the same excuse, when just a few weeks ago he admitted he still loved her and was making it a mission to be the man she deserved.

The charges had been dropped against him, Child Protective Services backed off and closed their case file, Ben left California at the instruction of Reuban after a restraining order was put in place by Amy for her protection since it was going to be hard to charge Ben with rape given that both of them were drunk and she could only remember bits and pieces of the incident. Reuban was trying to spare her a messy and emotional court battle by suggesting the restraining order instead. Things were finally starting to return to a semblance of normal again it seemed.

About to rebuttal, Ricky opened his mouth to speak just as a long dark haired woman dressed up in a turkey sweater stepped up to the makeshift stage in the front of the room. "Welcome, and thank you all for coming this afternoon to our holiday celebration! Our classes have been working very hard these past few weeks prepping for today's performances, and we hope you enjoy celebrating with us!" Waving her hands in front of her, they all turned around to see the line of grinning and bouncy preschoolers at the back of the cafeteria.

"There's little man!" George pointed with a smile, angling his phone to capture his grandson who kept lifting his arms above his head.

Beside him, Margaret beamed, "Oh, he looks so adorable!"