My Dirty Affair

Chapter Forty

I woke up extra early to send my niece off to school. I volunteered to take her which had been much appreciated by Vincent as he caught some extra time to sleep. My parents got a head start back home and even took a majority of the leftovers from the party they spent all night cleaning up. I came back a little after midnight and managed to catch a few hours of sleep. Alice hugged me with all her strength when I dropped her off and I promised her I would call later. I even had Casper in the car. He was an obedient dog, but he moved around a little too much in my Jeep.

Emily and I coincidentally had to work later on in the afternoon so we'd set a time to leave in the morning that way we'd have time to unpack and take a nap before work. When I came back, Emily had already set our suitcases downstairs and she was just finishing her make up.

Vincent had already woken up and was dressed for work when I came into the kitchen. He'd fixed himself a cup of coffee and offered to pour me some.

Lila came downstairs next, still dressed in her pajamas. "Good morning." She said before she enveloped me in a hug. "Make sure you call more often. I feel like I don't hear from you anymore."

I held my sister close, digging my face in her shoulder, seeking comfort in her closeness. We hadn't spoken much since the wedding and she should've been the one I talked to about Ellis but I didn't want her to worry about me. "I'll keep in touch."

"Good."

"Thanks for the hospitality, maybe next time I'll move in." Emily said when she finally trotted downstairs.

"Em, no." I laughed.

"It's okay, feel free to come back anytime." Lila said.

"I had fun." I hugged her again. "We'll talk soon."

Vincent helped us pack the Jeep and wished a safe ride home before he went back inside. Emily settled in the backseat and I buckled up. "Do you have everything?"

"Yeah, I think so." She replied. "So, you came in late last night, what happened with you and Matt?"

I knew the question was coming, but I didn't answer her until we were on the road. I kept my eyes solely on the road when I answered, "We had sex."

She shot forward, peeking her head around my seat to peer at me closely. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw a shocked expression on her face. "No fucking way!"

"Yes, yes, we did."

"Mel!"

"What?"

"Do you know how long Matt has tried to be with you?" She exclaimed. "This is crazy and amazing and great! I knew he was the one for you—"

"Wait," I bit my lip, wondering if I should really say what's been on my mind since last night. "Matt and I aren't going to work out."

"What?" Emily didn't wait for answer as she climbed over the console and into the passenger seat. "What happened?"

"These past few days have been wonderful with him, and when we kissed, I felt alive and I felt at ease, but I think I'm more sexually attracted to him rather than emotional attracted. We're better as friends." True, last night was fun and he knew how to make love to a woman, but afterwards I didn't feel the same.

"Oh. Well, it's better to stop it before it goes too far." Emily said.

"Yeah, I gave him my number and told him we could still be friends."

"Damn, Mel."

"I know. I didn't mean to repeat history. He's fun and smart and insanely gorgeous, but there wasn't much there." I explained. I will always be his friend and I trusted him with the most innocent part of my body. I didn't want to let go of our friendship. "What about you and Scott?"

"It's still going good. We're talking, but I don't know for how long. I don't do the long distance thing."

"Em, you can't let that be the reason you won't be with him."

"It's not me. He's the one that moved back to Georgia for some reason he won't tell me. He doesn't tell me a lot about his life and that's a red flag in my book." Emily had a tendency to over exaggerate situations with men due to her past experiences.

I do remember Matt telling me that Scott had a two year old daughter. Maybe that had been his issue, incorporating new woman into his child's life. But then he'd have to be serious with Emily in order for them to take that next step. It wasn't my place to tell her about Nova, but then again, she had a right to know what she was getting into.

"I hope this doesn't blow up in my face," I said to myself. "Em, he has a kid."

"Who has a kid?"

"Scott,"

"That's not possible. He would've told me."

"If he told you on the first date, would you have kept calling?"

She shrugged. "I don't know because he never told me! How did you find out?"

"Matt told me."

"How old is the kid?"

"Two."

"Wow." She ran her fingers through her hair. "This changes things."

"It doesn't have to." I wanted to look at her, to take her hand in mine and explain to her the pros and cons of being with a man that had a child. Scott is a good man, and I could understand why he didn't tell her. I just wanted her to see the reason too. "Understand that telling someone about a kid is a deal breaker for some people. Imagine if you two were at the movies and he told you out of the blue, and then you drop him because of it, maybe he's protecting his heart."

"I don't know. I can't think about it right now." She shook her head and climbed back into the back seat.

It didn't take us long to make it back home. Emily and I unpacked our belongings and both of us took a nap before work. It'd been two days and I missed work because it was the one place that hadn't been touched by drama and I saw new faces everyday. I clocked in and prepared to approach my designated tables.

"Hi, my name is Melinda, what can I get for you today?" I readied my pen and paper for their order.

"Melinda?"

I looked up from my pad, my body going still. I was trying to give myself more time to talk to him, I wanted to practice what I would say to him the next time I saw him. I needed to give him an explanation for why I was absent and ignoring his phone call, but when I saw him sitting there, my mind went blank. "Jon."

__________________________________________________________

I made it to 40! So happy I did it. In the old version for this story, I ended it at chapter 50 (I think), but I'm going to try to extend this story to 70 chapters which means I only have 30 more chapters to write. I love love love Matt, but he was a character that would take me too much time to incorporate into Melinda's life back at home and that's just too much to write. Don't worry, I'm not completely finished with him yet just like I'm not completely finished with Ellis.