“You bet, buddy.”
Crisis averted.
I put on his favorite cartoon. I smile when he crawls onto my lap to watch the show. Halfway into the cartoon, he’s asleep, as I knew he would be. I gently carry him to bed and tuck him in. I kiss his forehead and watch him sleep for a while. Sometimes it’s impossible to walk away. With a sigh, I close his door.
Time for mommy to take a bubble bath and do a little self-care.
I’m rubbing lotion on my freshly shaved legs when my phone dings with another text. I don’t even have to look to know it will be Axel.
I open up the text string and see that I’ve missed several texts from him.
It’s dead in here tonight.
I’m bored. Come entertain me.
Then several minutes later…
What are you doing, doll?
I chew on my bottom lip, wondering if I should tell him that I just got out of the bath or not… he did say he wanted to be entertained…
Just got out of the bath. I’m putting on lotion.
The three little dots bounce for a minute, disappear, then bounce again. I smirk, wondering what he’s thinking about. Probably something dirty.
Come here. I’ll rub that lotion on you, babygirl.
Oh you would?
Hell yeah. I’d rub it all over that sexy body of yours.
That makes me giggle. I just bet he would.
And then what?
Then we’d have a repeat of last night.
My core clenches at the memory of him buried deep inside me. Teasing him backfired because now I’m just teasing myself. Part of me wants nothing more than to call Marsha and have her come watch Henry so I can go get another dose of Axel, but I can’t.
She’s already suspicious about what I’ve been up to the last three nights. I told her that I was meeting someone I met online, and when she asked how it went when I got home, I told her about him ghosting me. She was angry on my behalf, of course. She didn’t question me when I had her babysit Saturday night, but when I got home Sunday, she wanted to know what was up and why I was smiling so big.
I explained about meeting someone at the bar—she doesn’t know about The Playground, and I plan to keep it that way—and that we wanted to get to know each other better. She teased me because she could tell by my smile that things went really well.
That’s an understatement.
I scold myself for even wanting to see Axel again so soon. Two scenes in a row are already pushing the limits of what can be considered casual. Hell, I shouldn’t be texting with him so much. He’s going to get the wrong idea. But I can’t seem to just ignore him. It’s nice having someone interested in me.
I can’t help but wonder if he would still be interested if he knew about Henry. I push that thought away because it doesn’t matter. The two sides of my life will never intermingle. Instead of replying, I put my phone aside and crawl into bed.
I’m awoken from a deep sleep by my phone ringing.
“’ello,” I say groggily.
“Doll,” Axel says in that sexy southern accent of his. I’m instantly awake at just the sound of his voice.
“Axel, is something wrong?” I ask, looking at the time. It’s nearly two in the morning.
“I just got off work. You stopped responding to me… I got worried.”