Chapter 4

Nathan stood there like a post.

I walked around him.

"Olivia," he called after me.

I turned around.

"Are you... doing okay?"

I gave a short laugh.

"Better than I was with you."

I went upstairs and opened the door. Andy was bent over the table doing his homework, and he looked up at the sound.

"Mommy, somebody was fighting downstairs."

"Just the produce sellers."

"Oh." He went back to writing.

I put the groceries in the kitchen and texted my mom: "Vanessa came by."

She answered in seconds: "Did she get the better of you?"

"No."

"Good. Ignore those two. Let them go at each other like dogs."

I put down the phone and started chopping.

Downstairs, a car started up, honked twice, and drove off.

Andy ran over. "Mommy, what's for dinner?"

"Spaghetti with tomato sauce."

"With sausage?"

"With sausage."

That made him happy, and he went back to the table to keep working.

I finished beating the eggs and poured oil into the pan.

Outside, the sky was gray, but it wasn't raining.

"Mommy, why doesn't Daddy want us anymore?"

I set the pasta on the table. "It's Mommy who doesn't want Daddy anymore."

"Daddy did something wrong, and that's why Mommy doesn't want him."

Andy was quiet for a moment. "Then Daddy's a big bad guy."

The next day, after I dropped Andy off at school, I started looking for work.

I printed ten copies of my résumé and took them to the job fair on the South Side.

I went from booth to booth. Plenty of places were hiring office clerks, and each one offered less than the last.

At a building-materials company, the HR woman glanced at me. "How old?"

"Thirty-three."

"Married? Kids?"

"Divorced. I have custody."

She set my résumé off to the side. "We'll be in touch."

I took it back and went straight to the next one.

The company at the corner had a small sign that read "Horizon Logistics."

A man in his thirties sat behind the table, shirtsleeves rolled to his forearms, head down over a takeout box.

I put my résumé on the table.

He looked up, still chewing, and quickly swallowed. "Sit, sit, sit."

He flipped through a couple of pages. "You've done admin before?"

"Five years."

"Can you do spreadsheets?"

"Yes."

"Can you start tomorrow?"

I paused. "No second interview?"

He grinned. "This is the second interview. I'm so short-staffed it's ridiculous. If you can come in, you're saving my life."

"What's the pay?"

"Forty-five hundred a month, five thousand once you're past probation, full benefits." He pulled out his phone. "Give me your number, I'll text you the address."

"You're not going to ask why I got divorced?"

He paused. "Why would I ask that? I'm not marrying you. I'm working with you."

I saved his number in my phone as "Lucas Reed."

On my first day, Lucas carried an old computer over and set it on my desk.

"Make do for now. I'll get you a new one next month."

"As long as it turns on."

He stood beside me watching while I opened a spreadsheet and set up a ledger.

After two minutes he said, "Okay. You're better at this than me."

At lunch he brought over two takeout boxes and put one on my desk.

"From the place downstairs. The pot roast's good."

"How much?"

"First one's on me. After that, buy your own."

I ate. He sat across from me going through invoices, cursing out a supplier the whole time, and every complaint had a point.

At the end of the month, doing the books, I found two shipping charges that didn't add up.

Lucas leaned over to look, his elbow propped on the back of my chair.

"I handled that one." He scratched his head. "Missed it."

"Can we get it back?"

"Let's see." He called them. He was loud, and he talked the guy on the other end in circles until he agreed to make it right.

When he hung up, he gave me a thumbs-up.

"You've got a sharp eye."

"Five years of this."

He laughed. "I found a real treasure."

Andy got out of school early, so I brought him to the office to do his homework.

Lucas found him a little stool and dug up half a pack of cookies.

"Eat."

Andy looked at me. Only after I nodded did he take them.

"Thank you, Uncle Lucas."

Lucas ruffled his hair. "Good manners."

One night I worked late, and Andy fell asleep with his head on the desk.

Lucas took off his jacket and laid it over him, gently.

"Your son's a good kid."

"Mm."

"Takes after you."

I didn't answer.

He didn't say anything more either, just turned and went to switch off the lights.

After work he gave us a ride partway on his electric scooter, since it was on his way.

Andy stood up front, I sat in the back, and the wind blew up my sleeves.

"It's getting colder tomorrow. Put an extra layer on the kid."

"I know."

At my building, he put a foot down and waited until we'd gone up before he left.

Andy leaned on my shoulder. "Mommy, Uncle Lucas is nice."

"He's all right."

"Nicer than Daddy."

I patted his back. "Don't go comparing."

The next day at the office, there was a kid's down jacket on my desk with the tags still on.

Lucas was on the phone in the back room and didn't come out.

I cut off the tags and put it on Andy.

It fit.

Nathan called me in the middle of the night. "Liv, I miss you..."

"What, things not going your way now?"

"Sorry, things are going great for me. I don't have time for you right now."

I hung up fast.

Half asleep, Andy caught my wrist. "Mommy, don't talk to Daddy. Daddy's bad."

My heart aching for him, I stroked the soft wisps of his hair.