“Tina, where have you been? I’ve been worried.”

“I just needed a drink and to talk with a friend.”

“Tina what goes on between us, stays between us,” he said his face turning red.

“Eric I have a hard time believing you haven’t talked to anyone. Especially your mother, you’re such a momma’s boy.”

“Jesus, you’re drunk and this is not the time,” he said taking her from me, “Thanks Bette, sorry.”

“It’s no problem,” I mumbled and walked away fast.

I got into the car as Eric pulled Tina into the house. I was so nervous that Tina would say something to him about us in his drunken state. As I drove home, I wished that Tina was going home with me. But I had to be patient, this wasn’t an easy situation but we put ourselves in it, so we are getting ourselves out.

It was hard for me to concentrate in class the next day, this test was really important but my thoughts kept going to Tina. I was hoping that she felt better, and that her day was going good. I finished my test and went onto my study session for my final in a couple of weeks. I didn’t spend too much time studying; I was too distracted so I decided to go home. I dropped my stuff on the ground immediately when I got home and went to the kitchen and made coffee, I had every intention of studying a little more, but a knock at the door broke the silence.

“Hi,” I said stunned at seeing Tina at my door.

“Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you had to work.”

“Yeah, I was at work when I got a call from the daycare that Jackson was running a fever. They let me off early to take care of him.”

“Where is he,” I asked looking for him.

“I left him with the sitter, this nice old lady who lives next door. She offered to watch him so I could go back to work.”

“But you’re here,” I said and smiled.

“I am, I let Eric know I was gonna have lunch with you and he said he’d pick him up,” she said, “are you going to let me in?”