Loving my fake Husband

Helping Hand

❀ Amy ❀

The silence that settled in the house after Clark left was almost deafening. I stood at the door for a moment longer than necessary, the sound of his truck faded down the street while my thoughts raced a mile a minute. Clark Mason had just offered to play the part of my fake husband. And not only had he not run for the hills after hearing my messy truth, but he had offered to help me keep the lie alive. Which, on the surface, sounded like the solution to all my problems. Except it wasn’t. Not really. Because I didn’t know him. Sure, he seemed funny and kind while he was built like a lumberjack with a superhero complex, but still he was a stranger. He was a stranger to me and a stranger to my daughter. I couldn’t possibly just let someone into my life, into Eva’s life, without knowing his story. I had laid myself bare to him, which is why he probably offered to help me out. But I didn’t know anything else about him. He mentioned that he wasn’t here to stay. What did that mean exactly? I sighed as I went into the living room and looked around. It had a homey vibe to it despite the fact that there wasn’t much to look at. Except for the few boxes, I still had to unpack. I rolled up my sleeves. Since I was at home and the piping issue was temporarily fixed, I could use this time to clean.

“Right, let’s get to it,” I said aloud. The first thing I did was set up my laptop and open my favorite playlist. As the music flowed throughout the house, I smiled, rinsed off the dishes, and packed the dishwasher. Once it was on, I washed the pots and pans before I wiped down all the counters as well as the kitchen table. I got the vacuum cleaner out and systemically ran through the house. When I was done with that, I pulled one of the boxes over to the couch and opened it up. It was filled with toys. A worn-out stuffed bunny with one floppy ear. The purple tiara Eva had once insisted on wearing every single day. A collection of glittery rocks and plastic trinkets that had once been her greatest treasures. I sat back on my heels and held the bunny in my hands as a wave of memories washed over me. We had come so far and yet, it felt like we still had so far to go. Without much thought, I grabbed my phone and called Darren’s mother, Angelique.

“Amy,” she said when she answered my call. “I was wondering when I would hear from you,”

“Hi, Angelique, sorry…it’s been…one hell of a ride,” I said rather sheepishly. This woman had done so much for me, and I hadn’t called sooner. I should have.

“Understandable, tell me everything,” she encouraged. “How is my precious Eva doing?”

“She is doing good. She has finally settled in at school, and she has made quite a few friends,”

“That’s lovely and what about you? How is the job?”

“The job is perfect. I cannot thank you enough for everything you did for us,” I said. I sniffled as I tried to keep a hold of my emotions.

“Of course, and…have you heard from Darren?” she asked, and I considered telling her the truth. She deserved to know. But something stopped me.

“No,” I lied.

“Well, I wish that was a good thing, but…Darren stresses me out. He disappeared again,”

“I’m sorry,” I said truthfully, and she scoffed.

“Don’t be. Darren is the only one who can help himself at this point. We have all done everything we could to help him,” she said, and I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. “But let’s not dampen this call with talks of my disaster of a son. Have you heard from your parents?”

“Not a word,” I admitted softly. “Sometimes I dream about them calling me…to ask me how Eva is…” my voice trailed off as I shook my head. “But…it doesn’t matter…I hate to ask, but I do need some help,”

“What’s wrong?”

“The piping in the house needs to be replaced. The plumber said he would work out a quote with a possible payment plan but…”

“Don’t even worry about it, Amy. As soon as you get the quote, send it to me, and we will pay for it,” she said, and I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Is there anything else you need? You know that your comfort is important to us,” what she didn’t say was that Eva was the real reason they put up with me. Once again, I shook my head. It didn’t matter why they were prepared to help, it was just important that they did help.

“I mean…” I looked around the living room and wondered if it would be too much to ask for some furniture.

“I offered a decorator, Amy. That offer still stands,” she said, and I hated to ask. We had a roof over our heads, and we had food in the cupboards. That was enough, wasn’t it? “Ok, how about this…why don’t you let me send a decorator over and you two can discuss what you want? If you need to get someone in to repaint or something, do it. I know…look, Amy, you, and I both know that Eva is our first grandchild. We want her to be happy and comfortable. But you are…you are like a daughter to us, and I know things haven’t been great, but we really do want to help,”

“Ok,” I finally agreed. It warmed my heart, but I wasn’t sure I believed her. Not that it mattered. I wanted Eva to be comfortable as well. And at this rate, the chances of her wanting to invite her friends over meant that I didn’t want her to feel embarrassed that our house was average in comparison. “Ok, sure,”

“Great. I’ll get on that right away…and while that plumber is redoing the pipes, make sure that everything else is working correctly as well…and get in touch with an electrician,”

“Ok, I will,” I promised. We spent another few minutes talking about Eva before I hung up. It wasn’t ideal, and I made a promise to myself to repay them back one day. Maybe Eva and I could drive to the city and visit them for a weekend or something. After all, Darren’s parents were the only grandparents Eva had.

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