Episode 1078: Reckless

“I’m guessing there’s no point in asking how you are, that’s pretty obvious. So I’ll try what’s wrong and how can I help?”

Her husband settled beside her, wrapping an arm around her. He smelled like grass and flowers and earth. He smelled like the man she loved. The man she was so happy to have as the father to her sons.

“I just narrowly escaped making a huge mistake,” Lila admitted, lifting her eyes to meet his concerned gaze. She doubted very much that he would continue to look at her that way if she had screwed things up for their family.

“If you escaped the mistake why sit here beating yourself up over it? You should be relieved, happy. What happened? Is this about the client with the daughter’s birthday party? Did she find out you almost made a mistake and is now crazily giving you a hard time for something that didn’t ultimately go wrong? I don’t like how much she’s stressed you out. You have a steady flow of clients now, maybe you should tell her to take her business elsewhere, there’s only so much you should have to take. You shouldn’t have to put up with someone who doesn’t treat your efforts with respect.”

“That job is almost done. I can handle what a pain that woman is for a little while longer.” What Lila struggled to handle was how much pain she’d nearly inflicted on her husband and sons. It could have gone so very wrong.

“The mistake I almost made today, it wasn’t about a client. It was Xavier.”

“What? What kind of mistake?”

“Oh no, no, not that kind of mistake, absolutely not. I’m not even the tiniest bit attracted to him, I swear. I would not betray you like that. Not again.” Lila shook her head. No wonder she and Sebastian were friends, they could relate, they were the mistake makers, they turned their relationships upside down.

“I believe you,” Bowie said because he was just that generous, Lila was just that lucky to be married to someone like him.

“So what mistake did you almost make then?”

Maybe if she prefaced it, it wouldn’t sound as bad or as stupid as it felt. “I thought it could get rid of him. I thought it might be the way to get him out of town. I didn’t really think it through, it just came to me in the moment that telling him Jesse is his biological son might be the best solution.”

Prefacing what she’d nearly done didn’t seem to make it any more palatable to Bowie, his jaw clenched again.

Episode 1079: You Need To Calm Down