Fallen

I was thankful that my mom was picking Carson up from daycare today and cooking dinner for him. He was excited to spent the night at GiGi’s house, and I was excited to be childless for an evening. I loved having him around, but being a young, single mom with a three-year-old, and working a full-time job with animals that could literally eat me, was tiring.

I finished up my public demo with our brown bears; Melody being the main attraction since she was still a “cub” at a year old. People loved to hear about the relationship that she had with her keepers since she was hand-raised and then introduced to her mother and brother after a few months. She was extremely sick as a cub, so she needed constant vet care. Another time that I was thankful for my mom, but also Brandon, because I was needed at work 24/7 as essential staff.

“Thank you guys for coming! Enjoy your rest of the day at the zoo,” I smiled and waved goodbye to the crowd, unhooking my microphone from the collar on my shirt. I tossed in a few more fish to the exhibit and headed back up the hill. I was closing today, so I was the last member of my unit to be here.

I checked all the animals one last time on our cameras, then printed out the report for the day. I rushed into the bathroom quickly after I called out, saying that my area and carnivorous monsters were secured. I took a shower and got changed out of my work clothes and into some more casual clothes. I had packed a pair of jeans, flip flops and a loose v-neck top. There was a cardigan somewhere in my backseat for if I got chilly. I pulled my hair down from my messy bun and added a little makeup, then headed out the door.

Luckily, when I was the closing keeper I got out of work later than the majority of other people. Traffic wasn’t too bad on these days, and I could usually make it home fairly timely. Tonight I was going to meet up with two of my closest friends for dinner. They both had kids as well, and we were all finally able to take a night off to grab a drink and vent about our crazy lives.

“I’ll take a Michelob Ultra, please,” I smiled at the waiter and handed him my I.D. after I was asked for it. He nodded then proceeded to ask my two friends, Emily and Rachel, for their drink choices, too.

“It is so nice to get away from the kids for a night,” Rachel laughed. She had a son who was also three, and a daughter who was eight months old. “Elliot is probably losing his mind at home.”

Emily laughed, “Tell me about it. Chris nearly had a heart attack when I reminded him that I was not going to be home until later. Can you believe that he had the nerve to ask me what he was supposed to do with Leo?”

We all laughed, “Hey, at least you guys both have husbands who can watch your children. I feel bad dishing Carson off on my mom, but sometimes I just need it.” I decided what I wanted to eat and closed the menu, “He decided to jump off the back of the couch last night and busted his lip for no apparent reason. I don’t know what goes through that little guys head.”

“Well, he is Brandon’s child. Do you not remember all of the times that Brandon would get piss drunk and do a backflip onto an air mattress, or better yet, out a window?” Emily raised an eyebrow. “Maybe Car will chill out when he gets out of the terrible T years.”

“Doubt it,” I shrugged. “He is his father’s child, as much as I hate to admit that… I just hope that when he hits twenty-eight he doesn’t start dating someone nine years younger than him and does cocaine recreationally.”

Rachel frowned and grabbed my hand from across the table, “Elliot showed me a photo of them together on Instagram. I’m so sorry you have to go through that, Liv. You are so much better than that piece of trash.”

I nodded, “I know, Rach. Cassidy actually celebrated a birthday with the guys last weekend and met her… supposedly she tried to lie and say she was twenty-one with a fake I.D. but got called out on her bullshit. I’m just glad Carson will never have to be around her or any other whore Brandon decides to date.”

“Are they like official, official?” Emily asked, curiously. Rachel and I both shrugged and Emily frowned, “Well shit. It doesn’t matter anyway. You never told us how it was meeting the hot dad! I bet you told Cass all about him. We need details.”

I laughed, knowing exactly what they were talking about. They wanted to know about when I dropped Carson off at Cash’s dad, Matt’s, house on Saturday. I did actually go and tell Cassidy all about him, but who could blame me. “Well, he was really friendly and easy to talk to. We only talked for maybe ten minutes before I had to leave, and he had to go tend to our bad ass kids knocking down a cabinet in Cash’s room.”

“How hot was he?” Rachel swooned, “I need to know everything.”

With an eye roll I continued, “He was gorgeous. You’ve seen pictures of him and already knew that he was. Carson was knocked out, asleep, when I went to pick him up later on, so I didn’t really have much time to talk to Matt. We’re supposed to take the boys out tomorrow night together.”

“You are so going to fuck him,” Rachel giggled, Emily joining in.

I shook my head, “I am so not. Carson and Cash are best friends, and I’m really close with Val. Plus, Matt has years on me and a bunch of women who would love to date him, if he isn’t already dating someone anyway. I appreciate him wanting to get to know me since Carson and Cash are so close.”

“You said Val pretty much gave you the go ahead when she told you that she warned him that you are a MILF!” Emily yelled, a little too loud, causing some people to look at us. “If you don’t text us with every update tomorrow this friendship is over.”

“I swear, sometimes it feels like we are all still twenty-three,” I laughed as our waiter came back to take our orders.

We spent about two hours at dinner just talking about everything going on in our lives. These two, along with Cassidy who unfortunately wasn’t able to make it tonight, had been my best friends for the past six years. Emily had been in the same boat as me; the “I’m going to be the hot, single aunt who never settles down,” but somehow ended up pregnant boat. Since I knew them both so well, I knew that if I didn’t give them updates every five minutes tomorrow evening, they would be blowing up my phone in our group chat and probably calling me. I wouldn’t even put it past Rachel to sneak onto the beach and try to watch things herself, giving the girls all the details. I was lucky to have friends who always made me feel like we were in our carefree, early twenties again.

After dinner I headed home and unwinded, changing into pajamas and plopping onto the sofa to watch some trashy reality television. My phone buzzed from the coffee table and I leaned forward to grab it, seeing Matt’s name pop up on the screen.

“Hello?” I answered, not sure as to why he was calling me.

His deep voice came smoothly over the phone, “Hey, Liv. I just wanted to make sure we were still on for tomorrow. I didn’t know if you would be able to answer the phone at work if I texted you tomorrow morning.”

I smiled; it was nice that he made the effort to check in with me about it, “Yeah, we are still on for it. Carson is staying at my mom’s tonight and she told me that he just kept talking about how excited he was. You still want to meet at five? I should hopefully be able to swing that if traffic isn’t too bad.”

“If it’s easier, I can pick Carson up when I get Cash, then you can just meet us at the beach. That may be better than you having to pick him up, then backtrack to come meet me,” Matt had a point with what he was saying.

I nodded to myself, “You know, that would be awesome. I’ll give the daycare a call tomorrow on my break and let them know you’ll be picking him up, too. Thank you for that.”

“Of course,” I felt like I could hear a smile on his face. “Have a good night all to yourself; I’m sure you needed it. I’ll see you tomorrow, Liv.”

“See ya,” I smiled as I hung up the phone.

There was a strange part of me that was honestly excited for tomorrow evening with Carson, Cash and Matt. Something about how interested he was in getting to know me was really enjoyable. Val had said that he would be home for quite some time because he was working on a new record, so that meant I would be seeing him on a regular basis. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise to start this friendly relationship with Matt - Carson would probably start to look up to his best friend’s dad since he didn’t have any other male figure in his life.

Notes

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What do you think is going to happen at the beach?
Liv's friends seem pretty excited over Matt.
Is she getting a little too ahead of herself thinking of Carson?