Forever An Ex by Victoria Christopher Murray

long.”
    He nodded. “I thought about that. But Caroline’s going to take good care of her. You know that, right?”
    â€œYeah, acting like she’s Angel’s mother,” I said, speaking louder than I wanted to but having a hard time keeping my voice down. “But she’s not. And somebody needs to tell her that!” Then I reached toward Bobby. “Baby, give me your phone so I can call your wife. I wanna tell her that she’s not Angel’s mother and she better recognize.”
    Bobby gently grabbed my hand as I tried to pat down his jacket in search of his cell. “Maybe we shouldn’t tell her that right now. Maybe we should let Caroline get to France, let her take care of our daughter, and then when she gets Angel back here safely, we can have that talk with her.”
    I squinted, then wagged my finger at him. “You got a point. ’Cause she better take care of our daughter.” With a long sigh, I leaned back on the couch and rested my head on the cushions. “I don’t know why I feel so sad. I’ve been crying ever since you and Angel left and I can’t stop.”
    â€œWell,” he said, glancing at the empty bottle of wine, “drinking probably doesn’t help.”
    â€œWhat else can I do?” I cried.
    â€œI understand you feeling sad. I mean, you’ve spent the last eleven years raising her into this fantastic young lady.”
    I sat up. “You think so?”
    â€œOh, my God, I am so proud of Angel. She’s smart, she’s talented, she loves to study, she has her priorities straight. Think about who she is. That’s all because of you, Asia.”
    I shook my head. “You know I didn’t have nothin’ to do with that. That’s all you . . . and Caroline. You guys treat her like she’s mature.” I repeated Angel’s words. “You have all these sophisticated conversations with her and . . . I’ve done nothing.”
    â€œYou’ve done a lot more than nothing; you’ve done the important work. Who recognized her talent so early, and got her into all these classes?”
    â€œI’ll give you that. But it was mostly because when I was a kid, I wanted to take ballet and I wanted to take acting lessons. But my grandmother hardly had enough money to feed me.”
    â€œWell, you don’t have to worry about money anymore.”
    I nodded. “I don’t because of you.” I leaned forward and covered his hand with mine. “Thanks for that.” My voice quivered. “Thank you for taking care of me.” Then I sobbed more drunken tears.
    He pulled me to him and held me until I was too weak to cry anymore. And then, just like Christmas, all of a sudden his lips were on mine. It was a gentle, easy kiss. Well, it started that way. But then it flipped. We went into full-fledged tongue-waltzing, hands-exploring, voice-moaning mode. For a moment I broke away and did that little thing with my tongue in his ear that used to drive him crazy.
    It still did ’cause he cried out my name and shoved me back onto the couch. When he rested the full weight of his body on top of me, I spread my legs welcoming him.
    After that, I can’t tell you what happened. One minute, I had my clothes on, and the next, everything was off. A minute after that, he was naked, too. Then right there on that couch, we joined together the way we used to, the way we had so many times before.
    I hadn’t had Bobby in six years, but nothing had changed. We did this horizontal waltz as if we’d danced just yesterday. The weight of him was so familiar, his kisses were so wonderful, and the way he stroked me and made me his once again . . . I’m telling you, I jogged right up the stairway to heaven!
    It was wonderful . . . until it was over.
    Slowly, Bobby lifted himself off of me, still panting.
    I could feel it coming; he was about to jump up and