shrugged. “What do you want me to say? It’s been hard…”
“It’s been hard for him too.”
I never called Hades to shoot the breeze. I never asked how he was doing. I imagined he’d moved on with his life, replaced me in his bed, and I didn’t want to know any of those things. I knew he was sad about our breakup, but he was probably bedding other women to get through it. And that made me sick to my stomach…even when it shouldn’t. “Is he doing okay?”
Ash took his time before he answered. “As well as he possibly could be, I guess.”
“It’s been two months, but it feels like two days. It’s been rough, but there was no other solution.”
“Unfortunately.”
I kept walking until we reached my front door. “This is me.”
Ash looked up at the three stories then turned back to me. “It’s nice.”
“Thanks.”
“I’d invite myself inside, but I don’t trust myself around you now that you’re single.” He winked, telling me he was teasing me.
I smiled at his comment.
“You can call me if you need anything.”
“Did Hades ask you to say that?”
He shook his head. “No.”
My eyes softened.
“We’ll always be family.”
I lay in bed in the middle of the night. My hand rested over my stomach, and I focused on the feeling of Andrew’s kicks. They were gentle but distracting enough that I couldn’t sleep. Hades had never felt his son kick. I’d left too soon, and he never had the honor other fathers did. It was moments like these that made me miss Hades the most. I felt alone; I felt scared. We should be doing this together, not apart.
I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and looked at the screen. There was no message from Hades. There was never a message from him. He’d let me go with an aloof stare, like he knew it was the best thing for me, but he resented me all the same. I wanted to call him, but I knew I shouldn’t. It was too soon to have a close relationship, to be friends who had a kid.
Could we ever be friends?
I stared at my phone for a while, considering what I should do. The silence was suffocating. I didn’t just lose my husband, but my best friend, my everything. My life felt so much emptier without him. Maybe that would change when Andrew was here, but I knew there would always be a hole in my heart.
Maybe it was because I was lonely, maybe it was because I missed him too much, but I called him. The blue light lit up my dark room, and I pressed the phone to my ear and listened to it ring.
It didn’t ring for long. His deep voice announced itself over the phone, quiet but strong. “Sofia.” He didn’t say it with the same affection he used to possess. There was a tone of melancholy in his voice, slight betrayal. But he was there, answering my call like he promised he would.
“I hope it’s not a bad time.” It was one thirty in the morning, so it was a stupid thing to say. If he wasn’t asleep, he was working. Or worse, he had company over. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had replaced my spot in the bed. My ex-husband was the sexiest man in the world. With beautiful brown eyes and the body of a Roman soldier, he was the sort of man any woman would give up anything to be with. The thought of someone else made me weak, so I tried not to think about it.
“No.” He never talked much, even during our happier times, but he was speaking even less than normal. The old camaraderie was absent. He almost felt like a stranger now. That was probably because he was. We hadn’t spoken in weeks. His feelings, his opinions were totally foreign to me. “Are you okay?”
I missed hearing that question. When I was his wife, I was the center of his whole world. My well-being was the only thing that mattered. But now I wasn’t his responsibility anymore, and that made me feel so distant from him. “I’m fine. Andrew is kicking a lot, and I can’t sleep.” My hand moved over my stomach as I lay under the warm blankets. I was on the top floor, and my mother was on the second floor. “He’s been really ornery for the last couple of days. I’ve been eating a lot of spicy food, but I think that’s just