Right With Me - Stacey Lewis Page 0,45
inconveniencing him by not wanting to talk pisses me off. He hasn’t had time for me in months, and now that he’s decided he wants to talk I’m supposed to abandon any plans I might have.
Seth sighs, sounding extremely put out. My eyes roll skyward as I pray for patience. “I’ll make this quick then.” The tone of his voice is the snotty one he uses when he’s speaking to someone he considers to be beneath him and man does it make me want to kick him in a very sensitive place.
“That would be great.” I hope my sarcasm is as clear to him as it is to me.
“I’ve moved back to Seattle.”
He drops this bomb on me like it’s nothing. I begged for years to move back, especially after I got pregnant with Connor and he said our lives were in Portland and he would never move back. Now, suddenly he’s here?
“You moved back? When?”
Huffing out an irritated breath, he tells me, “Two months ago.”
I have to bite down on the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming. Two months and I’m just now finding out?
My inner rant is cut off when he drops his next bomb. “I’d like to see Connor.”
“What?” This conversation is not making me sound very intelligent. All I’m doing is parroting back what he says and saying what. Oddly, I do get a little satisfaction from it, but only because it drives Seth crazy when someone repeats everything he says.
He’s annoyed now. “I want to see Connor.”
“Why now? You haven’t wanted anything to do with him in a year.”
Seth is quiet for a while, so long I pull the phone away from my ear to make sure we’re still connected. Finally, he asks, “Does it matter? I’m his father and I have the right to see him.”
“You’re right,” I say slowly, “you do, but up until now, you haven’t taken advantage of those rights. I just want to know what changed.”
He sighs again, like I’m asking something totally unreasonable. “When can I see him?”
Oh, okay, so that’s the game we’re playing now. I’m going to ask questions and he’s going to refuse to answer them. Sure, why not. “I don’t know Seth. What does your schedule look like? I’m at work until about four every weekday, so it would have to be after that.” I want to tell him no, he can’t see Connor, but our custody agreement says he can. He just hasn’t taken advantage of it.
“Why not tonight?”
Yup, here we go. Now I’m struggling to keep my temper in check so he doesn’t know he’s ticking me off. If he knows I’m angry, he wins. “I already have plans tonight. You know that because I already told you that.”
“So you’re denying me the chance to see my child?”
“No, Seth, that’s not what I’m doing at all. You can’t expect to call me and have me drop everything to meet you when you haven’t bothered to call to check on Connor or try to see him since the day our divorce was final. If you want to see him so soon, we can meet tomorrow if you want.” Honestly, it’s more than he should hope for because I could adhere to the custody agreement that says he’s allowed to have him one overnight during the week and one weekend a month because his lawyer said his schedule was “too booked” to do every other weekend. Jackass.
A few minutes of silence follow my attempt at being civil, then he says, “I’m busy tomorrow, so it will have to be next weekend if you can’t make time for me to see my son today.”
I’m rolling my eyes so much they’re going to get stuck in a weird position. “It’s not about ‘making time’ Seth, it’s about having plans already. You can’t expect to call me at the last minute assuming I don’t have anything better to do than come meet you. If you want to set something up for next weekend, text me your schedule and I’ll let you know when I’m available too.” I know he’s going to have something to say that will ruin my night more than he already has, so I rush to end the call. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get going. Bye, Seth.”
There’s no “bye” in return. Seth just disconnects the call and I pull my phone away from my ear to stare down at it. I hope I don’t regret what just happened. If