Page 12 of Game On

I walked out of the office with my phone in hand and went outside. I called Seth first.

“What do you mean, you’re rescheduling?” I screeched into the phone as soon as he answered.

That might have been an immature thing to do, but Seth had rocked my entire world and cut me into a thousand pieces. I was done caring about decorum when it came to him.

When I got pregnant, I thought that was the end of my world, but he reassured me everything would be fine. For a while, it was, and we were happy. Then I met his ex-Veronica.

Seth got cagey when I asked when they broke up, but Veronica had been so kind to me. When my friends ditched me at my wedding, she helped me with my baby, so I could get my pictures taken. It only took a couple of months to figure out Seth was cheating on me. That’s when I found out I had been the other woman. When I got pregnant, Seth was telling Veronica he was going to marry her, but then he left her for me.

I wished Veronica had told me at my wedding. I would have never asked her to watch Rosie while I went to get pictures of me marrying her cheating ex. I never would’ve married him in the first place. I wished someone had warned me about Seth.

Okay, my mom did, but I was too in love to listen. He reminded her of my dad. The one who walked out on her with another woman when I was a baby and she had been pregnant with my sister. I wished the cycle of cheating men hadn’t repeated itself with me.

“Well?” I asked when Seth didn’t respond right away.

“Katie and I…”

I stopped listening.

Katie. That was the girl he had been cheating on me with.

I only figured it out after I was doing our bills and noticed one didn’t look right. It was for an expensive hotel in Vegas. He said he had a tattoo convention, but that seemed steep. Seth had been working here at the shop, and they were brand new, so I knew they were still finding their footing. I called Olivia to confirm if it was something the artist took out of pocket or if it needed to be expensed, and she had no idea what I was talking about. Because Seth had called out sick those days. I might have caused a scene by coming into the shop and throwing my ring at him. That’s when Veronica and I really became friends.

Should I blame this Katie woman for being with Seth? I didn’t because who knew what lies he told her? I was the other woman and had no idea. If Katie knew, if she was with a man who cheated on his wife, I didn’t want to know.

“Lil?” Seth’s voice pulled me out of my wandering thoughts.

“Sorry, I stopped listening to your lies. This is your daughter, Seth. We agreed on a schedule for her, so we can both spend time with her.”

“I know, it’s just⁠—”

“Fine, then don’t have this weekend, but don’t expect me to bend over backward for you. And don’t expect you can have her next weekend either. That’s not how this works. You don’t get to pick and choose when you want to be in her life. We agreed to shared custody.”

“Lil, come on.”

“No. You know what? Fuck you!”

I punched the end button on my phone and ran a shaky hand through my hair.

Was that smart? Absolutely not. I rarely lost my cool like that, but he made me so mad. If he kept messing with her schedule now, it was only going to get worse as she got older. I didn’t want to have to explain to my daughter why her dad didn’t want her. God, I can’t imagine all the questions I asked my mom when I was a kid. I didn’t want that for Rosie.

I should go home and take a raincheck with Veronica. She seemed like she felt too sick to go to the hockey game, anyway.

That didn’t stop me from texting my sister.

ME: Guess who canceled on me?

MARI: What an A-hole! I’ll take Rosie for the night.

ME: I don’t want to put you out.

MARI: Bring that sweet little baby! You deserve a break.

I owed my sister so much. The only reason I didn’t move in with her instead of Mom was that Mari lived in a tiny one-bedroom apartment. Sometimes I wondered if that would have been better than dealing with Mom’s passive-aggressive ‘I told you so’ moments. My sister was a professional nanny, and since she was between families right now, she helped me a lot with Rosie. I did her taxes and bills in exchange for the childcare.

I walked back into the tattoo shop and saw Veronica at her chair, tattooing a big burly biker. She was smiling while chatting him up and tattooing a gigantic piece on his back. She still looked a little green, but she was pushing through it. Olivia was at the front desk and was listening to Rosie babble at her.

“Mommy!” my little girl cried. “Want Mommy!”