Learning to Fall

“Where have you been, Gerard?”

Miranda’s cold voice cut off the sounds of my children’s laughter as we stumbled through the front door. I snapped my head up to see her standing in the foyer, hands on her hips as she glared menacingly at us. Logan instantly cowered behind his sister, frightened of seeing his mother so angry. Ella discreetly put an arm behind her back, offering a comforting hand to her brother which he readily accepted.

“We were at the park,” I replied, pushing the door shut with my foot.

Miranda raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow. “At the park?” she repeated stonily and tapped her gold watch. “It’s seven in the evening, Gerard. How on earth could you have been at the park that long?”

I sighed angrily and muttered, “We were with friends.”

“What friends? No friends of ours would want to be in a park at all hours of the night.”

I turned to my two frightened children. “Ella, take Logan upstairs and find him some pajama’s, then into your room to play Barbies, okay sweetie?”

Ella put on a brave face and nodded. “Come on Logan,” she said, leading him past their fuming mother and then running up the stairs.

I turned back to Miranda, who was looking at me expectantly. I honestly hadn’t thought she would even be home yet, she favored late nights at the office over coming home to her family. She obviously hadn’t been home long as she was still in her crisp white shirt and tight pencil skirt, complete with the heels that had every man in the office bending over backwards to do things for her.

“We were just with some friends. I met one of the dad’s at Ella’s school a few days ago and he’s really nice. The kids really like him, plus Ella is best friends with his daughter so we decided to hang out.”

“In a park, at night, with the children?”

I shrugged. “We lost track of time.”

Miranda pursed her lips, but relaxed visibly after hearing that his daughter attended Ella’s school. Ella’s school was a rather prestigious one and so I could tell Miranda figured if she went there, he must be well off.

“And what does this man do for a living?” she asked coolly.

“He’s a UPS man,” I answered back instantly, watching as Miranda’s body stiffened.

“A UPS man?” she repeated.

I nodded, watching the disbelief mix with disgust in my wife’s face.

“I don’t know if I like the idea of you and the children being in a park late at night with a UPS man.”

I laughed bitterly. “Being a UPS man doesn’t make you a serial killer.”

Miranda shot me an icy glare. I could tell she did not like the thought of her husband and children being seen around such company.

“All I’m saying is, it would have been nice to come home to find my children and husband here.”

I stared at her incredulously. “Are you fucking serious? You are never home and when you do come home, it’s after everyone has gone to bed!”

“Well one of us actually has to be out there making a living. We can’t all just quit our jobs to work in a small retail shop,” Miranda retaliated, raising an eyebrow knowing that she now had the upper hand. We both knew that there was no way our family could survive on solely my income. When I had quit my job in advertising, our roles had been reversed, I had become the parent and Miranda the earner.

“Fine,” I hissed. “I’ll make sure we are home straight away tomorrow, on the off chance that you actually come home early.”

I snatched up Logan’s baby bag and stalked past Miranda, heading up the stairs to go and find my children. One of us had to look after them.

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Since I hadn’t seen Frank at work that day, I arrived early at school the next day to pick up the kids, hoping I would see him waiting anxiously for his precious daughter along with all the other mom’s, considering he and I were the only dad’s. I was feeling eager to see my new good friend’s face, the fight with Miranda had me slightly drained and I knew he could cheer me up with just a smile.

“Come on, Logi,” I said to my son, pulling him by the hand into the school building. As we entered the white hallway filled with blue lockers, I glanced around for Frank, feeling a sense of disappointment when I couldn’t see him anywhere. He was never late picking Sophia up, always somehow managing to beat me to the school. I suppose he didn’t have a toddler hanging off him who made it his prerogative to pick every little thing off the ground and try to put it in his mouth.

“Fank?” Logan asked, looking up at me through wide hazel eyes. I smiled down at my little boy, marveling at how smart he was that he knew Frank should be here. He really was a child genius; I had been telling my parents that for some time now.

“Frankie’s not here yet. Maybe he’s running a little bit late,” I told my son. He seemed satisfied enough with my answer and started playing with one of the lockers, trying to open the lock on it.

Ten minutes later school was only moments away from being let out, and Frank was still notably absent from the hall. I wondered briefly what explanation he could possibly have for not being here, but pushed that thought aside as the door to the classroom burst open and children started spilling out, chatting excitedly amongst themselves.

“Hi daddy,” Ella called, giving a wave as she came out of the classroom last, followed by Sophia.

“Hi Ella Bella,” I said with a smile, leaning down and planting a kiss on her soft cheek. “Hi Sophia.”

“Hello Gee,” Sophia replied, shooting me a small smile before looking around the hall. By now, her dad was usually smothering her with kisses and whispering to her about how much he had missed her that day. Sophia tugged on one of her curls nervously as she realized he was missing, looking up at me with a worried expression.

“Where’s daddy?” she asked.

I crouched down so I was at her level. “He’s not here yet, but I’m sure he’ll be here soon,” I soothed her, rubbing her waist gently. “Ella, Logan and I will wait for him with you, okay sweetie?”

Sophia nodded and looked down the hall once more, as if expecting to see Frank bursting through the doors armed with a million apologies. She gave a little sigh when he didn’t, and turned back around to my daughter.

“It’s okay Sophia, he’ll be here soon,” Ella said in a comforting manner. “And if he isn’t, you can just come and live with us.”

I held back a laugh at how cute Ella was being, as I watched Sophia’s eyes widen. She hadn’t considered the prospect of Frank not turning up at all.

“Well, she could come and live with us, but I’m guessing her daddy would miss her too much to let her do that,” I said, trying to calm the little girl down before she became too distressed. “How about we wait here for a little longer and I’ll try ringing your dad?”

Sophia nodded. “Okay Gee,” she replied, giving me a small smile.

“Come on Sophia, lets go play with Logan,” Ella said, grabbing her friends hand and dragging her away.

“Stay where I can see you!” I called after them and brought out my phone, quickly finding Frank’s newly stored number and dialing it. The phone rang a couple of times before going straight to his voice mail. I sighed and sat down on the white tiled floor, snapping my phone shut once more. Where was that man?

Half an hour later, not to mention six unanswered phone calls, Frank still hadn’t arrived at the school and I was beyond panicked. Thoughts of him lying dead on the side of the road constantly filled my head and did nothing to calm down my overanxious mood. Thankfully Sophia had been playing with Logan and Ella and had barely noticed that time was quickly slipping away from us.

I was just pulling open my phone once more, ready to ring Frank again when the glass hall doors suddenly burst open. An attractive woman strode into the hall, each heel encased foot landing on the tiled floor with a resounding tap. She flicked her long, straightened black hair behind her shoulder and adjusted the necklace that fell into her ample cleavage. This woman was insanely hot, her red lips drawn into a pout as she scanned the room with one hand on her hip.

Her heavily made up eyes finally landed on what she was looking for. “Sophia, my darling,” she called out in a clear voice, one long finger, adorned with an obviously fake looking pink nail, beckoning for the little girl to come to her. I followed the women’s gaze to where the children were playing. Sophia’s head shot up at the voice, her eyes widening as she saw the woman.

“Mommy, where is daddy?” She asked, standing up and pulling on her backpack. My two children walked over to me, both feeling a little unsure about the intimidating looking woman.

The women smiled hugely. “Sweetie, did you forget!?” she let out a loud, fake sounding laugh. “Daddy has work! He’s got better things to do then pick you up! ”

I felt myself visibly cringe at her words which obviously hurt Sophia as her little face fell. I was surprised this woman was Sophia’s mom, she certainly didn’t fit the stereotypical mom appearance but Frank had done well for himself landing her. She was hot.

Sophia nodded and came over to Ella, reaching her arms out to give her a hug goodbye. The girls quickly hugged, Sophia being seemingly resistant to let go, before she walked over to her mother who instantly threw her arms around her.

“Oh baby, I missed you so much today!” she squealed, her tan skin clashing with her daughters own fair coloring. Sophia seemed a little taken back by her mom’s sudden display of affection, judging by the bewildered look upon her face.

“Let’s go home sweetie, maybe we can bake some cookies together!” The woman, who I presumed was named Angelica, took Sophia’s hand and led her out of the building, without so much of a glance in my direction only leaving the faint scent of her perfume lingering in the air.

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I glanced down at my watch for the tenth time that day, seeing it was just barely noon. I sighed to myself, wondering when and if Frank would turn up to deliver yet another box of goodies.

“Gerard, what the hell do you keep looking at your watch for?” Quinn suddenly asked me, placing down the comic books I had ordered him to put in alphabetical order.

I glared at him. “I haven’t been looking at my watch much,” I replied defensively.

Quinn just gave me a look and raised an eyebrow. “And I suppose you haven’t noticed a certain UPS man was supposed to be here quite some time ago either?”

“Oh was he?” I feigned innocence. “I hadn’t really been paying attention, but now that you mention it, he hasn’t come yet. Do you think something’s happened to him?”

My eyes suddenly widened as, yet again, thoughts of Frank lying in a hospital bed, wires coming off his unconscious body, plagued my mind. Anything could have happened to him, I hadn’t seen him for days now.

Quinn rolled his eyes. “I’m sure he’s fine, Gerard,” he said reasonably.

“What if he’s not though?” I argued back.

Quinn just smiled at this. “Missing your man candy already? Even I’ll admit his sweet ass was a welcome presence in this place.”

I scoffed at this. “It was just nice seeing Frank everyday, now that he has become one of my good friends,” I sniffed.

“I bet seeing his pouting lips just waiting to be kissed wasn’t so bad either.”

Only Quinn would think that kind of thing about another man. I had never noticed these so called ‘pouting’ lips Quinn spoke of, and the thought of kissing them certainly hasn't crossed my mind.

I pelted a nearby DVD at Quinn. “I don’t know what you are insinuating, Mr. Allman, so now I am just going to ignore you and carrying on with my work, as should you.”

Quinn gave one last smirk and folded his arms in an almost smug way.

I glared at him and pointed to the stack of comic books.

“Those comic books aren’t going to count themselves, you know.”

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I shuffled out into the cool night air, closing the patio door quietly behind me and pulling out my forbidden packet of cigarettes. Miranda had long since banned me from smoking, so I had resorted to sneaking out of the house once everyone had gone to bed to get my fix.
I sat down on the wooden bench that over looked the pool and crossed my ankles, pulling a cigarette out and quickly lighting it.

I had decided that enough was enough. It had now been a week without so much as a glimpse or word from Frank and I had finally decided to do something about it. I hadn’t seen him at my work, there had been a different UPS man coming through my door everyday and he didn’t wear a cheeky smile as he handed over yet another parcel of goodies.

I didn’t see him at school either, it had been Angelica picking Sophia up, though not without being half an hour late and forcing us to wait with the little girl, not that we minded.

I flipped my phone open after pulling it out of my pocket, scrolled down on the contacts menu and found Frank’s number, pressing the little green button to call.

“H-hello?” He answered on the fifth ring, sounding like I had just woken him up thanks to his mumble. It was pretty late, I didn’t blame him for already being asleep.

“Frank? It’s Gerard!” I exclaimed, taking a drag of my cigarette. “Um…Ella’s dad,” I added. “I hope I didn’t wake you up.”

“No, no, of course you didn’t,” he replied hastily, now sounding much more alert. “How are you?”

“Good, good.” I cut to the chase. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

Frank let out a sigh and said, “My route changed. I don’t even get to pick Sophia up from school anymore.”

“Damn, just when I was getting used to seeing you everyday they have to go and fuck it up,” I replied, frowning as I recalled the grossly overweight, sweaty UPS man that had come through my front doors that morning. He was no where near in Frank’s league. He was certainly not getting any freebies out of me.

“I know!” Frank exclaimed. “Its pretty hard adjusting back, seeing you everyday was definitely a treat.”

I laughed. “Seeing me everyday would be a treat. It’s amazing how many people take that for granted.”

“I know!” Frank agreed good naturedly. “I think you should have everyone in the centre complain about the new dude and ask for the hot guy with tattoo’s back.”

“Oh, I intend to write them a very nasty letter,” I assured him, only half lying. “Anyway, my kids already miss you quite a bit, so I was wondering if you and Sophia wanted to come along to a games night on Friday?”

There was silence on the other end. “Y-yeah, that sounds great,” Frank stuttered. “What time?”

“My place around five? I’ll make dinner, and by make I mean, ring up the Thai place down the road.”

“That sounds great!” Frank said enthusiastically. We chatted for a few more minutes, before I excused myself as it was getting rather late and I already felt bad enough for obviously waking him up before.

I stubbed out what was left of my cigarette, crushing it with my foot before discarding the evidence in my secret tin I had placed next to the barbecue and quietly let myself back into the silent house, smiling happily at the thought of how much fun Friday night would be.