Best Intentions

It's been a week since the boys met Rosie and everyday since Alex has been coming in the shop. He would go to lunch with Cass and I. Cass didn't mind, but a very small part of me did. A small part of me minded that Alex was slowly trying to make his way into my life again. Something that I've been trying to avoid these past few years. But I knew that it was about time that he came back into my life.

Alex came in the door of the store. He'd been going to lunch with us these past few days just trying to catch up, I mean a lot has happened in five years, we needed time to catch up.
"So are you girls ready for lunch? There's a new mexican place down the street and I really wanted to try it." he said.
"Yeah, just wait a minute" I said. Cass received a text
"Guys, I can't go to lunch today. Something came up and I think I need to rain check on you guys." she said
"Okay. Sure" Alex said
"I'll make it up to you guys tomorrow, okay?" she said to the both of us.
"Yeah, sure" Alex and I both said.

Cass went out before we did. I had more things to do in the shop than she did. So I finished all the things I had to do then headed for my lunch break.
"So what's up?" Alex said as if he was able to sense that something was up
"Well, it's Rosie's parent-teacher conference tomorrow and usually my mom or Cass would go with me. I really wanted my mom to come this year, but she couldn't so Cass was supposed to go with me but she told me awhile ago that she couldn't because something came up, so now I guess I'll have to go alone" I told him
"Well you know, I can come with you" he offered
"No thanks. You don't have to do that you know" I told him politely
"come on! That kids grown on me! It's okay really" he said
"No really, Alex. It's fine. I can handle it." I told him
"Hey, you know I'm always here for you, right? This is my chance to prove it" he told me. I bit my lip. I was a bit hesitant. "Please? I insist" he said. I nodded
"Thank you, Alex. I really need the support right now." I smiled at him genuinely.
"Anything for you. And besides the kids grown on me" he said.

~~~

Lunch ended and we headed back to the shop. Cass called and said that she was feeling sick so she couldn't come back. I was worried about her because she wasn't acting normal the whole day. She's been texting someone the whole day too, she looked worried and disturbed. So I decided that after I pick up Rosie today we would pick up some soup from her favorite restaurant and we would stay with her at her apartment.
"Wanna go visit Aunt Cass today?" I asked Rosie
"Yes yes yes!" She said jumping with joy
"Let's get some soup for her first, okay?" I told her
"Okay, mommy" she said.

Once we got the soup we headed to her apartment. I knocked and she opened the door
"Aunt Cass we brought you soup!" Rosie said
"That's great, kiddo! Thanks" she told Rosie and me. I saw Jack, Zack and Rian in the living room. I was quite confused.
"What the hell, Cass? I thought you said you were feeling sick?" I hissed at her
"I'm sorry. Jack texted me awhile ago, he told me that he needed to talk to me about... you. So here I am now talking to them.. about you" she explained
"Talk about me? What about me?" I asked in shock
"You need to tell him, Tay" Cass said
"Can we not talk about this right now?" I said
"Then when are we gonna talk about this?" Rian asked
"Rian... Zack... I was going to explain this to both of you sooner but I guess Jack already beat me to it" I said glaring at the tall, lanky boy
"I'm sorry! But they deserve to know too!" Jack said
"I know but they deserve to find out FROM ME" I said emphasizing the 'from me'
"Tay, he deserves to know too you know!" Jack said
"I know. I'm just not ready yet. I'm scared" I said. They gave me the sympathetic look I learned to hate years ago ever since Cass first gave it to me.
"You wouldn't have to go through this alone if you had told him, Tay. And you don't have to if you tell him now." Zack said. I just looked at him.
"He wouldn't have left if you told him. You don't deserve to do this alone. You should've told him" Rian said. This time I looked down at my feet.
"Hell, even if you didn't tell him and just asked him to stay in general, he would've! He'd do anything for you, Tay. You know that!" Cass said. At this point my eyes started to water up.
"But he knew I wanted him to stay" I said defensively
"It wasn't enough that he knew. He needed you to say it yourself, but instead you pushed him away." Jack said
"I know" was all I could say.

~~~

Today was Rosie's parent-teacher conference. I stopped by the shop for awhile. Today Cass and I decided to go to work separately because she's not gonna be able to go with me to the parent-teacher conference which meant that she would not have a ride home if I drove so we had to go to work separately.
"It's about time you got your lazy ass here" Cass joked
"Hey, I got here just on time!" I said
"I was kidding" she said
"I know!" I said
"Sorry I'm not gonna be able to come later. Did you find someone who would go with you or are you going alone?" she said
"Uhh Alex offered to come with me." I mumbled
"Alex huh?" she said with a smirk on her face
"Yeah. He insisted" I explained
"Ahh I see" she said

Alex got to the store just in time when my shift ended
"You ready to go?" he asked
"Yeah, just wait a minute" I said. I did some last minutes stuff. Then proceeded to go out of the shop
"Bye! Have fun you two!" Cass said
"Bye Hun. You owe me for ditching this PTC" I said jokingly
"I'll get you icecream or something" she said jokingly too. The Alex and I headed out.
The ride to the school was fun. We were basically jamming out the whole ride. We finally got to the school just in time for the conference. Rosie was playing in the school's playground while I talked to her teacher.
"Hello, Ms. Abrahams! It's nice to see you again!" I said to Rosie's teacher.
"Oh well hello Tay! Always a pleasure to see you! And who are you? Are you Rosie's father?" she asked politely
"Oh no! I'm Alex, Tay's friend. Just here for moral support, that's all!" Alex said.
"Oh really? I could've sworn I saw the resemblance between the both of you" she said referring to Rosie and Alex. Alex just smiled at her politely. That sentence gave my stomach butterflies. I felt a shiver up my spine as those words came out of her mouth. I've heard that several times before. Even Alex himself questioned my statement that he wasn't the father of my child when he saw Rosie.

~~~

The PTC went fine. Rosie was so tired that she fell asleep at the back of the car.

The ride to my apartment was silent. We stayed at the driveway for a while just talking when certain words came flying out of my mouth
"Hey Alex?" I said
"Yeah?" he said
"Do you ever think about what could've happened if I'd asked you to stay back then?"
"Yeah I do" he said with a slight smile on his face. "How about you?" he added
"Not really. But I do think of what could've happened if I'd gave you a chance back then" I told him
"Really? And how does that go?" he asked me. I swear I could've heard him smirk at me
"I honestly really don't know." I told him. He just shrugged my answer off
"Alex?" I said again
"Yeah?" he said again
"I'm sorry that I wasn't the one" I told him honestly. He gave me a forced smile but I swear I could still see the hurt in his eyes.