Chapter 18: A New Guy

Good thing the next day was still the weekend. Gwen didn’t feel like facing Finn or any of the employees. The previous night had been terrible for her and all her dreams were filled with giant eyes staring and disgusting fingers pointing at her.
She knew it was going to be hard, but when it happened, she wasn’t ready for it. Now, she would have to face all of it at her job, every single day, until they had something better to talk about and forget about her.
She shared it all with Stephanie, and the woman was about to spit fire from her nostrils.
“Holy sh*t!” she whispered, trying to not to be heard by Cody. “How can someone be so fake? That woman is the devil in person, that’s what. I can’t believe she pretended not to know you,” she complained, not trying to hide the anger she was feeling.
That made Gwen feel a bit better. At least someone understood what she was going through at that moment.
“And Finn was trying to understand what happened? Thank God you didn’t say anything, right? He’d never believe you,” Stephanie continued.
Gwen nodded in agreement.
“Don’t mention it. I simply lost control of my mouth when I heard her saying bitter things about me. What a monster that woman is,” Gwen stated, also whispering.
But Cody heard that last part and lifted his head, curious.
“Who's a monster, mommy?”
“No one, baby. Just someone at work. Why don’t you go to your room and get changed? Your daddy will pick you up very soon.”
Finn had called her the whole morning, trying to scold her for leaving early and with Cody, without even warning him. She tried, but he thought he could control her. Finn complained for more than five minutes on the phone that he was worried sick that something had happened to the boy, as if the party wasn’t crowded and full of security guards.
She waited for him to run out of steam, and seeing that she wasn’t going to discuss that matter with him, Finn changed his strategy.
“Do you think I could spend the day with Cody? I can take him back before bed time,” he asked, and Gwen heart stopped.
She really could use some free time. She wanted so bad to simply go out and get drunk without having to take care of Cody and listen to all the incredible things he was saying about the people at the party.
Not that she wanted to get rid of her son. Not at all. But it would be nice to have some girl’s time with Stephanie and forget about all the rest.
But what if his mother was there? She didn’t want to risk her son spending time with his grandmother. How was she going to tell Finn that without making him suspicious of her and Mrs. Lane again?
“I don’t think Cody would like to be with a lot of people today, Finn. Last night was a very busy night and-”
“It’s going to be just me and him. Some father and son time,” he interrupted her, sounding very excited to spend time with Cody.
She almost smiled at that. It was nice to see how committed Finn was to get closer to Cody. She would have to risk it.
“Fine,” she said, giving a thumbs up to Stephanie, since her friend was listening to their conversation.
“Great,” Finn almost screamed on the phone, really enthusiastic, “I’ll pick him up at noon so we can have lunch together.”
Since Cody was going to spend the day with his dad, Gwen and Stephanie would go for a happy hour drink at a bar downtown. Gwen didn’t even remember the last time that she went out to have some fun.
Stephanie took her to an amazing bar, very cheerful, filled with beautiful people and good music. The food smelled amazing and the drinks were incredibly creative.
Gwen ordered something to drink, feeling the liquid burn her throat, but calming her somehow. She really needed that.
“A single mom having her first night out in years,” Stephanie teased her. “Never thought that moment would come.”
Gwen punched her shoulder slightly, pretending to be annoyed by her joke. But it was true. She didn’t think that moment would happen either.
“Now, all we need to do is find some hot guy for you,” Stephanie said, analyzing the place and looking around.
“Steph! No way. I don’t want to find anyone, my life is complicated enough. I don’t need a man to make things even harder now,” she complained, but her friend didn’t even blink.
“Look at that one over there. He looks important… Oh, no! He’s coming here, don’t look, don’t lo-” But she didn’t have the chance to complete the sentence, because the man she was talking about came towards them and stopped by Gwen’s side.
He was handsome. One of the most beautiful men she had ever seen. He could hold his own when compared to Finn, though Finn had much more presence.
“Good evening, ladies. Sorry to interrupt your beautiful evening, but I couldn’t stop but notice that you’re alone,” he said, his deep voice sending shivers down Gwen’s body. “Can I buy you a drink, miss?” he asked, looking at Gwen.
She glanced at Stephanie, who was smiling from ear to ear. Gwen loved the idea of having someone so handsome interested in her, but she suddenly felt like she wasn’t ready. Which was stupid. She shouldn’t lose such an opportunity to maybe meet someone nice just because she couldn’t take Finn out of her mind.
Why would she sabotage herself like that? Finn wasn’t even an option anymore, so maybe she should allow herself to meet someone new.
But at that moment, her phone rang. And it was a message from Finn.
“Cody is not feeling very well. I gave him some medicine and am taking him back home now. He wants to see mommy.”
Sh*t!
Couldn’t she catch a break?