As November rolled in, change was in the air, and for Emma, the breaking of good bad news, and vice versa, seemed to be a theme.

First, she received a court date for her custody hearing near the end of January. It felt both too soon and too far away. It wouldn't set her future in stone as Gabe's sole legal guardian, but it was a huge step in that potential direction. Everything in her life would have to fall in line and rally behind it. When she sat down with her boss at Belair Creative to explain that she'd have to give up her spot on the national sales team for good, the reaction was not what she expected.

"Ah, this is great! You're making my life so much easier today."

"How?" Emma asked with a curious, amused smile. She was sure she was about to be shown another video of her place-holder CeCe doing something amazing to usurp the position permanently anyway. Was she modelling for Versace now? Or dating Henry Cavill, or saving a baby from a burning building or what?

Her boss opened a desk drawer, took out a small brown envelope, shook out a car key fob and slid it over to Emma. "You're getting a car!"

"I am? Why?" Please don't give me Little Persia. Please don't give me Little Persia.

"We need you to step in as district manager. The whole Greater Toronto Area. Nathan is taking paternity leave so we need you to cover for now, but he's dropping hints he may want to be a stay-at-home dad so who knows? The company was worried you'd look at this as a demotion but under the circumstances..."

"Under the circumstances, it's terrific. Thank you," Emma said with a sigh for many reasons.

It really was terrific. It meant a raise again, this time for more office work than field work, not as glamorous as her old role, but it was what she needed to be there for Gabe. It meant no more stupid questions. She could decide whom to see when, and assemble the best teams for the day to day beat. Tops on her list of things to do would be to find a new partner for Ruby, but first, she had to break the news.

"I hate yoooouuuu." Ruby's long whine seemed to echo back from the stacked pallets of product at the far side of the warehouse. "How can you just abandon me?"

"You knew this was coming. I have to."

"Take me with you."

"I can't."

"Who's going to tell you when that one eyebrow hair starts acting crazy?"

"I'm still going to see you. I'm your boss for real now."

"Then give me a raise. Give me some bills to dry my motherless tears."

"How long have you been here?"

"Almost a year."

"You have not."

"Nine months."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Can I keep my route? Who are you going to stick me with?"

"I'm not sure yet. I thought I'd put you and Peta together."

"Orange hair, micro-bangs Peta?"

"Yeah, she's got a year on you, which is good, and you both have a similar vibe."

"That's cold."

Emma had to laugh at Ruby's look of disgust.

"Aesthetically at least. You look like a pair of magic markers. Why? You don't like her?"

"That girl talks so much shit."

"Which must be why her numbers are so good."

"Nah, like she's combative. She's contrary for the sake of it. I don't even think she believes half the shit she says just to start an argument."

"Like?"

"She got into a fight with a bunch of us at the Academy because she said, and I quote, 'There are no hazelnuts in Nutella'."

"What?"

"I said, 'Girl, they are on the jar. They're the main ingredient.' She says, 'That's a lie from Big Chocolate.'"

"See, Big Oil and Big Pharma, I get. They sound as sinister as they are. Big Chocolate just makes me want one. Like those jumbo Toblerones that only come out at Christmas. "

"We were all like, 'the fuck you talkin' about? We have ingredient disclosure laws,' but that bitch was willing to go down swinging."

"Does she know what company she works for?"

"We get a pass for our 'sustainability efforts'. I'm going to need a pass or she may sustain a workplace injury."

"I didn't hear that. Don't worry, I won't put you in a car together."

"Thank you. She'd make us take her car too because it's electric. I don't know how to push someone out of their own car."

"You'd have the get the seat belt off first."

"Exactly. How?"

Emma shook her head. "We're not talking about this either. What about that guy Devon who always circulates the petitions?"

"For me?" Ruby balked.

"No, for Peta."

"Perfect."

"Yeah, I think that could work. Who do you want?"

"Just find me someone like you."

"Aww, so sweet." Emma opened her arms to Ruby and moved in to give her an affectionate squeeze.

"I just want an old-timer who'll do all the work," Ruby giggled.

Emma released her, patting her arms. "I'm sorry, but your training wheels are off. I'm actually going to expect things from you now."

"Nooooo. Pleeeese don't!"

"Think of it as incentive to make the Education Team."

"Ugh. Fine. Buy me lunch and make it up to me?" Ruby pleaded prettily.

"Okay, sure."

"Then buy me a going away present?"

"But I'm the one who's going away," Emma said.

"That's right, and your selfish actions have consequences."

*****

Emma drove home on her lunch hour and surprised Mitch at his computer with the car keys, the promotion, a red balconette bra under her sweater and an appetite only for him.

He tried to persuade her to make it a longer, more fair, lunch, but she declined, laughing as she fixed her hair after putting her sweater back on inside out.

"You didn't give me a chance to tell you my good news," he said. "I got a call from someone with a channel on satellite radio and they want to talk to me about baseball coverage."

"Are you kidding?" She lunged into Mitch's arms, jumping excitedly as he tried to hold her.

"Turns out Gabe's teacher, Cafferty, has a brother who knows a guy who talked about me to the right person."

He was playing it cool but Emma could tell he was stoked.

"This is fantastic. When?"

"We left it at 'soon' but he seems serious."

"That's amazing! I'm so happy for you."

"And I'm thrilled for you, so stay here with me and let's celebrate," he said, hooking his finger in the waist of her jeans and giving her that sweet sexy smile that always made her stomach flip.

"I can't cancel this afternoon. I really have to go." She pouted and kissed his sulky lips before turning around to get her coat.

"Wait a sec," Mitch said, "your tag is sticking out."

Emma held her hair up so he could tuck her tag in. His hands slid over her hips instead, plummeting downwards as he pulled her into him.

She gasped, laughed, and moaned, "Nooo!" in that order.

"I'm sorry, that was my tag sticking out," he growled in her ear.

"I gotta go! I'm making my farewell rounds today." She giggled and protested, reluctantly lifting his hands away from where they wanted to work their magic.

"Fine," he sighed loudly as his chin dropped to her shoulder. He cupped her breasts, giving them a comically casual squeeze and wiggle as he sighed with disappointment again. "Farewell to these rounds too. It was very sweet of you all to pay me a visit at my boring, lonely writing desk." He patted them twice and released his grip, spun her around, and kissed her nose.

"Did you get any writing done?" she asked.

"Not really, but you may have just cured my writer's block," he grinned.

She finally got her coat on and made it to the door.

"What do you guys want for dinner tonight?" he asked.

"I want to pick Gabe up after school and get something at a drive-thru just because we can now," she said happily.

"Sounds good. Just please don't get me any of those nasty onion rings."

"Extra rings. Got it."

She gave Mitch another quick peck on the lips before dashing out into the hallway and hitting the elevator button.

He waited in his doorway with her until it arrived. As she stepped in, he said, "Have a good rest of the day. Remember, fries are fine."

"You'll get what I give ya and you'll love it," she teased him.

"I already do," he said, just before the doors closed

*****

A few days later, Mitch surprised Emma by offering to take her and Gabe to the Bahamas for Christmas. It was a beautiful idea, and she practically swooned at his generosity, but the fact was Gabe didn't have a passport. Jake would have to sign off on one. Even if he did have a passport, the hearing was coming up and Emma couldn't do anything to jeopardize it, like take Gabe out of the country. Mitch understood and wasn't deflated. As a consolation, he asked Emma if Jackie would babysit so he could take her somewhere closer overnight for her birthday. He suggested the Fallsview casino resort in Niagara. "We'll have dinner, get dressed up, maybe get lucky." he said. And that's exactly what they did.

They started with a couple's massage in the afternoon and then got dolled up for five-star dinner. They spent a little time at the roulette table, then at the slot machines. They whooped it up when they won a minor jackpot of nine hundred and forty dollars downstairs, and then made a lot of other noises hitting the jackpot twice more upstairs in their room. Emma almost told Mitch she loved him over breakfast in their bathrobes, but she held back. Part of her worried it was too early to feel the way she did about him. She didn't want to say it until she was sure she meant it, and she didn't want him saying it back to her unless he did. The moment was there and gone so fast. She told herself that if they were meant to be, there would be many more.

After splitting their winnings, Emma now found herself four hundred and seventy dollars richer. There were lots of practical things she could do with that money, but considering her raise would soon kick in to take care of her responsibilities, she decided to blow it on something fun. Something that would make her happy. Something ridiculously expensive. Something she deserved, dammit.

The salesman at the empty department store's perfume counter made a pair of binoculars out of his hands through which he watched Emma approach, his mouth agape.

"Everybody out of the way and let this woman through!" he said, waving to mime dispersing a crowd.

Emma couldn't help but laugh.

"Is it so dead because it's a weekday?" she asked.

"It's because it's post-pandemic 2024 and people don't like people-ing anymore," he said. "It is still 2024 isn't it? I only know I'm not trapped in a Groundhog Day loop because that one won't stop going after the cyst on her chin and it's getting bigger."

Emma looked across several counters at the same pinched-faced sales-nemesis her perfume guy, Paul, had stared down the last time she was in.

"Look at it. It's hypnotic, isn't it? I'm worried it's going to suck me into its gravitational pull."

"Why don't you put some marks on the floor so you can tell if your counter's moving."

"Don't kid!" he laughed. "Speaking of timelines, weren't you just in here?"

"I was."

"Serra Musc Sauvage, full size, right?"

"Right."

"Are you bathing in it?"

"I wish. I smashed it."

"Calamity!" he gasped. "I'm so sorry for your loss."

"Thank you. I've decided that life is too short and I deserve nice things so I'm here to buy another."

"Another?" he asked, at the very top of his voice so that the cyst could hear. "So soon??"

"That's right," Emma said.

"My dear, I am gonna gift wrap the shit out of it. But why wait?" He picked up the tester bottle and aimed it at her. "Spritzed for the gods!" he cried, surrounding her in cloud of her beloved scent as swayed in the luxury of it all. He put the bottle down and started sprinkling branded, scented confetti into a gift box. "I'm going to be so lonely after you leave," he tsked, taking out at least five sheets of tissue paper to start.

Emma was as happy as a clam as afterward as she headed for a lonely kiosk where another marooned mall employee seemed excited to be validating her parking. When she tucked her ticket into her purse, she heard the cell ping of a text coming in. The message was from Jackie and it was just two words:

Jake's home.

If her perfume hadn't been wrapped in so many layers that it had to be put in a store bag big enough to carry shoes, it surely would've smashed again when Emma dropped it.

* Hi guys! Sorry for the long wait. 

Everything was going so smoothly and now Runaway Dad is back in town. Let's see how much trouble this causes. Hint: We're only two chapters (I think) away from the end, so it's not complete chaos, lol.

I hope it won't take too long to get the rest posted, but please bear with me. Weeks, not months, I promise.

-Steff xo