For the first time since his accident, Blaine walked into his office. At Lance's birthday party, Lawrence had approached him about working on a project for the Townsend Corporation. He wasn't sure if he was capable of doing the work he used to do, but the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to try. Staying with James and Chloe gave him some respite from feeling pressured to remember his life, but he knew he couldn't be reliant on them forever. While he enjoyed their company and spending time getting to know his children again, he was frequently bored. It was time to figure out what he was going to do with his life.
He sat down at the computer and turned it on. When the login screen was in front of him, he was afraid his experiment was over before he even got started. But as soon as he put his hands on the keyboard, his username and password flowed from his fingertips automatically, as if from muscle memory.
While he waited for the computer to log in, he noticed the flashing red light on his office phone and hit play to listen to his messages. The voicemails that played on his phone and the e-mails that popped up on his computer were filled with well wishes from clients and colleagues who had heard about his accident as well as job offers for freelance work. Before he could entertain any offers, he would have to see if he remembered how to do the work.
As he looked through the computer files, he found a half-finished project he must have been working on before his accident. As he looked through the lines of code, it all came back to him as easily as speaking. He quickly figured out where he had left off and started typing away as if he had been working on the project just yesterday.
As he worked, the hours flew by. His mind was engrossed in the task at hand and for awhile he didn't have to think about all of the things that he didn't remember, about the children and wife he was letting down, or the ex who didn't seem like an ex. He let all of that go and just focused on the task in front of him. He didn't have to sort out the false memories from the true ones, he just intuitively knew what he needed to do. He felt more like himself than he had since he first woke up in the hospital.
Once he typed the last line of code and confirmed that everything was working as it was supposed to, he picked up the phone.
"Hi, Lawrence. This is Blaine. About that project you mentioned, when do you want me to start?"
* * * * *
"Hello," Cassie called out as she and the kids entered Zara's new office. "We're here."
Zara looked away from the computer screen and stood up to greet them. "Oh, I must have lost track of time. I meant to call you. I had these last minute revisions come in that I really need to finish before I can go."
Ben knocked on the open door with a pair of coffees in his hand. "Oh, sorry, I didn't realize you had company."
"Ben, this is my sister Cassie, my niece Brooke, and my nephew Doug."
He shook Cassie's hand, "It's nice to meet you." He handed one of the coffee cups to Zara. "I brought you a coffee since I thought you might be working late. Do you still like soy milk cappuccinos?"
"I do. Thank you," Zara said.
"If I knew your family was coming by, I would have brought something for everyone."
"Oh, that's fine. We were just on our way to dinner," Cassie replied. As she watched Zara and Ben interact, a slight smile came to her lips.
"If you're not in a hurry, I could give you a quick tour of my lab. Zara mentioned that Doug might like to see my aquariums."
When Cassie saw Doug's face light up with excitement, she told them to go ahead.
As soon as they left the office, Cassie grinned at her sister. "So he's cute."
"Have you given up on Blaine?"
"No, for you." Cassie rolled her eyes. She would have taken offense, but she knew Zara was just playing dumb. "It's not hard to sense something there. He even knows how you like your coffee."
"We used to date," Zara admitted.
Cassie's eyes widened in interest. "When? What happened?"
"It was years ago. Our jobs took us to opposite parts of the globe, so we decided to part ways," she shrugged. "And before you get too excited, he's seeing someone else now. They're living together, so it sounds pretty serious."
"I don't think so," Cassie disagreed. "With the way he looks at you, he can't be that serious about her."
"Well, until he says something different, that's what I'm going with." Zara gave her sister a warning look and added pointedly, "And I'm not going to entertain any thoughts otherwise."
* * * * *
"Is Meghan ready to go?" Amanda asked as Andrew let her into the house.
"I'll get her," Andrew said. "She's very excited to be spending the night in your new apartment."
"I'm looking forward to having her there too," Amanda admitted. "While we have a minute alone, I was hoping we could talk about custody."
"Oh?" Andrew said crossing his arms as he braced himself for the worst.
"Now that I'm back, I would really like to have Meghan with me more, but I know she likes staying here where she's close to her friends. Her happiness is the main thing that matters to me, but I wanted to make sure you and I were on the same page before I asked her what she wants."
Andrew was pleasantly surprised that she cared about what he wanted too. "What did you have in mind?"
"I wanted to leave it up to Meghan primarily. But I was thinking of more of a 50/50 split. She could stay with one of us on the weekends and the other during the week or we could trade off one week here and one week at my place. Whatever works best for all of us."
"That sounds reasonable to me," Andrew blinked.
"I know things have been strained between you and Shayna," she added, lowering her voice. "So if it would be helpful for Meggy to spend more time with me while you are working things out, just say the word."
Andrew just nodded as Meghan skipped into the room carrying her bags.
"Ready, baby?" Amanda asked. "Ben is working late tonight, so it's going to be just us girls this evening."
"Great!" Meghan smiled. She gave Andrew a peck on the cheek. "Bye, Daddy. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Have fun, pumpkin."
Once the pair had left, Andrew sat down heavily on one of the island stools. He was feeling left stunned by how reasonable Amanda had been about Meghan. When she brought up custody he had expected her to try to dictate what was going to happen or try to push him out, but instead, she seemed to genuinely take his wants into consideration as well. It was a harsh wakeup call to realize that he wasn't used to that.
Shayna was a strong woman who knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to go after it. He had always admired her assertiveness and tenacity and found her confidence sexy. For the most part, he had been content to submit to passivity as she took charge, but at some point, it seemed like she had started to disregard him totally and started treating him with a lack of respect. It was becoming a problem that he couldn't ignore.
When he heard the door behind him open, it was Shayna returning home.
"I saw Meghan leaving with Amanda as I came in. You didn't tell me she was staying over with her mother tonight."
"It must have slipped my mind. Is it important?"
"I'll just have to adjust my dinner plans from four to three," she said, with a hint of annoyance in her voice as she poured herself a glass of wine. "It's good though that Meghan will be spending more time with her mother again."
"If it's that much trouble, you could make it two and I'll find my own dinner," Andrew snapped.
"Andrew, don't be like that," she sighed. "I just walked in the door and I have had a really rough day. Vanessa dropped by to tell me the committee's plans for the neighborhood holiday decorations and charity projects and what they came up with sounds like an absolute disaster. If they hadn't tossed me out of the meeting, I could have told them the ideas I had already been working on and how to best get everything organized. But instead, it's going to be a mess. One that they're ultimately going to have to call on me to clean up at the last minute. I guess until then I'll just have to let them fail, then maybe they'll be embarrassed enough to see how much they really needed me."
"Or you could stop being so rigid all the time. If you had just apologized they might have invited you to stay at the meeting in the first place, especially considering half of the things you accused Vince of, he didn't even do and it was actually your own son who was to blame for the alcohol."
"That's why Julian will be doing extra chores for the next few weeks."
"And you don't think Lucy could handle her own son the same way?" Andrew asked. "For someone who has been in a similar situation, I would think you should be more understanding."
Shayna set down her glass and stared at Andrew with horror. "There is nothing similar about our situations."
"You're both professional career women who have raised your children as single parents. You actually have a lot in common."
"You know, I think I should make it just two for dinner. You can go find your dinner somewhere else tonight."
"You've already driven me out of my own bedroom, but you don't get to kick me out of my own house, Shayna."
She grabbed her purse and stormed toward the door. "Fine then, I'll go."
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