Fulfillment(82)

I watched him walk out the door, staring at his perfectly defined arse in his Versace pants, permanently etching it onto my brain so that I could recall the sight when needed over the next few days—and boy, would it be needed.

I got out of bed, showered, and made my way downstairs via the elevator to see the kids off before Danny chauffeured them to school.

“Bye, ratbags. Have a good first day back,” I called to them as they grabbed their school bags and made their way to the elevator.

“Bye, Mum. Bye, Lucy. Bye, Nic,” they called back.

Lucy and Nic were having breakfast and both waved to Nate and Charli as they left the apartment. Nic pushed a cup of coffee across the breakfast bar toward me as I uncomfortably shuffled onto the stool with great difficulty.

“I cannot wait to get this big, heavy, white piece of shit removed from my leg today.” I growled.

“What time is your appointment?” Lucy asked as she playfully shovelled some Weetbix into Alexander’s mouth, his tongue gently pushing half of it back out again.

“2 p.m.”

“Alexander has his six month maternal health check appointment at midday, so I will be back in time to take you.”

“Sorry, Luce, I feel like such a burden.”

“Don’t be silly. It’s no problem at all. I want to help, and anyway why do you think we are staying here while Bryce is gone?”

“Because he told you to stay.”

She laughed. “Well yeah, he did. But no, you are family now and we help out our family.”

I smiled meekly at her over the rim of my coffee cup as I took another sip.

“So what are your plans today, Alexis, other than your appointment?” Lucy asked.

“Well, I was going to ring Derek and see if he was free to start giving me guitar lessons.” I gave Nic a don’t-even-go-there look.

Lucy did the same. “Yeah, I heard about that. I think it’s a brilliant idea. Bryce will flip out—”

Nic interrupted, “Hey about that, Alexis, I really am sorry. I didn’t mean to imply you would deliberately cheat on Bryce with his best friend. I was just trying to give you a friendly warning as to Derek’s forwardness.”

“Nic, just forget about it. All I’m going to say is I love Bryce and would never do anything that would jeopardise that. He is not just my lover, he is my soul mate. We belong together. As for Derek, well, I barely know the guy, but from what I can see, he is lovely and a great friend to Bryce. And anyway, I have plans to set him up with my girlfriend Carly.”

Lucy laughed. “Yes! They would be a match made in heaven.”

“Not sure heaven is the correct place to match Carly up in,” I responded.

Lucy agreed and laughed again.

***

After breakfast, I gave Derek a call to see if he was available for my first lesson. He was a firefighter with the Melbourne Fire Brigade and worked shifts, so I was in luck as he was not due to start work until this evening.

Within an hour of my call, the buzzer to the door sounded.

“I’ll get it, you take it easy,” Lucy said, as she placed Alexander on the floor under his play gym. She walked briskly to the door and let Derek in, and by the time she got back Alexander had barrel-rolled to the edge of the lounge. “Hey you, Roly-Poly.” She picked him back up.

“I think you may need to get a kiddy pen?” I suggested.

She cringed. “I think you may be right.”

Derek walked past the two of them and sat down on the sofa opposite me. He opened up his guitar case and pulled out a black shiny acoustic then jogged to the man-cave and returned with one of Bryce’s acoustics for me.

“I’m sure he won’t mind you learning with this one,” he said with a sly smile as he handed me the guitar.

Lucy’s eyes widened and she scoffed. “You reckon?”

“It’s Alexis, Luce. Come on, he’d hand me my balls on a plate if I taught her on anything less.”

“Ha, yeah you’re probably right.”

“Okay, let’s get into it, shall we?” he said, as he positioned his guitar on his right leg. “I hope you’re right-handed?”

I nodded to him, smiling like a kid.

“Okay, hold your guitar like this, and try to keep the headstock of the guitar horizontal to the ground, not up or down like this,” he said, demonstrating the movement for me.

“What’s the headstock?” I asked.

He raised his eyebrows, obviously trying to suppress an outburst.

“What?” I sulked, suppressing my own outburst.

Lucy laughed.

I dropped my head and pouted. “Oh my God, I suck already.”

“No, that’s okay. I’ll start from the very beginning then.”