No Longer Alone

Chapter Twelve

   *Nicole's POV*

    The rest of the week had passed in a blur for me in a routine that seemed to sap my energy more than anything else had in a while.  Work, home, sleep, repeat.  I always had mixed feelings about Fridays though, part of me loved them because it meant the weekend was coming up and it was bonding time for most of the family, but it was also a time of loss for me as well, since my baby would go to visit her father every weekend, though thankfully he had finally stopped trying to regain my trust let alone anything more than that.

    I had dealt with the names and the looks, never having married but having had three kids with different fathers, they made my heart swell with pride as they always stated that they are sisters, never anything else.  All three were accidents that shouldn't have been possible, from issues with their fathers to the slimmest chance where the pill fails, they may not have been planned, but I loved them and would never trade them for anything in the world.

    Today was Friday, and the day was almost done and was about to check an email from my boss but got distracted as there were whispers starting in my area, and I shook my head slightly laughing.  Most of the guys in my department were actually some of the worst office gossips there were.  Turning my attention back to the email and ignoring them for the moment I reviewed the information and groaned a bit.  Evidently we were going to be having some important visitors onsite touring our center to see how we handled things, and there was the potential for a new contract based on that, which of course meant our normal casual wear was out the window for the time, business casual for agents, while those of us that were a little higher had to dress the part with more professional attire.  Well, that was a problem for future me, but I made a mental note to make sure that my business jackets were clean and that I could actually find my slacks.

    We finished work for the day, and as was logging off I checked for Bob and David, the two had decided a while back that I needed an escort out each night and would wait for me to finish all my work to escort me.  I didn't mind too much, I was actually their senior in the department and had helped them to continue to grow and do better on our team.   We had nightly vent sessions, working through different emotional sides of our job with each other, and they would tell me stories about their significant others on a fairly regular basis.  The two always seemed to glow when they talked about their ladies and their families, making me happy for them, and block off that tiny seed of jealousy.  We called it a night and I headed home, picking up food for the next day on the way, after all it's our cleaning and bonding day.

    Saturday rolls around, with us setting about the weekly cleaning and housework, Hannah and I each with headphones in, jamming out to our music as we clean, with me listening to hip hop for the high energy music, while Hannah is more likely listening to Nightwish.  Rose is off visiting her father, and Marie is laughing at us while dusting in the living room.  It's pretty easy to get everything cleaned up with all of us working on it.

    Glancing at the clock and seeing it was closing in on three in the afternoon, I decided to get started setting up our munchie feast for our weekly game night.  A few years earlier I had made the mistake of bringing one of my game systems to the family room to introduce my mom to a game that Hannah and I had been playing, standard multiplayer hack and s***h dungeon crawler type game, but still fun regardless.  I'd had to replace the game system in my room as the one I brought to the family room no longer belonged to me evidently.  I got to work pulling out the food so it could be set up when my phone went off telling me Jen was calling.

    "Hello beautiful, sorry you are on speaker phone since I'm getting food ready."  I answered and set my phone off to the side where she could still hear me, but not have to worry about anything getting on my phone.

    "All good girlie.  Anything new in your world?  More conversations with tall strangers of the fair or dark variety?"

    "Tall strangers of what variety?" I heard my mom from behind me, I had forgotten to tell her about that night, and I heard Jen laughing a bit from the phone.

    "Hi Mom, oh just two random guys that we met while out the other night.  What were their names again, Alex and Dave...no Daniel was it?  I know it started with a d."

    "Damian." I shot a glare at the phone, knowing that Jen hadn't forgotten the name, she was better than I was with names, which honestly wasn't that hard to do.  "And nothing like that, all work and little play, you know me.  We have some visitors coming on site soon for a new potential contract, so I am going to have to get dolled up and you know how much I love that."

    "We all know how you feel about that, but I'm more interested about this eye candy you didn't tell me about." My mom may be a widow, but she isn't shy about enjoying a good looking male if she has the chance, I still think she has a crush on the actor that plays Lucifer in that show.

    "Tall, well built, one blond, one with black hair and both easy on the eyes.  One is a total flirt and I'm betting a player, the other is..." I pause and think back to that night and groan. "Scratch that, both players and not used to getting shot down."

    I go back to chopping veggies and cheese, setting up a couple plates of finger food for us to snack on as we play.  Having to almost double the amounts of veggies just because I know my kids will devour them like crazy.  The proof of this comes as a hand reaches around me to steal a slice of bell pepper and I see Hannah behind me grinning.

    "We gonna play or what?  I must use my witch doctor!"  

    "These plates are ready to go down to the table, Jen, love ya but it is time to go play before Hannah finds a way to use her character to summon mom's barbarian to crush me in her thunder thighs!"  Jen laughs and we all head down towards our respective spots to claim our seats and controllers, let the mayhem commence!