“Someone passionate, someone who values learning and growth, even as an adult. Someone who will love Rhea.”

“I don’t have disdain for Penny. She’s a fine girl, I guess, I just don’t know her very well. We’re more like acquaintances than siblings.” 

Avery’s great. The comment was almost too simplistic, though he didn’t read too much into it. It sounded as if he were more interested in the child than the baby mother. Cyrek had given it a shot with Lucy, who matched him well with her spontaneity and colorfulness and hardheaded nature, and he was grateful they were friends and co-parented excellently. Had the situation panned out differently after learning Lucy was Amaris’ birth mother, he might have raised concerns for the eight month old to spend time with the redhead. Thankfully, that sector was dandy and he was admittedly thankful to have her in his life to help shoulder the weight of responsibility he felt. He could assume from Noah’s words, Avery and Noah were no longer together, although it was none of his business. It was a shame, really, that Avery appeared to have a rough-and-tumble time with the dating scene, like him, figuring everyone deserved fun as a single parent. God knows it could get tiring having a small child around that consumed their days twenty-four-seven. Falling into a daydream-like trance, he wrinkled his nose at the mention of the college courses, shaking his head and letting out a small chuckle, remarking dryly, “Wow, don’t sound too bitter or the fuckin’ Secretary of Education might crawl down from the fuckin’ heavens and kick your ass personally. I never said they were fuckin’ hard, I guess some people struggle with the basics. To me, the shit that schools served was too fuckin’ easy.” Hell, he’d taken advanced calculus in high school and excelled at it, would-have-been valedictorian acing his classes senior year in their highest form. He was no debate team or partaker of extracurricular, though, biding his time picking his battles against his high school sweetheart’s stake on opioid addiction.

A minute shit-eating grin lurked about the corners of his mouth, catlike mirth and mischief dancing across his countenance and looking over at him. “But y’know how it is, I’m sure. They gotta get their fuckin’ money. I know how the men in suits work.” Were there people with good intentions in every walk of business industry? Sure, but they were like mythical creatures, most eventually torn from limb and cast stones for not craving that green thumb and changing to salivating beasts. The smartest people he knew were self-taught and homeschooled. Each to their own, and he’d always considered himself too poor to go through with it if he’d wanted to, grudging to ask for money of any kind or amount from the redhead who had raised him in his twilight hours of teenage years. No, he’d put her through Hell financially in his own manner, as her daughter had, except the majority weren’t hospital visits and under-the-table deals of money doled out as reparations for property damage to prevent their vitriolic foster son from experiencing the orange jumpsuit of a juvenile detention, and to save his life, he still failed to comprehend why. A genuine grin replaced the lightly sardonic one, doling the man a bit of respite. Ordering himself a banana coconut smoothie, Cyrek produced his wallet from his back pocket and returned, “You’ll get used to it here, don’t fuckin’ worry. You’ll be sick of this fuckin’ place in no time with how damn small it is and tired of seein’ the same-same. Some people like that, I suppose.”

Noah rolled his eyes at the comment about the secretary of education. “That bitch doesn’t know the first thing about education.” Harsh, maybe, especially from someone who often tried to make a point of respecting authority and being generally respectful. But of course, having spent nearly 28 years straight in education, as both an educator and a student (and at a few points, both simultaneously), he figured he was allowed some disdain at the current state of administration. Not to mention, the woman he loved in the trenches as a public high school teacher, he had heard from her the horrors of underfunding and focus on standardized test scores. “I’m just saying, as someone in the bio department I get a lot of pre-med and pre-nursing majors who just memorize words, get 4.0′s, but can’t tell you what any of it means. Wouldn’t want one of them treating me in a hospital.”

Noah’s family had never been affluent by any stretch, and he certainly now found himself absolutely drowned in student loan debt, but as he was bright eyed and still yet to officially start his first year, he truly wanted to believe that not everyone was just in it for the money. Surely the presidents and deans of his college had at least somewhat of a passion for  academics. Not wanting to delve into that moral discussion, he shrugged, and nodded along. 

Cyrek mentioned seeing the same people and the same places, and Noah couldn’t help but start to feel like he was already getting to that point. 

          “This place is fucking small,” he agreed emphatically, clearly supported by the fact that he was talking to his baby mama’s neighbor. “Is it like.. one of those ‘everybody knows everybody’s business’ type places?” Having grown up his whole life around the Boston metropolitan area, he’d always thought those places were made up, a fictional trope to create romcom plots.

lucy pursed her lips and rocked her heels as she looked around, waiting for the man. when he came out of the change rooms in the skin tight shirt, her eyes widened slightly. the shirt clung to each ab perfectly. she practically had to use her hand to pick up her jaw off the ground. god he was hot. she played with her braid shyly and smiled at him when he came up to her. “yeah, i uh-swam a lot when i was a kid and my mom was anal about getting me out to the car within 10 minutes.”, she said with a soft chuckle. she remembered her mom scrubbing her head vigorously with shampoo, the soap getting in her eyes after swim class just so they could get out before all the other swim moms. “lets go.”, she said, smiling as she slung her duffel bag over her shoulder and headed out of the gym. “its nice and close, so it’ll be easy to get to after a workout.”, she said with a soft giggle, laughing at the fact that her legs felt like jelly at this point. she wasn’t used to running so much. she led him a block over to freshii where the pair could get their smoothies.

Noah nodded at the anecdote, having never really meant to question her fast timing. 

          “Sounds great,” he said, tossing the long strap of his bag over his shoulder before reaching a hand out towards hers, “Do you want me to carry that for you?” he offered, hoping it wasn’t interpreted as chauvinistic, when in reality he was just trying a classic ‘gentleman’ move his father had instilled in him. Although, now that he thought about it, his father really wasn’t a great example of a gentleman.

Noah expected the fresh air to be a nice refresher upon stepping outside, but of course, he had forgotten the constant heat bearing down in Nevada even in May, much unlike his hometown. “So, Lucy, are you from here?” he asked, figuring the basic question was a good place to start. 

She nodded when he said he had an extra room, still unsure of what exactly his plan was. Honestly, it wasn’t like Noah to be unsure. He was always so sure of himself, even when he was wrong–so why did he seem unsure now? It’s got a balcony and it always smells like espresso. It sounded like heaven. It sounded expensive. Why spend all that extra money to live in town when he could just rent a place at the Desert Oasis Apartments like everyone else? Oh, please, like you’d want your daughter anywhere near those seedy apartments. Stop being stop being so picky. Still, she couldn’t help but mutter “How perfect…” Maybe she was just a little jealous at the prospect of hot espresso anytime he might want it. “Remind me not to visit you, I’ll spend all my money there,” she joked dryly. When he expressed his worries about Rhea feeling unstable, Avery nodded in agreement, though she was a little irritated that he hadn’t seemingly thought this through as much as he should have. “Honestly, I’d prefer that she continue to live here full-time. Of course, you don’t have to convert your guest bedroom into a bedroom for her but I think you should. She’s going to want to spend a lot of time with you. At the same time, though, no, I don’t want her going back and forth between our houses like she’s a fugitive or something. We’re adults, there’s no need to make her feel as if she’s caught in the middle of a messy divorce.” It was just an expression, of course. Noah had never asked her to marry him and even though she’d wanted him to do so at the time and had been heartbroken when he inevitably hadn’t, she now realized that it was most likely for the best. Any marital bliss probably wouldn’t have lasted very long anyways, no point in dwelling on unrealistic what-could-have-been’s. I mean, it might be easier on you, too. She knew he was half-joking, she could hear the humor in his voice but his words still rubbed her the wrong way. Though logically, she knew he probably didn’t mean it that way, wanting to ‘make it easier on her’ made it seem like she couldn’t handle being a single mother when she absolutely could. Taking a sip from her coffee, she simply said “I mean, I’ve done pretty well for myself out here.” She couldn’t bring her stubborn ass to admit that it would actually be nice to have some more time to herself, feeling that if she said it out loud, it’d only be proving his point. His last words softened her a bit, though, and she gave him a half-smile. “She’s going to love having you around, Noah,” she said genuinely.

Noah nodded along as she spoke, finding himself in agreement with what she said. Rhea shouldn’t be bouncing back and forth without a stable place to call home. It panged him to know that place would never be with him, that he would always be a secondary guardian, but he made that decision himself when she was born, to leave Avery to parent without him, to let her move across the country where he was no longer a physical presence in her life. And it made since, for Avery to keep her, she knew her better than him. She was more comfortable with her. He wasn’t upset about that, it made sense, he just wished he had come to a different conclusion almost five years ago. But how could he have ever known how things would change? How he would feel now?

          “Yeah, no problem, I uh, was planning on going to the IKEA down in Vegas sometime so maybe I could take her with me to pick out some stuff for her room?” It was disguised as an effort to spend time with Rhea, which was something he DID want, but mostly.. he had no idea what sort of furniture a kid her age used. 

Whereas in the past, they had no problem spitting harsh words at each other, insults often only invoking a minor feeling of guilt after the anger settled, Noah quickly jumped to clarify what he meant about helping her out. Never would he want to imply that Avery was a bad mom, that was cross the line even for the two of them, and frankly, not true. 

         “No, no, that’s not what I meant,” he said quickly, “You’re doing a great job Avery, I mean, seriously. I wish my mom had been this independent whenever my dad was off with his second family.” The compliment, in an attempt to be genuine, leaking another secret he’d been keeping from her. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Avery to know about Penny, but Noah was still in the denial phase, pretending like his father hadn’t been so bored with Noah’s family that he had to go out and make a back-up one. Not even noticing the slip up, he continued, “I just meant like.. if you ever wanted to go out or something, you don’t have to get a babysitter. Not that I’m a babysitter, because I’m the father that’s part of my responsibility-” he stopped himself before he rambled further, the point, though true, about fathers being commended for ‘babysitting’ their own kids having only been revealed to him through a Ali Wong comedy special. (At least he was trying, even if the origin was less than academic.) Taking a deep breath, he resettled his expression, “I’m glad to be around her, too.”

Normally, Aubrey wouldn’t find herself at the gym and she usually tried to avoid it at all costs, always preferring the dance studio over the gym. However, with her final performance of the semester coming up, she wanted to get in a little extra training, just to be sure her body was ready. She had made sure not to push herself too hard and she already knew she’d have to talk about going to the gym with her therapist, her mother, and her girlfriend and ensure them that she wasn’t backtracking. Fuck, eating disorder recovery was so fucking consuming at times–she supposed that maybe that was the point. Having just showered, she was on her way out when a total stranger tried to strike up a conversation with her. Naturally, it made her nervous, for she wasn’t used to being approached by strangers. Was he flirting with her? God, she hoped not–then again, he was far too old for her anyways. Trying not to seem as frazzled as she felt, she thought about his question for a moment. “Uh.. Jugo Juice probably has what you’re looking for..” she simply replied. It wasn’t that she was a cold person, it was just that she was extremely awkward and easily nervous, especially around strangers.

Noah felt a little guilty, seeing as he had apparently startled the girl. It wasn’t his intention at all, but in hindsight, a tall, fit (shirtless) man like him approaching the much smaller girl probably seemed a little threatening. 

          “I’m sorry if I spooked you,” he blurted out, wanting to remedy the situation. Besides, he was the father of a young woman now, and he didn’t want to do something that would be deemed inappropriate towards women  in any way. As soon as he said it though, he started to wonder if maybe it would’ve been better if he had pretended not to notice. Either way, he had said it, and there was no taking it back, so better for him to just embrace it. “Is that nearby?” he asked again, this time genuinely curious, seeing as he had no scope of the area.

         he 100% expected the answer but was more than pleased when he got it. shooting a look back to his friend, he notices how his eyes go wide. “exactly. thank you. that’s all i wanted,” he replies to the stranger with a growing grin. “i argued biggie, tupac, even kendrick lamar, but my shithead friend argued otherwise. i needed someone completely objective to the argument to be on my side.” he didn’t even like eminem that much, if at all.

        “sorry to drag you into it,” he says, keeping the smile on his lips and hoping he didn’t anger the other person. his friend seems to have decided he lost the argument, which is all he really wanted. “but hopefully he shuts the fuck up now.”

          “Rap is too varied a genre to narrow down to one great artist. Not to mention so many artists are constantly collaborating and taking influence from each other, and the greats that came before them,” Noah said, an elaborate, and for some reason, very well thought out opinion. But that was on par for him, seeing as he had strong opinions on most anything. But despite the clear conviction in his word choice, Noah spoke very nonchalantly, and with uninterested. It was a bold stance to take, considering Noah himself had not a lick of flow or any sort of musical talent. “Don’t mention it,” he said with a short nod, really attempting to be friendly to strangers, since apparently that was expected of him in such a small town. (It was not the case for him growing up.) 

“You have sisters?” she asked, though she was really just trying to make conversation and distract herself for a brief moment. He was a total stranger, he could have all the sisters in the world and it wouldn’t really make much of a difference to Alice, at least not right now. All she could think about was Orion. Are you guys close? Giving a small nod, feeling a pang in her chest, she said “Yeah, we’re really close. We’re twins, actually.”

Noah loved his sisters. It was them against the world growing up (or, against their dad rather) and he being the man of the household, felt fiercely protective of them, even the older ones. 

          “I have three,” he nodded, a pang just at thinking how he left them behind moving out here, but knowing that must be nothing compared to the uncertainty and worry felt by the woman he was talking to. A pause, then added as an afterthought: “And a half-sister. I just met her a few months ago, though.” It was all too fucked up in his mind, and still hard for him to recognize there was shared DNA between him and Penny. “The oldest two are twins, too. They’re so close, I swear they feel each others physical pain even if they’re not together. I imagine you must be feeling similarly.”

Rhea, Rhea… His mind drew a blank until the other man clarified who the mother was, piquing his attention. At first, he thought about letting it slide and staying silent, tossed back into high school where no one would have believed where he was now. Still living in some gated neighborhood, the run-down foster kid who looked like he was living out of a trailer instead of Calada Estates due to his ripped-up attire and overall rugged features. His raucousness and gung-ho tendency to dive headfirst into a fight, fists clenched and teeth bared. Certainly dragged down their reputation with that, his hotheaded killswitch and refusal to adhere to the guidelines of the school, smoking next to the teacher’s lounge and fucking his girlfriend in the parking lot. However, he quickly backtracked to the insurgent notion that one should never judge him off a first glance, tattoos and all. Thin fingers looping into the brass ring he wore as a necklace, toying with it absently, he looked over at him and answered politely, “Oh, I know her. She’s my neighbor. Nice girl. She’s one of my daughter’s mother’s best friends and shit. I don’t know her as well as Lucy does, but she’s… I dunno, a fuckin’ peach. Daughter’s cute, too. Mine’s not even a year old ‘til August.” His words were picked carefully to indicate that no, he wasn’t with the mother of his child. Given this man’s words, he wasn’t, either. Not that he cared what people thought of it; Lucy and he had given it a try, and ultimately, he’d let his own head intervene the possibility of it working. He spent his days pining over lost loves, and lost souls, neither of which were the foundation of a healthy relationship nor the love that the golden redhead deserved to have. Cyrek didn’t think of himself as husband material, anyway.

Listening respectfully to what he did for a living, heterochromatic orbs hidden behind the dark-tinted sunglasses, the vocalist dipped his head in a lukewarm nod. Science and mathematics were where he had excelled in high school, although he’d found the height of his interest in history. “I have no fuckin’ clue, honestly. I stopped givin’ a shit after high school,” he retorted, a shit-eating grin brightening his face, the humor intended to entertain his company. It wasn’t that he felt he paled in comparison to the other; the opposite, really, that he had no qualms painting a very crystal clear picture of what he thought. Cyrek was adept at speaking his mind, disregarding the hot water that it often landed him in. “Maybe you’ll kick my in-law’s ass, though. Think she’s supposed to take it soon…” Micah was close to graduating, therefore he doubted that the mousy girl would have opportune to meet him. At least, in terms of workplace. Extending his other hand to open the door of the smoothie shop, he held it open for Jesse, gesturing the male to go first, the six-foot-one degenerate trudging after him. His inherent go-to would be the coconut smoothie, although he scanned the daily special after he had pushed his sunglasses toward his beanie and adjusted his eyes to the vibrant rays of sunlight. “You fuckin’ made it here, congratulations,” he snarked, glancing over at the other, “Trainin’ wheels are off now, it’s up to your own ass to find your way here next time. One free tour guide per destination.”

Noah’s brow perked when Cyrek mentioned he was Avery’s neighbor, (Primm might’ve turned out to be much smaller than he bargained for). He had a strong urge to ask his new friend if he’d ever seen other guys ever at Avery’s place, secretly curious about what his exes love life had looked like the last four years, but he knew that was too far. ‘A fuckin peach’ might not be exactly how Noah would describe Avery. A bombshell, yes, and a force to be reckoned with, but the sweet, soft skinned fruit, not so much.

          “Avery’s great,” he settled on saying simply, not about to delve into his conflicting feelings towards his baby mama with someone he’d just met, not to mention somewhat that knew her and saw her on a somewhat regular basis. 

Noah tried not to judge too harshly on his remark about higher education. It wasn’t that he thought he was superior for his education level, except, just maybe a little. School wasn’t for everyone, but Noah just found it hard to relate to people had no interest in learning at all. To him, it was synonymous with self-betterment, as much as eating healthy and working out was, but certainly not wanting to make a foe with Avery’s neighbor (or anyone in Primm yet, really, considering he’d been there less than than a month), Noah made the effort to remind himself that other interests, like art (something he lacked any sort of talent of) could exercise the same neurons that his lab experiments did. 

          “I don’t make my classes intentionally hard,” he said, even if he hadn’t yet taught a class on his own, only as a student teacher with much less autonomy in curriculum. That was a common misconception, though, especially about anatomy, his favorite topic. “It takes the emphasis off learning and puts it on rote memorization, which can be so easily purged from the brain as soon as it’s omitted onto a scantron sheet.” Noah had many soap boxes, and many, many opinions that he refused to budge from, but the state of the America education system might be one of his biggest grievances.

Noah ordered a special, some combination of gimmicky superfoods and protein powder. As a biologist, of course, he knew that the term ‘antioxidant’ was all media, but he still couldn’t help the rush of endorphins he got at thinking he was being healthier for choosing goji berries over strawberries. “Thanks man, I’ll mark it down in my phone so I don’t get lost,” he laughed, holding up the phone as an example. 

HER UNAMUSEMENT AT HIS SNICKER WAS OBVIOUS, although she was a bit relieved (and maybe shocked) he didn’t further mock her, considering there was good reason to. maybe he just found it to be too easy. she was already feeling pathetic enough about the situation, not that she needed noah knowing that. her family was already second-best to his; she didn’t need him knowing her love life was, too. “oh, you use the word ‘transplants’ in an adoring way?” she would have taken a sip from her drink, if she had managed to get one in such a place. “well, i guess you’re right about that. i’m trying to hold off on judging the locals too much, yet.” the failed date was making that increasingly hard. “especially the southern side of primm has shown me a better side of the city.” calada estates and the surrounding area were lovely. maybe she shouldn’t have strayed too far from there. 

Noah flagged down a bartender, quietly ordering a drink while Penny talked, not necessarily trying to be such an asshole that he couldn’t even pay full attention to their conversation, but that was just natural for him. 

          “Haven’t met one I liked yet,” he said, leaving out the fact that he hadn’t met one at all. Maybe there would be some good, down to earth folks, but I mean, come on, really, who stays and spends their whole life in the place they were born? Even Noah didn’t want to stay in Boston forever, (but he still didn’t think he’d end up so far out of New England.) 

          “I’m about to start paying the fee for a 3 hour uber to Los Angeles if there’s not decent night life here,” a hyperbole, of course. He still had plenty of student debt to pay off, but the idea of hitting glamorous LA bars was so enticing when in a less-than ideal establishment such as the one he was in now. 

When Noah finally broke the silence, Avery was surprised to hear that his father had died back in February, a full three months ago but she didn’t have the heart to be irritated about him not telling her sooner. Besides, truthfully, he wasn’t obligated to tell her anything about his personal life and given the way she’d just bitten his head off, she couldn’t really blame him for not wanting to open up to her. Besides, he’d barely been in his own son’s life, let alone his granddaughter’s. The girl had never even met her grandfather so perhaps, Noah hadn’t really had a reason to deliver the news after all. He got what was coming to him. You didn’t have to be a detective to suss out the way Noah felt about his father’s death, that was for sure. At first, she only nodded, not too sure how to reply to him. After all, it’s not as if there was anything she could do or say to make him feel any better about his father’s passing. So instead, she decided to focus on the issue at hand: Rhea. Taking a sip of her coffee, attempting to take the grating edge out of her voice, she said “So what’s the plan then? Where did you move to, what neighborhood? Do you have a room for Rhea? Do you..” Taking a deep breath, she continued “Do you want her to spend weekends with you?” Truthfully, Avery wasn’t too keen about splitting Rhea’s time between the two of them–however, she knew that if she let her own selfishness speak for her, she’d regret it and in the end, the person who would end up hurting the most would be Rhea and that’s the last thing she wanted. Besides, it wasn’t that she didn’t trust Noah. He was an excellent father and she had no doubt that he would literally do whatever it took to make his daughter happy. Truthfully, she’d gotten so used to her routine with the little girl, she wasn’t jumping for joy over the prospect of changing it. Still, her approach to parenting was similar to her approach to parenting and it was a motto that came from CJ Reynolds, an incredible teacher in his own right, who constantly preached: ‘It’s not about you, it’s only ever about the kids.’ “Whatever we decide on, I just want to make sure we figure out all the details so Rhea isn’t more confused than she already will be.” Letting out a soft sigh, she tried to lighten the mood a bit, chuckling and saying “You know, now that you’re here, you’ll have to go to all of her ballet recitals along with me. They mean everything to her and as much as she’s told you about them over FaceTime, I promise you, she can talk about them for even longer in person.” Rhea was a social butterfly and she’d always been that way. Honestly, Avery assumed that one day, she’d have to remind her little girl to give other people the chance to speak as well, just as her own mother had reminded her when she was a child. The girl was tenacious, a trait she’d inherited from both her mother and her father.

If he was being completely honest, he hadn’t thought very far ahead about how exactly coparenting would look with both of them living in the same place. For the majority of Rhea’s life, they lived across the country, making it easy for them to split responsibilities just based on... what could or couldn’t be done by Noah in Boston. He did have two bedrooms in his loft, but he hadn’t started furnishing his living room, much less the spare bedroom. 

          “I have an extra room, it could be hers,” Noah answered, trying, for once, to be as easy going as he could, even if it defied every nature of his not to just make the decision on his own and expect Avery to go along with them. “I have a loft downtown, it’s right above that coffee shop, I can’t remember the name of it but.. It’s got a balcony and it always smells like espresso,” Noah stopped himself before he rambled any further to the point where it seemed like he was compensating to try and convince her. Taking a deep breath, he resumed his answer more concisely, “I want to be a part of her life as much as I can, but I don’t want her to... feel unstable. Moving back and forth can’t be good, right?” 

Noah had book smarts for nearly every situation-except parenting. Most people learn how to parent by following their own parents example, but even that, Noah didn’t have, but he tried to think of what Rhea would want, not what he wanted. 

          “I mean, it might be easier on you too, I can start pulling some weight,” he suggested, adding the joke half heartedly. It was a situation with no clear-cut answer, his least favorite type of problem, which is why he loved science so much. There was only one, very predictable, outcome of every situation in science. “But the ballet recitals, that.. that’s why I came here. To be a part of things like that.”

While she didn’t exercise as immensely as she used to prior to her pregnancy, the blonde still discovered herself mingling about the fitness center to either discuss about meal plans or what she should be doing after the corroding babies had been decked out with her instructor. Heather was an insurgent at heart and didn’t typically heed people’s, save for a few, advices, but this time in order to maintain the safety of her soon-to-be-released children and save herself a bit from the scolding boob bops of her concerned wife, she decided to just listen to what the trainer had to say. He was a pretty nice guy, anyway, had been teaching her how to smoothen and sharpen her swings, and when to go from passive to lethal or vice versa, an extra work for someone who had spent the majority of her life baring imbrued fists and teeth. She paid him with the necessities and tips on how to score a date with the hot stud who always came in with one earbud dangled which he had been eying for awhile. It was a win/win situation, playing cupid wasn’t entirely a new thing for her anyway. 

Leaning outside to take some more fresh air, Heather barely craned her head when someone approached her, his bare, glistening torso only making her feel a bit nostalgic of her earlier built before she started looking like a bouncing stress ball. Not as though she loathed pregnancy by any means, fretful and weirded out as she could be at times, but she supposed she missed being a little more agile than she was now. “This?” she questioned, shaking the blueberry smoothie that she had been suckling on for a bit, “they sell some of these near that flower shop, Primmrose. If you want I could take you there, it’s not a long walk and I was about to head there anyway.” To get some flowers, for her mother. “Just- put a shirt on first.” 

Noah wasn’t a complete novice when it came to pregnant women. Of course, he’d managed to have one of his own five years ago, but he wasn’t as attentive as he should’ve been, which now he regretted. He found himself oddly wishing he could go back in time just to rub Avery’s feet. (As if that one act would remedy years of bitter arguments). But still, despite that experience, he still found himself a little, well, awkward. Of course, he knew he should just treat her as normal, but he couldn’t help but occasionally glance down at her stomach, thinking more so of Rhea than anything about the woman in front of him.

          “Uh, yes, please,” he stumbled, attempting to cover up his lack of concise thoughts by adding plenty filler words, “I would love that, I’m terrible at directions. Well, I mean, I’m not normally. Usually I’m pretty good but I don’t know the streets here yet.”

“Noah,” Cyrek repeated the name, hoping to sear it into his memory, extending his hand to shake briefly, “Pleasure’s all mine.” The sentiment was merely a formality, for his mother had ensured he would be raised appropriately and as a good young man should, ignorant to the pallor shades he would partake and fade the color from his skin when his father would prowl around and prance about his tart women and fantasies or force his son to face the harsh truths of his existence. It had left a permanent, foul taste on his tongue to entertain the idea of tying himself to another man romantically, prompted to believe that they were nothing more than cheating, lying scoundrels, and his little fling with Damian had solidified that men should remain flings-only. That being said, it was the last thing on his mind, nor was he looking to hit on the guy, especially acknowledging he was a newcomer. Pushing his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose and arching his brows upon hearing the mention of his daughter, he let any judgment that might have incurred roll off his shoulders and from the blank canvas of his mind instantaneously. As a general rule, he tried not to judge anyone until he understood the full story and their side of it, though it could tunnel vision him with a black and white perception of the world around him he had tried, valiantly, to colorize over the past couple of years. Certain processes were destined to be slow. Besides, other families were none of his business and his life was chock full of drama with his own; any more and he might have to stick his head in an oven. 

“Oh, that’s cool. I’m sure you missed her a shitton. I’m sure I’ll miss mine when I start travelin’ all the fuckin’ time for my work again,” the vocalist stated absently, rounding the corner with him and mulling over what he had said, “What’s her name? Maybe I know her. Your– uh– kid’s mother. Primm’s fuckin’ small.” You could run into your grandmother at the supermarket if your entire family lived there kind of small, or incidentally repeat Romeo and Juliet if you lived there long enough. Tugging on his raven locks, he lingered on that, reflecting on the recent acquired information that Heather had passed along to him regarding his apparent former fling ( is that all she was? why else would he be so fucking drawn into those nightly irises of hers, like kissing cups at a party until he was fucking hammered? ). Small world, ending up entangled with yet another person that those he cherished shared ties with. “I hear UNLV is alright. What do you teach? Assumin’ you teach.” He didn’t go to college; the dude could be working as the next fucking dean for all he knew. In his perspective, it was a load of bullshit where people funneled thousands to teach themselves. Cyrek may have a loud mouth, but he knew when to bite his tongue and restrain the insurgent viewpoint.

Noah nodded along as Cyrek mentioned how much he must’ve missed Rhea. It wasn’t a far conclusion to draw, as any half-decent father would probably miss their kid. He hadn’t been the best during her early years, but he still loved to girl to death, and would do anything for her. His feelings for Rhea were much clearer than those for her mother, which is what caused to difficulties for their otherwise picture-perfect family. But maybe it was the lack of example of commitment from his own father and mother. Either way, the idea of settling down permanently with Avery at such a young age had scared him shitless, not matter how much he wanted to be a stable father for Rhea. 

          “Rhea,” he answered, the corners of his mouth perking up to a smile, as just the mention of the name tattooed on his ribs brought such an endorphin rush. “She’s five now, six in June.” It was crazy to think how much time had passed since he was the fresh college graduate, just beginning to enter the adult world, and pushed early into parenting. “Her mother’s name is Avery, Avery Rhodes,” he quickly added, realizing he’d originally misinterpreted the question. It was easy for him to focus on Rhea rather than her mother, who even though was growing on him more, still held a very cloudy impression in his heart. 

He’d only been in Primm a few days and he’d already begun to see the effects of how small the town really was. Of course, he knew it’d be smaller than the big metropolitan area he’d spent the first 28 years of his life in, but not ‘everyone at the gym knows your baby mama personally’ small. 

‘UNLV is alright’ so even the locals thought it was just alright. His mother had never been one to push him, but even she remarked at how the public university was a little less prestigious than where she expected him to go. It was a big choice for Noah, to go to the ‘lesser’ school, choosing his daughter over an ivy league resume builder, and in some ways he still had to convince himself it was worth it. 

          “I teach biology right now, just entry level 101 stuff,” he explained, “Hopefully after a few years of experience I’ll get to anatomy and physiology. That’s my passion, but uh, gotta put in work on the easy classes first, you know?”

Kasha had to work on her physique constantly to maintain her body for her job, one she had reluctantly taken on and returned to when she figured that her so-called knight in shining armor disappointed her again. So much for making up with your baby daddy and actually having a complete family, right? Embittered and enraged as the thought made her, she couldn’t continue to hold a grudge on Jesse for the rest of her life when she was aware that his debts to the mafia would have meant he would never have been able to give her a safe, comfortable life. Particularly after that incident with his shady-ass roommate that haunted her from time to time, especially now that she was living with roommates of her own. The thought put her on edge that one of them could be deceiving her with their niceties and their friendliness, potentially putting her daughter at risk. The fear was one she tried to shove down, exerting it by jogging on the treadmill for about forty-five minutes until her legs considered giving out on her and fifteen minutes of cardio exercises. Dressed in her sweatpants and a loose-fitting black top, the redhead was on her way out of the gym when the sound of a man addressing her halted her in her tracks. Mocha hues narrowing in suspicion, she clutched on her phone tighter and automatically switched off to her contacts screen, clutching her phone against her bosom should she need to speed dial someone if a creep was going to fucking hit on her in the gym. Turning her eyes upward, she almost blanched seeing that he was shirtless. What kind of self-absorbed fuckboy left the gym without a fucking shirt on all sweaty and disgusting? Gross. “Java around the corner,” she answered flatly, unable to help her sharpened quip, “Isn’t there some fucking policy about no shoes, no shirt, no service, though? Might not want to flash your fucking guns if you want a smoothie.” It was just her nature to be catty, a preventive measure until she self-assured they wouldn’t go for a handful of ass next– trust, even the nicest ones would use those schemes to get a freebie out of her. Pushing a red wave out of her face, she looked up at him through slitted gaze, asking flatly, “You don’t know where I’m talking about, do you?”

Noah wasn’t completely blind to the sort of effect he usually had on women. (The Halo Effect, it’s called, that they often treat him nicer just because he’s pretty.) So, it’s an understatement to say that such a negative response sent Noah back, unprepared for that reaction.

His friendly expression fell, and a colder, more judgemental face replaced it. He didn’t even acknowledge her recommendation (now he didn’t even want to go there) and instead just held up the shirt in his hand as a response to her insult. 

         “It’s hot out. Wanted a few seconds to cool off before draping myself in more fabric but uh, was definitely planning on covering up,” he quipped, then dropping his gym bag to the ground (rather dramatically, to be honest) he pulled the shirt over his head. “Better?”

Maybe he did like showing off his figure just a bit. He was proud of it, seeing as he’d worked pretty damn hard for it. Really not wanting to admit any sort of lack of knowledge to the woman now, he tilted his head back, trying to decide if asking for her help was worth it or if he should just go back to his car and google the directions in private.

          “Like I said, just moved here, so no, never heard of the place,” he decided on explaining, figuring he could at least use that as another snarky rebuke in his favor.