Birthday Girl

Jordan took me in when I had nowhere else to go, and unlike everyone before him, he doesn’t use me, hurt me, or make me feel invisible, he sees me, listens to me, protects me. He remembers the small things, laughs with me, and makes me feel safe in a way I’ve never known, and now I feel his presence everywhere, in the quiet moments at the breakfast table or the sound of his car pulling into the driveway, my heart racing before I can stop it. But this has to end before it begins. My sister always said good men don’t exist, and if they do, they’re never available.

Pike Lawson is a good man, but he isn’t the one who’s unavailable, I am. He took me in thinking it would be simple, just a fair exchange, some help around the house, nothing more, but it hasn’t stayed simple. Now he catches himself thinking about me when he shouldn’t, holding his breath when we cross paths, fighting the urge to reach out when he knows he can’t. The lines are already blurring, no matter how hard we try to hold them in place, and with every passing day, we’re becoming something neither of us can afford. Because we’re not free to want this, not when I’m nineteen, he’s thirty-eight, and he’s my boyfriend’s father, the same boyfriend who now lives under his roof with me.