Page 51 of Friends with Benefits

It waslunchtime the next day when I finally gave up waiting on her to text me back or answer my calls. It wasn’t like her to ignore a message, which could only mean that something was wrong. I wasn’t the kind of guy who had to be involved in absolutely everything. I didn’t like to be smothered, either, but I also knew Ember, and this wasn’t like her.

I gave her until after I’d cleaned up the kitchen from the night before, eaten breakfast, and taken a shower before I grabbed the spare key she’d given me and used it to let myself into her apartment. It was dark as night, so I flicked on the lamp by the sofa.

“Ember?” I called. It was possible she’d passed out after her shift, but even then, she’d normally text me before bed to come over or to tell me good night.

No one answered.

The apartment was dead silent. The twins must have already gone to school. The kitchen and hall bath were empty. I poked my head in the girls’ room, but they weren’t there. Ember’s was the last on the right, and I pushed the door in to find it as dark as the living room. Using my phone as a guiding light, I picked my way to the bed.

The lump in my chest eased as the halo of light from my phone showed her bundled under the comforter on the bed. Setting the phone on the nightstand on what I considered my side of the bed, I slipped out of my shirt, toed off my shoes, and climbed into bed next to her. From her breathing, I could tell she wasn’t asleep, but I’d already barged into her apartment, so I wasn’t going to demand she tell me what was wrong, too.

Eventually, she relaxed against me. We dozed in and out for a while, with her as my little spoon. At some point, she must have grabbed my hand because I woke up with our fingers locked together. I liked it. More than I should. It didn’t terrify me to be linked to her. In fact, it wouldn’t bother me to be linked with her for the foreseeable future. But this wasn’t the time or place to renegotiate our rules.

“They’re gone.”

I almost couldn’t hear her because her voice was so low.

“Who’s gone?”

“The girls.”

I didn’t understand. “Are they at school?” I asked.

“Mom took them.” Her voice was dead. Like there was no emotion or even the energy to infuse it with life.

“The hell do you mean your mom took them?” I urged her to turn to face me, even though I could barely see her through the shadows. “Talk to me, angel. What happened? Where are they?”

She sighed so heavily I could almost feel the weight on her shoulders on my own. “She came over yesterday, expecting me to let her just take the girls on a playdate like nothing had ever happened. Like she didn’t just walk out on them like they didn’t matter. She had on fancy jeans that must have cost a hundred dollars or more and a designer handbag that could have fed the girls forweeks. I mean, I haven’t had new clothes inyears. When everyone else was going apeshit over labels and having fun with their friends, I was buying diapers and formula. But do you think she gave a shit?”

Ember was trembling in my arms. Not with anguish, but with fury. I let her keep going because I wanted to keep my head where it was.

“She thought she could waltz back into their lives without repercussions for her actions. I told her there was no way in hell she’d see the girls. Not until she got her act together and started acting like their mother. I thought I’d done the right thing.”

“You don’t have to feel bad for that,” I said.

As though she didn’t hear me, Ember continued, “I went to go get the girls from the bus stop, but the driver said theirmomhad come and got them, despite the fact that no one but me was supposed to be able to pick them up.”

I tried to keep calm. It wouldn’t help anyone for me to get all worked up, even though I entertained some very vivid fantasies about lighting that woman on fire with her own cigarettes. “Have you heard from her since then?”

Thankfully, Ember let me gather her up in my arms and pull her close. I couldn’t fix everything, but I could do this for her. “I texted her old number, hoping it had been reactivated. She basically told me to go fuck myself.”

I refrained from calling her mother some choice names. She might be a piece of shit, but she was still Ember’s mother. “Did you call the police?”

“That was the first thing I did. They told me that because she was the girls’ mother, she was allowed to watch her own children. I’ve never wanted to murder anyone until that moment. If Mom had been anywhere near me, I’m afraid that I would have killed her.”

I had no doubt about it from the ferocity in her words. Except, she was wrong. That woman wasn’t their mother. No decent person would put their children through what she had. Ember had always been—and always would be—the twin’srealmother as far as I was concerned.

“Let’s go.” I sat up and tugged her along with me.

“What? Where are we going?” she asked groggily, still wrapped up in her fury.

I was already tugging my clothes back on, lacing up my shoes. I flicked on the lamp again so I could see where I had put my phone. My mind raced, trying to think of all the places she’d ever mentioned that her mother liked to visit. “We’re going to every place you can think of that your mother liked to visit. Friends. Bars. Hotels. We’ll find those girls, Ember. I promise you.”

She paused in pulling on a pair of my favorite yoga pants, and I frowned as her creamy legs disappeared behind the fabric. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Shut up.”

We were at the door, and I was making a list on my phone of places to track down, when Ember’s phone rang. Her face drained of all color when she saw the number on the screen. She practically collapsed to the couch. Her hands were visibly shaking as she brought the phone to her ear.