I Need You

Part 16

"Mom! I didn't know you were coming." Gabi said, giving Stevie a hug. 

"I wanted to see how you all have been doing. I brought lunch too." Stevie lifted her sunglasses, resting them on top of her head, as she made her way into the kitchen, putting down the bag she brought. "Well, Karen brought me, but I came with lunch."

"Oh cool, Dad's been annoyed he can't make us anything. He can, but it's a struggle. He'll be relieved."

"How is he?" Stevie asked.

"He's alright, but you know Dad, he doesn't really understand what resting means."

"Yeah, sounds like him." Stevie nodded, smiling a little. "I'll go check on him after I say hi to your sister."

Pushing the door to Maria's room open, Stevie walked in, seeing her younger daughter being extremely concentrated on some kind of task. She didn't want to startle the girl, going to stand next to her, so Maria would notice herself. 

"Mommy!" 

"Hey, my sweet girl." 

"I missed you." Maria put away what she was doing, hugging Stevie tightly. 

"I did too, sweetheart."

"Did you come to bring us home with you already?"

"No, not necessarily if you would like to stay longer, Karen could come in the morning and drive you to school. I came here to see if your father is getting better."

"I tell him to stay in bed, but he won't listen!" 

Stevie laughed lightly at how Gabi, minutes ago, told her the same thing. "Well, he wants to take care of you two, sweetie." Brushing a strand of hair away from Maria's face, Stevie then looked at the drawing the girl forgot all about. "What's this?"

"I was just... I was drawing." Maria said, quickly snatching the sheet of paper away, as if she didn't want Stevie to see it, although, she already did, also having noticed it was her, Michael and the girls in it...

"I see. I'm going to leave you for a moment, okay?"

"Okay." Maria nodded and Stevie turned towards the door, now going for the master bedroom. 

The door was ajar, but before entering she asked if she may enter anyway.

"Sure." She heard Michael say. 

"Hey you."

"Hi." He replied, sitting up against the pillows. 

"How are you feeling?" Stevie asked, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, a mere inch separating them.

"Good. I'm feeling good, besides this damned leg and ow..." He flinched. "... and my ribs." 

"Well, you shouldn't expect it to be any different. It hasn't been long since you came home from the hospital."

"It just irritates me, when I can't do shit."

"Aw, poor you." Stevie pouted, then smiled, knowing how truly torturous this bed regime had to be for Michael, he always found something to do even if there wasn't anything. He simply wasn't one of those people, who could lay in bed for the whole day and watch TV.

Michael looked pointedly at her. "You're having fun, mocking me, huh?" 

"I can't say that I'm not." He rolled his eyes, while Stevie chuckled. 

They both were glad there was no awkwardness after that kiss even if it wasn't much, it still happened. But Stevie had come the following day and they talked about it, Michael telling her not to stress about it, forget it happened and that things were just fine between them.

A couple of hours had passed and Stevie didn't think of checking the time. She told Lindsey she would come home around 5 or 6 pm and it was way past it. The girls were occupied in their rooms now, while Stevie kept Michael company. She had come over like this several times, only that she would leave after an hour or two. 

It had Lindsey worried. 

Looking at his watch again, he saw it was close to 8 in the evening. What if something happened? Retrieving his phone from his pocket, Lindsey searched for Stevie's name, then waited until she picked up.

"Hi, Linds."

"Hi." He didn't sound half as cheerful. "Where in the hell are you?"

"What do you mean? I'm with Michael and the girls." 

Taking a deep breath, Lindsey tried not to show off his annoyance. Visiting the man once or twice after the accident he had been involved in was fine, but this was getting ridiculous. It was almost as if Stevie was spending more time with her ex husband than the current man in her life.

"Of course you are." He muttered. "When do you plan on coming home?"

"Um, I don't know. Soon, I guess. Everything okay?"

"Yeah, fucking fantastic." He said and hung up, confusing her. 

Looking at the screen, Stevie frowned. "Well, that was weird."

"Maybe you should go. I wouldn't want to cause any problems." Michael suggested, despite how nice it felt having her around.

"Probably." Nodding, Stevie then called Karen.

Not much later, Karen stopped by the house, having brought Stevie home, who thanked her assistant and got out, walking towards the front door, although, failing to see Lindsey's car parked outside.

"Lindsey?" She called out his name, but did not get any response. 

She switched on the light, now noticing a path of rose petals, leading to the living room, where she saw throw pillows tossed around on the floor, as well as, sadly, already blown out candles, a bottle of wine with two glasses and a stack of records placed near the record player. Lindsey had obviously planned a lovely romantic evening for them and she ruined it.

Searching for her phone, Stevie dialed Lindsey's number, but he didn't answer. She tried a few more times, although, the outcome was the same. She felt bad about it and she wanted to say she was sorry, but quite clearly, Lindsey was not interested.