Letting my eyes drift over the crowd bustling around the train station, I took in a little of everything and nothing in particular. It was an old habit from when I was on the force. It's amazing who you can catch doing what, as long as you keep your eyes open and your brain alert.
And that's when I spotted the little shit.
At first glance my mind pinged with recognition and I instantly thought "Wanted Criminal". It took a few more split seconds for the rest of my brain to kick in and I actually remembered why I recognized him.
Not too long ago that bastard had been my fiance', Steve. When the shit hit the fan and I died and then was brought back as a zombie, and our for Better or Worse was leaning pretty damn heavy on the worse, he decided to completely bail.
Oh, and leave me with all the bills to pay for the whole f*cking wedding that we had planned. The ceremony had been only two months away so, no, I couldn't get a refund on literally anything. So that Walking Trash had left me dead, unemployed, and drowning in debt.
It's like my best friend and my fiance had been playing a competition of who could screw up my life the most.
Honestly, it was a toss up.
When our eyes finally met over the expanse of the train station, his face instantly took on an uncomfortable and mildly annoyed expression. He half turned away from me, and started looking around for an exit.
Oh please, get over yourself, Asshole. As if I would go over there and start some drama. I know it'd just pad your stupid little ego.
You are so not worth it!
Jiro came back, Tina happily bouncing in his arms. He held up three fanned out slips of paper.
"Got the tickets."
Tina waved a small plastic bag in my general direction, and chirped.
"I got somethin’ too!"
My gods, she was just too darn cute for this world. See, this is exactly what I needed right now, some Tina therapy.
I gasped with mimed surprise.
"You did? What did you get?"
Tina fished around in the bag and dredged up a plastic tin in the shape of a train engin.
"Train cookies!"
I gasped again, and clapped.
"Train cookies? Oh, I bet those are so yummy."
Tina was smiling and excitedly nodding, until Jiro cut into our adorable exchange.
"But we're not going to eat them until our visit with your mother, so they stay in the bag for now."
He gave Tina a warning look. Tina stuck out her little lower lip and crammed the cookies back where they came.
Awe, she even looked cute when she was pouting.
Feeling fully rejuvenated by the power of Tina’s cuteness, I glanced back out over the crowd. What I found was Steve standing there with his mouth hanging slightly ajar, his eyes whipping between me and Jiro and Tina.
When me and Steve were together I had always tried to get him to work out with me, go for a morning run, something. His answer had always been that rather than join me, I should just work out less. It had always bothered him that I had more muscle than he did. He wasn't a fan of me being taller than him either. What can I say, when it came to body types, we were never a great match.
I had always thought that bodies were just skin deep and it didn’t matter. After all, we loved each other, that’s what really mattered, right? I have a feeling he never thought that way.
Well, if I had been looking for a man with muscles, Jiro had them in spades. Not to mention that he was tall enough to make most people look petite.
Steve was eyeing Jiro pretty damn closely. He focused on Jiro’s well developed biceps more then once, but he also gave more than a few glances to Tina too.
From the beginning, I had made it clear that I wanted kids. Steve had always been indifferent, but he knew I adored little kids and wanted one of my own.
He stared at me standing with Jiro and Tina by my side, and I could just see him drawing the wrong conclusions.
Jiro leaned into my shoulder, his hushed voice growling in my ear.
"Do you know that pigeon?"
I flashed Steve a smile across the distance.
"Not any more, I don't."
I snatched a ticket out of Jiro’s hand and turned to get in line for our train.
Let Steve think I had moved on, let him think that I had up graded, and I was living the best life I’d ever had. Let him think that I finally had everything I wanted, a fit guy that could finally keep up with me, a cute little kid all my own, traveling around on a family trip for the weekend.
Why should I have to clue him in?
Even if it was all a lie.
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