Hanna pulled up outside her mom's house, put her car in park and let you a heavy sigh. She reached over into the passenger seat and scrambled to get all her stuff together and stuffed back into her purse. She grabbed her folder that held her itinerary for the trip and looked over it quickly before shoving into her bond leather planner and zipped up the side. She grabbed her phone out of the cup holder and hit the home screen to see No Notifications

Girlfriend, you need to chill out. They aren't even out of the city yet. He will text you when he is parked in his driveway. You don't him texting and driving.

She huffed, threw her phone in her bag and slung it on her shoulder. She got out and grabbed her suitcase out of the hatch and made her way inside. Once she reached the foyer she sat her bags down by the stairs and headed up to her room. Although it still looked like her old room, it was now filled with all of Kenz's toys for when she spent the night or came for visits. Hanna flopped backwards onto the bed and laid there looking at the ceiling.

Why does this always have to be so hard?

She pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to shake some of the thoughts running around in her brain.

You know what makes bad moods better? CARBS!

With that she got off the bed and wondered downstairs. Looking through the cabinets, she saw nothing that would catch her eye. Opening the refrigerator, it was packed full of all healthy foods.

Well, this is a bust.

Opening up the freezer she saw a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey. Picking it up, and walked over to the silverware drawer and slung it open. Taking a spoon out of the drawer and closing it back, she took a seat at the bar and started to shovel the sugar into her mouth. Halfway through her pint, she heard the door open and close. Any other time, she would've tried to hide the evidence of her binge, this time she didn't care who saw or what they said about it.

She heard the click click click of heels on the tile that let her know it was her mother. Fiery red hair came into her side view.

"Hey Hanna. You're early! I wasn't expecting you until..." she glanced up from her phone to see her daughter sitting with her head propped up on one hand, spoon midway to her mouth with a huge chuck of ice cream at the end. She knew what this meant.

"What's wrong?" she asked as she made her way over to the bar, peeking over into the container before coming to stand in front of Hanna.

Without ever looking up from her spoon Hanna says "You know how shitty it is to love a happily married TO SOMEONE ELSE man? To have to see him all happy with his new happy life, while you envy and really friggin like his wife..." she said as she took the bit and dropped her spoon back into the carton. "Can't even hate on her. What kind of crap is that? Haters NEED to hate, and can't. Bullshit."

"Yeah, actually I do."

Hanna looked up at her mother and rolled her eyes.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself." she said as she took the carton from in front of her.

"Hey, I wasn't done with that." Hanna protested as her mother made her way over to the trash can opened the lid and tossed it in.

"Yes, you are." she said as she turned around and grabbed two glasses and a bottle of wine from the counter and turned back to her daughter "Let's go wine it out on the patio." she said with a raise of her eyebrows.

"Mom, I can't have any before I meet Estelle at the airport." she said following her mom out the patio doors and to the small bistro set positioned in the corner.

"Just one. We have like..." looking down at her phone for the time "an hour or so maybe before we have to leave. Come on Han. It will be therapeutic…you can tell me what's really been bothering you about Caleb."

"Fine." Hanna said as she grabbed a glass and held it out to her mother. "Fill'er up bartender"

Ashley smiled at her daughter and popped the cork on the bottle.

Fifteen minutes later her phone buzzed on the table. Hanna sat her glass down and quickly grabbed at her phone and hit the home screen. There was a text from Caleb. She slid the button open to her text screen. It was a picture of the backseat of his Jeep with Kenz, passed out in her booster with her mouth hanging open hair all over her head and face. The caption read

See mom, no ice cream tonight! with a thumbs up emoji.

It vibrated again.

We've made it home, btw.

Hanna smiled and turned the phone around to show her mom. They exchanged laughs at how adorable Kenzie was. She quickly typed out a reply.

I knew she would be out before you got home. Leaving out shortly. Will call or text when I land. Give Kenz a hug and kiss for me.

With that she looked at the time and informed her mom that it was time for them to head onto the airport. She gathered her things and they were off. When she arrived at the airport she met up with Estelle and they checked their luggage and made their way to board the plane. Once they were comfortably in her seats Hanna pulled out her book and continued to read. She didn't do very well with flights so the distraction was nice.

A few short hours later they were landing in California. Once they had landed and they – they being Hanna waited for their luggage at Baggage Claim. She gathered all their things and went to find Estelle waiting for the car they had arranged to pick them up.

"Hanna dear, where is the car?" she asked `looking around.

"I booked a Town Car to be here by now. Let me call and find out where it is." Hanna said as she rolled her eyes.

Pulling her phone out of her bag she checked around one more time. Just as she looked to her right another car was pulling out to see a man standing next to a black car holding a sign that read "Giovanni/Marin".

Oh thank god for small favors!

"There they are Estelle!" she said as she pointed in the direction of the car. She had started to roll their luggage towards the man standing when he noticed her struggling with all the bags. He stepped forward

"Ms. Marin?" he asked as he reached out for the bags.

"Hi! Yes sir." She said as he took the handle and started to roll the bags towards the car.

Once they got in, she informed the driver what hotel they were staying and waited as they pulled off into traffic. Sitting back in her seat she let out a big sigh and checked the time 8:25.

Damn! Well, won't be talking to them tonight.

"So, Hanna what is your plans for this evening? Want to grab a drink or two?" Estelle asked as she fixed her makeup.

"No Estelle. I think once we get checked in I am going to call my daughter and then hit the bed. We've got an early start in the morning." she said as she pulled her planner out to see what their first meeting time was.

"We have a breakfast meeting at 8 AM, then we have a meeting with some other designers at 11" she informed her boss and closed and zipped her binder back up. "Want me to give you a 7 AM wakeup call?"

"That would be fabulous! Thank you so much Hanna. I don't know what I would do without you."

"That's what I am here for Estelle." She said with a slight smile.

They pulled up in front of their hotel and Hanna got out of the car and went to the front desk to check in. Once they had received their key cards and got the directions to their rooms. Estelle handed her bags off to a member of the staff for them to be taken to her room.

She turned to Hanna "Last chance, you want to come out for drinks?"

Hanna glanced down at her phone, 9:00 PM.

"No, I think that I am just going to go on up. I have some work that needs to be done before our meeting. Plus, I wanna check up on my daughter." She said waving her phone in front of her boss as if to wave off any more invites.

"Ah! Mom life!" Estelle said as she reached out and wrapped her arms around Hanna "Have to say, I am kinda jealous"

She let go of Hanna and waved as she walked back out into the night. Hanna grabbed her luggage handle and headed towards the elevators. Once she had reached her room she put her bags down and pulled out her phone and sent a quick text.

Just got to the hotel. Still up?

She sat there for a few minutes before her phone started to vibrate. Lifting it up to her face she saw that it was an incoming FaceTime request from Caleb. She quickly hit accept and waited for the calls to connect.

Once her screen lit up and saw Caleb laying next to Kenz in her bed. He was shirtless with wet hair and Kenz laid with her head on his chest. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Hey. We were just getting ready to go to bed. She's been waiting with my phone for an hour now." He said with a laugh "Kenz. Mommy is on the phone." He said as he got her attention from the iPad she had in her lap.

"Kenzieeeeeee" she sang out, trying to get her daughter's attention.

She watched as they phone shook as if an earthquake had hit and she was watching it from her cellphone.

"Kenz, careful" she heard Caleb say as the phone muffled like it had been dropped. Hanna laughed as she could just see the scene now in her mind.

"Mommyyyyyyy!" Kenzie called out as she picked up the phone. "Mommy! Mommy, guess what?!" she asked with a smile from ear to ear.

"What's that sweetie?" Hanna asked with excitement.

"Daddy took me to the store and I gots a new doll." She said as she tried to hold the Barbie up so her mom could see it. She held the phone so close to her face that Hanna only had the view of half her face and the blonde hair she held the doll up by.

"Bug, get daddy to hold the phone out so I can see. I can only see half of your pretty face." She called out.

"I'M ON IT!" she heard him scream towards the phone in the background before the earthquake happened again and the phone moved further out so that she could see their daughter and half of his chest.

"Hey! Daddy I'm not done with that!" she said with a pout on her face.

"Mommy couldn't see you baby. Now she can see you. Show her your doll." He said.

Kenz quickly forgot about the phone and held the doll up again by her ponytail.

"See mommy, pretty huh?" she asked.

"Yes baby she is pretty. What else did you and daddy do?" Hanna asked

She listened as Kenzie rambled on and on about how the rest of her day went. She felt the very familiar feeling in her chest. If they were still together, she would be on the other side of that bed with Caleb, putting their daughter to sleep. She wouldn't need to get a rundown of her day because she would already know.

"AND we just picked this book out for my bedtime story." She said holding up a copy of Sports Illustrated.

"No we're not..." Caleb called out as he pulled the book out of her hands. He brought his face so that she could see it on the screen "Han, I am NOT reading her SI for a bedtime story. Swear!" and then he disappeared from the frame again

He handed the little girl a hardback copy of a ballerina book.

"Caleb…?" a voice called from the background. "Caleb?" the voice was closer to the phone than before.

Hanna stopped breathing. Her heart started beating in her ears. He turned his head towards the door where the voice sounding like it was coming from.

"Yeah?"

"Sorry I didn't mean to interrupt. I didn't know you were still in here. I was just going to let you know I was getting a shower and I would be in here for bedtime story."

Suddenly she felt like a stranger, an audience for someone else's life. She just wanted to disappear. She blinked the tears away that came to her eyes and cleared her throat. He looked back towards the phone and she offered him a slight smile. He looked back towards the door.

"Okay, she's just saying goodnight to mommy and then we will be ready to read." He said

"It won't take me long. HI HANNA!" she called out.

See, you should really hate this bitch! Who does that?

She thought.

A nice person that wants to be friends, that's who!

She swallowed heard. This was the difficult part.

"Hi!" she yelled back to the other voice. "I will let you guys go I just wanted to let you know I had made it in and tell Kenz goodnight. I have to be getting in bed anyway; I have an early morning meeting." She said with a sigh.

"Bug, mommy is about to get in bed okay?" she asked

"Ooooookay mommy!"

"I will call you again tomorrow, is that okay?"

"Okay." she said with a yawn. "Mommy?"

"Yes baby?"

"I loves you."

Her heart stopped. She smiled into the phone, tears in her eyes.

"I love you too baby. Goodnight. Sleep tight."

"Goodnight. NO BUGS IN THE BED!"

She heard Caleb laugh in the background and then he turned the phone to his face.

"So, we will hear from you tomorrow?" he asked

"Yeah, I have an early morning meeting, so just text me when you guys get up and I will call shortly after so I don't interrupt anything."

"You're free to call any time, Han."

"Thank you." her voice barely a whisper. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

And just like that, he was gone. Her phone went black and she was alone in her hotel room again. Getting up off the bed she turned the TV on to fill the deafening silence. She mindless flipped channels trying to find something to watch. Desperately seeking something to take her mind away.

"Surely they have America's Next Top Model or Project Runway on here somewhere." she said to herself.

She flipped through the channels until she landed on Dora the Explorer. She sat there watching. The show was a favorite of Kenzie's and Hanna had heard it so much that she absolutely despised Dora and Diego for that matter. For some reason tonight, it brought her comfort.

This. This feels more like home.

She got up off the bed and grabbed her bathroom bag and headed for the shower. Once she had showered, pulled her hair up, she ventured back out into the bedroom to find her PJs. Throwing her suitcase onto the bed and unzipping it, she dug around until she found them. Pulling out the shirt she ran her fingers over the seams of the old gray t-shirt. Clutching the shirt, she sat down next to her bag and looked at it like it was the first time she had ever seen it.

You know, you do this to yourself. Out of all the clothes you own, you pick his old shirt and boxers to sleep in…

It was just about the only thing he left back at their apartment 6 years ago when he left her for Europe. She found it shoved in the bottom of a drawer along with a hoodie and a pair of old boxers when she was cleaning one day. She never had the heart to throw it out, or give it back. Instead she slept in it most nights, she had for years. As awful as it was, the scent of him lingered on it when she found it. She wore it for weeks without ever washing it. She cried when she dropped Ketchup on it the first time and was forced to wash the smell of his soap away. It was just an old gray shirt with some band he liked that she couldn't stand on it but it had become her favorite shirt.

She sighed and pulled it over her head, grabbing the boxers that she wore as shorts she threw them on too, telling herself not to even think about it. She climbed into bed and with the sounds of Dora signing to her, she drifted off to sleep.

The next week flew by in a whirl of meetings, fabrics and models and before she knew it she was stepping off a plane back at home. They managed to close the deal they were working on and expanded Estelle's brand with two new department stores. Overall it was a successful trip. She stayed pretty busy the whole time, but she still managed to FaceTime with Kenzie pretty often. Caleb also sent her photos and text updates throughout the day so she wouldn't worry. While she waited for her luggage she took her phone out of her bag and sent a quick text to Caleb.

Just landed, I should be back in town by 2, I can swing by there around 4. Will that work?

Hitting send, she pulled up her mom's text

Waiting on luggage. Won't be too long. You outside?

Ashley replied back immediately

Yep. Just now finding a parking spot. I will see you inside.

She hit reply

K

She saw her luggage rolling onto the conveyor belt as her phone buzzed in her hand. She slid it open to his reply

Yeah, that's cool. We will be here.

She replied

Okay. Be there soon.

Throwing her phone back into her bag she made her way around to grab her suitcase and head towards her mom. In the crowded airport lobby her mom stuck out like a sore thumb with her bright red hair. She held a sign that said MY BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER and it made Hanna laugh

"Mom, a sign really?!" she asked looking around, slightly embarrassed,

"Hey, you may be an adult, but I am still your mother and I can still embarrass you." She said as she threw her arm around Hanna's shoulders as they made their way to her car.

At 3:55 she pulled up in the driveway of the brick two story home that Caleb owned, complete with white picket fence in the front yard. She put her car in park and cut the ignition. She flipped down her visor mirror and checked her makeup and hair. Taking a deep breath she opened the door. Stepping out she smoothed the wrinkles out of her gray silk blouse that was tucked into her black pinstripe trouser dress pants. They had another early breakfast meeting before catching their plane so she didn't have time to change out of her business attire.

The clicking of her heels on the pavement of the driveway distracted her from the beating of her heart in her ears as she made her way towards the door. Once she had reached the first step, she wanted to cry. She took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

"Comingg!" she heard yelled towards the door.

Oh no! Not heard. Caleb please answer the door. PLEASE answer the door.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Confused where the sound was coming from, she looked around.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP

What seemed like 5 minutes later, but what was only actually seconds later the door swung open.

"Hanna, hi! Come on it. Caleb is packinig up Kenz's things now." she said as she stepped to the side so Hanna could walk through the door.

She plastered a fake smile on her face as she replied

"Hey Spence."

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Hanna jolted awake and sat straight up in bed rubbing her eyes. She reached over and hit the alarm on phone.

Damn Hanna, you gotta quit with the dreams!