*Five*

"Thank you, enjoy your new lipstick - rock that bright colour!" Paulina called to her customer who thanked her again for her assistance before they left the store.

"I can help you," she called to the next person in line. She was just about to ring them through when the phone rang. "Excuse me," she told the customer, and picked up the phone. "Hello, Sears makeup counter, can you please hold-"

"Paulina," the voice of Max's ex-wife cut her off. "It's me."

Again. Lina tried to suppress a sigh. "Camilla we talked about this, you can't keep doing this-"

"I need your help - Carl arranged a visit to a resort for us, everything's booked. It was a surprise, I didn't know about it, and now I'm in a bind!"

Lina was inclined to wonder how much of Camilla's 'I didn't know about it' statement was actually true, and how much was just bullshit.

Suppressing another heavy sigh, she said, "One moment, please," and turned back to her customer, who was waiting very patiently to pay for her purchase. "Excuse me, I need to take this call. Bonnie, would you please assist this lady at the checkout," she asked her coworker. "Thanks so much."

With that sorted out, she returned to her call with Alastair's mother. "Yes, what do you need?"

"It's Maxwell's weekend with Alastair so I can drop him off with you and you can take him to Maxwell later. I assumed you'd be going over there after work." Well, that she at least assumed correctly. "You're not that busy at work, right? Certainly not as busy as Max is. You can keep an eye on him."

There she was, belittling her job again. If Paulina gripped the pen in her hand any tighter it would snap.

She hadn't told anyone yet, but she had started working on a college application - she had been hoping to get some work done on that during her break today, but that application had become increasingly neglected in the last few days. "Yes, I can watch him."

"Great, we'll drop him off shortly." With that, the phone line went dead. No 'thank you', nothing.

She slammed the phone down, a little more forcefully than necessary.

"What did your man's slightly-bitchy ex-wife want this time?" Bonnie asked, now that all the customers had been helped.

"Bonnie!"

"Oh come on, Lina! The woman's always dumping her kid on you like you're some babysitter, and not the partner of her ex-husband while she goes gallivanting off with her boyfriend." Well, that much was true.

"Yes, Camilla can be - difficult - but we're going to be a part of each other's lives and I don't want to make things any more tense than they already are."

"Well she should know she's not the only one who wants to spend sexy time with her boyfriend." Bonnie winked, making Lina roll her eyes. "Oh come on, honey, if you thought you could hide that massive hickey from me, you're terribly wrong."

Paulina chuckled.

"So things are clearly going well then with you and Max." Bonnie didn't know that the Max in question was in fact Maxwell Lord, just Max.

"Yes, quite well." For the most part, anyways, yes.

"And at least the kid's an angel, not a menace." That was also true - Alastair was the sweetest and she loved spending time with him.

Around half an hour later, Camilla rushed in, dragging Alastair by the hand up to the counter.

"Hi Lina!"

Alastair could always make her smile. "Hey, Buddy!"

"Here we are, and here's his bag-" Camilla lugged it on top of the counter, on top of the inventory notes Lina had been working on. "-All packed for his weekend with Maxwell. He should have the rest of his stuff at his dad's place."

Our place. Lina gave a tight-lipped smile. "Awesome. I'll drop him off after my shift is over."

"Great. I'd better go - Carl's waiting in the car, I told him I wouldn't be long. Bye baby!" She kissed Alastair's cheek. "Oh, that colour is really quite lovely," she noted, pointing at a lipstick in the display case, before rushing back out of the store.

No 'thank you', or anything of the sort. Nothing. She just assumed that this was completely fine, as usual, that Paulina didn't mind at all and that she 'wasn't busy'.

"I'm sorry, Lina," Alastair suddenly said, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"What for, Buddy?"

"For being in the way."

Her heart broke. "Oh, no, no Alastair, never think that. You are always welcome with me, okay?"

He nodded. "It's just, I never get to spend any time with Mommy and Daddy. Mommy's always away with Carl and Daddy's always working."

"Oh, sweetheart." She pulled him into a hug, squeezing him tight. She could only imagine if his mother kept running off to spend time alone with her boyfriend, and his father never seemed to be around, that he would feel a little abandoned. "I know, and I'm sorry. You know, have you talked to them about it?" He shook his head bashfully. "I'm sure if you mentioned to them that you wish you had more time with them, they would make the effort. Maybe they're just so busy they don't even realize it. Will you do that?"

"Okay Lina."

"Bueno. Now how about we take your bag to the staff room so you don't have to carry it with you the whole time," Lina suggested, earning a nod from Alastair. "But first I'm going to call your dad's office and let them know that I'll be dropping you off." Again.

"Black Gold, can you hold please?" came Raquel's rushed voice on the other end of the line. Clearly the phone calls to the company hadn't lessened any.

"Raquel, it's Paulina!" she cried, hoping to catch the assistant.

"Oh, hello Ms. Quintana, how may I help you?"

"Can you put me through to Max please? I'll be dropping off Alastair later this afternoon-"

"I'm afraid Mr. Lord is completely booked up in meetings, but I will make a note to tell him, and I can put you through to his voicemail."

Lina sighed - that would have to do. "Yes, thank you."

Raquel put her call through and the answering machine beeped, ready to record her message.

"Max, it's me. I know you're busy but Camilla's dropped off Alastair with me at work so I'll be bringing him by later today. Wanted to give you a heads up on the change of plans. Thanks, see you later, love you." Please get this message.

Now that that was done she left Bonnie in charge of the counter for a few minutes while she took Alastair to the back so he could store his bag. "Why don't you go check out the toy aisle? I think we got a new shipment in."

"Can you come with me?" Alastair's gaze was hopeful, so hopeful it broke her heart. Clearly he was lonely.

"I'm sorry Buddy, I wish I could, but I have to stay here and work. You can help me sort this box of lipsticks by colour if you want, then I have to set up a display."

"Okay." He seemed to perk up a little at this suggestion, but only a little.

When Max returned to his office he found a very angry Paulina awaiting him there.

"Lina, darling!" He flashed her one of his winning smiles.

But it didn't work. She gave him a fake smile in return. "Max, mi amor, how was Cairo?"

He sighed. "Please, don't be upset."

"And why not? You just flew off - literally - without any mention of it. Was it a last-minute decision?"

"Not exactly..."

"How long had you been planning this?"

"A while, but it only worked now."

"What do you mean?"

"I-It's difficult to explain-"

"Look, you're allowed to have your secrets, but as your partner I would hope you would let me know when you're suddenly leaving the country. Why did you even need to go to Egypt?"

"For oil."

"But, you already have oil, lots of it, just recently."

"I know, but more is better! Why settle when you can have more?" She just stared back, shocked. "Now, I'm really sorry, my love, but I have a lot of meetings today, so I must get to work and prepare for them." And with that he practically shoved her out of his office and into the bustling hall with all of the unfamiliar new employees. She sighed and looked around - she'd better go and find Alastair in this mess.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)