Chapter 13

Cousin Marcus Again

Marcus called while I was with Tersly. I clicked play on the machine, "Hi, Montehue, it's Marcus. Um, call me when you get this. I… need to talk to you. Bye." It ended.

And I left it. I was in too good of a mood to let it be ruined by my family. Ruby played on her new phone. She had this mobile game about collecting cats. It was odd, but cute. I cuddled Rubes. She play pouted, but she let me hold her. Tersly awed and took a picture of us. Ruby frowned at him, but he paid no mind to it.

Tersly picked up the phone as it rang again, "Hello? Oh, Marcus. Yes… I do believe he's here." Tersly looked at me. I took it as Ruby watched me with her innocent green eyes.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I'm… sorry about everything. I was an- mad at you, not Ruby." He struggled to get the words out.

"I know you were, but you crossed the line." I said coldly.

"I know. I just, I don't know. What can I do?" He asked.

"Ruby, what do you think Cousin Marcus should do?" I asked her.

She thought, "Um, say sorry and, and no more drinking."

"No more drinking ever?" I hid my amused smile.

"Ever." She said, nodding.

"What?" Marcus shouted.

"You heard her. You're going sober." I ruffled Ruby's hair. She wasn't sure why I was amused, but Marcus deserved it. He was a real jerk to stoop so low. Alcohol or not.

"Hand the phone to Ruby." He requested.

I handed to her and she was quiet as he talked, "Ok. Bye bye." She hung up.

"Ruby! He wasn't done yet." I laughed.

"Oppsies." She handed the phone to me as it rang again.

"She hung up on me." Marcus told me.

"I know." I said, still smiling at my daughter.

"You, Ruby… Was there someone else?" He thought.

"My assistant, Tersly." I said, handing it to him.

"Hello. It's fine re-" Tersly made the mistake of looking at me, "I- I accept your apology. I hope you learned from this."

Marcus replied and my husband hung up, leaving to put it back. I thought he was over that. Ruby wiggled in my lap. I let her up and she went off somewhere. She brought her doll back to the couch and wanted more cuddles, but she acted like I was the one who wanted cuddles. She ended up falling asleep after awhile. Tersly took more pictures of us. She'd think this was cute one day.

"Tersly." I looked at him.

"Monty, you know I'm a passive person." He said.

"You deserve respect." I said firmly.

He smiled weakly, "I know I do, but…"

"There's no but, you deserve respect. Period." I looked at him.

"It's hard to change." He rested his head on my shoulder, sitting next to me.

"You're better than you were 10 years ago." I smiled.

"I met you then." He replied.

"I know. It was one of the best moments of my life." I kissed the top of his head.

"Really?" He asked, scoffing.

"Ok, but what it lead up to was pretty great." I felt him laugh.

"I was afraid you were going to fire me for a long time." Tersly added.

"But I kissed you back instead." I reminded my redheaded partner.

"Mmm hmm." He went quiet. Then we napped until Ruby woke up hungry and I had to make dinner.