I grimaced at Mom and Dad. They were acting like friends.

I guess any normal child would've been happy that their separated parents were being civil.

But I was Josephine King. I wasn't a normal child.

I let out a sigh, watching as they laughed over some typo that Dad had somehow messed up in the process of writing out documents.

"And this is why we hire assistants," Mom laughed out, shaking her head.

Dad leaned back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest. He took his eyes off of Mom and placed them on me, tilting his head over.

"You've barely eaten."

"Lost my appetite," I said, my tone clipped as I pushed the box of sushi away from me.

"I've never seen you turn down sushi."

"Dad, there's just some things you don't say to a woman, and telling her that she's never turned down f-"

"Relax, cheer captain," he said, his eyes wide.

"Relax, cheer captain," I mimicked, looking down at my bare nails. I grimaced at the sight of my hand without acrylics.

Mom rubbed my arm. "You wanna stay the night with me tonight?"

I looked over at her, lifting an eyebrow.

She shrugged. "It gets lonely."

"Well, it wouldn't, if you wouldn't have moved out," I muttered, lowering my eyes to my hands again.

Mom sighed, resting her head on my shoulder. "Come on, kiddo."

I knew that, deep down, Dad even agreed with me. He was still hurt and frankly pissed off at the fact that Mom had left in the first place, but he was just playing it off differently than I was.

"Why don't you, Jo?" He asked, "have a girls night. I know you get tired of living in a house with only men."

"Disgusting, messy, annoying men," I said, "you forgot those adjectives."

"You know you love me," he said, standing up.

He pressed a kiss to my head. "Seriously. Spend the night with your mom."

"God, are you trying to get rid of her?" Mom asked, laughing up at Dad.

"Yep, I've got a hot date."

"Oh, really?" Mom asked.

"Yeah," he said, "so I'm gonna need you out. Pronto."

I looked up at him, narrowing my eyes into thin slits.

"I'm kidding, Jo," he chuckled, patting the top of my head.

"Yep, because you're still in love with Mom," I muttered to myself, resting my chin in my palm.

Why wasn't Mom even slightly bothered by the idea of Dad having a date? Sure, he said it was a joke, but even before that, she wasn't concerned.

I looked down at my phone when it vibrated, turning it right side up.

I clicked my phone off. I was annoyed with him, too, currently.

I lifted an eyebrow, getting ready to send him a message.

My eyes went wide. Did Eros just "ok" me?

I stood up, walking out of Dad's office. I called Eros, tapping my foot against the marble floor beneath me.

"Hello?" He answered.

"Hey, you should really think before you send just o and k next time."

"Is it that time?"

"That's really rude, Eros," I muttered.

"But it is."

"It is, but that has nothing to do with anything."

"That's why I texted you, you know?" He said, "I keep up with these things."

"Because it affects your sex having," I snapped.

"You were short with me, too, you know," he said, "a friend? We all know a friend means a guy friend, and my friend means a girl friend."

I knew that exactly.

"Josie, if we're going to do this, I'm not playing the games. Those lit a fire under my ass when we were hooking up, but now, it just makes me upset."

"Well, sometimes I forget that we're doing this," I said, "you don't treat me any differently than you did before. If anything, you were more into me then, because you were still chasing me."

"Josie, sweetheart, I literally went to target with you the other day simply to watch you aimlessly wander around."

I covered my mouth with my hand, tears clouding my eyes. "Yeah."

"Are you crying?"

"No," I said, sniffling.

"Yes," he said, "come on, you'd never let tears mess up your mascara."

"Start chasing me again, Eros!" I said, sniffling, "yeah, I'm yours, but I'm a free spirit. What if I just up and leave?"

"You won't," he soothingly said, "because you love me."

"And you went to target with me, so you love me, too," I said.

"Exactly my point."

~*~

I smiled and painted the face mask on Josie's face, admiring her features. She was an exact mixture of Fred and I.

"Eros got this old car," she said, "and he's fixing it up. He looks so hot as a mechanic."

I giggled a silent giggle. "Yeah? Is everything going well?"

She sighed, shrugging. "Yeah. He knows I'm his now, so he's not really chasing me anymore."

"The worst," I whispered, grinning as she sat upright.

She bit down on her lip and looked at me, and even behind the bright green face mask I could see a concerned look on her face.

"What is it?" I asked, closing the face mask jar.

She tilted her head over, chewing on her lip. "When Dad was joking about having a date, why weren't you concerned?"

I carefully thought through my answer. Josie still had a really hard time coming to terms with the separation, and I understood. I probably would've reacted the same way if my parents would've sprung that upon me with no warning.

"Sweetheart," I softly said, ruffling my fingers through her hair, "even if he would've been serious, I can't expect your dad to sit around and wait on me to fix whatever I've got going on. That's selfish."

"Okay, well, sometimes," she began, crossing her legs, "you deserve a pass to be selfish."

I smiled, shaking my head. "Your dad deserves to be happy, whether it's with me or not."

"Don't say that, Mom," she said, standing up from the bed.

She walked into the kitchen, grabbing her glass of water.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because it makes me feel like you guys aren't going to go back to normal," she said.

I walked into the kitchen, leaning against the island. "Baby, I don't know what the future holds. There's no way for me to know that."

"Okay, but don't make everyone feel like there's absolutely no chance. Mom, he's so in love with you."

I didn't doubt that Fred loved me, I'd never doubted that.

"Baby, it's not about him," I said, "what happened, that was me. It was my decision."

"Okay, well, Mom, what can I do to help?" She asked, and I heard the pain in her voice.

I bit down on my lip, shrugging. "Sweetheart, I'm taking it a day at a time."

"I wish you could see the way he looks at you," she said, blinking back tears, "how when you're not looking, he's looking at you. With so much admiration. Even after everything, he looks at you like you are the only woman in the universe."

"Your father and I have made what things are very clear," I said, "we're co-parenting, we're being civil, we're being friends."

"You guys aren't friends, Mom," she argued.

"We are, Josie," I said, pouring myself a glass of sparkling water, "we were friends before we were anything else, you know. It worked. We work as friends."

"Well, you also work as husband and wife, considering the twenty years of marriage you guys have behind you."

I leaned my head back, smiling over at her. "Nothing changed, Jo. I don't love your dad any less."

"Then why would you be so okay with him being with someone else?"

I looked out the window at the tall buildings of Chicago, tilting my head over at her question.

Would you be okay with that?

~*~

The door flew open, making me turn around and hold out my arms. "Where have you been? I was going to surprise you-"

Henry cut me off with just his facial expression, which was a mixture of concerned and confused.

"Kiss the cook," he said, reading off the text on my apron, "the cook's apron looks to be a little small."

"I found it in the pantry," I muttered.

"Where's Jo?" He asked, placing his duffel bag on the counter.

"She's staying the night at Mom's," I said, looking back at him.

"Oh, so it's just us here?" He asked.

I nodded, smiling.

"Cool," he said, patting my back as he walked by.

I looked over at him, noticing he was just a bit off. I decided to not push, though, because I know when I was seventeen, the last thing I wanted was to be pushed into a conversation I didn't want to have.

Henry leaned against the fridge with a sigh. "I fucked someone."

I lifted my eyebrows, not taking my eyes away from the hamburger meat I was seasoning. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," he said, "and I don't know how players, in quotation marks, do it."

I chuckled a soft chuckle. "Yeah."

"I mean, am I supposed to feel that shitty?" He asked, earning my eyes.

"Sex shouldn't make you feel shitty, persé," I said, "but it's new for you. It's a new feeling. I mean, you had sex once before you met Cordelia."

"I feel like I used that girl."

I let out a sigh, placing the plate of hamburger patties on the counter in front of me. "Well, did you?"

"I'm sorry?" He deadpanned.

"Did you use her?" I asked, "to avert your attention from your breakup?"

He looked like he knew the answer, but was ashamed of it.

"I'm not gonna beat you up about it," I said, shrugging, "I did some really shitty things when your mom turned me down."

"Yeah, like what?" He asked, leaning forward on the counter.

I scratched the back of my neck. "Got with a lot of women. Not because I genuinely wanted them, but because I needed to take my mind off of her."

"Yeah, I didn't genuinely want this girl. I saw her at the gym and jumped. How shitty is that?"

I shrugged. "It's just a learning experience, Henny."

"Well, can I please be done learning?" He asked, biting into a carrot, "I don't know how the hell Hero does it."

I laughed. "You know, Uncle Jo got around a lot less than I did. He was definitely more mellow in that aspect of things."

"Does it feel better?" He asked, making me look at him.

"What?" I asked.

"You know," he said, "having sex with someone you love?"

I thought over my answer. Every time with Alexis flashed through my mind, making me nod.

"Worlds better," I said, nodding.

He nodded, looking down. "Yeah, I figured."

I patted his back, nodding towards the patio. "Let's go grill these."

He smiled, following me outside.

"This, my friend," I said, placing each patty on the grill, "is what I like to call bachelor food."

He laughed, nodding up at me. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," I said, "when your mom and I were in college, living together, she got so pissed at me for calling it bachelor food."

I chuckled, shaking my head. "But deep down, she loved the burgers themselves. She wouldn't have ever admitted it, but I saw the way she looked when she took a bite."

"I like when you tell stories about you guys when you were younger," he said.

"Oh, my favorite story," I chuckled out, closing the top of the grill, "we went to get takeout from somewhere, and this girl slipped her number into the food bag. Your mom freaked out on me."

"How'd you make it up to her?" He asked.

The flashback of how exactly I'd made it up to her clouded my mind, making me chuckle and shake my head. "I can't share that with my son."

"Nasty," he grimaced, shaking his head.

I chuckled. "Your mom used to get in my face, she could about make tears come to my eyes. Feisty, crazy, as fuck."

He smiled, and I could tell he was enjoying hearing about a time when we were in love.

"But something about that craziness," I chuckled out, sitting down in my chair.

"It's hard to imagine Mom like that," he said.

I rubbed my jaw, nodding. "Yeah, she's changed."

He folded his arms over his chest, leaning back against the back of his chair. "Do you still love her? Even though she's not the girl you fell in love with?"

I smiled over at him. "She will always be the girl I fell in love with."

"So you do still love her?"

"Of course," I said, clearing my throat as I stood up.

"Then why is everything such a mess?" He asked.

I let out a sigh, shrugging. "Because love, unfortunately, is really fucking messy."

~*~

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