Read Online The Fourteen Day Soul Detox by Rita Stradling - Free Book Online

grin.
    I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are
you serious or are you messing with me because I just made that super
awkward ‘my friend was trying to set us up’ speech?”
    “Can I say both?” he asked,
eyes twinkling with amusement.
    The bell rang, and a tide of children
came rushing out of the doors all along each wall.
    As a long line of children filed past
us, Patrick asked, “So, about that dinner, yes, no, maybe so?”
    I looked over. “Can I say maybe
so ? Is that a real option?”
    “I was stupid enough to add it,
so I guess, yes. Unless, you’ll let me amend my choices to
‘yes, yes, and definitely yes?’”
    “Let’s stick with maybe
so,” I said.
    “Dad!” a little girl ran up
throwing her arms around Patrick. Her hair was darker than his,
almost brown. She jumped up and down, talking a million miles per
hour about an art project.
    Patrick’s attention was solely on
her now, his smile warm as he nodded along with her story. He slipped
her backpack off, throwing it over his suit shoulder.
    “Are you Sarah’s mom?”
A little boy asked me as he passed. Red hair poked out of his head in
all directions and freckles dotted his face.
    “Yep,” I said.
    “I knew it!” he shouted,
before hurrying off.
    “Okay,” I whispered to
myself, smiling.
    Sarah and her aide came out of the door
together. The moment Sarah saw me, she grabbed the straps of her
backpack and ran. “Mom!” she shouted, “Mom!”
She plowed into me, and I threw my arms around her as she buried her
head into my stomach.
    I looked up to Ms. Brown, trying to
gauge her expression. She was a few inches shorter than me, and
probably a couple years younger than I was too. She smiled at me and
the tension in my shoulders relaxed.
    “Was it a good day?” I
asked, giving her a hopeful smile.
    Ms. Brown nodded, making her bobbed
black hair flip up and down. “For the most part, yeah. The
class just watched movies, went to art and stuff and we had a Friday
fun day raffle, so it was a pretty easy day. She had a little trouble
transitioning from speech, kicked over a trash can, but yeah, all in
all everything went pretty well.” She pushed her glasses up her
nose.
    “No hitting?” I asked.
    “Nope, no hitting today,”
Ms. Brown said, nodding.
    “Oh thank god,” I said. I
looked down at Sarah, who was grabbing onto me like I might leave her
behind if she loosened her hold. Patting her head, I said, “Nice
work at school, angel.”
    “I’m ready to go home and
have the weekend,” she told me.
    “I bet,” I said.
    “Oh, the principal did want me to
ask you to talk to Sarah about not doing her gymnastics while she’s
at school.” She turned to Sarah, saying, “It’s very
important Sarah, no gymnastics at school, okay?”
    When Sarah just looked away from her, I
told Ms. Brown, “I’ll talk to her about it. How are you
doing?”
    She beamed at me. “Oh, I’m
good! John and I set the date, so this time next year I’ll be
Mrs. Harriet.”
    “Awesome, wow. Congratulations!”
    “Thanks,” she said. “I
have to go head to a meeting, but you guys have a great weekend!”
    “Yeah, you too,” I said.
“Hey Sarah, angel, you need to give me a little space so we can
walk to the car.” When she didn’t step back, I said, “If
we can’t walk to the car, we can’t go to the sleepover
tonight at Aiden’s.”
    “Mom,” Sarah said, looking
up at me. “I want to watch the artistic women’s beam
final from the North Greenwich arena at the London Olympics.”
    “Um, we might have time before we
have to head to Aiden’s, but we have to go now.”
    She stepped away.
    “Excuse me, Sarah’s mom,”
said a young girl’s voice from behind me.
    I turned to see Patrick’s
daughter, Kay, standing right behind me, looking up.
    “Her name’s Jamie,”
Patrick said, smiling over at me.
    “Um, my name is Kay. I love
gymnastics too. Where does Sarah go to do her gymnastics? I go to the
Y. Sarah is really good, she’s better than me.