Chapter 80: Chapter 80

TOBY.

"Ruby," I called out as I moved through the living room and kitchen with no sign of Ruby in sight. Normally when I return from work she's either in the kitchen making dinner or cuddled up with Jeremy in the living room. I check in the nursery but she's not there either. I knock on her room door but there's no answer so I hesitantly push the door open. The drapes are pulled closed giving the room a dark and dreary feel. Ruby is asleep under the covers, holding Jeremy in her arms and she doesn't even stir when I walk in. I hoped she wasn't sick. I thought it was better to leave them to sleep.

Before stripping and stepping into the shower I ordered some food over the phone. I wasn't sure what to order so I went for pizza because who doesn't like pizza? Then I wasn't sure pizza was the best thing to order for a sick person, and Ruby might be sick so I called up another place and ordered some chicken noodle soup. I kept second-guessing my orders so I ended up ordering way more food than we could eat. I ordered pasta from an Italian place she likes, Mexican food, and Chinese. I didn't know how much I ordered until the deliveries arrived. When I emerged downstairs freshly showered and dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt the deliveries started to arrive as if on cue. As I dropped one take-out bag on the kitchen island the doorbell rang again signalling yet another delivery. It continued like that until the island was full, not an inch of space to drop anything on.

"What the…. Are we having a party?" Ruby asked. She walked into the kitchen as I was looking for a space to place the last delivery. Her eyes looked red, her hair was all over the place and she had Jeremy on her hip.

"I came back and found you sleeping so I thought to order some food for us," I explained. I plucked Jeremy who had his arms stretched out from her arm. Her distracted gaze was still on all the food.

"All this is just for us, you didn't invite any company?"

"Yeah, no company. I didn't know what you would like and then I got carried away."

"You could have just waited till I woke up, I'm hungry but not this hungry. What would we do with all this food?" She took a peep at the food as she talked.

"We could start by eating as much as we can," I answered.

"Too bad Jeremy can't help us."

"Too bad, why don't you tell me what you'd like to eat first then go relax in the living room, I'll bring your food to you."

"Chicken noodle soup would be a great appetiser."

"Chicken noodle soup coming right up then."

"Thank you," she said, retrieving a reluctant Jeremy from my embrace and exiting the room. I found two bowls and ladled the steaming hot soup into them. I set them on a tray with a bottle of water and two glasses and headed out.

I watched her eat slowly from where I sat, steam wafting across her face and a faraway look in her eyes.

"Is everything okay?" I finally asked the question that had been burning in my mind.

"Yeah," she said but it sounded more like a question than an answer.

"Are you sure?"

"Mhmm everything is just peachy," she said but it came out sounding sarcastic. To avoid being pushy I let her be and we finished our soup in silence.

"What would you like to have for the next course madame?" I asked in a faux French accent that got her laughing. I paused from gathering the dishes and just watched her laugh.

"You're good at this accent thing," she said, wiping a stray tear that had escaped from the corner of her eyes while she was laughing so hard.

"I'm the best," I bragged.

"Show off. Why don't you pick what our next course would be?"

"Alright," I said, gathering our dirty dishes and exiting. I came back with a tray of tacos. Ruby ate more than she usually would, in a distracted haze. Something was bothering her, we had been together for long enough for me to pick up on her normal behaviour and this wasn't it. Something was off. We had ice cream for dessert and Ruby volunteered to put the food away in the fridge, I let her do it because I couldn't have done it as efficiently as she would. I gave Jeremy his bottle as she packed the food and we all called it a night when we were done.

I was falling into dreamland when the annoying buzz sound of my phone stirred me awake. I got into a seating position and picked the phone up from where it sat next to my bedside lamp.

"Hello," I said into the phone, then cleared my throat right after because of how groggy my voice sounded.

"Hi, baby."

"What do you want, Yasmin?" I asked impatiently.

"I want you, that's what I want."

"What the hell do you want from me? I've sent your allowance for this week, do you want more?"

"I don't want your damn money, not when you won't come to see your child and me. When last did you see Toby, huh? At this rate, he wouldn't know his father."

"I can't be all up in your apartment every day and you know this. What would people say if I start frequenting your place?"

"I don't care, I just want you, I want things to go back to the way they used to be."

"That's impossible and you know it."

"It's not, we can go back to how we used to be and just damn the…," she said but I cut the call on her before she could finish. I had nothing to say to her since she refused to be reasoned with. I fell back into bed but this time sleep eluded me no matter which way I turned.

I eventually fell asleep last night but I woke up on the wrong side of the bed the next morning. After a long week at work, I was looking forward to a weekend of rest but that was not to be so because my father's campaign outings had other plans. I looked over the message that said we would be visiting an orphanage and an old people's home today.

"Did you get the message?" I asked Ruby over breakfast. She nodded, we both looked like people who didn't want to be out in the world. What other choice did we have but to smile for the cameras?