Michael felt pathetic. He drank four cups of coffee on Tuesday morning so that he was sure that he wouldn't fall asleep, and then he arrived in front of Parker's school about an hour early and just sat there. He was going to make sure that he wouldn't be late, not today, and if Melissa showed up he'd also make sure to rub it in her face that he was on time to pick up his son.
But he still felt pathetic, because who even does that? Who goes that far just to prove a point to a stupid girl? Michael couldn't figure out why he cared so much about what Melissa thought of him. It wasn't like he liked her or anything. That would be pathetic, too. What kind of person develops a crush on someone that made them cry a few days before?
That was another thing, Michael had only known Melissa for a few days! He didn't understand why he felt such an... attachment to Melissa when he literally met her four days ago. They'd talked, like, three times. But she was just really hot, and Michael was kind of lonely, and Beth had a new boyfriend or friend that was a boy or whatever, so Michael should deserve to have a friend that was a girl, right?
"Hi." A voice said beside Michael, and he looked down to see Melissa standing next to him. Of course.
"Hi." Michael greeted her, looking down at the ground, because Melissa still made him nervous.
"I see you're on time today." Melissa chuckled, nudging Michael in the side with her elbow.
"I've been here for 45 minutes." Michael admitted, feeling slightly embarrassed again. He wanted to punch himself in the face.
"Nice." Melissa laughed, running a hand through her hair.
"So what's up with you?" Michael asked, finally turning to face her.
"What do you mean?" Melissa questioned. She raised her eyebrows, like she didn't quite understand what Michael was asking.
"Like, with you and Katie. Where's her mom?" Michael asked, "Why are you with her, like, 24/7?"
"Well I'm her nanny, I've been taking care of her since she was one year old." Melissa said slowly. Michael felt like maybe he had offended her, considering the way she was acting. Or maybe Melissa just acted like that about everything. Michael didn't know.
"But why? Doesn't her mom like to take care of her?" Michael asked. When he and Beth were together they'd never even thought about hiring a nanny to take care of Parker. Mostly because they didn't have the money, but also because Michael couldn't even picture someone else taking care of his kid.
"Her mom works." Melissa shrugged.
"All the time?"
"Yeah." She shrugged again.
"Every day?"
"Yeah." Melissa repeated.
"Doesn't she care that she never gets to see her daughter?" Michael questioned. He was really pissed off at this woman, and he didn't even know her. He just didn't understand why someone would want to take care of their kid. It was their kid, they made it, they brought it in to the world, they should take care of it.
"Uh, I think she cares more about the fact that she never gets to see her husband." Melissa glanced down at her feet, like she was nervous as well. Michael wasn't so nervous anymore, he was angry. He kind of wanted to track down Katie's mom and tell her off.
"Oh, so she's married, too?" Michael scoffed. "Where's the husband, then? What does he do?"
"He travels." Melissa shrugged.
"So her mom works 24/7 and her dad is never home." Michael clarified, nodding slowly to himself. "And you - "
"Take care of Katie like she's my own daughter? Yeah." Melissa finished for Michael, as if she already knew what he was going to ask.
