“Alright, you did such a good job cleaning up, but where do these buckets go? In your room?”
“Yup! Fowwow me!” She picks up the smaller of the two buckets and starts running down the hall.
Finding her, I’m met with a very pink room. Pink carpet, pink bed, pink stuffed animals, and pink dollhouses are all over the room.
“Do you wuv my woom?” She jumps up and down excitedly.
“Of course, I love this room! Who wouldn’t?” I set the bucket down next to the one she placed before me.
“Dinner is ready!” Aubrey yells from the kitchen.
“Come on, Lily May. Time for dinner. Let’s wash up our hands.” I hold out my hand for her to take as she shows me to the bathroom.
“Why?”
“Because we want clean hands to eat dinner. If you don’t wash your hands you’re going to eat your germs. That’s pretty gross.” I try to explain.
“Okay.” She sings to herself as she scrubs her little fingers under the water while standing on her very tippy toes to reach. “I a big girl now. I don’t need dat.” She kicks at the small step stool in the corner of the bathroom. While I want to argue that she probably does, she seems to be managing okay without it so I let it go.
We sit at the table while Aubrey brings plates of food over. She has pancakes, home fries, and bacon.
“Everything smells and looks amazing, Aubrey. Thank you so much for cooking dinner.” I reach for the tongs to put a pancake on Lily’s plate.
“Tank you, Mommy. Sooooo yummy.” Lily repeats after me.
“You’re welcome, both of you.” She smiles over at me while she fixes Lily’s plate.
I take her plate and start loading it up with food before placing it back in front of her and making my own. If there’s one thing I learned from Pops, it’s to always take care of your woman. And while she isn’t mine, I’ll make damn sure she feels taken care of.
Watching Lily eat pancakes with sticky syrup makes me feel like I need my own shower just for being at the same table as her. That bath time is well earned tonight.
Aubrey fills me in on how she’s looking for a daycare for Lily to make some friends, and Lily adds in her thoughts about that, thoughts that aren’t great because in her wordspigwets are mo funcomplete with a very pouty lip.
“Well how about you two go take that bath and I’ll clean up the kitchen?” I offer.
“Oh, don’t worry about it. I can clean up the kitchen after she’s in bed and you’re gone. No worries.” Aubrey answers while hustling a very sticky, maple syrup covered child to the tub without touching anything else on her way.
Ignoring her, I begin to bring the dirty dishes to the sink to wash them for her. There is no dishwasher in the kitchen so she handwashes every single one and I’m glad that I can help her tonight.
Once I’m done with the dishes I move over to the table, dousing it with a heavy amount of cleaner to cut through the maple syrup.
“I told you not to worry about cleaning.” Aubrey rushes into the kitchen, trying to grab the rag from me.
“And I told you I’m good. I wanted to help you. Now tonight you can just relax.” Dropping the rag by the washing machine off the kitchen, I return to find Aubrey pouring two glasses of wine.
“Would you maybe like to join me? I usually just watch TV and fall asleep on the couch. But I promise to try and keep my eyeballs open for you.”
“If they close, I’ll put you to bed and lock up. Scouts honor.” I give her the salute I learned in boy scouts as a kid, the one season I participated before I discovered a camera.
“Deal.” She hands me a glass and leads the way over to the couch. “I usually watch this doctor drama that I didn’t know existed but it has six seasons. Is that okay?”
“Perfectly fine. I’m used to watching everything because sometimes when I traveled I was placed with a host house instead of a hotel. You learn to like everything.”
We settle into the couch with precisely one couch cushion between us while she finds the episode to play. The sounds drone on but I can’t hear anything. I’m just focused on my proximity to Aubrey. The urge to reach out and touch her is strong.
This whole evening feels like Deja vu. Something we’ve done together a million times, and the comfortable feeling mixed with the awkwardis-this-a-first-datevibes is really confusing for me.
She looks over, catching me staring at her. “This is weird right?”
