Page 59 of Tease Me


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He nodded vigourosly, curls bouncing like crazy. "My name is Teddy. My sister is Maisie."

"It's nice to meet you, Teddy," I said. "I'm Hayley." I looked over to where Teddy's mother was struggling with her seatbelt. The plane had started to taxi away from the airport and the baby started to cry.

"Would you like me to hold her while you get yourself sorted?" I offered. My only experience with children was with my friends’ babies. When I turned thirty, a couple of months ago, I started to think more and more about having one of one of my own. As they say, the clock was suddenly ticking. Holding one might be dangerous, but I still wanted to help.

She hesitated, but when I held out my arms, she handed Maisie to me, then quickly got her seatbelt sorted.

The moment I held Maisie, she stopped crying and nestled in to me.

Her mother looked surprised. "She never settles for anyone else. You must have a gift or something. I'm Bellin, by the way."

"It's nice to meet you too," I said. "You have a lovely family." I was having a hard time tearing my eyes of Maisie, who seemed happy to relax in my arms and go to sleep. "I don't mind holding her for a while longer if you like. She seems quite happy here."

"If you're sure," Bellin said. "Today has been crazy and I could use a break." She did look exhausted.

"I don't mind at all," I said. "She’s adorable." And maybe it would settle the broody, ticking biological clock for a while. I knew it would be perfectly viable to have a baby by myself, but I was so busy and rarely home. A kid deserved better than that.

"Thank you so much. Please let me know if you had enough." She pulled out Teddy's food tray, a coloring book and some crayons.

With a surprising amount of concentration for a five year old, he started to color in a picture of a princess.

As far as I could tell, he was determined to paint as much of her dress black as he could.

Maisie stirred a little when the plane took off. She made a face and murmuring sounds like she might cry.

“Shhh,” I whispered. I rocked her gently until she settled back down in my arms. She slept with fluttering eyelashes and cutely pursed lips. Completely oblivious to the world and how adorable she was. And that a complete stranger was holding her. And how much the other passengers on the plane would complain if she was making any noise.

Yeah, okay, no one wants to listen to crying babies on a plane, but no one enjoyed the pressure in their ears either, or the noise of the engines. Those were some of the hazards of travel.

Thankfully for everyone, Maisie slept the entire way to Toronto, my first layover.

Teddy colored the whole page, then tore it out out and handed it to me. "That's for you," he said shyly.

"Oh, thank you." I managed to tuck it down beside me carefully without waking the baby. "It's beautiful."

He grinned and started on the next page.

I glanced over at Bellin who actually got a bit of sleep before we had to land.

"You've been such a huge help," she said, looking teary. "It's so nice to see there are still some decent people left in the world."

"I like to think there's a few of us," I said. I hadn't quite given up on humanity yet.

She smiled softly. "You've made a difficult day a lot easier anyway."

I smiled back. "Actually, so have you. You all kept my mind off things." First world problems kinds of things, but still, things.

"I hope everything is okay." Bellin looked concerned.

"Oh yeah," I said lightly. "Just work stuff. Nothing I can't handle."

"You look like you could handle quite a lot," she said.

""I like to think I'm… Competent," I said. Yeah, that was definitely worded that would describe me. Competent, efficient, cool and calm. That was what made me good at my job. I left the panicking to other people.

Maisie woke as the plane wheels touched the runway and bumped. She looked up at me and blinked, then yawned.

Yeah, me too kid, I thought. Me too.

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