CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT – The Precious Pearl
After a long week, Saturday night marks Betty and Bailey's weekly pizza and movie night together.
Honestly, Betty can't wait. Unlike other people her age who would be out partying their Saturday nights away, nine times out of ten, it's the highlight of Betty's week to just wind down at home and relax with her little girl.
The Saturday night tradition had begun with Betty alone when at the end of every week she would just spend Saturday night watching a movie or two, after making pizzas for her and her daughter. However, just over a year ago and around when Bailey reached about two and a half years old, her tradition had turned into theirs and Betty's chick flicks or action movies were replaced with Disney or Pixar classics.
Seeing as takeaway is a rarity and bought pizza is hardly the most economical option for the single mum, Betty would usually just make the treat food for herself and the daughter. After all, it is an uphill battle for Betty raising Jughead's daughter who had inherited his love of food, especially the less nutritious options. As a result, pizza night on Saturday's was a saving grace for Betty in reasoning with her daughter and more often than not it was used as a bargaining chip.
However, this week marks a break from tradition.
It had been Bailey who had asked if Jughead could join them for pizza and movie night. Apart from setting aside their little mother-daughter tradition for one week, Betty saw no problem with it, inviting Jughead who had jumped at the opportunity to join them for pizza and movies, too.
#
Over the last few Saturday nights, Betty has been teaching Bailey step-by-step as she makes their weekly pizzas.
Even on a normal day the little girl often likes to help her mother with small things in food preparation, like stirring or pouring. Sometimes, Bailey is even content to just watch her as she cooked. Betty put it down to her daughter's inherited affinity for anything consumable.
However, three weeks ago, Betty had begun with getting Bailey to help her make the dough. The following week she showed her the next step, instructing her on kneading and last week Bailey loved helping her to coat their pizza bases in toppings. This week, Betty planned to go through the whole process with her daughter from start-to-finish, depending on how long her three-and-a-half year olds patience would last in helping her mother to make the pizzas.
So far today, Bailey has helped her mother to measure out the ingredients for the pizza base and then mix them under Betty's patient instruction and watchful eye before moving onto kneading. For a short while, Bailey had managed to follow along with Betty's expert hand movements, imitating the kneading process until her little hands began to get a little sore and she found more interest in playing with the measuring cups. However, she had returned to help Betty just in time to coat their bases with various toppings.
One of Betty's primary goals as a mother had been to try to balance authority with mutual respect. She wants her daughter to know that while she is her mother first and foremost, she also strives to be a friend to her little girl. She wants to extend the dignity and respect to her daughter that her mother didn't show her. She wants Bailey to know that she can have her say and her opinion and while she will take her opinion into account and accept it where she can, ultimately at the end of the day she has the final say and authority as her mother.
So, while Betty has predominantly only been Bailey's mum so far in her little life, she has been working on trying to find ways to hang out with her daughter and relax with her, doing fun things that you'd do with a friend. Teaching her to cook was another little way to not only help Bailey learn new skills but also to spend the time on an activity they enjoy that most nights Betty is just focused on sticking to her timetable and concentrating on how long it will take her to get the food on the plate.
"Mummy? I fink pizza is my best thing in the whole wide world."
Betty's chuckles as she glances down to her three-year-old whose bright blue eyes glimmer with delight.
... Yes, absolutely Jughead's daughter.
"Well, do you know what my best thing in the whole wide world is?" Betty asks, copying her daughter's terminology.
The little girl shakes her head as her blonde curls that have been tied into a high ponytail fly around.
"What is it mummy?"
"You are, Miss Bailey Jones. You are the best thing in my whole wide world."
Bailey giggles at her mother's profession as she ducks her head away with a little flush of colour on her cheeks. However, the three-year-old does love the only-child adoration that she is very well used to.
#
After getting their pizzas in the oven, Betty strips off her apron in order to freshen up, change into something that isn't covered in flour and add a dash of makeup. Bailey too changes herself after making pizza too, now that she can dress herself in almost anything but her bathers and tight boots without needing Betty's help.
Then, walking past her mother's bedroom on her way out of her own room, Bailey is filled with excitement when she catches a glimpse of her mother doing her makeup, acting like ever the little girl as she races into Betty's room.
"Oh mummy, you're getting pretty for pizza!" Bailey exclaims with joy as Betty puts her blush brush down with a smile.
To Bailey, all makeup is simply called 'makeup'; lip makeup, cheek makeup, shiny makeup and eye makeup. However, applying and wearing makeup is referred to as 'getting pretty' for a particular person or an event.
Betty giggles at her daughter's terminology, still finding the innocent remark sweet. However, when she first began uttering it, Betty had initially balanced Bailey's wording out with a little speech to her about how you don't need makeup to 'get pretty'.
"Can I get pretty too, mummy?" Bailey asks as she eyes off Betty's small collection of makeup products that are laid out on her vanity.
While Betty is happy for her daughter to play with her makeup every now and then, she tries to avoid those times coinciding with when they are going out or if they're in the company of other people ever since Alice caught Bailey with a pinker flush to her cheeks than usual with a horrified: "Is your three-year-old wearing blush out of the house, Elizabeth?!"
Seeing as it's only Jughead coming over, Betty gives Bailey a nod of approval. Then, she takes her lip gloss and shows her daughter how to pout before dabbing the smallest amount of the gloss onto her lips which has a life-changing, transformative effect on the three-year-old who races to the nearest mirror with a gasp of delight.
"Oh look, mummy! Oh, it's my best thing in the whole wide world! Bailey's so pretty!"
Betty has to stifle her giggle and hide her amusement behind her warm smile at her daughter's sweet, childish innocence as she tries to remember the last time that she ever stood in front of the mirror declaring how pretty she is. Betty hopes it's something that will never change.
Suddenly, the mother and daughter's little makeup session is interrupted by a knock at the door that sends Bailey flying out of her mother's room with Betty following suit behind her, reminding her not to open the door until she is there.
Then, moments later, Betty is pulling the door open to the familiar face with a warm smile.
"Hi daddy" Bailey greets warmly, throwing her arms out and open to her father who is standing at the door. Although it makes for an uncomfortable hug as he awkwardly juggles with what he's holding in his other hand, Jughead doesn't hesitate on picking Bailey up into his arms.
After Jughead slowly places Bailey back down on the ground, the little girl's parents go in for a quick hug as Betty presses a kiss to his cheek in greeting.
"Mummy got pretty to see you! And look, daddy! I've got lip makeup!" Bailey babbles excitedly, recounting her last few minutes before Jughead's arrival in a manner that leaves Betty's head falling to the floor with an uncomfortable chuckle.
"And with that, come on in..." Betty chuckles uncomfortably, trying to take the heat off herself as she leads Jughead along with their daughter further into her home and away from the front door.
Then, just as she is about to head for the kitchen in order to check on the pizza and offer drinks, Betty feels a pair of lips discreetly brush against the hair covering her ear.
"You look good, Betts... You always do."
Betty bites her lip and she tries to hide the light blush spreading across her cheeks from the compliment as she focuses on the task at hand, offering drinks.
"Have you got a vase or something that I can stick these in?" Jughead asks, discreetly alerting Betty to what is in his hands.
After all, when the three of them were standing in the doorway, Betty didn't take any notice of or see the arrangement of beautiful white lilies, soft pink roses and small white and yellow daisies that are in Jughead's hand.
"Oh wow, Jug... You shouldn't have. Thank you."
Her face alight, Betty moves around the small island in her kitchen again to give Jughead an appreciative hug before taking the arrangement from him and preparing them for the vase.
"No, thank you. Thank you for having me for dinner tonight."
She just sends him a smile as she sets her flowers on the middle of her bench seeing as there's no room on her small dining table. Then, Betty returns to offering drinks as she watches Jughead giving Bailey a present of her own, smiling at her little squeal as her daughter is handed two wrapped parcels, one appearing to be a small box while the other is a bigger, thin rectangle.
Pouring Jughead the glass of juice that he'd requested, Betty watches on curiously as her daughter opens her present from her father, remembering how a few weeks back Jughead had been asking her if there was anything Bailey was after as he'd wanted to get her something.
There's another gasp as Bailey opens her first present, revealing a little, velvet box that she eagerly opens a little haphazardly, revealing a beautiful silver necklace with a single, simple charm hanging at the bottom of the chain.
"It's a crown!" Bailey exclaims, pausing for a moment before she makes the connection with even more excitement. "It's like the crown on your head, daddy! Now I'm a princess!"
Betty smiles warmly as she watches on, observing as Jughead offers to put the necklace on their daughter's neck, telling her to be very careful that it doesn't hook on anything or get caught.
Then, as Bailey races off in search of the nearest mirror to see her new present for herself, Jughead stands up from where he'd been crouched down in front of Bailey, walking over to stand beside her mother.
"Don't worry, Betts... Her necklace is actually just connected by magnets for now. The jeweller said that apparently they can be taken off to make it a normal chain when she's a little bit older and it's safer."
Betty gives Jughead a warm, kind smile at not only his forethought to their daughter's safety, but also at how well he had done in selecting a present for their daughter. Admittedly, seeing Jughead's trademark crown on their daughter's neck has left her swooning.
"Thank you daddy" Bailey grins as she returns to the room, throwing her arms around Jughead.
He returns her hug, pressing a kiss to the top of her hair before ruffling it up and handing her the other present that she manages to tear through, ripping the Frozen wrapping paper open to reveal a picture book.
There's another little excited gasp from the three-year-old as she looks over the book with excitement with both of her parents watching her.
"Ooh, I don't think you've read that one, Bailey-girl" Betty remarks more so for Jughead's sake than Bailey's, trying to indicate to him that it was a good choice and a new book to introduce to her.
Jughead's remark in return confuses Betty just a little, causing her to scrunch her eyebrows up just a little.
"I should hope not..."
Then, it's as Betty glances from the book, to Jughead and back to the book again when Betty picks up on one certain detail with a little gasp escaping her lips. All of a sudden, she understands Jughead's cryptic comment as she reads over the cover of her daughter's newest book:
The Precious Pearl
-Forsythe Jones-
A shocked Betty tries to catch Jughead's eye and share her look of amazement with him. She fails as it seems he has his head ducked a little, dodging her glance a little insecurely.
"Bailey, we should read this book now before we have dinner. What do you think? Would you like daddy to read it to you?"
The little girl nods enthusiastically at her mother's suggestion, clutching onto her new book with one hand as she takes her father's in the other, leading him over to the lounge where they sit beside each other on the lounge.
Betty follows the father and daughter over to the living area, trailing behind them enthusiastically to hear the reading of the book, too. However, just as Bailey gently opens to the first page and just before Jughead is about to begin reading, Betty speaks up.
"Hold on a second... Bailey, do you remember how sometimes we read the name on the front of a book first?"
Bailey nods as she looks across to Betty from where she's making herself quite comfortable in Jughead's arms.
"Now, you know that there's the name of the book on the cover, but do you remember what else is written on the cover?"
"Um... An awful?"
At their daughter's guess, Betty bites her lip to hold back her laugh as Jughead snickers a little less discreetly.
"Close, Bailey... It's called an author. Now do you remember what the author is?"
This time, Bailey's little face lights up in recognition of what her mother is asking her.
"Yeah! It's the book magician!"
Glancing across to the mother of his child, Jughead can't hold back his smile at hearing how Betty has already started to educate their daughter on the creator of a work, instilling a respect for an author and their work in Bailey, already. However, Jughead realises that he shouldn't really be surprised given that Bailey has two writers as parents. Betty notes his smile.
Then, they take turns and its Betty's chance to listen in intently, possibly with even more interest and fixation than their daughter as Jughead begins to read, beginning with the authors note at the very start of the book...
For my precious pearl
Jughead's children's book is about a boy who dropped a pearl without realising it. Not long after, the boy went travelling, trying to do this and trying to do that to try to make himself happy. At one point, the boy in the book thinks about going back to where he came from and back to where he started, but he was scared. It then goes on to explain that the boy thought that people back there would tease him and say mean things. But, in the end the boy becomes brave and he goes back, finding his precious pearl that he didn't even know that he had lost, making him happier than everything else he tried along the way. Then, as it turned out, the people that he had been scared about seeing turned out to be nice and kind to him, caring that he got his precious pearl back and showing him that he didn't have anything to be worried about all along.
While the pearl is depicted as being the literal treasure of a clam throughout the book as she listens and observes it being read, Betty notes that on the final page of the book, the final illustration, depicts a raven-haired boy, tightly hugging a little blonde girl. Then, glancing down to the lounge next to her, Betty looks at the boy and his precious pearl sitting together.
After Jughead finishes reading his own book to his daughter who is oblivious to the fact that it was not only written for her, but it was also inspired by her, Bailey looks up from where she is nestled into Jughead's arm, with her bright, doe-like blue eyes meeting his own hooded ones.
"Thank you, daddy... I fink my presents are my best thing in the whole wide world."
Betty chuckles after hearing her daughter exclaim that for the third time in just a few, short hours. She won't tell Jughead that...
#
After Betty brought their homemade pizzas out to the picnic rug that she had set up on the floor of the lounge room, the family of three began watching their first movie when Bailey finally began to quieten down after going on and on about how she had made the pizzas.
They started off with watching Bailey's current favourite, 101 Dalmatians, first as they ate their pizzas. Then, a viewing of Moana followed it as they all got a little more settled and comfortable on the picnic rug that is laid out on the floor of the lounge, adorned with scattered pillows and blankets that Betty had set up.
Sprawled out comfortably on the floor, Bailey lasted about three quarters of the way through the second movie before dozing off and falling asleep with her parents either side of her sleeping little body.
When the movie finally draws to an end for the adults, Betty glances over to Jughead with a kind smile. Now that she finally has a chance to say what she's wanted to say all night, Betty speaks up in a low whisper
"You wrote a book for our daughter..."
While Betty's comment is a statement rather than a question, you can still hear the disbelief over his gesture to Bailey that had warmed Betty's heart and filled her with love for the father of her child.
"I wanted to get her something special... I have a whole lot of years of spoiling her to make up for, after all. I just wanted it to be special."
While the little silver necklace with a little crown charm to signify Jughead's trademark was absolutely adorable, Betty couldn't believe that he'd managed to outdo himself with the book that he had written for Bailey, with the deeper meaning that went over the three-year-olds head touching her mother's heart.
For a few moments the two of them sit in a comfortable silence, watching their daughter sleeping between them as they steal a glance towards one another occasionally, every now and then, until Jughead speaks up in a whisper.
"Betty?"
The combination of her nickname and his voice jolts Betty to attention as she looks over to him, prompting him to continue speaking.
"Have I ever said thank you to you?"
"Thank you? Thank you for what?"
Along with her question in answer to his own question, Betty gives Jughead a puzzled look, conveying her confusion at what he has just randomly put to her. He just glances down at the three-year-old sleeping peacefully between them before returning to look up to Betty, reflecting on the time that he's spent with the two girls sharing the picnic rug with him not only tonight, but over the last few months.
"For Bailey. Thank you for giving me her... Thank you for having my kid... And, thanks for doing such a damn good job at raising her. You are such a good mum, Betts."
A warm, genuine smile erupts over Betty's face at Jughead's comment, thanking her for something so simple, yet so enormous with a 'thank you' seeming nowhere near enough.
"You are most welcome, Juggie."
His touching thank you and the genuine feeling behind it leaves her heart pounding as her warm smile is spread across her face.
In the moment of silence that follows it, the two of them share another little smile that says so much more than their words do as their gaze catches each other once again. They remain sitting there like that for a little while longer before Jughead asks her a question, looking down to the three-year-old who is sprawled out comfortably between on the picnic rug that is filled with pillows and blankets.
"Do you want me to carry her to her room for you?"
"Oh, if you don't mind that would be great" Betty smiles as Jughead returns it with a nod of acknowledgment.
Slowly and delicately Jughead tries to scoop his daughter up into his arms without waking her. However, as she is transferred from the picnic rug to her father's arms, the sudden movement unsettles Bailey for just a brief moment as she jolts a little before settling back into Jughead's chest without another word as he carries her to her bedroom just down the hallway.
Remembering that she'd made Bailey's bed earlier that day, Betty races ahead, rushing to quickly pull back the quilt cover to make it easier for Jughead as he lays their daughter down on her little bed, pulling the covers up over her shoulders, tucking her in with a single kiss to the top of her head.
As soon as Bailey is settled with no sign of waking up again, the two parents slowly creep out of their daughter's bedroom, silently lingering in the hallway as they both wait for the other to say or do something, each of them wanting to go off the other person.
"I should probably head off..."
"You don't have to if you don't want to, Jug. I'm not kicking you out just because Bailey's asleep. You can hang around for a bit longer, stay for a drink if you feel like it."
"Thanks for the offer, but I have an appointment that's way too early in the morning for my liking so I should probably be sensible and head home. I'll definitely take you up on that offer another time, though."
Betty nods, giving Jughead a silent smile as the two of them slowly trail through her small apartment and towards the front door.
"Thanks again for spoiling both us, Juggie. You really didn't have to."
"I know. I wanted to..." Jughead says as he looks back to her from where he is walking two steps ahead. The look he gives her sends a warm shiver down her spine.
When they reach her front door, they open their arms to each other in a goodbye hug with the little distance between them being reduced even more so as they collapse into the comfort of each other.
Then, as the socially acceptable time for a usual hug draws to an end, they only nestle a little more closely into each other's arms, rather than pulling away like two good friends should. They stay like this for the longest time, hugging each other, holding each and refusing to let go as his head rests on her shoulder and hers settles against the crook of his neck.
With a sigh, Jughead slowly unwraps his arms from around Betty as he ever so slowly shifts away from her and takes a step back at realising that they've probably crossed one of the lines that they'd drawn up for themselves.
After pulling away, they stand there with mere centimetres dividing them as they stay there idly, looking to each other, averting their glance and then repeating the sequence all over again.
Then, as her green eyes vulnerably lock with his blue ones for a few seconds longer than each time before, Betty takes a deep breath and a step towards the father of her child, closing the minimal gap between them.
For a split second, they both search each other's eyes that they know so well, looking for any hesitance and uncertainty as they're each presented with the opportunity to shake their head or take a step back, to do something, anything, to indicate that they don't want what comes next as much as the other person does. However, that indicator doesn't come, not for Jughead, not for Betty as they both succumb to what they both want just as much as each other.
After she has taken the step forward, his hands slowly extend out, resting on her shoulders as he clutches onto her neck, holding her head in hands so delicately and gently, cherishing her. She follows his lead as he slowly lowers his head to hers, directing them to each other's lips as they unite once again with their lips moving in rhythm, their slow and sweet kiss growing faster and more heated as Betty's palms come to rest on the nape of his neck, drawing them that little bit closer.
Then, after the savoured moment is over far too quick and their embrace draws to an end, Betty slowly pulls away as Jughead exhales a pained sigh. He releases his grasp on her face as his thumbs tenderly brush against her cheeks in the process, only increasing the smile on her face as they break away before she speaks up in a low whisper.
"What are we doing, Juggie?"
I hope you all liked what pizza and movie night delivered! There was a bit of mother/daughter time, a little father/daughter moment and a touch of Bughead. I hope you liked the chapter of family fluff! There'll be more of that coming over the next few chapters. I'd love to know what you all thought of this chapter, too.
Thank you so much to everyone who left a review on the last chapter. I really appreciate the feedback from you all.
Next chapter: It's a big one! Betty and Jughead are forced to face their feelings after they overstepped as friends once again. Then, FP intervenes in order to get the two of them to talk through their past.