A loud wail made Fitz open his eyes. Olivia was so tired, she was sleeping through the loud cries. He knew she was handling most of the responsibilities around the house, and Amelia living with them added to her workload. He couldn't blame her for giving Amelia more attention than Karen.
He had to start doing more to help with Karen. He begrudgingly made his way to the nursery. The crying stopped when he took her out of the crib. The container of milk upstairs wasn't enough for a full bottle. He was surprised to see light in the kitchen. He was sure they turned off every light before going upstairs. When he walked in the kitchen, he didn't know what to say or do about the food on the table. There were bags of chips, cookies, jars of cookie butter and several other snacks. Amelia took all of the junk food out of the pantry. Amelia turned around when she heard Fitz come in the kitchen.
"I was hungry."
"That's obvious."
"I didn't want to wait for breakfast."
"I think you have an eating disorder."
"What's that?"
"I'm saying you have an unhealthy addiction to food."
"An addiction. Dad said mom has an addiction to pills. Is that a bad word?"
"Wow. Amelia, Olivia is going to get you a good therapist."
"I have to get a new mom and dad again?"
"No."
"Great. I like staying here. You have a lot of food. I never seen so much food in a house."
"Yeah, it's like a grocery story at Olivia's house. She likes to cook."
"I've never been to a grocery store. Can we go?"
"You've never been grocery shopping. How is that possible?"
Amelia shrugged her shoulders and put her spoon in the cookie butter. Fitz shook his head and looked for the formula. He frowned when he didn't see any baby formula.
"Well, you're going to the grocery store right now. Get your shoes and your coat. Karen needs formula."
"Cool."
Fitz was too tired to put all of the food away. He left it all on the kitchen table.
XXXX
When they got to the store, Amelia wanted to throw everything in the basket. A quick trip for baby formula became a full grocery haul. Any other time, he would have said no. It was hard to say no to a malnourished child in the grocery store. It was daylight when they left the store. They were shopping for an hour, and he lost track of time. They would have to rush getting ready for school and work. The kitchen table was clean when they came in the house with bags of groceries.
"Groceries?"
"Karen needed formula. Amelia wanted groceries. It was her first time being in a grocery store."
"Why was there so much food on the table?"
"I was hungry. I wanted to eat the food before it's all gone."
"You're binge eating."
"Does that mean I can't have more food for dinner?"
It was too early for this conversation.
"You can get dinner every day. We need to get ready for school."
"I'll take care of Karen." Fitz said.
"Thank you. I'm so tired."
