Author's note: Thanks to Kelby for catching that mistake in the last chapter. =)
Sorry about the delay – I went away for the long weekend (whee Canada Day) and I just started a course I'm taking over the summer, so I've been a bit busy. I'll try and get back to my always promised regular updates, though!
This chapter's just a little bit of fluff, but it's needed fluff. And frankly, I think everybody needs some fluff sometimes.
…3
CHAPTER 37
Late February
"Yeah, I know," Maureen spoke into the phone, nodding. She absentmindedly stirred the tiny jar of apple sauce and spooned some into Cindy's son, Jamie's mouth as he sat in front of her on the counter in her and Mark's new apartment.
"No way," she laughed.
"No way," Jamie repeated. Maureen looked down at him and smiled, ruffling his curly brown hair.
Suddenly Mark emerged from the bathroom, grinning from ear to ear.
"It's in! It's in!" he called, pointing to his eye.
Maureen smiled. "Good job," she mouthed to him as she continued to feed the three year old and talk on the phone. "Okay, me too. I'll talk to you later Jo. Bye." Maureen clicked off the phone and tossed it over the counter, hoping it would land on the couch (which it did). She was talking to Joanne which was surprising. They had managed to put their differences aside and had actually become friends over the last little while. Mark didn't think twice about their friendship. He knew that Maureen had cheated on him with some women; he just didn't know 'some women' included Joanne.
Mark grinned and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and smiled at Jamie over her shoulder.
"So you got the contacts in alright?" she asked as she spooned some more food into the toddler's mouth.
He nodded and kissed her on the cheek before retreating back to the living room. "Yup, final— Ow!"
He stopped midway and peered around the floor anxiously, blinking and rubbing one eye.
"What?" Maureen laughed. "What happened?"
"One of them fell out," he frowned, covering an eye and crouching down to the ground as he looked for the missing contact lens.
She shook her head and laughed again as Jamie spit his food out all over himself.
"Uh oh," he chuckled, giving a whole body shrug.
"This is the grossest thing I have ever done," Maureen whimpered, stomping her foot on the ground. She grabbed some paper towels and began to clean Jamie up when suddenly realization washed over her.
"Shit! Where's Cathy?"
"Language," Mark chided her. "She's in our room asleep, remember?"
She shrugged as she managed to finish cleaning Jamie's face and drop the paper towels in the garbage in one foul swoop.
"I forgot." Maureen picked up Jamie and sat him on her hip. She made her way into the living room, trying to deal with the restless child as he tugged on her hair and wriggled within her grasp.
"Don't walk there!" Mark frowned, batting her feet away from his search field.
She rolled her eyes and sighed, shimmying away from Mark and sitting down on the couch. "Your Uncle Marky is a dork, sweetie," she cooed at Jamie in a baby voice, tickling his belly. "Yes he is!"
Jamie laughed. "Marky, Weenie says you're a dork!"
"Maureen," she corrected him, "Reenie."
He stared back at her and chuckled, crawling to the other side of the couch and peeking over the edge. She shook her head as Mark laughed and the phone rang.
"Weenie! That is gold."
"Funny," she snapped sarcastically, picking up the phone and answering it.
"Hello? Hey!" she laughed. "Sure, come on up." Maureen pressed a button on the phone then hung it back up, placing it on the coffee table. "Collins and Angel are here."
"Angel the drag queen?" laughed Mark.
She nodded and laughed, pulling Jamie back onto her lap so he didn't fall over the edge of the couch. She was so worried around the kids, always afraid they'd fall down and get hurt or start to cry. "Angel the drag queen."
"That is so great!" He laughed to himself. His mood changed quickly though, and he began to search the floor impatiently again. "They'd better not step on my contact."
Maureen smiled and stood up, sitting Jamie back on her hip. She crouched down onto the ground by Mark and looked over the floor too, as the toddler succeeded in putting tangles in her long brown hair.
"I thought Cindy was still mad at you?"
Mark sighed and rolled his eyes. "Not when she's desperate for a baby sitter. Apparently my mom's forgiven me too, for whatever I did to her, and now she's trying to convince me to go out to Scarsdale for dinner and a visit again."
"There it is," Maureen pointed, squinting. "I think."
Mark pounced forward and cupped his hand over where she pointed, but frowned. "Nope, that's nothing."
A knock came at the door and Jamie wriggled out of Maureen's arms, running carefully down the two steps to the door.
"I get it!" he shouted, reaching his arms up over his head as he tried to turn the door knob.
"What if he stepped on it?!" Mark whined, crawling after him. Maureen stood up, hopped over Mark's search field and swept Jamie up in her arms, examining the bottoms of his feet as he giggled.
"Sorry baby," she frowned. "Is it in your clothes?"
Mark shook his head sadly and turned his attention back to the ground. He and Maureen had moved into their apartment early on in January from the very small studio apartment they had been sharing for the past few months. Their relationship seemed to grow and become more mature in the time they had spent together, and even though they fought a fair amount, both knew that they had fallen in love all over again as stereotypical and cheesy as that sounded.
"Oh my God!"
Mark looked up when he heard Maureen shriek from the doorway. He leapt up and hurried to her side, greeted by Roger, April, Angel, and Collins. Or rather, Collins minus his dreadlocks.
"What did you do?!" she cried, touching the top of his head, almost as if she was hoping for them to grow back.
Collins laughed at Maureen's reaction and picked Jamie up out of her arm, shrugging. "I had to get them cut off."
"Look who we found on our way," Angel smiled, gesturing towards Roger and April.
"You did not!" she sighed, plopping down on the steps leading up to the rest of the apartment and ignoring Angel's comment altogether. "Men."
"I hear you," April shook her head, pushing her way through the others with a large pizza box. She hopped up the stairs to place it on the counter when Mark yelled.
"No! Don't go there!" He chased after her and dove back onto the ground, catching everybody's attention as they all laughed at him.
"Why not?" April asked, confused, as she set down the pizza on the counter. Maureen sighed and stood up from the stairs, crawling into the living room as she searched the ground, too.
"Mark got contacts and one fell out and we can't find it," she answered, running her hand over the hardwood floor.
There was a collective "oh" as everybody realized what was going on now, and they all proceeded to get down on the ground to search for his contact lens, too.
"That Cindy's kid?" Roger asked, glancing over at Jamie who was resting contentedly against Collins' shoulder.
Mark nodded. "Yeah, Jamie. And Cathy, his twin, is in the other room."
"Whoa, Cindy's been busy," Roger laughed.
"Don't forget the new one," Collins reminded him. "The one with the hardcore Jewish name."
Mark nodded and laughed, one hand still covering an eye. "Eli."
"That is the cutest thing!" Angel smiled, tickling Jamie under the chin. "I love babies."
Collins smiled at her and kissed her forehead as they heard Cathy call out from the other room.
"Mama!"
"Speak of the devil…" Maureen sighed, pushing herself up from the floor.
"Can I get her?" Angel asked happily. "I love babies," she repeated herself.
Maureen shrugged and nodded, pointing towards the bedroom. "Sure, go for it."
Angel stood up and left the group for Mark and Maureen's bedroom.
"You brought food?" Maureen asked April who nodded.
Mark nudged her gently in the shoulder. "You're going to eat, right?"
"Yes, Mark," she sighed, irritated. She stood up and sat down on the couch instead, crossing her arms over her chest. Jamie crawled off Collins' lap and made his way over to the couch, managing to get up on it without any help. He stood up beside Maureen, placed his pudgy arms around her neck and kissed her nose.
"I love you Weenie."
The group laughed and looked up to the toddler who was completely oblivious to the humour in the situation.
"Weenie?" Angel asked from the doorway, holding Cathy in her arms. "Should I ask?"
Maureen sighed again.
"He can't say Reenie, so he says Weenie," Mark laughed, shaking his head.
Laughing, Roger stood up from the floor. "The pizza's getting restless," he informed the group. "It's breaking out." He opened up the box and took out two pieces before grabbing a plate from the cupboard.
"You are so weird!" April laughed, jumping up and meeting him halfway from the kitchen. She wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him.
"Someone's in a good mood," Maureen noted.
April shot her a 'look' then turned back to Roger. "Want to get me some pizza? I have to go to the washroom."
He nodded and kissed her again, "Yeah." She smiled and left for the washroom as Mark stood up quickly, blinking furiously.
"Ow. Ow!"
"Are you okay?" Collins asked as everybody looked over at him.
Mark tugged on his eyelashes and blinked. "I found it."
"Where was it?" Roger asked through a mouthful of pizza.
"Funny story," he laughed awkwardly, rubbing his eye gently and continuing to blink several times before the contact settled in. "…In my eye."
"You mean to tell me," Roger began, "that I was down on my hands and knees looking for something that you had the whole time?"
Mark nodded sheepishly. "Yeah."
"Figures," Maureen scoffed, placing Jamie down next to her on the couch and getting up, leaving the room for Mark's office where she slammed the door behind her.
He watched her leave with a mix between anger and sadness in his eyes. He shuffled forward a few steps, frowned and flopped down in the chair across from the couch.
"I swear…"
"She's a bitch, Mark," Roger told him, leaning against the counter that separated the living room from the kitchen. "A total bitch."
Collins shook his head. "Hey, guys… stop it."
"Why?" Roger shrugged. "It's true." He raised his voice so Maureen could hear him. "She's a bitch and she's never been anything else."
"Kids in the room," Angel reminded him quietly.
April came out of the washroom, her eyebrows furrowed. She obviously heard Roger's comment, too. "What the hell was all of that?"
After a small awkward silence, Mark sighed and turned around to the other room. "I'm going to go and talk to her."
April waited until he disappeared into his study and shook her head, looking at Roger with her hands accusingly situated on her hips. "What did you do?"
"Nothing!"
She looked over to Collins and Angel who shrugged, turning their attention to the twins as they babbled to them about their trip to the zoo last summer.
"I didn't do anything. It was all Mark."
She sighed, moving closer to him and wrapping her arms around his neck. "You're lucky I love you."
He laughed quietly and grinned, kissing her. "Your pizza's over there."
Pushing him away gently, April picked up her pizza from the counter and moved into the living room, sitting down in the chair.
"Have you guys gone to see Mo in Tommy yet?" Collins asked trying hopefully to change the subject as Cathy jumped up and down on the couch next to him, pretending to be a monkey.
April shook her head. "Not yet. We probably should soon, though. When does it close?"
He shrugged. "I think the twenty-eighth, but don't quote me on that."
"She really loves it, eh?"
Collins nodded and laughed. "It's all she talks about. Well, that and starting her interior design class in April," he smiled, "But how about you? Excited to be almost finished teacher's college?"
"Yeah," she smiled as Roger sat down on the arm of her chair. "I am. A couple more months and I might be a real teacher."
"Of course you will," Roger laughed, draping his arm over her shoulders. "Of course she will."
April shrugged, leaning her heat against Roger's chest. "We'll see."
"Nah, it's true," Roger reassured her. "You'll be a yuppie. Just like Benny or Mark."
"Ouch," Angel laughed.
Roger continued, laughing, "Or Collins over here."
"Am not!" Collins huffed as Cathy jumped into his lap. "Ow! These kids take to people really fast, don't they?"
Angel shrugged and smiled, gazing down at Jamie who was quietly sucking his thumb as he sat on the couch leaning against her. "I think they're sweet."
Collins shook his head and Cathy settled herself happily in his lap. "Just you wait. When Mimi starts popping out some kids, she'll make you baby sit."
"I wouldn't mind."
"They'll have such cute kids," April commented, nodding. "And smart. Benny's a fucking genius."
"…And a workaholic," Collins finished for her. "But that's a whole other can of worms…"
April nodded. "I don't even think I saw him and Mimi together at their own wedding."
"He'd never been good at that kind of stuff," Roger added, "The relationship thing. He can't balance things."
"That worries me," Angel jumped in.
Collins wrapped his arm around her shoulders and shook his head. "He loves her. He tells me all the time."
Unsure, Angel shrugged. "I don't want Mimi to get hurt."
"She won't, sweetie," April told her, placing her empty plate on the coffee table. "They're so good together."
She shrugged again and rested her head on Collins shoulder. "I hope so. Hey, I hope they're having fun on their honeymoon, too," she added, remembering where her friend was.
Roger laughed. "Bow chicka bow wow…"
Shutting her eyes and sighing, April let out a small laugh. "You did not just do that."
"I'm just saying," he stated as-a-matter-of-factly, "That I'm sure they are enjoying their honeymoon. Very much so."
Angel and Collins began to laugh, unsuccessfully trying to hide it.
"Mimi was an S&M dancer!" he defended himself. "I mean I love the woman, but come on! I bet they're kinky."
"The scary part is," Collins sighed. "I can picture Benny waltzing in dressed as a courier—"
April covered her face which was now red from laughing. "Shut up! Please!"
"—And breaking out the boom box," he finished, laughing hysterically.
Angel gasped and slapped him in the shoulder. "Oh my gosh! Stop it!" she laughed. "That is the grossest thing I have ever heard!"
"Honey," Roger laughed, "That is how our minds work. We think about our best friends… as strippers…"
They all paused and thought about his comment for a moment.
"Man, we are weird," Collins frowned as he looked down at his hands, still contemplating.
Suddenly Mark and Maureen came out of the other room, his arm wrapped protectively around her waist.
"All is well?" Angel asked, smiling.
"He was irresistible," Maureen giggled, kissing him on the cheek and wrapping her arms around his neck.
Roger groaned and shut his eyes. "Gross."
"Be nice," April chided, leaning up and kissing him gently.
"Eeeew!" Cathy squealed from the couch, burying her face in Collins' chest. "Yucky!"