Ambience
"I'll take... the cheeseburger set with fries and sundae... let's make it vanilla and strawberry, half and half."
Cordelia and Sully shared a look before setting their eyes on the woman sitting at their table.
Sensing their eyes on her, Lissa raised her face from the menu and looked back. "What? The kids had some ice-cream for dessert today. Want me to order for you guys too?
"No thanks," Sully said. She switched her eyes to the waitress and ordered their usual chicken and eggs sandwich and a glass of ice tea.
"Same here."
The waitress gave them a courtly smile, repeated their orders, and waited for their nods. Satisfied, she smiled again and went to the kitchen.
Earlier today, Cordelia and Sully were debating where to have their lunch when they received a call from Lissa, Chrom's younger sister, inviting them to join her. Lissa worked at the kindergarten in the next town, and had made it a habit to cross over to their side whenever she had the carvings for allegedly the best ice-cream she ever had.
"So, how's Lucy?" Sully started the conversation when she was sure the waitress was far enough from them.
"Really? I haven't seen you guys for two months and that's the first thing you ask me?"
"Do you have anything special you want to tell us about?"
Lissa stayed silent for a few seconds, and shrugged. "Touche. Lucy's cute as ever, and apparently, has quite the powerful lungs. Drives Chrom and Sumia insane though."
"Apparently?" Lissas shrugged again at Sully's question. "And you, being a kindergarten teacher and all, didn't think to help them, your brother and sister-in-law with the baby, you know, your niece for a few hours a day so they'd at least get some sleep?"
"I will... when she's a little bigger. Now she's like this small critter you'd have to pay a lot of attention to, with very little reward. Give her a year or two and she'll be this small human you can almost shape how you wanted her to be. That's when the fun starts."
Sully, seemingly at a loss for words, opened and closed her mouth a few times with nothing coming out, before settling on a disappointed sigh. "Okay. Too much info. And you are officially banned from Kjelle's birthdays for the next fifteen years."
Cordelia chuckled as Lissa opened her arms in mock-protest of Sully's judgment. Noticing the waitress had come out with their orders, Cordelia smiled and signaled for her to place their meals on the table. The waitress did as she was asked, confirmed their orders were right, and went to another table on the other side.
"Anyway, enough about the boring couple." Lissa reached for the spoon and scooped some of her sundae, "they probably can't get out of the house for at least six more months even if they wanted to. So, what's new around here? Something exciting for the diary."
"Nothing," Sully answered in-between sips, "job sucks, pay," she paused, as if trying to find the proper word for it, "sucks, the boss sucks. This place somehow got even duller than when I came here." She took a bite of her sandwich, and raised her eyebrows as if she remembered something. "Cordy got a new boyfriend though. That's kinda exciting, I guess."
Half-listening to their conversation, Cordelia choked at Sully's sudden revelation. She pounded her chest and gulped her drink straight from the glass to unlodge the sandwich from her throat.
"Good to know." Somehow, Lissa was already half-way through her sundae.
Panting, Cordelia looked at Lissa, still scooping ice-cream into her mouth, her cheeseburger set barely touched. She then switched her eyes towards Sully.
"Come on, don't give me that look. Do you really think nobody notices you've been leaving right after the time's up? And weren't you kinda late this morning? You never late."
Cordelia opened her mouth, but never found the words for her retort, when she noticed Lissa's face, with plastic spoon dangling from her mouth, just inches away from her.
"Lis...sa?"
"You know, I just notice, and this might be because I haven't seen you lately, so you might have changed your style, but don't you think you make-up's a li~ttle bit too light today?"
Cordelia didn't even have the time to process Lissa's words, when she felt Sully's hand brushing her shoulder.
"Navy blue, black stitches. Didn't you already wear this one yesterday?"
"So? It's a suit. You're supposed to wear it a few times a week."
"True, true." Lissa moved even closer that she even caught the scent of strawberry and vanilla from her. "So, how are you gonna explain the one size bigger male shirt you got under that?"
Cordelia stared in horror as Lissa went back to her seat, shoved a spoobful of ice-cream into her mouth, grinned, and pointed the spoon at her. "You stayed the night!"
Losing words for a rebuttal, Cordelia let out a defeated sigh and continued eating. They seemed to have lost their earlier momentum, and had fallen into a complete silence. Cordelia opted to let it linger, and was about to have another bite on her sandwich, when she realized Lissa never took her sight off of her. She looked to Sully, who seemed to have finished eating, and was playing with the ice in her drink. She then looked back at Lissa. "What?"
"So? Tell us about him. Is he cute? Handsome? Where'd you meet him? He's not a rebound, is he? What about his but?"
"His butt?"
"No. Single t. Flaws. Quirks. Tics. Something keeping you from going all the way in."
"Wouldn't he be the one going all the way in?" Sully said right as she was about to answer. Biting her spoon, Lissa grinned, and Cordelia blushed. She placed her sandwich back on the plate, and took a deep breath.
"Okay. First of all, he is not a rebound," she said, before adding "I… don't think so," seemingly losing her confidence with every word. "We meet the night of Chrom's wedding, I was on my way home wh-"
"You what? Please don't tell he was a one-night-stand. No, scratch that. How sloshed were you back then? I remember you weren't that drunk when I left you."
"Of course not. I wasn't that desperate. I was about to barf in the middle of the street, right in front of his cafe. Borrowed his toilet and he gave me a cuppa."
"Oh, that's a relief, I guess. Continue."
"What else is there to say? He has a shop. I go there a few times a week, and we hang out. Just your typical friend-to-lover story."
Sully, seemingly satisfied with her answer, went back to her ice tea, while Lissa, still staring at her, tapped her sundae glass with her spoon. "I don't know, Cordes, seems surprisingly… normal for you. What else aren't you telling us?" She came right in front of Cordelia's face, with squinted eyes, as if trying to read her mind.
"I'm telling you, he's just a normal guy. He's funny, and caring, makes great coffee, and…" Cordelia took her glass of iced tea, put the straw in her mouth, and looked away from her friends, pretending she was having another drink, "has a six-year-old girl." She waited for the moment to pass, actually took a drink with the straw, and went back for her judgment.
Lissa finally had the spoon in the sundae glass, and Sully had an astonished face on her, like she was seeing a ghost coming back to life right before her. "I did not heard that."
"I said-"
"We heard what you said, we just refuse to believe you actually said it."
Cordelia pushed her eyebrows together.
"Really, Cordy? A married man?"
Her jaw dropped in horror at Lissa's remark. "Of course not. His wife died about two years ago."
"And you think you'd be a good replacement for her?"
"Well, I know I won't ever replace her real one, but a child still needs a mother, right?"
"Ugh, I really didn't get enough sleep to hear this today." Sully was rubbing her temples and groaning at this point. "Alright, no more jokes. Tell me about this kid. Is she cute? How much time have you spent with her? Is she at least open for a new mom?"
"Yeah, she's really sweet. And, I've spent quite some time with them. I think we bonded pretty well."
"Okay, have you told her about the two of you? That you might be her new mom?"
Cordelia bit her tongue at Sully's question. All she could muster was a blank stare.
"I'm guessing not yet."
"We don't know how she's gonna react, so…"
"Smart. You need to break up with him. Right now." Cordelia's face dropped at Sully's words. Her expression was probably so severe that Sully immediately raised her palms and double backed. "Okay, maybe that's a little harsh, but, just hear me out first." She paused. Cordelia eyed both them, and gave a slight tilt of her head to continue. "How long have you known them, a year, a year and half? Out of that, have you ever spent more than a day with her? Just her, without the dad." Sully paused, again, and continued. "Sure, she's cute now, but that's cause she's spending time with daddy and her new best friend, but what are you gonna do when she throws a tantrum? When she wakes up in the middle of the night crying for her mommy? Her real mommy. What are you gonna do then?" Cordelia was about to answer when Sully motioned for her to wait until she finished. "Sure, you can soothe her, sleep with her, promise her everything's gonna be alright. And it'll probably work. She'll wake up the next day all fine and happy as usual. But will you?"
And then it hit her. Like a slap to the face, and a kick to the shin, both at the same time. This was not about Morgan, this was about her.
Sully eyed her for a moment, and with a smile, she continued. "Kjelle just started walking last week, so we went to my parents over the weekend. Apparently, she looked just like me when I started walking. Can you imagine? Sol's face, with my attitude? I'm telling you, that girl is going places. That's also part of being a parent. To see this… thing that vaguely resembles you grow up to be more like mommy, or daddy. To find which parts of her come from the father, and which are from the mother, and which are just her's. You won't get that with this one."
If Cordelia's heart dropped even further, she might need to carry it in her purse for the walk back. She finally realised she had stopped fiddling with her iced tea when she felt the soft touch on her hand. Lissa had her arm across the table, gently squeezing her hand, with a sad smile on her face. "I'm sorry Cordy, but this is something you need to know. I mean, I love kids, you know I do, but even I know I'm not a good enough person to raise another woman's child." She shifted her gaze towards Sully when she felt another gentle weight on her hand.
"I know we don't seem to be like good friends now, but please know that we just want you to be happy. If this is what you want, then we will support you, but promise us you'll give it a few more thoughts. You of all people should know what it feels like to bare your heart to someone, only for them to not even look at you because you're a different person."
And all Cordelia could muster at that moment were a weak squeeze, a gentle smile, and a faint nod.
Despite the promise she made with Morgan, Cordelia went back home and packed some change of clothes. From then on, everything she did was painstakingly slow. The backpack weighed a ton. She had to drag herself out of the house. The key felt like a brick in her hand as she locked her front door. The trek to the shop was excruciating. The conversation she had with Sully and Lissa kept playing in her head, with images of the past year with Morgan and Robin. Some so vivid like it only happened yesterday, and some ended in blurry flash, blended together with Sully's words in the background like a badly edited video.
Cordelia was taken out of her thoughts when she heard Morgan's laughs. She had to blink a few times just to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She found herself standing in front of the shop, looking inside from the glass window. The shop was empty of customers, a rare occasion given the time. Morgan and Robin were sitting in front of the keyboard at the corner. Morgan seemed to be struggling. With both hands on the keys, she pushed her whole body downwards, only to frown and pout afterwards when no sound came out. Robin just smiled and took her hands in his. He set Morgan's fingers at the correct position, straightened her arm, and lightly massaged her shoulders. Morgan pushed again. And the keys sang. Some jagged sounds that vaguely resembled a chord. From the corner of her eyes, Cordelia saw Morgan raise her shoulder, and push down again. And a different sound came out. Slightly lower. Morgan kept repeating the gestures, and played another different chord. This one was higher than the first. Cordelia closed her eyes, as Morgan repeated the sequence of the chords. Sometimes loud, sometimes soft. Sometimes slow, and sometimes fast. The playing of a child just starting. And yet, through the ups and downs of the sounds, there was a hint of harmony, if one would listen close enough. And just like that, Sully's words had stopped playing in her head. The images earlier seemed to have a new sound playing in the background.
"Cordy."
Cordelia opened her eyes when she heard someone calling for her. Morgan was looking at her through the window, with her signature smile. She smiled back, and went inside.
Morgan had her arms already raised when she entered. Cordelia placed her backpack on the counter and gave Morgan her hug. "So, what are we playing?" She sat on the bench on Morgan's right side.
"Yeah, I don't think this thing is made for three people," Robin said as he scooched a little bit to the left. Cordelia just blew him a raspberry as Morgan laughed.
"Look, Cordy, look. I can play music too."
Cordelia listened to Morgan's playing for a few seconds, before placing her right hand on the keys, and played a simple melody over the chords. She smiled when she saw Morgan's eyes rounded and her mouth dropped at the new sounds they were making. "What's that? That's pretty. Do it again."
Robin smiled as he listened to Cordelia and Morgan's duet. Rocking his body to the tune, he placed his left hand on the left side of the keyboard, and pressed down. Morgan gasped at their blended sound. "That's really pretty! Okay, daddy play that. And Cordy keep doing that, okay? Ready? One, two, three-"
Cordelia could only smile as their song echoed through the shop, coupled with Morgan's laugh. Her badly edited video finally had its complete sound.
