Evie Hart- Charlayne Woodard
Jennifer Hassan- Athena Karkanis
Macy Lin- Brianne Tju
Monday morning
Mercedes and Sam weren't doing such a bad job at this parenting thing for their first official day. Everyone was dressed, fed, and ready to go and they were ahead of schedule. Well, almost everyone. Baby Melissa was slowing down the Monday morning machine.
"Sam, I don't know what to do," Mercedes said, already beyond frustrated. "She won't take anything. Not the eggs I made her, not her fruit, not even her yogurt, which Kurt said was her favorite." She had been trying to feed her for the last 20 minutes but to no avail. This had become a routine since she arrived.
Sam came into the kitchen with Aubrey on his hip. He sat her down in the chair beside Mercedes. "Okay, let's figure this out."
Aubrey quickly grew tired of the baby business. "Aunt Cedes, can I go play?"
"Sure, princess. But don't take too much out, okay? We have to clean up before we leave." Mercedes spooned some yogurt with the pink baby spoon and tried to feed Melissa. "Can you eat this for me, please?" She held the spoon in front of her mouth. For a moment, Melissa took Mercedes' hand and opened her mouth. It looked like it might take.
But before Melissa would eat the yogurt herself, her open mouth opened even wider and she began laughing. She whacked the spoon against her high chair, getting it all over her face. And Mercedes' dress.
Mercedes gasped. "Crap." She rushed over to the sink and began cleaning the yogurt off with a wet cloth before whining, "This is one of my favorite Gucci dresses."
Sam kissed her on the cheek to avoid her seeing him laugh. He often thought about their life together with her as a celebrity. Her casually wearing a Gucci dress to work at a high school and insinuating that she had at least one more Gucci dress that she liked even more than that one? That was not something he had envisioned. He grabbed another baby spoon, brought it to the high chair with him, and picked up the yogurt.
"Good luck with that," Mercedes said, still dabbing the already cemented yogurt stain. "She barely took her bottle earlier. 3 straight days of this. I don't know what's going on."
"All she needs is a little encouragement. Okay, Liss, can you say cheese for me? Cheese," he hummed while flashing his teeth at her.
Melissa giggled at him, showing off her gums.
"Oh, yeah. That's it. Now, we're gonna have some yogurt." He scooped up some of the yogurt with his spoon and ate some himself, smiling as he ate it. "Mmm, it's so good." When she smiled back at him, he deepened his. "Yeah, it's yummy! You want some? Here." He neared her mouth with the spoon.
Mercedes stood against the doorframe, arms crossed, within eyesight but out of Melissa's yogurt-launching range.
Before he could even get halfway there, Melissa was reaching out for Sam's hand and the spoon, grabbing onto them, and putting the yogurt into her mouth. She smiled contently.
"You like it too, huh? Have some more."
He put more yogurt onto the spoon and she did it again.
"Well, that doesn't make any sense," Mercedes said.
"Why not?"
"I tried to feed her for half an hour and all I got was yogurt on my dress. She's stressing me out."
"Maybe, that's your problem." Sam eased the critique in with a smile as he continued talking to Melissa, "You're doing so good!"
"Excuse me?"
"Mercedes, all I'm saying is this is her first time away from her dads for more than a day or two. She knows us, but we're not her caretakers. She's already stressed, then you're stressed, then she's feeding off of that stress, and it's hard to feed her. You just have to stay calm and positive for her so that she can feel safe. Babies can sense when your energy is off, you know."
She rolled her eyes.
"How about you go change and I'll finish feeding her and getting her ready?"
"Yeah, I'll do that. I'm gonna change into something less expensive, preferably yogurt-resistant."
As Mercedes was changing, Sam and Melissa were having a grand ole time with her breakfast. Just before they finished, Aubrey came up to him.
"Uncle Sam, I'm done playing," she said.
"Did you clean up your toys?"
She nodded affirmatively. "Mmhmm."
"Look at you. That's awesome." He glanced over to see her standing patiently, as if she were awaiting instructions. "You want to help?"
"Yes!"
"Ok. Come sit right here," he patted his lap and let the little girl climb him and get comfortable, "Take some of the yogurt, " he handed her the spoon and let her scoop some of it, "and just feed it to her."
Melissa found something funny about the sight in front of her, as evidenced by her bouncing in her highchair in a laughing fit.
"She's moving," Aubrey giggled, not wanting to make a mess.
Sam smiled at them. "It's alright, she's just excited. Go ahead." Sam took her arm and held it steady. "She'll probably reach out for you, so don't drop the spoon, okay?"
"Okay."
Unbeknownst to them, Mercedes had snuck back into the room behind them, watching it all go down. She felt her stress subsiding as they finished feeding Melissa, all three of them smiling and giggling the entire time.
"It's all gone," Sam said after they empty the yogurt container. "We did it, yeah!" He cheered both of the girls on. "You're an awesome feeder. Better than me, I think."
Aubrey glowed with a laugh.
"You're awesome!" Sam shot up, bringing her with him, blowing raspberries all over her face. He leaned over to Melissa. "And so are you," he said, proceeding with raspberries on hers. He went back and forth between the two girls rapidly until he got dizzy.
Mercedes chuckled while her heart soared. Even though neither of them expected to take care of two kids this week, he was doing amazingly good with both of them so far. "Alright, everybody. Let's get our coats on and get this show on the road."
"I wanna say bye to the dog!" Aubrey jumped as Sam helped her with her coat.
"Okay, but then straight to the truck." Mercedes looked at Sam. "You take the big one, I've got the little one?"
"Got her."
"And everything is ready? Car seats, lunches, daycare bags?"
"Everything's packed and ready to go. Uh," Sam looked at her confused, "I thought you said you were going to change into something that wasn't Gucci?"
She looked down at her new dress and defended herself. "It's not. It's Oscar De La Renta. It's less expensive!"
"Uh huh." He chuckled at her as he walked off with their niece.
"Whatever." Mercedes bent over to take Melissa out of her high chair. "Let's get your coat on, sweet pea."
Everyone was suited up and ready to head out. As Sam opened the door, he heard his girlfriend across the room.
"No, no, no! You've got to be kidding me."
He looked back. "Oh, no."
Melissa had spit up all over both of them.
Aubrey giggled, "Eww."
Mercedes scoffed at her niece. "Oh, so this is funny to you?"
He didn't mean to, he really didn't, but her tone and the spit-up on her beautiful designer dress made Sam snicker as well.
She shot daggers at him. "Sam!"
His hands shot up. "Sorry! Sorry. Look, why don't you go change, I'll change her, and we'll regroup afterward." He reached for the baby.
"No, you need to get Aubrey to daycare. It's our first day as working parents, at least half of us need to be on time. We're pushing it as is. I'll get us changed, you put Melissa's stuff in my car, I'll drop her off with the sitter and see you later."
"That makes sense. Okay. We will go and I'll catch you at work." He leaned over and gave her a kiss. While still leaned over, he whispered, "Hey."
"Yeah?"
"Would it be weird to say you look beautiful right now, even with the spit-up on your dress?"
"Yes, it would."
"Okay, I won't say it then." He gave her another quick peck before whisking Aubrey out of the door with him, "Love you, see you later!"
Mercedes held the baby out in front of her. "You are going to be the death of me, little girl. Do you know that?"
Melissa stared blankly at her.
"Yeah, you do. Your adorable eyes reek of mischief. Let's get us changed… again."
Around an hour later, Sam knocked on the door to Mercedes' office.
"Come in."
Sam walked in. "Mr. Schue told me you walked in here with a baby?" He saw Melissa in her stroller being rocked back and forth by Mercedes' foot. "So he was right."
"The sitter texted me just as I was buckling her up, she's got the stomach flu," she said, annoyed that her morning could've gotten any crazier. "There was nowhere else for Melissa to go last minute, so," she sighed tiredly, "here she is. I've been trying to get her down for the last hour, she's cried through pretty much her entire naptime."
"Yeah?" His voice changed as he peeked into Melissa's stroller, "Let's see what's wrong with the sweet little baby. What's got the baby so upset, hmm? She's too pretty to be upset."
The child immediately ceased her whining and smiled.
"Yes, she is!" Sam scooped her out of the stroller and held her out above him. He tipped her from side to side and back and forth, smiling as she laughed. "Did you give her any playtime?" Sam looked over to Mercedes.
"I didn't know she wanted it. I've been trying to get some work done and give her some attention, but anytime I tried, she just screamed at the top of her lungs."
"Babe, you can't get work done and play with an 8-month-old. That's not how it works." He redirected his words to Melissa. "Will you tell her that's not how it works? Say, 'that's not how it works Auntie Cedes.' Can you say that?"
The baby babbled back at him.
He gasped. "Good job!"
She mumbled more incoherent syllables.
"You're so silly. Yeah, you are."
Mercedes felt her heart flutter again, but along with it was a tinge of frustration. How had he swooped in and saved the day for a second time?
"If you want to get some work done, I've got her portable crib in my backseat. Want me to get it?"
"Please."
"Okay. Take her?"
"You can't just put her in her stroller?"
"No, she wants to play!" He kissed Melissa on the cheek before handing her off. "Just play peekaboo with her. It's her favorite, she'll work with you."
Mercedes took the child, who immediately went back into panic mode, whimpering. "I know, sweetheart. Sam, she's already upset."
"Peekaboo! I'll be back in a flash, I promise." He left the room.
"Okay," Mercedes said to herself. "Peekaboo. You can do this Mercedes." Just as she went to cover her face, her phone rang with a call from her manager, Evie.
"Benz! What's going on?"
"Hey, Evie. I'm at work at McKinley, can I help you with something?"
"Are you busy at this very moment?"
"Not technically, but—"
"Great. Jen and I are gonna ring you."
Melissa was getting antsy from the lack of attention. "Evie now's not really a good—"
She was interrupted by her computer's Zoom ringtone. She answered it. "Now's not a good time."
"There's never a bad time to talk business." Evie's brows furrowed at her screen. "Is that a baby? You and the boyfriend must've been having a lot more fun than you led on."
Mercedes rolled her eyes. "She's our goddaughter. We're sitting for a friend."
Hearing how upset Melissa was, Evie shot Mercedes a look. "You sure you didn't kidnap her? She doesn't seem to like you too much."
Normally, Mercedes would've laughed at such a joke. "Evie, this may be a great time to remind you that I pay you, not the other way around. So please tell me what you need before I exit this meeting." She spoke to her publicist, "Hi, Jen."
Jen smiled cheerfully. "Mercedes! So nice to see you as always. Cute baby."
"Thanks."
"Alright, enough with the cordiality. Benz, we've got to get you back out there. You've somehow achieved radio silence for a whole three days since you dropped your relationship bomb on IG—"
"Maybe because I didn't want to make my relationship into a publicity opportunity? But Jen's here, so obviously, that didn't work."
Evie confirmed her suspicions. "You bet your talented ass it didn't."
Jen started fumbling with some papers on her desk. "We've spent the past three days fielding offers for press and publicity and we've separated what we believe to be the wheat from the chaff. Evie, would you like to do the honors or should I?"
"Why don't you start us off, Jen?"
"Will do."
Mercedes sat Melissa in her lap, squinting with disbelief when she realized she was more entertained by the computer screen than anything she'd ever tried to do with her.
"First, we've got a hit from Buzzfeed, they want the deets on your IG post. We also had The Shade Room reach out, to which we obviously said, 'eff off'."
Evie cut in, "We said something more than that, but it's not safe for a child's ears."
"Then, there's Cosmo, People, and UsWeekly, they all reached out for comment on the post. E! also wants to do an article on you and the old flame. Vanity Fair wants to go over your new relationship, of course, what else you've been doing in your time off, and what lies ahead of you after your hiatus. Then, TMZ, which is another clear no. Essence wants you as a part of a spread on interracial relationships. And last but most certainly not least, Vogue wants to feature you AND the boyfriend on the cover, yes, the cover, of their January issue! I would recommend getting back to them first because when Anna Wintour calls, you answer with humility and do whatever she says."
Mercedes looked at her dully. "Jen. You got all that in three days?"
"That and more. That's not even close to all of them."
Evie said, "I'm surprised she got any at all. 'R&B Diva and Fashionista Mercedes Jones, who keeps her private life private and is smack dab in the middle of a post-tour hiatus, makes a surprise Instagram post declaring her love for her high school sweetheart' is a hot mess of a headline if you ask me."
"Evie, can you not start? Trust, I've gotten enough of that from my mom."
"Really? Maybe she's not as off her rocker as I thought."
"Watch it. She's still my mom." Evie and Michelle had had their own run-ins with one another that were much less than pleasant. She'd been her manager since she moved to L.A. and was there for every step of Mercedes' career. She always looked out for her while still listening to what she wanted for herself, something that Michelle didn't agree with. Michelle felt that as her manager, Evie's job was to put Mercedes' career first, but she never did that. Mercedes' well-being and personal desires always came first for her. She was tough, but Evie was the closest thing to a mother she had outside of her real one and the closest thing to a mother she had in California period.
"Who you haven't talked to in almost a month, but that's none of my business." She put her hands up. "Standing down. So what about the spreads?"
"I'll go with whatever you guys decide. Just don't overbook me, please. And I'll have to ask Sam about the Vogue thing."
"Alright. Moving right along, we have tv and radio. Actually, just tv because I'm such a good manager that I know how much you hate radio and already declined them all. First things first, GMA3 is still waiting on a response for another appearance seven months later. I'd suggest you get to them first. Then Kelly & Ryan are practically frothing at the mouth to sit and chat with you, Entertainment Tonight wants a live interview, then there's the Jimmies Fallon and Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Wendy Williams, Trevor Noah, and lastly, David Letterman."
"Jeez." Mercedes rubbed her temple with her free hand, the one that wasn't holding a baby in her lap. "I'm fine with everyone except Wendy. My last time there was so weird."
"Agreed," both the other women said.
"How'd you get so many offers? I get magazines and news outlets, but talk shows?"
Evie feigned innocence. "It might have to do with your upcoming single to be released in the new year."
While she'd been halfway listening for the entire call, this caught Mercedes' attention. "I'm sorry?"
"That or your upcoming Christmas Eve performance."
"Excuse me? I don't have a single nor a Christmas Eve performance coming up."
"Oh, but you do. See, the label is demanding that you get into the studio while you're here. We're going to lay down some of the tracks you've been working on with production. They want 5 tracks by the time you head back to Ohio. And as for the performance, it's Stevie! There are a lot of people I'll say no to, Steveland Hardaway Morris is not one of them. He wants you for his live Christmas special, so he gets you. Thank me later."
"No." Mercedes shook her head. "Evie, none of that's going to work. I'm in Cali for a family Christmas vacation, not to work."
Jen was sympathetic, but not too much. "I get that the holidays are important to you, but did you really think you'd be gone for six months without so much as a word except to tell us you're going on hiatus and have nothing to do when you got back?"
"But I'm not 'back'. Sam's family is coming to my house. It's our first Christmas together; I can't spend half of it working."
"Let's get real, Benz." Evie looked dead into the camera. "Your career is floundering."
Ridiculous. "I just did a sold-out world tour."
"Yeah, almost a year ago. You've been completely off the scene since. It's not just the label who isn't happy about that. Have you taken a look at the blogs since your post by any chance? They're posting about whether or not you even care about your career after putting it on hold to be with your boyfriend and playing show choir. Their words, not mine."
Mercedes groaned, "Why does everybody think this is some sort of game for me? Why can't I just have found something here that makes me feel like I'm doing something good? Boyfriend or not?" She was tired of everyone second-guessing the things she was choosing for her own life. She loved her work, but it made her feel like a child sometimes, the way everyone had something to say about every little thing she did.
"Mercedes," Evie said her name for once, signaling a serious topic ahead. "I'm gonna ask you this question and all I want is for you to be honest with me. Are we looking at an early retirement here?"
"What?"
"Did you just want to drop a hit album and disappear on us? Do you want to come back to L.A.?"
"Yes, of course I do. Of course."
"Do you want to come back to your job in L.A.?"
In a slight moment of hesitation, Mercedes stared at her computer screen. As she went to answer, there was a knock at her door. "I'm sorry, I have to get that. Come in." It was Macy, her modern-day Rachel Berry. "Evie, I have to go, I have a student."
"Okay. But I asked you a question."
"I know you did, and I'm going to answer you."
"A simple 'yes' or 'no' would suffice, Benz."
"I have a job to do Evie, goodbye."
"You also have a job in-" Mercedes exited the call.
"Macy," she smiled, even more stressed than she was a few minutes ago but relieved to be off of the business call, "good morning. How are you?"
Macy gave her bright, photo-ready smile. "I'm fantastic. And you? Is that a baby?"
Mercedes laughed a little. "Yes, it is. She's not mine, it's a long story. I'm alright. What can I do for you?"
She closed the door behind her and took a seat. "I was wondering if you were planning on doing a musical this year?"
"A musical?"
"Yes. I was refining my resumes for my college auditions over Thanksgiving break. I'm a finalist for NYU Tisch, NYADA, Carnegie-Mellon, and Penn State—"
"Congratulations on those, by the way. NYADA, hmm? You know Rachel Berry went there. It's a pretty good school."
"In 2012, sure. But it's gotten a little… pretentious since then. Don't you think?"
Pretentious? "Uh, well—"
"Anywho, I kept noticing that something was missing from my resume. Something that I feel I should have: a senior-year musical. More specifically, a lead role in a senior-year musical." She smiled as she dropped her name in the hat. "I know that you've been taking on Sam's responsibilities as executive show choir director and musicals usually fall into that territory. Sam hasn't been able to prepare one since we were getting ready for Internationals all summer."
"Yeah, um, you know, I was thinking about it." She nodded. She really had been. "But I figured that with Internationals, me working y'all pretty hard in rehearsals, and all of the other changes happening around here, you guys might want to take it easy. "
Macy shook her head vigorously. "Oh, no. We don't do easy. We want a musical. The tougher, the better. Besides, what's a top performing arts school without a musical or two every year, right?"
Surprised to hear this, Mercedes tilted her head back. "Oh. I will definitely give the musical some more thought, then. It may be a little late, though, seeing as how I haven't looked into our budget or drawn up any plans yet."
"Trust me, we have the budget for just about anything. But that brings me to the other reason I'm here." She reached into her bookbag. "I've put together a series of books and pamphlets with inspirations for different musicals. Costumes, set designs, song arrangements in my key, all of it."
As she pulled out packet after packet, Mercedes couldn't help but laugh. She already knew it, but every time she and Macy talked, it confirmed that this girl was Rachel to a T.
"I've also included some headshots and themed photos of yours truly to help you in picturing me as the leading lady in a musical of your choosing. Chicago, Anything Goes! Grease, whatever you decide, there's something in there for it."
"Wow. You certainly do come prepared, huh?"
"Oh, absolutely. No offense, but since you've come around, I haven't exactly gotten my normal amount of time in the spotlight. I was barely even featured at Sectionals. And as much as I do enjoy watching and hearing my other classmates perform, I need my senior year to be as close to perfect as possible if I'm going to get into those schools. A big part of that includes a leading role in a musical. Just take a look at everything and get back to me!"
Mercedes lifted Melissa to her feet on her leg as she took one of the pamphlets, flipping through it. "You've certainly given me a lot to chew on. I'll go through some of this with Sam and let you know. Thanks for this."
Macy rose from her chair and made her way to the door. "Anytime. Oh," she turned around, "I've also got an email scheduled to be sent to you in," she looked at her watch, "about 30 seconds with singing, dancing, and acting reels, just so you can get an idea of the talent you're going to be working with." She winked at her. "Thanks for the chat. See you in rehearsal!" She waved at Melissa. "Bye, baby."
That night, Sam, Mercedes, Aubrey, and Melissa were all seated at the table for dinner. Sam, Aubrey, and even Melissa had been talking (and babbling) back and forth throughout the meal, but Mercedes was mostly silent. Aubrey finished eating and asked if she could go play with her toys.
"Just clean up first, okay?" Sam asked. "Come here." When she came over to him he put his arm around her. "Wanna help me wash dishes when I'm done eating?"
She shook her head and laughed, "No."
"Oh, fine. Wanna watch me play video games?"
"Halo!"
"Yeah, Halo!" He cheered. "Just don't tell your mom, okay?" He kissed her on the forehead. "Get outta here."
Aubrey ran over to her aunt. "Will you play Halo too?"
"Not tonight, Bree," Mercedes said softly. "I'm really tired. Maybe tomorrow, okay?" She gave her niece a hug and sent her on her way.
Sam wasted no time getting to the bottom of his girlfriend's mood. "What's going on with you today?"
"It's nothing." She rubbed her forehead, trying to ease the ache that had been plaguing her since they sat down. "Just work stuff."
"Work like glee or work like music?"
"Both, actually. But more music. I had a talk with my manager and publicist today and I'm going to be working through most of our vacation."
"Really?"
She nodded. "Apparently, the label is pissed at me for the post I made about us—"
"They're mad at you for making the post?"
"No, they're mad at me for posting about my relationship when I've been MIA for the past 6 months," she replied sharply. "I knew they were upset and were going to pay me back by making me work some wild overtime, but I didn't think it'd be while I was spending Christmas with my family."
Sam could tell by her tone that something else was bothering her. "That it?"
"The kids want me to do a musical this year. It's super late, so I might need your help with that. It's going to be hectic, but I'm going to have to make it work."
"You know I'm always happy to help, but I wasn't talking about work," he said. "I get it, having two jobs is hard, one being long-distance no less. But you don't get this worked up over work. Ever."
"It's nothing," she said before going back to eating her food.
"Is it your mom?"
"Seriously?" She already told him to stop asking her about that.
"I'm just saying, Christmas is just a week and a half away and you still haven't done so much as sent her a text message."
"Why is it that every week we have to have a conversation about my mood or my feelings?"
"Because every week, something interferes with your mood or your feelings. And as your partner, it's my job to know what that is and work with you on it. You'd do the same for me."
He was right. She couldn't even fight him on that. "Do you think she hates me?"
"Your mom?"
She looked over at the baby, still clumsily stuffing chopped pieces of chicken in her mouth, then back at him. "Do you think she has the capacity to hate people?"
He laughed. "No, the baby doesn't hate you."
"She's definitely not fond of me."
"Why on earth would you think that, Mercedes?"
"Have you been paying attention? We're day 3 into day 7 of sitting and nothing I try to do with her ends up working. I can't get her to sleep, she'd rather starve than eat anything I try to feed her, and she absolutely hates playing with me. That peekaboo tip was a bust, by the way. But then, you come along and it's like there was never a problem to begin with."
"Maybe she just needs to warm up to you a bit more. Plus, you've been dealing with work all three days. It's definitely hard to warm up to someone who's preoccupied." He didn't mean for that to come off as accusatory, but according to her response, it did.
"Okay, well, I'm trying. I'm sorry that I'm too involved in my two jobs to be someone she can 'warm up to'. Clearly, I'm not as good at this whole parenting thing as you are."
Sam looked at her with a bit of worry on his face as he put his utensils down. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she said, not looking up from her plate.
"Really? Because you're kind of flipping out on me right now and I'm just trying to help. I didn't mean that in a bad way, babe. It's just like I said this morning. Babies know when you're upset or stressed. You've been very stressed lately and not just with work." He decided not to go down the list of the things she was dealing with at the moment. "Now, are you sure you're fine? Because we both have a habit of saying we're fine when we're not actually fine, which I thought we were both working on. Open and honest and whatnot."
She dropped her utensils. "Fine. Open and honest, seeing you and the girls lights up a part of me that I had no clue even existed. It's like they're yours, for God's sake. And I'm starting to realize how much I want a family with you, but I'm doing a horrible job with her. If I can't take care of my niece and goddaughter for a week, how am I supposed to be able to take care of our kids?"
Sam moved from his chair to the one beside her and motioned for her to come to him.
She sat in her chair, unmoved.
"Come on."
"No."
He smiled. "You know you want to."
"I don't," she lied.
"Come on," his tone attempted to draw her in. He reached over, placed an arm around her waist, and nudged her toward him.
She almost laughed. "Sam, stop."
He continued nudging until she slid over into his lap with a groan. He gave her a long kiss. "I love you."
"I love you, too," She mumbled half-heartedly.
He shook his head. "Once more, this time with feeling."
"Oh, my gosh," She laughed, amused and annoyed. "I love you, I love you, I love you, okay?"
"That's more like it. Mercedes, you can't predict the type of mother you'll be to our kids based on three days with someone else's that you've barely ever taken care of before."
"But you can. You're so good with them."
"Technically, the only reason I'm so good with Melissa is that Blaine is my best friend and she's all he talks about nowadays." He pointed out.
"And Aubrey?"
"I'm a grown man, she's a toddler. We're pretty much one and the same already, no?" He tried to get her to smile, a task at which he succeeded. "And let's be real here. I may be the cool guy that's able to make everybody feel good, but we need you, too. The only reason two of us were able to get out of here on time is that you knew exactly when to wake everyone up, the order we needed to get ready in, who should make breakfast and when, all of that."
"Yeah. Things were going great until I got regurgitated yogurt all over my designer dress."
"Speaking of designers, who made this dress?" He asked about the dress she wore to work today. "I like it."
She looked away from him and quietly said, "Target."
A snicker escaped his lips. "Wow. Much less expensive. You may be getting the hang of this parenting thing after all."
"Whatever."
"Look, even when that did happen, you didn't miss a beat. I was going to make us all late, but you sent me and Aubrey on our way and handled everything else yourself. And then the sitter canceled, which you also handled like a champ. I wouldn't have been able to do any of that stuff. If it were me, everyone probably would've been 30 minutes late with the wrong shoes on."
She laughed hard at that. "You're ignoring my point, Sam."
"I'm not, though. Being a good parent isn't just about letting a kid watch you play video games or being good at peekaboo. It's also about planning and strategizing. Making sure everyone can get where they need to be to do what they need to do when they need to do it. You're just as crucial to this whole thing as I am, just in a different way."
"You really think that?"
"I was just as amazed by you today as you were of me, no joke. And when we become parents, we'll both learn new things from one another and we'll both learn new things together. Not to echo my mom again, but just like our relationship, parenthood is a partnership."
"I guess it just feels like you're so far ahead of me." She shrugged. "And Sam, I'm really thinking about starting a family with you. Maybe even before we get married. How will I be able to catch up in time?"
"You're right where you need to be, baby." He caressed her cheek. "You're going to be an amazing mom. And whenever we decide to have them, our babies and I will be so lucky to have you."
She kissed him sweetly and laid her head on his chest. "You always know exactly what to say to me to make me feel better. How?"
"I know you," he said simply. "Plus, I've been deeply in love with you from the moment I met you, so I can do that," he said, almost cocky. He rested his hand on her thigh. "Are you really thinking about kids so soon?"
She nodded. "I don't know why. It's definitely not what I ever pictured for myself and my life, but something about being with you makes me want to. Is it the most sound and responsible idea? Probably not. Will it bring me any closer to satisfying my mom? No chance in hell. But nothing about us ever has, right?"
He hummed in agreement and smiled to himself.
They got up and cleaned all the remnants of their meals. When everything was finished, Aubrey had her bath and they all sat on the couch while Sam played his video games. Mercedes sat beside him with a now calm Melissa in her arms and their dog at her feet. Aubrey sandwiched herself between the couple. Within 10 minutes, Melissa fell asleep laid across her godmother's torso. Within 20, Aubrey had drifted off. Mercedes followed shortly after. Tired himself, Sam looked over at the girls for a few minutes. His girls. Ok, so Aubrey and Melissa weren't technically his, but Aubrey was the closest thing to a daughter he had and Melissa would probably be the same before long. Knowing that Mercedes was seriously thinking of kids caused the thought to recur in his own mind. Truthfully, he'd been thinking about this since high school. It was wild to him that it may soon be his reality.
Part 1 of a 2 parter! What did y'all think of this chapter? Sam's definitely good with the girls. Do you think Mercedes is right to be scared about kids with Sam or is she overthinking it? Do you think she and Sam are going a little overboard with wanting a family so soon? The next chapter will definitely be more fun-filled for sure and I think y'all will really like it. Be sure to let me know how you felt about this chapter with a review if you've got a sec! Until next time!
