All familiar characters belong to Janet. Mistakes are solely mine.
In another hotel suite, this one in Miami, I faced a challenge greater than babysitting my men ... convincing my wife to change her mind once she's already made it up.
"You're not going to get me to change my mind," Steph said, pausing in making Olive some mashed sweet potato for a change in the lunch menu. "So you can stop trying to figure out how you're going to do it."
"Julie wants to see you, Babe."
"Of course she does, because I'm dying to see her, but you and Olive should get to hog her first. She hasn't seen her dad and baby sister in months. I know I couldn't make it that long without seeing either of you."
Sensing a battle ahead of me in trying to convince her that Julie loves her as much as - if not more - than me, I pulled out my cell.
That paused both of my ladies' activity. "Olive, Daddy's up to something. What do you think it is?"
When I looked down at our daughter, I received an enthusiastically-blown kiss and a smile from where Olivia's sitting in her highchair. Though Olive didn't provide a verbal guess, she's correct nonetheless. I kissed the top of her head, which got me a delighted laugh before I turned back to Steph.
"Olivia is right," I told my wife.
"Of course she is, but how so this time?"
"Like she does with her kiss-blowing, I'm sharing the love by calling Julie."
"Ranger, don't you dare put Julie on the spot. Just accept the time I'm giving you with your daughters and say 'thank you'."
I said hello to Julie instead.
"At least take it off speaker," my wife ordered, when she saw that not only didn't I put my phone away, I'd already begun using it.
Knowing what would be said, I left the call as is.
"Hey, RangeDad. I was expecting to see you at the door, not calling me. You're still coming, right? Nothing happened?"
"Our date is still on," I promised her. "But Stephanie believes it should include only you, Olive, and I."
I can picture her shaking her head in the negative so clearly, it's as if she's standing right in front of me.
"Steph has to come," my daughter stated. "I was planning on getting her to admit that Pastelitos de Guayaba with Queso, are way better than just plain 'ol jelly doughnuts. You have to bring her."
"You heard Julie, Babe."
"I did," Steph replied.
"So you're spending the day with us, Steph? Don't say you're not or I'll go all 'teenager' on you."
"That thought is a scary one ... so I'll be there, but I'm definitely not going to say that any food is better than a doughnut. You and your Pastelitos had better be prepared to admit defeat."
"Never," Julie said. "You like cheesecake better than doughnuts, don't you?"
"Don't try to muddy the waters," Steph said to her. "One's a dessert and the other doubles as a meal or handy snack. That means they automatically get rated differently."
"They won't this time, because these Pastelitos have cream cheese with the guava paste, so it's basically a cheesecake you can walk around with."
"I knew there was a reason why I love you, besides you being a great kid," my wife told my daughter. "You have your priorities straight."
Julie laughed. "We're going to have fun today. Hurry up and get here."
"We will. I just have to feed your Dad and sister some vegetables first."
"Stephanie ..." I warned.
"Don't 'Stephanie' me, Batman. As you pointed out on the plane, Olive does what we do. So if you eat the orange goo, she'll possibly try it before making it airborne. I would sacrifice myself, but you heard Julie ... I have to save room to give her hand cheesecakes a fair shot before I declare doughnuts the winner."
I never get the upper hand when it comes to Stephanie. And yet, I still don't mind losing anything to her ... the advantage, my control, or my heart.
