August 6, Entry #32 of Gabriel Agreste's Secret Journal
Today, Adrien walked in on me making a blanket fort in the dining room.
I feel as if I should explain.
Apparently, the board wants Agreste Fashions to make a line catered toward children. I agreed, but after several hours of brainstorming, realized I had no idea what types of clothes children want and need. I decided my best option was to put myself in a child-like frame of mind. I remembered one day when I came home from work to find toddler Adrien and his mother building a blanket fort. I helped them finish building it, and we had a fun family night. I decided to build a blanket fort like the one I remembered in order to put myself in a child-like frame of mind.
However, building a blanket fort when I was ten years older was a much more difficult task than I was anticipating.
Perhaps it was not my best plan, but it was all I had in the moment. I refused to give up. I frantically called Nathalie, telling her to order me twelve hundred blankets.
"Nathalie, it is absolutely essential that I have twelve hundred blankets as soon as possible."
"You can have twelve."
"Twelve hundred."
"Eleven."
"Twelve hundred."
"Ten. Each time you counter with twelve hundred, you lose a blanket."
"Fine." Two hours later, ten blankets arrived at the house. I began to build my masterpiece.
There were only two problems. One, Pumpernickel loved to destroy all my hard work. I solved this problem by having the Gorilla babysit her.
The second problem was that I had forgotten how to make a blanket fort. It turns out it takes much more skill than just throwing blankets over furniture.
I was trying to stretch a blanket between two chairs when Adrien walked in.
"Hello son."
"Father?" Adrien's head tilted in confusion.
"Oh, this?" I gestured to the blanket mess. In doing so, I knocked one of the supporting chairs with my arm, making the whole structure topple. I glared at the offending mess. "I'm trying to build a blanket fort for work."
"Ooookay." Adrien's eyebrows were still furrowed. "Do you need some, uh, help?"
"It would be greatly appreciated." Adrien joined me, and in no time, we had a modest blanket fort built. If only Nathalie had gotten me twelve hundred blankets, it could have been so much better. On my next review of her performance, I will have to put "Hindered me from building the greatest blanket fort in existence by refusing to buy me twelve hundred blankets" in the negative column. But alas, we did the best with what we had.
"Adrien," I turned toward my son. "How are you so good at this? Is it because you are still young? Is your blanket-fort-making ability gone when you reach a certain age?"
"Oh no," Adrien laughed. "Any person can make an awesome blanket fort. I've just had a lot of practice recently." He looked off in the distance, his face getting all dreamy. Very strange. I am putting it on the steadily growing 'Adrien's Strange Behaviors List.' "I love building them in my room, sitting and talking about everything with Mar— MY CATS. MY CATS. Yes, they are excellent company!"
I frowned. "How do your cats not ruin your fort? Pumpernickel was a nuisance when I was trying to build this."
Adrien chuckled. "You have to put lots of treats around the fort. They'll mess with that and not touch the blankets."
"Smart," I nodded, and the two of us continued to build. In no time, we finished it. I stayed in there the rest of the night, making Nathalie come in to deliver my dinner. She did not look impressed, but she did stay for a bit to talk with me. Mainly about my schedule for tomorrow, but it was talking none the less.
The rest of the night, I designed clothes for the children's line. I have to say, the results were promising. I'll send them to Nathalie tomorrow morning to get her opinion on them. But for now, I'm going to curl up and sleep in the blanket fort. It is surprisingly fun to be in. Perhaps I'll have it permanently installed in the house. Who needs a dining room when you can have a blanket fort instead? I'm sure Nathalie will approve of that plan.