So here is Chapter 3. Let me know if you'd like CPOV in this story, or if I should just keep it APOV. I'll try to upload a new chapter today or tomorrow, since I have two days off. (Yay, me!)
I don't own any of these characters. This is strictly for my enjoyment.
Anastasia
"You know Steele, you're lucky I have a key to your house, because I've been knocking for over five minutes… and what the fuck are you doing?" she says standing behind me in the upstairs spare bedroom. After Erick left I was wondering if I had left any things of Josh behind in the closet in the upstairs spare bedroom. I wanted to make sure I put them away, before Kate showed up, but I guess…
"Oh, shit! Kate, can you hand me that bo…" I shut my mouth when I see the contents of the box that has fallen. I step down from the small stepping stool and pick up what fell from the box.
"You know… No matter what I will always say your wedding was pretty much horrifying." Kate says picking up a picture of my wedding day. I smile as I do have to agree with Kate on this one.
"Come on Kate, let's put the kids to bed and then we can look through these, while we drink some wine," I say talking to know one, as I've had said the magic word 'Wine' Kate has gone to get the children ready for bed. I giggle as I can hear her giving orders to the children, which I know they will ignore, until they see me.
"Come onnnnn, Teddy take your sister upstairs to bed, pleeeease!" Kate whines like a child begging for candy. I giggle, at the sight of Kate giving her best puppy eyed look to a five year old.
"Kate, I don't think the puppy eyed look works on kids. It only works vise-versa," I say coming into view. "Come on kids it's night time, say 'Good Night' to Aunty Kate," they both stand and give Kate a kiss and hung, and walk upstairs, "Head upstairs and brush your teeth, I'll be upstairs shortly." I say as I see them both walk in the hallway bathroom.
"Kate there's wine in the cooler, and make sure you bring two wine glasses." I look at her retreating form. I swear she loves wine! "If you want some chicken fajitas there is a plate already for you in the warmer." I point to the warmer that's next to the stove. "I'm heading upstairs to tuck my kids. Meet me in my room with the wine." I turn back around as I see her eating at the kitchen island. This will take a while!
As I make my way to Phoebe's room I notice she's not in there. I turn and walk across to Teddy's room and they are on his bed reading a book with the help of their Leapfrog pad. I love that thing! Teddy actually started to read words with the help of the Leapfrog pads. He passes a special pen over the words and the pad actually says them, or reads them or something. I don't have good technology skills, I do everything like the old days paper, pen or pencil, and reading instead of listening, but, 'too each their own'.
"Hey babies what are you doing?" I ask as I lay with them on Teddy's full size race car bed. This bed was the most difficult item I have ever looked for. It took about 6 hours to find a store that would ship it and to top it off it wasn't available in a twin size bed. Teddy had gotten the idea of a race car bed from one of his classmates. It was show and tell and he decided to show the class pictures of his race car bed. That same day when I picked him up from school, Teddy was adamant he wanted a race car bed, like Lelliot. What parent would name there child Lelliot?
"Just reading mommy," Teddy says looking up at me from behind the book.
"Alright sweethearts," I say getting up from his bed. As I see its 8:45pm on his nightstand alarm clock, I turn to them, "It's bed after this, okay?" They nod and I bend down to kiss, first Teddy's and then Phoebe's forehead.
"Good night mommy," they both say in unison. I walk out his bedroom door and leave it ajar. I can still hear Teddy reading along with the Leapfrog. I smile to my self as I walk towards my bedroom.
Entering through my bedroom door, I see Kate with a wine glass in hand, sitting on my bed with her legs crossed looking through the box that fell from the top shelf of the spare bedroom closet. I walk towards my bed and sit near the headboard so the box is between us.
"I will always say your wedding was horrifying," she says as she hands me a glass of wine and a picture. The picture is of my father standing way too close behind Josh. "And that my dear friend is why!" she says as she clinks my glass.
"Kate, it wasn't that bad," I tell her as I look at the picture. Josh looks terrified while my dad has a huge grin of his face. To be honest it was my father's idea for us to get married after I told him I was pregnant. The first time my dad met him, he knew he was no good, he always said and I quote, "Annie, that boy will hurt you, then leave you to pick up after his actions, and I will not stand by that or my name is not Raymond Steele!" my dad was serious. Although at that time Josh and I were in love, or at least I think that's what it was.
"I still can't believe he was ever this small," Kate says breaking me away from my reverie. I lift the picture she placed down and it's of her holding Teddy as a newborn. It was Kate, who was there with me through his birth and she cut his umbilical cord. Josh wasn't in the delivery room. Matter of fact, Josh was the only one from his family's side, who didn't show.
"You've gone silent on me Steele, what are you thinking about?" she says to me, but looking through the stack of pictures in her hand.
"I'm just thinking about Teddy's birth. How I still don't know where Josh was during that day or matter of fact, for the six days after that?" My brows furrow when I lift my gaze back at Kate, "Why didn't I ask him, Kate? Why didn't I ask my husband where he was?" I sigh and shake my head.
Kate stops looking through the stack of pictures and looks at me. "Ana, he's an ass, simple as that. Plus, do you really want to know where he was for the first week of Teddy's life?" she asks with disgust look on her face. No she's right I don't need to know. Josh is known to too many, for being a flirt. If he goes beyond flirting, I don't know but I assume he does. I met Josh through a friend of Kate's, and it was great in the beginning, I lost my innocence to him and two months later I was expecting Teddy. From the start of my pregnancy Josh was ecstatic, but before Teddy arrived he changed. He became distant and cold, he was no longer the caring and loving guy I met and married.
"You're right, maybe I don't want to know," I say while laughing and shaking my head to get ride of the thought of him with someone else, sad to say it doesn't bother me. How strange is that? When Josh came home a week later after Teddy was born he told me, he found me disgusting and that I was lacking my sex appeal. That was the day we no longer became intimate and he started to sleep in the spare bedroom, altogether.
"Oh my god Ana, you seriously need to put these pictures in a photo album or in a scrapbook. They are too precious to be placed in a box, well some the rest, well, umm I don't know. We could burn them." she says laughing. Okay no more wine for Kate!
"Kate I can't burn these pictures no matter how shitty, it's in my past and I can't get ride of that. But I do agree with you about the photo album idea, these are too precious to be in a box." I say as I pick up a picture of me with Phoebe in arms, as a newborn. I remember, Kate took this picture of us since once again, Josh was no where to be found. Phoebe was not a planned pregnancy, but is loved and adored as one. I became pregnant after Kate and I, celebrated my promotion as VP at SIP. We went out for drinks, which turned into shots, and then with me having sex with Josh. When I woke up, I wanted to chew my arm off than risk waking him, so I pretended to still be asleep when my estranged husband woke up and left. Talk about awkward.
"Ana?" Oh fuck!
"Yes, Kate?" I say looking towards the bathroom door. Fuck she knows! How?
"Where are the asshole's belongings, I could've sworn his stuff is missing from the bathroom." She laughs, "Did he finally grab his shit out and move to the spare bedroom?" She comes out of the bathroom and looks at me. No doubt from the look on my face, she knows something's up.
"Okay, spill Steele. Why are his things missing, matter of fact…" she turns and stands in front of the chest of drawers and gasps when she opens it. "What the fuck Steele, did you kick his sorry ass out of your house?" she says smiling as she turns to look at me.
"No Kate, I didn't kick him out, he sort of moved out." I'm expecting Kate to jump around and start a party, but she catches me of guard and starts to cry. What the fuck?
"Kate why are you crying?" I ask all alarmed. I'm not used to a blubbering Kate.
"Don't get me wrong Ana, I'm glad he left." She sniffs, "But how are you and the kids?" Oh, Kate! I stand and give her a hug.
"We'll be okay, just like we've always been." I tell her as I let go of her and shrug.
"Have you told Pops? You do know when he gets word of this he will go completely mad, right?" she asks as she wipes her tears away with the back of her hand. Pops is her name for my father. Kate's real dad abandoned her, her mother, and her brother when she was real little. She began calling my dad Pops when he arrived with three boxes of POPs cereal while we were having a sleepover. Dad mention that was his favorite cereal so, that nickname stuck to him. Just don't let Kate hear you calling him Pops, since that's her nickname for him.
"Talking about dad, umm… he will be arriving on Friday."
"WHAT? Does he know? Have you told him? What did he say?" she fires away as she takes a seat on my bed, still sniffling.
"No I haven't told him and I haven't mentioned it to him. I'm just going to tell him what happened when he arrives on Friday, he'll be fine," I sigh "He'll be fine, right?" I ask Kate as I bite my lip. Fuck I'm scared!
"I don't know Steele. You alone know how protective Pops can be, especially when it involves his grandkids." She says and I can see the pity in her eyes.
"Fuck you're right," I say shaking my head. "This is going to be disastrous."
"So what happened? How did he decide to finally move out?" she asks as she sits back on the bed and begins to pile the pictures by category.
"I woke up this morning and found a note on my night stand, saying he needed space so he was moving out, and was filling for divorce." I say while I too, divide my stack of photos into different piles. Teddy was a small baby, I think to myself, when I come to a stop at a picture of Teddy in my arms. I place the picture of Teddy in his stack of pictures. I notice Kate has been very quite, which isn't like her.
"Are you okay?" I ask after five minutes of silence have passed by. Kate looks confused, angry, and irritated at the same time.
"Ana, I don't know what to say," she stops and gazes at me with wonder.
"There's not much to say Kate. He left and wants a divorce." I shrug and go back to shuffling through the pictures and continue to place them in there own stacks.
"Ana, how can you be so calm?" she asks in a barely there whisper. I stop and look at her. What does she expect? Is she expecting for me to cry, scream, yell, or fight because I'm not going to. Josh and I haven't been in a marriage, we're more like roommates who have different priorities, responsibilities, and lots of space.
"Kate, you and Erick," she rolls her eyes at the mention of his name and I shake my head. "Know how bad it was in he beginning after Teddy was born. Josh would leave and come back days after just to shower, sleep, eat and leave. He wouldn't stop by Teddy's nursery to see how he was doing. He wouldn't even spend time with us." I shrug, "And it didn't change after we conceived Phoebe. It just gave him an excuse to leave more often, as if that was even possible." I say looking at her while tears are forming in her eyes. "Kate, I've been a single mother who works a fulltime job as a VP in a Publishing House, trust me I'm good." I try to reassure her.
"And to top it off I'm meeting with a lawyer tomorrow afternoon." I say with another shrug. And that's what pushes her of the edge and she begins to sob. Kate is usually headstrong and stubborn, but she has a good heart and means well. She hates to see the people she loves hurt and most of all she hates to see their pain.
"Ana, I just don't want the kids to go through what we have. It's not fair to the children," she says while wiping her nose with the back of her hand. "We know how it feels Ana," she shakes her now lowered head. "What if they feel the same way?" she says looking back up at me. Kate is right being abandoned by a parent is the most painful feeling a child could ever live through, like Kate for instance. Kate's dad left when she was four years old, Phoebe's age, but Kate has memories of her father, and Phoebe doesn't. That's the difference Kate doesn't see in this type of situation. She thinks they will hurt, just like she is.
"Kate," I say her name gently and stretch my arm to hold her hand. "They won't hurt as much, I promise. Just because Phoebe is the same age as you when your dad left, doesn't mean she'll hurt the same. You hurt because you have memories of him, but Josh," I shake my head while I keep my eyes on Kate's, "has been absent since Teddy was born. They won't miss him as much, since they have no memories of him ever spending time or reading a book, or playing ball with them," I shake my head once again, "How can they miss an absent father, who's been absent their entire lives?" I shrug and give her a small smile when I see her give me a small nod.
"I guess you're right," she sniffles.
"Come on, it's already one in the morning. Let's get some sleep and we'll finish sorting through the rest pictures tomorrow," I tell her as I see her eyes getting droopy. We begin to gather each pile and place them on my dresser with enough space between them so they don't get mixed. Kate has gone down stairs to place the wine glasses in the kitchen sink, while I pull the comforter and slide in bed after I've taken of my shoes off. Kate comes minutes later, lying down on the other side of the bed facing my back.
"You know I'm glad you're taking control of this situation and getting a lawyer. I'm proud of you Steele," she says with conviction. I smile and shut my eyes. "Plus, this means you'll be able to be my wing-girl, now. Thank god he left." She says deadpanned. I turn over to look at her and she has a wicked grin on her face while her eyes are shut.
"You're serious, aren't you?" she opens her eyes and looks straight at me.
"Yes." She says deadpanned and we brake out into a fit of girly giggles.