18
Sunday mornings were always their favorite. No one had to be at work, Jamie didn't have tumbling tots, they could wake up and start the day on their own clock without anywhere significant to be; Sunday's were sacred.
Like an old wise rooster, Jamie called out once and waited until one of them came to retrieve him. They'd considered leaving the side of the crib down low enough that he could get out on his own but feared he wouldn't come straight to their room and what he would do after with his new found freedom. While they were thrilled that he was a curious kid, and encouraged his explorations, he was not fearful of much: this resulted in him changing the lowest 3 feet of his bedroom walls to primarily colors while Piper fell asleep one afternoon while playing in his room. They'd used a toilet cleaner that turned the water blue which was entirely too fascinating and they caught him up to his elbow swirling the blue toilet water, screaming with happiness as it splashed on the sides.
This morning had been Alex's turn to retrieve their son, but after Piper shoved her cold foot against the brunette's thigh with not even a mutter, let alone a movement of response, she got up to get him. She brought him back into their bed and turned on the Wizard of Oz before laying back down to rest. "Fa la la la la la la la la la la...," he sang along as the people of Oz skipped around in triumph at the Wicked Witch of the East's demise. Piper blindly searched for his head and caressed his hair as he sang softly; he had watched the movie several times a week, alternating between the tale of the ruby shoed girl and the boy who never wanted to grow up, loaned to him by his favorite "big boy" friend, Finn.
Piper left him in their bed with Alex to get a head start on some things that were put off for the weekend and a hearty Sunday morning breakfast. On weekdays, there was usually only time to grab a granola bar or oatmeal to go or they grabbed something outside. The scent of hazelnut coffee wafted down to their bedroom, Alex took a deep breath and let her senses become consumed with the aroma and the little fingers that were loosely tangled in the ends of her hair, while a witch cried that she was melting, "who would've thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness." She awoke and sat up a bit, she rubbed the top of his ear before standing up and stretching, "stay right here, okay?," she said patting her pillow, "do you want juice?," he shook his head no in a daze. "Don't move." She shuffled into the kitchen and saw her wife's hips swaying to the music playing on the radio. She saw her wrist turn the spatula to flip over the contents in the frying pan. She snuck up behind her and pinched the skin of her butt that peaked out of the bottom of her underwear.
The blonde jumped slightly surprised, "Happy Sunday," she leaned back against Alex's shoulder, while the brunette let her hands skim over the blonde's protruding hip bones. "You need more Sunday breakfasts," she said poking the bone.
"Get up early and make me them then," she said quickly pushing her butt back to knock Alex away before turning around, "Coffee's ready... where is he?"
"In our bed watching the movie, didn't you put him there?"
"Al you cant leave him up there, he can fall."
"He's not going to fall," she said confidently as she poured herself a cup of coffee.
"It's too high, you can't do that."
"Yeah well, I do it all the time," she started walking out letting her unoccupied hand follow the natural curve of Piper's shoulders; she headed back to the bedroom.
"Juice?," he asked looking up as she walked back into the bedroom.
"I just asked you if you wanted juice and you said no."
"Juice," he said nodding his head.
She set her coffee down on the bureau, "you!," she pointed at him and shook her head. She got him a sippy cup with juice and climbed back into bed. She set her coffee down on her nightstand and pulled her latest book from the drawer and cracked it open. She let her arm lazily rest on top of her sons head, he moved closer up beside her.
"She gone?"
She looked over her glasses, "I'm right here," tightening her arm around him. "She gone," he said lifting up his head and pointed to the TV.
"Who's gone?," she asked looking at the country girl and her three amigos.
"Witch."
"Ooooooh," she understood, "yes, they melted her with water right?"
He nodded back and set his head back down on the pillow. She went back to reading, her eyes darting from left to right at the text before her. She took the train with him almost daily, and was only able to squeeze in a few pages on the days when they were lucky enough to get a seat.
"Banoon."
She broke her gaze away from her book again.
"Yeah, the balloon left them behind, but Dorothy will get home."
She took a sip of her coffee and rubbed her warm hand through his hair and went back to her book. A few minutes later she heard him mumbling, "no place... home, no place... home."
A smile spread across her lips, a chuckle escaped her mouth. There was no use to trying to read, she closed her book and sat him on her lap, engulfing him in a loose hug. Her chin rested on his head. Once the movie ended, they made their way into the kitchen, Alex poured him some more juice while Piper displayed her culinary artistry on their table.
"Piper sit," he says sitting up on his knees, tapping the seat of the empty chair beside him.
"Yes, I'm Piper, mommy, do you want me to sit here?," she asked pulling the chair away from the table.
He nodded in confirmation.
Alex did her happy food dance, "everything looks ah-mazing!"
Piper took a bow before pouring herself a cup of coffee and refilling Alex's mug. "So did you decide about that workshop?," she asked the brunette.
"I think I'm gonna do it," she said with her hands soaking up the warmth of the mug.
"So I wasted my time coming up with reasons why you should go?," she places bacon and eggs on her son's little plate.
"You can still tell me what reasons you came up with, to justify getting rid of me."
"Not trying to get rid of you at all, hear me out."
Alex slowly closed and reopened her eyes and peered out of the corner, "I'm listening."
"So, to be honest, I think your boss let you know about it in the first place because they know you can take on more. Just because a more powerful position opened up doesn't mean you just get it by seniority or default. I mean yes, you've put years into the same company, but you've also taken on more than your job description entails since the beginning, you troubleshoot well, and even though," Piper stopped short and focused her attention on the fistful of eggs in the small hand beside her, "uh fork please," she said handing him the fork. "We use forks and spoons here, not our hands, that's yucky."
Alex raised a finger up as she chewed widely around the contents of her mouth, "hang on," she finished chewing and swallowed.
"I know I don't have a degree in architectural design, so in general I may be passed up for someone who proved they can handle certain abstract concepts of thinking and sh... stuff," she caught herself before she slipped and looked over at him again trying to use his hands for the eggs, "eh, fork."
He held his fork and tried to pierce his strip of bacon, "not that, you can pick that up with your hands."
"Huh?," his mouth hung open and looked at her curiously.
"This," she picked up his bacon, "you can eat with your hands," she tore off a piece and ate it. His mouth dropped when she ate his piece and handed him back the smaller remains. "Even he's like, 'are you kidding me, eating my bacon, stealing my slice of heavenly breakfast? It's so good Pipes."
"You're just trying to get out of cooking next weekend. Can we get back to the conference?"
"Right, so I know that I've been overlooked in the past because of the degree but now that this is being thrown my way, I want it," she paused, bit the inside of her mouth and adjusted her glasses, "I need a higher position. We need people who can manage people who are seeking direction, who don't take initiative. New people who utilize employee's strengths and help identify weaknesses and pair them up with those who can collaborate with their opposing abilities."
Piper smiled widely at her wife's excitement over the potential challenge, "yeah, they do need people like that. Go to this conference, take tons of notes. If they offer any kind of certifications, you sit in on those sessions and get those certs."
Alex nodded while grabbing her own piece of bacon, tearing it in half and handing half to Jamie in a truce. "Do you think it would be appropriate to ask if they're considering me for the position while I talk about my interest in going?"
"Absolutely, I mean I would still go no matter what their intent is, just so they can see how serious you are and visualize you with higher regard," the brunette nodded and continued to listen, "but I also think you should go because they'll cover the cost of flight and hotel for you and I may have looked up how much an extra ticket would be for the airplane," she said with a grimace and a rise of her shoulders seeking approval.
"Hairpain?"
Alex sucked her bottom lip in momentarily before licking her lips, "you'd go with me?"
"Of course! I mean if you feel like you could use the days alone or we'd be too much of a distraction, I wont be insulted."
"No, I'd rather you come. Yeah, why not right? I could just ask for a few extra days and just pay for a couple of extra nights of hotel, make it into a vacation, double dip."
"And we could go to the beach! A warm water beach," she paused to reminisce at the feeling of wading through bathwater ocean temperatures in various beaches around the world with Alex, "and walk around Savannah with you. You can teach me what you learn while you're there."
"Sounds great kid. What do you think dude, wanna go on an airplane?"
He points out the window. "In the sky,we can fly and go to the beach and play in the sand!," Piper responds to his gesture.
He gets off his chair and jogs away.
"Well that was anti-climactic," Alex says to Piper. The blonde reaches her arm across the table and grasps her hand, "Im so excited!," she laughs, "when's the last time we've been on a plane!?"
"I don't even know kid," she thinks back, "four years?, is that right? What's he doing? Jamie, come here please," she calls out in the direction he walked off to.
He returns clutching a stuffed monkey from the zoo of friends in his bedroom, "George goes?"
Piper props him back onto his chair, "yes, George can come too, we can bring a few buddies, alright? Lets finish this for now," she says pointing to the rest of his breakfast. She clears up once they're done and Alex retreats to the couch, and plants her nose in her book. Jamie goes back and forth to his room removing one toy at a time until he has quite a sizable collection of weebles, play doh, multiple gadgets that play nursery rhymes and a few books that Alex read a few pages from intermittently until he lost interest. He walked off to collect something new when Alex heard him come barreling down the hall whimpering and yelling "face!"
She lifted her back from the couch and turned around to see him, running from the back of their apartment, looking terrified. He made eye contact with her, "face!," he said pointing back and ran into her arms.
"What?," she wrapped her arms around her shaking son, "oh my God, what's the matter? what's wrong?" She tried to pull his head back from the crook of her neck but he was holding on for dear life. She whispered into his ear while she rubbed his back, "what did you see? Tell me."
"Faaaace," he whimpered into her neck. She just continued to rub his back in soothing circles, he pulled back some and looked at her worriedly.
"I don't know what you're scared of baby, you want to show me?"
He shook his head no frantically, as Piper came down the hall with a white pore refining mask coating her skin, "FAAAACE!," he yelled and buried his own face deep into Alex's neck hiding in her hair as his body curled up against hers.
"Piper, oh my God, he's shaking!"
Piper was laughing silently, trying to catch her breath, "he came in our room looking for me and I had just put it on while I was cleaning out the tub and sink, and he just ran out screaming, I couldn't breathe, I was laughing so hard. Jamie it's just me."
She sat down beside them on the couch, his eyes were still deeply burrowed into Alex. He let her rub his head, "it's mommy babe, it's just cream, it comes off see?" She wiped her finger near the edge of her skin to show him the white mask on her finger. He pulled away from Alex just slightly to see the cream on her finger, but then saw her face again and hid.
"Piper, he's terrified," she laughed through her sentence, "wash it off!"
"I still have ten minutes or so on it, its expensive! Just keep him in here for a little, ill close our door."
"I'm pretty sure he's not going anywhere until he sees you without that crap on your face."
"Just a few minutes, I'll be right back Jamie."
"A few minutes," Alex sighed out and chuckled, "no pee pee on mama okay? Wanna play with your toys?"
He shook his head no in her arms, "George," he whined. She reached forward, her abs failed to support herself and him with her inability to suppress her laughter at the death grip he had around her neck. She sank to her knees and squished his Curious George doll between them. She held onto him with one arm and held her book in her other hand and read.
Alex heard Piper padding down the hallway, she motioned to the blonde that he was still in the same spot, sweating up against her.
"Jamie, no more face, it's gone." He turned toward Piper's voice and saw the face he was familiar with and released his grip around Alex's neck.
"No more face," he said to Piper and sat on the floor between them with George tucked under his arm.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," she looked at the fear slowly resolve from his face. She pulled him close, "I didn't mean to be mean. I'm not a mean person."