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"That was not my fault, ok? You guys should have given me the heads up." Lyla said once AJ had returned inside from talking to Shiv.
"Is she ok?" Punk asked.
"I don't know. She's definitely not thrilled about Daryl getting out of prison." AJ said.
"Maybe she's just scared." Finn proposed, "I mean… I'm kinda scared. You hear horror stories all the time about what goes on inside prisons. What if he comes out and he's completely different? We've only seen him for half an hour every couple of months. It's a lot different being out in the real world." Finn said.
"Of course she'll be scared." Punk said, "Scared about seeing him. Scared about the fact she never told him about Brianna."
"I don't know." AJ shook her head, "Something just seems off. Like Finn said… I feel like there's something we don't know. I mean… it was only the two of them that night. Maybe we don't know the full truth of what happened."
"But what could have happened? Craig got shot. I'm pretty sure that was the jist of it." Lyla shrugged.
"Enjoying the party?" Becca asked them as she joined their little circle in the patio area.
"Oh, yeah. It's a hoot." AJ nodded, slightly stressed.
"What's wrong?" Becca shook her head with confusion.
"We were talking about Shiv and she showed up. She heard Lyla calling her, and I quote, a shell of herself." Punk told Becca.
"Shiv was here?" Becca asked, "And she left?"
"I spoke to her. I think she's ok. Sort of." AJ said, "But yeah, we kinda put our foot in it."
"Lyla put her foot in it." Finn objected.
"Shut up, Finn." Lyla glared at him.
"I can't believe she finally wanted to spend time with us, and you stupid idiots chased her away." Becca shook her head.
"I'm getting really nervous about what's going to happen when Daryl gets here." AJ admitted.
"Maybe he won't come back." Lyla said.
"Of course he will." Punk shook his head at the thought.
"Shiv seems to think the same." AJ said.
"What? That he won't come back?" Lyla asked as AJ nodded.
"Maybe we're all being a little dramatic." Becca said, "I'm sure once Daryl gets here and they have a good old fashioned shouting match, they'll be fine." She shrugged, taking a large drink of her wine.
"They have a kid." AJ said, "It's completely different now for them. They're not a couple of kids fooling around anymore."
"What can we do?" Finn asked.
"Nothing." Punk answered, "Becca is right. Once Daryl gets here, they need to talk it out. We can only support them and be there to give advice." He nodded.
"And when Daryl wants his job back? Are you going to fire Shiv?" Lyla questioned.
"Of course I'm not." Punk rolled his eyes.
"We could hire Daryl. He could work at The Brewberry." Becca said.
"Absolutely not." Finn said angrily, "He's coming back to our place. He's not working at the fairy light palace."
"Excuse you, young man." AJ pointed a finger at him.
"God, this is giving me a headache." Punk said, holding the bridge of his nose with his thumb and finger.
"Mommy, is it time for us to have the chocolate fountain now?" Rudy walked over, putting her hands on her hips impatiently.
"Yes, ok." AJ nodded.
"I'll make sure you get no chocolate on your nice outfit." Nico said, standing up from her chair and taking Rudy's hand as the four-year-old lead her over to the chocolate fountain excitedly.
"That wasn't much of a party, was it?" AJ said, coming out from the bathroom, taking her earrings out whilst Punk was unbuttoning his shirt.
"At least the kids had a good time. Chocolate fountain and pony rides." Punk nodded.
"Yeah." AJ laughed, "Poor Aunt Nico will have trouble getting them to bed with all that sugar."
"Not our problem tonight, babe." Punk smiled.
"Do you think it's going to be as bad as it seems?" She asked him, watching him push his jeans down.
"You want me to be honest with you?" Punk asked her.
"Always." She nodded.
"I think it'll be hard. Shiv has changed. Daryl has too. They're two completely different people now. And they got a kid." He said, "There's a lot to unpack. But it's like I said, we can only be there for them and give them a shoulder to lean on when they need it." He said.
"Yeah." AJ nodded, "I haven't even got a chance to ask you how you feel about it." She said.
"Me?" He asked.
"I know how much it cut you up when Daryl got arrested. You didn't sleep for weeks. You shut your shop for a while. I mean… I know we joked about it at the time but… he was your best friend. Like a little brother." AJ said.
"I didn't sleep because we had two newborn babies." Punk corrected.
"Wrong." AJ said, "You were beside yourself. Lost without him. And now he's coming home." She smiled, "We should be celebrating, not… worrying about how bad it could get between him and Shiv." She sighed.
"And we will. We'll celebrate. Throw him a party. Hug the shit out of him." Punk smiled, "But I'm also preparing myself for a different kid than the one I once knew." He said, "You should too."
"You think he'll be that different?" AJ asked, walking over to him, running her hands up his chest and circling her arms around his neck, "When we visit him, he seems… the same."
"Those are half an hour visits every few weeks. It's gonna be different when he's out. He's gonna have to learn how to live again." Punk said.
"But you'll be there for him. We all will." AJ nodded.
"Yeah, of course." Punk said, leaning his forehead against hers, running his hands down her back as she looked into his eyes, "You know I love this dress but… I think I'd rather you take it off now."
"Knock yourself out." She grinned, turning around, and holding her hair up as he took the zip of the dress and slid it down slowly, taking the straps down one at a time as she turned back around to face him, pushing the dress down past her hips as it fell to the floor in a pile around her feet.
"I knew you weren't wearing a bra." Punk nodded to himself.
"A bra doesn't work with this dress." She explained.
"Fine by me." He nodded.
"I wish I didn't have to wear any panties but… I thought that was a step too far." She whispered as he chuckled, "And I know how much you love taking them off."
"One of my favourite things in life." He agreed, picking her up as she giggled.
He placed her down on the bed, leaning over her and hooking his fingers at the sides of her panties, pulling them down her legs slowly before dropping them to the floor.
"You are fucking beautiful." He shook his head as she smiled, propping herself up on her elbows, looking up at him with wide eyes, completely naked and all his.
"Come here." She whispered as he climbed over her, burying his fingers in the hair at the back of her head whilst kissing her passionately, feeling her push his boxers down and begin stroking him with her hand.
"Fuck." He moaned, kissing her neck and down to her breasts, taking one of her nipples and playing with it with his tongue as she moaned.
"I'm so wet." She whispered in his ear, taking his hand and putting it between her legs as he caressed her, parting her folds and feeling just how wet she was.
He stroked her clit in circles whilst kissing her breasts, all the while she stroked him up and down with her hand. There was something about simultaneously giving each other pleasure that aroused her so much. Both of them touching the most sensitive parts of each other whilst looking into each other's eyes. It made her come every time.
Once warming up, Punk scooted her further up to the centre of the bed, getting rid of his boxers and lining himself up with her as she looked down, watching his length slowly disappearing inside her as she rolled her head back and moaned.
"Fuck, there it is." Punk groaned, leaning his head on her shoulder as she smiled happily, wrapping her arms around his back as he began to thrust in and out.
"Fuck, yes." AJ moaned, placing her hand onto the headboard above her to steady herself. She loved nothing more than seeing the look on his face every time he thrust forward.
"I'm gonna take my time with you tonight." Punk said with a shaky breath, leaning down and kissing her hard as she grabbed his face and kissed back harder.
Monday morning came around again, like it always unfortunately did after an enjoyable day off. AJ took the twins to pre-k, hoping she'd bump into Shiv with Brianna, but it appeared Brianna had already been dropped off.
"I put some rice-cakes in for your recess snack." She told the twins, crouching down in front of them outside their classroom before leaving them to their busy day.
"No one likes rice-cakes." Thomas said.
"Uh… plenty of people like rice-cakes." AJ said.
"No, mommy. They're boring." Rudy rolled her eyes.
"What if I told you they were chocolate covered rice-cakes?" She smiled.
"Oh, really?" Rudy smiled.
"Ok then." Thomas nodded, convinced, and satisfied by this revelation.
"I thought that might change your mind." AJ smiled, "Who is picking you up today?" She tested them.
"Abuela." Rudy smiled happily, "She said she'd take us to the park on our way home."
"Well aren't you lucky." AJ smiled, "I'll see you both later, ok? Have a great day. I want to know everything you learned."
"We might not remember." Thomas said.
"Well try." AJ smiled, nudging him playfully, "Off you go." She said, watching as they both ran to the cloakroom, taking their coats off and hanging them up before making their way into the class.
Sometimes she stuck around and watched them through the opened door to the classroom. She loved seeing them run to their little friends. She always thought that having twins would mean they would be joint at the hip, but she loved the fact they had their own sets of friends and their own personalities. They were so insanely alike and yet so different at the same time. They were her pride and joy.
"Flat white with oat milk and an iced latte with regular milk for table 4." Punk said, coming back to the front counter after taking an order.
"Ok." Shiv nodded, facing the coffee machine as she got two mugs from the shelf.
"Finn!" Punk yelled.
"Yeah?!" Finn yelled back from the kitchen.
"Can you bust out more cinnamon rolls?" Punk wondered hopefully.
"I'll see what I can do." Finn called back, which always meant success in Punk's eyes.
"Thanks, kid." Punk said, punching the order into the register to record the cheque.
"Did you say oat milk for the flat white?" Shiv checked.
"Yeah." Punk nodded, "Got a delivery in on Saturday. If there's not an oat in this fridge there will be one in the walk-in." He told her.
"Got it." Shiv said, picking up the carton of oat milk as Punk watched her.
She'd barely said a word all morning. Which wasn't unusual, but he could tell she just wasn't on her A game. She'd messed up a few orders and was suddenly forgetting where things were.
"Hey, if you want a day off, just tell me. It's no problem." Punk told her, "I know you've got a lot on your mind."
"I'm fine." Shiv shook her head, "You enjoy the party on Saturday?" She asked, trying to make civil conversation as she frothed the oat milk.
"It was alright." Punk said, "Kids loved the chocolate fountain. Nico couldn't get them to bed until 11.30." He laughed as Shiv smiled.
"Sugar overdose, huh?" Shiv said.
"Yeah. And Patrick took them to see the animals. They got to ride on some ponies. And of course, we all saw Maple. She's gotten fat." Punk concluded.
"Because Becca overfeeds her." Shiv predicted.
"I hope you know Lyla didn't mean what she said." Punk said.
"She probably did, and she's right." Shiv shrugged.
"She's not. The girls just struggle with you being so distant. That's all. They miss their best friend." Punk nodded as Shiv turned to him, feeling a lump catching in her throat.
"I'm gonna take these over." She said, placing the iced latte and flat white on a tray, "Table three?" She asked him.
"Four." Punk nodded.
"Ok." She said, walking out from behind the counter as the door chimed, signalling another customer coming through.
Punk was collecting some dirty dishes, about to take them through to kitchen in the back when he heard a loud crash and splatter. He turned around and saw Shiv had dropped the tray she was carrying. The coffee going everywhere.
"Shiv, are you ok?" Punk asked, too busy focused on her and the spilled coffee to notice who was standing at the door with a bag over his shoulder.
Finn rushed out from the kitchen after hearing the loud bang, slinging his kitchen towel over his shoulder, and pausing when he caught eyes on the person standing in the doorway, "Shit." Finn smiled with a relieved sigh.
Punk looked over and saw Daryl standing by the door.