9 HER

“She’s battling things her smile will never tell you about”

~~~~~~~Jonny Ox~~~~~~~~

My eyes began to flutter when I felt light kisses being peppered all over my face. I sighed softly and roused myself from sleep with my eyes opening to reveal Seb. I had stayed up most of the night watching him to make sure he was okay before I finally gave into it.

He looked so bright and bubbly this morning and my felt contented. He really was okay but I was planning on staying home today just to spend the day with him.

“Mommy stop scrunching your face like that. Papa said it’s what made him look like that. I don’t want you to look like that” I pulled him closer to my body laughing at his statement. He referred to Kate’s dad as papa and their bond was inseverable. That explained why Seb had a particularly odd sense of humor.

“Well baby do you wanna know something?” He eagerly nodded snuggling even closer to me.

“the school I enrolled you into will be starting next week.. are you excited baby?” I had barely wrapped up before he started jumping on the bed. I just chuckled and grabbed him before tickling him. His beautiful giggles filled the room because he was so ticklish. I decided to stop my assault on him when he began wheezing due to laughter.

“Now come here you cheeky monkey, I need to put food in your tummy so that you can take the medicine.”

I got out of bed and Seb got off as well. I needed to make this bed instantly or I’d never do it later. I grabbed the grey comforter and put it on the small chair I had by the window since the bed was along one wall opposite the window. Seb managed to get all the pillows off the bed while I put new sheets on the bed and put the comforter and pillows back on the bed before we made our way out of the bedroom.

Kate was nowhere in sight and I had a feeling she had gone to work already. Yesterday she switched her shift with one of her coworkers to stay due to what happened to Sebastian, so she had to take the day’s shift today.

“Mommy, can you make me some pancakes, please? With buberry?” he still had a problem pronouncing the word blueberry.

“Do you mean blueberry baby?” I turned away from him after rubbing his hair to gather all the ingredients for pancakes excluding butter. He loathed butter, especially in his pancakes.

“Mommy...up” I grinned at his cuteness and lifted him to sit on the kitchen countertop cause he loved to watch me cook every single time I cooked.

“ Mommy.. I feel better now. Can we please go to the park today?”he said while I was cracking the eggs into the bowl. I turned away slightly to throw the shells away then turned back to him.

“Sure baby. We're going to do anything you want to do today” which elicited a very excited yes from him.

I finished mixing the batter with Seb just telling me what he does when I go to work. I then grabbed the nonstick pan and poured some better into it when it had heated up. Just as I finished stacking up the pancakes and pouring some syrup on Seb’s pancakes, my phone chimed with a text message. I grabbed it to check the message after setting Seb down from the countertop and guiding him to sit and eat his breakfast.

Unknown: Hey there Ari, it's me Ethan I got your contact from Kate actually.... Sorry about that.

When the hell had this exchange even happened? I glared at my phone imagining it was Kate’s neck that I was going to wring when she returned. Before I could reply to his first text another one came in. Great he was going to obviously see that I had seen his texts as instantly as they came.

Unknown : I just wanted to check in on how You and Seb are doing. I’m guessing you’re not coming today ..right?

He’s just being nice Aria. I told myself mentally as I saved his number.

Me: Hey Ethan, we are doing much better now thanks for asking. I won’t be coming in to work today cause I want to monitor Sebastian for the day .

Ethan: oh… okay then. Is there anything I can do for you then?

Me: not anything that I can think of at the moment. But thanks for the offer. You’re very kind.

Ethan: I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then. I have to go… I have this work thing.

Ethan was really funny and sweet but I just did not want to lead him on. He deserved a much better woman with less troubles.

Me:Sure. Have a great day.

I closed the chat instantly so that my attention would go back to my angel. He had already finished his pancakes and was drinking the milk I also gave him.

We finished taking our breakfast and got ourselves ready to go out to the park. I packed some chicken sandwiches that I quickly whipped up since we would be there most of the day.

After two hours of playing with Seb, I walked over to a bench to watch him playing with an older lady’s dog. Being a weekday, there weren’t other kids at the park especially at that hour.

When Seb got enough of playtime, he sauntered over to me and I opened my arms to hug him to me. I really wished he’d remain this small and innocent forever but if wishes were horses, beggars like me would ride.

“ Mommy, will you go to work tomorrow?” he said while I unpacked our snacks and handed him a sandwich.

Oh.My.Goodness. I had totally forgotten to give my boss the memo that I would not be coming in today. I was going to get fired no doubt.

“Uh... Sure baby. I'll go to work tomorrow” I quickly grabbed my phone and logged into my email to send an email to Mr.Mawell to try and at least salvage my job and if not, my dignity. I had put some of his details on my phone planner to help manage his schedule so I also had his email address.

From: arimo5@gmail.com

To: orionmaxwell@gmail.com

Subject: Missing work

Good morning Mr. Maxwell. I'd just like to first of all apologize for missing work today. I had a family emergency yesterday which also limited me from coming to work today. I however attached your schedule for today that I was able to arrange from my location.I am very sorry and I understand if you’d want to terminate the contract. Thank you, sir. Have yourself a good day.

sent from my iPhone

I just really hoped that come tomorrow I still had a job.