Fine, I'll Do It.

"Jami to help me? We might as well get married." I said with frustration. Surprisingly, he flinched. What is he getting flustered for?

I ignored his weird and uncomfortable gestures and crossed my arms comfortably, and continued, "Well Jami, what do you say? I'll add more into your paycheck, but you help me care for the baby instead."

Jami opened his mouth

"Me? I.. don't think.."

He was going to say something but stopped when he saw Mia grabbed my arm. As I looked at her, she smiled and signalled me to talk in private. She didn't seem to look too happy at my proposal. I followed after her into the living room again. She turned around to face me still smiling and said,

"Arte, what were you thinking?"

"Now? Nothing in particular, why?"

Her smile faded and she looked at me with a scowl on her face.

"Did you just pushed Hani to be taken care of by your secretary? Didn't I give the responsibility to you? Is she that much of a burden to you?"

Okay. I snapped. I replied to her as calmly as possible but well it's difficult.

"I don't mean to be rude or anything but honestly, yeah. I think taking care of a child is a pain in the behind. And you are the last person who gets to talk about responsibility Mia. Let me ask you, who was the one fooling around with men? Who was the one ended up getting herself pregnant? Who was the one who delivered this baby? And now, who is pushing the responsibility of taking care of the child to someone else? The last time I checked, it's usually the RESPONSIBLE parents that takes care of the child once they come into this world."

As I finished my ranting, Mia took a few steps back and sat on the couch with a thump while in shock. She never thought that I will snap this way and rub more salt into her wound. Well, I never thought I'd do this too. I don't know what possessed her to be a hypocrite but I don't regret what I said. She needs someone to pull her feet back to reality.

Mia was still sitting on the couch and stared me with disbelief. Suddenly her gaze shifted from shock to a gentle smile as she slowly stood back up and walked towards me and hugged me.

Now it's my turn to be shocked. I thought she would cry instead. I mean, I thought I went overboard and dramatic there. After a long hug she broke the hug and looked at me while still holding my arms and still smiling.

"Arte, you are the only person who will state the truth to my face. I was actually sad that nobody cares about me enough to scold me like that. The thing is, there's a reason why I need you to take care of Hani. See, she's my first baby I ever have and she's my daughter, a girl. I would rather a woman to care for her than a man. Also, I don't want any random woman, I need you, my best friend, my sister, the only person who I can truly trust to take care of her. So please, I beg you. please, help me take care of Hani. Just for a little while. I will come to get her back once I get everything else back on track."

"Haaah..." I let out a longest sigh in the history of humanity.

"I... I don't know Mia, I..."

"Please Arte... I really got no where to go to for this."

"Fine."

"What?"

"I said fine. Fine, I will take care of her. You go ahead and do whatever you need to do to fix that mess of a life you made."

"Really? Oh my God! Thank you so much Arte!" she squealed in delight while jumping in her place.

"On one condition."

"Yes. Anything..."

"Make sure you get her back once you're done"

"Of course. I will. I love you Arte, you know that right? I will come to visit from time to time."

"Yeah, you better."

"Now that we got it all sorted out, let's have some cookies. I made them but I had to borrow your kitchen."

"It's fine. Your cookies are delicious."

Then all of us sat and had Mia's wonderful cookies and talked a lot. I also let her spend as much time as she wants with her daughter since she won't be able to spend as much time later. Time went by so fast, it's already nighttime. Mia finally kissed goodbye to her now sleeping daughter and handed Hani to me to carry her. I slowly took the baby and cradled her in my arms. I looked at her face sleeping peacefully and I turned to look at her mother's teary eyes.

"Why are you crying?"

"I never thought I had to treat my firstborn like this. It's all my fault."

"Hey, I'm not going to sugar coat my words. You really did screw up big time. And you brought another human to this world. But don't worry, I know you will fix this. I believe in you, you will get this all sorted out."

Mia laughed and then smiled. She mouthed to me thank you and nodded at Jami. She looked at her child for one last time and went back to her car and drove off.

Both Jami and I stood there until her car was out of sight and we looked at each other, then the baby and went back into the house.