It’s Harvestfest again. But not just any Harvestfest. It’s also my baby’s birthday! Within a few hours, both my children will be tall, beautiful teenagers. Send help! I’m excited, though. Because today is a Thursday, they’ll be here tomorrow through the weekend. We’re gonna have so much fun, I hope. I think I’ll take them to the gym on Saturday. I’ve been thinking about trying yoga. Hopefully, they’ll enjoy it. At the very least, Luca will get his body moving, now that he’s too big for the monkey bars. I’m not sure anything besides his thumbs get stretched these days. Giving them phones is always tricky. On one hand, we want them to be able to contact us in a jam and stay connected to their friends. But on the other hand, we kinda lose them too.
On my morning jog, my thoughts were on Lucy. Will Duane’s daughter join their festivities? How will the rest of the Clemons clan react to this news? Hmph. I’m sure I’ll know soon with Diamond’s big mouth. It’s amazing how much we’ve grown from little girls, but certain things about us never change. My friendship with her is about as deep as it’s going to get, I think. I mean, how can you trust someone who’s always sharing everyone’s business? But getting closer to Lucy has been more enjoyable than I ever imagined. Honestly, I never cared about having intimate friendships before. That wasn’t something I thought was necessary. And that’s not to say I had no intimate relationships. When Laurant and I got along, I would say our friendship was intimate. Of course, Ali and I were. And Dwayne… I’ll have to continue that thought later because time is escaping me, and I can’t be distracted today. My point is, intimacy was never a requirement for my life, but I need more now.
Ali and the kids arrived while I was shaping the tofu to resemble a turkey. He gave me a lackluster greeting and asked if he could help. I thanked him but declined his generous offer. I was afraid he would be like this today. When we spoke earlier in the week about Alessia’s birthday party, we had a minor argument about who will host. We each wanted to host Harvestfest, but I think he may have misinterpreted my points. All I said was I have more room at my house, but he thought I was gloating about my recent successes. I would never do that to him. Or anyone! I don’t care about my job title or how much money I make. Honestly, I don’t make that much money, but it’s probably twice more than what he makes. We kept going around in circles, so he yielded and agreed to let me host. Thinking about it now though, I see how I once again only thought of myself. The kids would come here tomorrow, so it made no sense for them to travel to Willow Creek two days in a row. Besides, why would Ali want to spend time here? He probably hates this house now.
The kids had gone upstairs to check out their new rooms and finally came down to greet me. I’m no Amina Pope, so I hope they liked my changes. I painted Luca’s room tan and made it look a little bit like a studio apartment. There’s plenty of blank space on the walls for him to put up pictures and posters as his style develops. Alessia’s room is tiny, so no double bed for her. I painted hers gray and added pops of yellow. She seems to enjoy the bunk bed, so yay.
“Since we’re all here,” Luca began, “I kinda had an idea I wanted to discuss.”
“What’s up, bud?”
“I was thinking…” His eyes shifted nervously between Ali and I. “Maybe we could live here now?”
Ali let out the loudest sigh behind me, and I squeezed my eyes shut to keep from looking at him. I want more than anything to have my children with me, but Luca has no idea how bad his timing was.
“I guess, like, Dad had us our whole childhood,” Luca said. “It should be your turn now.”
I love how he tried to make it appear as if he wanted us to have equal time with them. Perhaps that will soften the blow on Ali, but I know Luca just wants to live with me. He’s such a mama’s boy…and I love that. But I need to fix this quickly in a way that gives him some hope, yet doesn’t look like I’m colluding with him. “That’s an interesting proposition, son. It doesn’t quite work that way, but we can talk about it later, ok?”
“Can we do cake first?” Alessia asked.
It was so hard not to laugh at the random subject change. I swear this child is the most indifferent person I know. I have a feeling life with Alessia is about to get really interesting, really fast.
