Alice was making breakfast for the household. "Oh--go on upstairs and see her! She's adorable!! And I'm going to be 10 more minutes on breakfast, anyway."
Kelly went up to the nursery, and found Bill feeding Daedelus.
"Oh, what a little sweetheart!" she cooed, picking up Scout.
"Yeah, she's sure a cutie-pie!" Bill enthused.
"I hope she gets her mother's looks!" he laughed.
"Are you going to be best friends with Daedelus?" Kelly asked the baby, while making silly faces at her.
_______________
"So, is Regina sleeping?" Kelly asked, as they sat down to breakfast.
"Yup, she's beat," Alice replied.
_______________
After breakfast, Alice convinced Kelly to walk to the community garden with her. "Okay, let's talk about Derek," Alice said.
Kelly clearly did not want to discuss her marriage.
"Look," Alice said, "here's what I know, and I'm going to tell you all of it. Derek wasn't serious about Lana, she was just a bit of fun for him, he wasn't careful about birth control, she tried to tell him she was pregnant--she called, texted, emailed, snail-mailed, and went by his apartment to try to see him dozens of times.
"But she never said in any of her messages that she was pregnant--she wanted to tell Derek that in person. Probably to see the look on his face. He was a shit to her--he never returned any of her messages, he left town, he changed his phone and email. And that's REALLY bad behavior, but it also means he never knew he had a kid."
"Who is this man I married--that he could treat a woman that way???" Kelly cried.
"I'm not excusing Derek's behavior," Alice said. "Maybe he's a different person now; maybe he's not. And he uses Lana's difficult personality as his own excuse, but I don't think that matters."
"But here's what DOES matter--what do YOU want to do for yourself and your baby? Do you really want her to live apart from her father? You know I've done a lot of thinking about Dude--we got pregnant by accident. Though we were best friends when it happened, and we 'liked' each other, we weren't contemplating a serious relationship.
"But now I see that it makes no sense for Daedelus and me not to live together with his father. That wouldn't be good for our son, and it would be hard on my best friend.
"Go back to your house, and to Derek," Alice urged. "Sure, make him sleep on the couch, and never have sex with him again if you don't want to. But I bet you'll change your mind eventually.
"And--from what I hear--Derek's really been trying to be a good dad to Declan. The kid has had a crappy life--his mom is usually absent, she dumps him on people all the time, or she leaves him alone.
"I'm not going to sugar-coat this--
"I've met the kid--and he's a junior asshole.
"But I KNOW you--given your morals, and your religious beliefs, don't you think you want to do something to help that boy?"
Just then, Derek was walking Declan to the bus stop, and waiting for the bus with him,
and Kelly saw them.
I am loving Alice right now. Now Kelly needs to get a grip and either move on or work it out. Can't wait to see what she does.
ReplyDeleteNew post later this afternoon, Angela! And you will find out what Kelly does.
DeleteSo proud of Alice!
ReplyDelete