“Good night, Jake,” she ignores my question.
“Night, Sweetness.”
“Sweetness? It's time to get up. You need to say goodbye to Mike.” I'm standing up, hovering over her. Sweetness blinks a few times before stretching. “Drake and I are leaving to get him registered for school and we'll grab breakfast on the way back, okay? We can go to the grocery store later today.”
“Okay. I love you,” she smiles, sitting up.
“I love you too. Always.” I give her a quick kiss and then leave her to say goodbye to her father.
To keep from losing all the papers needed to sign Drake up for school, I put them in an envelope and put it under the seat of my car. I wanted to make sure that I had everything. The process doesn't take as long as I thought it would and wham. Drake will start school next week. I think Emily will register tomorrow and she'll start next week too. When Drake and I return after grabbing breakfast as promised, Emily is sitting on the couch, watching a blank TV.
“When are we getting cable and internet, love?” she asks before even saying hello.
“Yeah, when are we, love,” Drake teases.
“Ha. Ha. Cable guy and internet guy are coming by Thursday.”
“But it's Tuesday,” Drake complains.
I ignore him as I sit beside Emily and hand her a biscuit from the bag. I hold out Drake's next and he grudgingly takes it then plops into the recliner. My biscuit is in the bottom of the bag and I retrieve it. We eat in silence. I give our trash to Drake and make him throw it away.
“Sweetness, go change. We're going to explore the city and grocery shop today.”
We drive all over city and then we drive by Drake's school, the rink where he'll play, and the community college Emily will attend. A couple of blocks from our apartment is a grocery store. While we shop, it's then that I notice Emily has been a little quiet all day.
“Can I get these?” Drake asks holding up two bigs bags of Doritos.
“Just one,” I answer him and then turn my attention to Emily who is walking beside me as I push the cart. “Everything go okay this morning?”
Sweetness places a can of corn in the cart and says, “Yeah, sure. Why?”
“Haven't said much today.”
“I've been thinking about switching to a dental hygienist.”
We head down the last aisle and I keep my mouth closed to see if she's going to offer any further information or if I'm going to have to ask.
“Partly because I only wanted to be in that field and I'll be happy with that. Partly because it will take three times as long for me to be earn that degree than one for a dental hygienist. It will be forever before we get married.”
“Wait a second. You want to change your major just because it pushes back when we can get married? Sweetness, don't do that. Go become whatever you want to be.”
“That's not the whole reason. Only part of it. In the end, it's my decision and I've made it.” Sweetness shrugs.
The last thing that Emily puts in our cart full of food is Ben & Jerry's ice cream. We get in line and check out minutes later. Back at the apartment, Emily and I put up the groceries while Drake conveniently goes to his room to play a game.
“I'm going to take a cooking class too,” Emily says as she puts the milk in the fridge.
“That's good. You're not terrible. Just not good.”
“Ha. Ha,” she fakes. “I'm starving. What are you cooking for dinner?”
“Pork chops and whatever else you want.”
Sweetness gets out two cans, one is corn and the other is peas. She sits at the bar while I cook, twirling a lock of hair while she watches me. I wonder what she's thinking. She never stops wrapping that strand of hair around her finger, even through dinner when I tell Drake some of the rules. How he'll pick up after himself, keep his room clean, put his dishes away, and all his dirty clothes go in the hamper. Sweetness cleans up after supper while I take a shower.
Later that night, we're laying in bed after her shower and I'm
running a hand through her wet hair. I love her hair wet. It's slightly curly and I just love the feel of her soft hair. She's resting her head on my chest and her forefinger is drawing what feels like a heart on my stomach.