All Over Again

Chapter One

Three years later

"And who do we have over here?" I ask my little angel sitting in front of me.

"Mama." She shouts proudly.

"That's me?" I fake gasp.

"Yes." She nods her head, her little curls bouncing around her face.

"Mama looks beautiful." I kiss her little chubby cheeks as she giggles.

It's been three years since I stormed out of that restaurant Stanley decided to so kindly humiliate me in. Three years since I last saw him.

Well that is a total lie, because you can't turn on the TV or even pick up a magazine without seeing his face plastered all over it. On that horrendous day he decided to abandon his responsibilities as a father, there were some young girls in the diner who decided to humiliate him right back and videoed the whole ordeal. They sold it to a news agency and that was the talk of the town for a couple of weeks. Thankfully my face wasn’t shown in the video, just the back of my figure as I stormed out of the diner.

Lots of people had their speculation about who the mystery woman is. Yes, they have gone as far as to call me a mystery woman, bunch of idiots. I have a feeling that the people I used to work with knows that it’s me and I am so very grateful that they haven’t decided to go to the news and tell them that it was me.

I'm getting sick of seeing his beautiful face everywhere I go and I can't get to punch him in it. Put a little bruise or two on his perfect face.

Three years since I've last been with a man. Two years since I've been working at the supermarket down the street across from Mia's daycare. Three years since I've vowed to ruin him bit by bit, and I don't even have a plan.

Mia is my little angel. She's two and a half years old, will be three in a few months. Her birthday brings back some bittersweet memories of how much her dad wasn't there to hold my hand when I was lying in that delivery room for hours. How he just always seem to never be there when her birthday rolls around for the last two years. Not even a text or call to ask if the child is alright. He doesn't have to ask if 'his child’ is okay, just at least ask if the kid is okay. And I'm confident he still has my number, because I still have his.

None of that ever happened though, and it makes me want to punch him in his beautiful face even more. The love that I had, and still have for Stanley is insane. Maybe it’s still there because he gave me the best gift a woman could ever have.

Yes, it might be a lot of work at times but I wouldn’t trade my baby for anything, I would however trade the way it happened though.

"Mama, ice cream." She blinks up at me.

What always hurts when she does that, her eyes are the same shade of blue as Stanley's. Looking into her eyes draws me back to how I couldn't resist Stanley's eyes, and how his eyes had drawn me into bed with him, which is why I am where I am.

But I don't regret a thing. I would do it all over again if it meant having this little angel in front of me.

"Okay baby, but let's wait for Aunt Jessica okay." I said softly.

"Aunt Jess, yay." She shouts as she runs out in to the backyard.

Jessica is a friend of mine that I met when I started working at the supermarket. She is a cashier there and so she helped me into getting a job and I will forever be grateful to her for it. I can still remember our conversation to this day.

Flashback

"You look a little lost. Who's that little angel in your hands?" She asks pointing at Mia.

By then Mia was like a tiny doll I had wrapped in my hands, her almost one year old self snoring away in a peaceful slumber.

"This is my baby girl, Mia." I answered her, smiling down at my baby.

"She's beautiful, just like her mom." She smiled softly at me.

"Thank you. Could you cash these for me?"

I wasn’t very good with compliments especially because I know that I look like I was ravaged by a pack of hyenas. So before I could start blushing as red as an apple, I pushed the diapers and a bottle of orange juice towards her.

"Sure thing." She grabbed them with a sly smile and swiped them under the machine.

"That'll be $10.41." She says.

"I-I don't have that much money. It's just a pack of diapers and a bottle of orange juice, how could it possibly cost that much?" I ask

"It depends on the brand of things you buy hun. But tell you what, I'll pay for em, if you promise to come back and take an interview to work here."

I couldn't believe her at that point because why would you ever tell that someone that you just met? Maybe they were understaffed and needed workers, so I did the only thing that came to mind. I nodded and told her yes.

End of Flashback

"Babe, I'm home." I hear an all too familiar voice ring out through the house.

"I'm in the living room." I call back.

Jessica stepped through with a bright smile on her pouty lips, her eyes sparkling. Her black as midnight hair hung loose on her shoulders as she brushed it back from her bright green eyes. That look meant only one thing: Trouble.

"Hey babe." She drawled as she sat beside me, a hand resting on my thigh.

She leaned in and gave me a quick kiss smack on the mouth.

Important detail: she's lesbian.

Kissing me on the lips is her way of greeting me, and I've never had a problem with it. She's my best friend and I know it means nothing since she's rolling in the sheets with a different girl every night. But we keep Mia far away from that sort of thing. She’s either asleep or she’s playing somewhere.

"Hey you. Mia wanted to go get ice cream, you up for it?" I smile at her.

"Yeah sure, just let me get her.” She says standing up from the couch. “Where's my little cupcake?" She asks loud enough for Mia to hear.

We hear the squealing and the thud of her little feet before we even see her.

"Aunt Jessica." She throws herself at Jess as she picks her up and twirls her, their giggles heard throughout the house.

"Ready to go get ice cream, cupcake?" Jessica asks Mia.

"Yea, ice cream." She squeals.

"Let's go then." Jess hoists Mia up on her shoulders and heads for the door.

And off we go.