Chapter 19
655 Words
Lena’s POV
Mateo spit up on me before 9AM. Twice.
Not like a cute little dribble either. No, this was a full-body event. I was already running on four hours of sleep and one sad half-toast, so naturally, I handled it by dramatically whisper-yelling into a burp cloth.
“Why are you like this, my child?”
He blinked up at me like he didn’t appreciate the drama.
Honestly? Fair.
I had the house to myself. Ethan had left for his internship with barely a grunt of goodbye, coffee in hand, hair still damp from the world’s fastest shower. He hadn’t even made a snarky comment. Just a quiet, “Don’t forget the diaper delivery’s coming today,” before disappearing like the fog he is.
Which, okay. Cool. Chill. Totally fine. I didn’t need his banter to start my day or anything.
I bounced Mateo on my hip and glared at the baby monitor like it had opinions. “We don’t need him, do we?” I asked Mateo, who promptly sneezed in my face.
Beautiful.
The day blurred.
Feeding. Napping. More spit-up. I did laundry. I half-watched a lecture while folding baby socks. At one point, I texted Callie “SEND HELP” and she just replied with a photo of her toddler hiding inside the dryer.
Motherhood.
At around 4PM, I finally managed to get Mateo down for his longest nap of the day. I stood in the living room in complete silence, still holding the baby monitor like a sacred artifact, unsure whether to eat, cry, or nap.
The front door opened. Ethan stepped in.
His hair was windblown. He looked like he’d been through a war, but like, a hot war. Not that I cared.
“Hey,” he said, voice tired.
“Hey,” I answered. Then, because the silence stretched too long, I added, “We survived.”
He glanced around. “The house looks… not destroyed.”
“I know. Be proud of me.”
He smirked, dropping his bag on the floor. “You didn’t burn anything down. Gold star.”
I rolled my eyes and headed to the kitchen to find something resembling dinner. He followed. Of course.
“So, how was internship?” I asked, mostly to be polite.
He shrugged, leaned against the counter. “Fine. Busy. My supervisor’s still convinced I can read her mind.”
“Can you?”
“No. But I’ve started nodding like I can, which is probably worse.”
I snorted. “Fake it till you’re fired.”
He smiled at that just slightly and for a moment, it was like old times. Before diapers and shared responsibilities. Before the whole weird tension thing between us became its own third roommate.
Then he reached past me to grab a glass, and his arm brushed mine. Just for a second.
I froze.
So did he.
The air changed.
“Sorry,” he muttered, stepping back like I was contagious.
“It’s fine,” I said, a little too fast.
We didn’t say anything after that.
Later, we were both on the couch him on his laptop, me pretending to scroll my phone but really just watching Mateo sleep on the monitor. The silence was too comfortable and too awkward at the same time. Like we were both waiting for something, but neither of us would be the first to move.
Finally, Ethan said, “You did good today.”
I looked over. “Huh?”
“With Mateo. The house. Everything.” His voice was quiet. “You were on your own and you handled it.”
It shouldn’t have made me emotional. But it did. I was tired. I was raw. And hearing that from him?
I nodded. “Thanks.”
He stared at me for a second. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
There it was the smirk.
I threw a pillow at him.
- Writer
