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732 Words
ALEX PICKS CLAUDIA up only to have her turn her face away from him and reach for Paul. Which he knows is fair. She’s only nine months old and, near-daily video calls aside, she hasn’t seen him in two months. But her rejection still hurts.
Finally, after a lot of quiet conversation with Paul, Claudia gets used to Alex enough to babble at him very seriously from the safety of Paul’s lap. Finally, to Alex’s inexpressible relief, she smiles shyly and climbs from Paul onto him for a hug. She very nearly strangles Alex in the process. Children are, as ever, a highly mixed blessing.
Behind him, Carly rummages through his kitchen cupboards as she fixes them a dinner of Icelandic hot dogs and salad.
“You are amazing and I will totally cook you dinner tomorrow,” Alex says to her as he gently pries the baby’s fingers off his throat.
“You’re f*****g right I am,” Carly says. “And yes you are. I’m being nice to you tonight, I’m not being your housewife. Where the f**k is your salt?”
“Cupboard over the stove,” Alex says in the same sing-song voice he’s been using to speak to Claudia.
Alex’s relationship with Carly isn’t as intense as his relationship with Liam, but it’s nearly as hard to define. He’s a bit afraid of her, but he also trusts her deeply. Sure, they’re raising their kids together, and Alex f****d her during his and Paul’s first, and so far only, foray into threesomes. But she’s always been his magical advice-giver of last resort. She’s also one of the few people who is absolutely clear and candid with him. He appreciates her more than he has words for and is glad he can express his fondness with friendly bickering. She gets it.
Being cooped up in a small house with Liam, Carly, and the kids in the middle of nowhere is the sort of experience they had once tried to avoid. At this point in their lives, though, it seems perfectly natural. Last year Carly and Liam moved into the house two doors down from him and Paul. Alex had been incredibly dubious about the wisdom of having so little breathing space, but given how entwined their lives are logistically, living close to each other was highly convenient. Besides, as Carly and Paul continually point out, it was either the house two doors down or two neighborhoods over.
The arrangement has, so far, worked out well enough. They’re all still on speaking terms, and Alex doesn’t find Liam any more irritating than usual. The accessibility of babysitters alone has been a lifesaver; Alex doesn’t trust many people with his daughter, but he trusts Liam and Carly.
Alex feels a little terrible for the couple with the house between theirs, though; the stalkers tend to park in their driveway.
“What have you been feeding her?” Alex asks Carly as he bounces Claudia on his knees to make her giggle. She’s grown so much.
“Only the finest f*****g organic, grass-fed, free-range baby foods available. All made by hand in my copious free time,” Carly deadpans.
Paul chuckles. Nobody in their households would be into the whole organic free-range thing even if they did have the time.
Vic, who’s now a year and a half old and walking — a new development since Alex saw her last — grabs the edge of the coffee table and strains a little arm forward to try to grab Paul’s coffee cup. Paul clucks at her, moves the cup farther out of baby-reach, and scoops Vic up onto the couch with them.
“Do you want boiled sheep heads tomorrow?” Alex asks Carly benignly. “I’ve got a recipe.”
“You’re so full of shit.” Carly laughs. “Ali, go wake your father up.”
“He has a clock,” she says from her armchair, looking up from Julie of the Wolves.
“Not that works,” Carly points out. Alex snorts.
As if on cue Liam staggers out from one of the extra bedrooms. “What? I’m awake.”
He sounds like nothing of the sort. The ridiculous candy-cane-striped pajama bottoms and shirtlessness don’t help. Still, Alex is glad to see him. He hands Claudia off to Paul so he can stand up to say hello.
“Whoa, you got built,” Liam says as Alex hugs him. Then Liam kisses him on the mouth, like he always does, but apparently forgets to stop so that it winds up being not at all chaste.
Alex laughs, splutters and pushes him away. “I missed you too.”
“Oh man, sorry, still not awake.” Liam scrubs a hand through the absolute disaster of his hair.
“Clearly,” Carly says. “Please go get dressed so we can eat?”
“Okay.” Liam shuffles back to the bedroom. Paul cracks up.
Ali looks up from her book again. “Sorry my dad is bad at shit.”
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- Writer
