2-4
445 Words
ALEX EATS CURLED UP next to Paul on the couch, their shoulders pressed together. Alex doesn’t even care when Paul’s laughter makes his arm jiggle. If he has to endure everyone else, at least Paul is happy.
The conversation starts to drift, away from Iceland and the kids and the activities they have planned, to their lives back in L.A. At first, Alex is content to get caught up with everyone’s doings while he’s been gone. But as the stories go on the conversation becomes less about filling Alex in and more about Paul, Liam and Carly chatting amongst themselves. Alex feels left out.
His sense of exclusion is hardly something he can complain about when he’s the one who agreed to move to Iceland for four months. He doesn’t really mind being off the hook for their weekly family meetings to discuss schedules, the kids, agreements, and anything else that needs discussing. But still, he’s grateful when Vic wakes up and starts hollering, giving him an excuse to leave the cozy little family circle that apparently doesn’t need him to function. He takes a sleepily protesting Ali with him, because jetlag is not an excuse for ignoring bedtimes.
Ali busies herself in the bathroom getting washed up and her pjs on, while Alex confronts the bundle of angry eighteen-month-old. Claudia, who’s been woken up by the noise, is now also crying.
Alex cannot for the life of him figure out what is pissing Vic off so much or what to do about it. He just knows he probably should not be this relieved to be dealing with two distraught babies, except that he has missed these kids. Small children may not be particularly intelligible, but they are at least direct and honest about their emotions. In light of the life Alex lives in L.A., it’s refreshing.
Vic finally calms down when he picks her up out of the crib and starts walking her around the room. Within minutes, she’s snuffling quietly with her face buried in his shoulder. When he tries to put her back down, though, she shrieks and kicks at the bars and yells “No!” at the top of her tiny-yet-effective lungs.
Claudia, who had started to drop off in the meantime, starts crying again.
“So, not the crib?” Alex asks.
“No!”
“Okay then. You know you’re gonna have to go in the crib eventually.”
“No!”
“Because as much as I’d love to walk you around all night, you’ve got to sleep somewhere.”
“No!”
Someday, Alex is going to tell Vic the story of his very strange life and the ultimately terrible advice his best friend Gemma gave him the night he came home with the offer from Victor to be a star: You can’t say no. And, if he raises her right, Vic is going to find it f*****g hilarious.
***
- Writer
