Brown Eyes | Loubbie

Chapter Twenty Two

"Can I talk to momma, mommy?"

Sandra smiled at her beautiful Laila through the screen. It had been three days of not being with the kids, and they missed them so much. She sat up, carefully and silently, trying her hardest to not wake the woman sleeping beside her. The bed jiggled, and Cate shifted a little, tightening her arm snaking on the brunette's waist while her face was buried under a pillow. It was already ten in the evening and Cate was already asleep. Louis and Laila should be sleeping at that time of the night, but Laila woke up their babysitter up, insisting that she needed to talk to her moms because she couldn't sleep.

Sandra pouted, "Baby, I'm sorry, but momma is already sleeping." She whispered through the phone and it made the little kid on the other line chuckle. "But to tell you, momma misses you so much."

"Really?"

"Yes. And I do too. We miss you and Louis so much."

"Mommy, show me momma sleeping. I wanna see her please."

Sandra laughed before giving a yes to what her daughter wanted. She then flipped the phone and directed the camera towards the sleeping blonde, body tangled along the blankets, hair messy, but despite those things, the silent audiences still drew smiles on their faces. She was breathtakingly beautiful. With her face so tranquil and warm, she was out of this world. A gem, a treasure, something that should be kept.

"Momma is so beautiful, mommy." Sandra heard Laila spoke up, voice dreamy and velvet, and no, Laila didn't lie.

Without taking her attention back to her phone, eyes still glued on the blonde, she smiled. "Yeah, she really is."

The unnoticeable and small freckles adorning the blonde's cheeks were glowing. Lashes long, pointed nose, thin and pink lips partly opened; and Sandra wondered if Cate knew how beautiful she was. She couldn't help herself from smiling just by looking at her lover sleeping. She almost forget that she was facetiming Laila, and she was only brought back to reality when the kid spoke quitely.

"Mommy, you're beautiful too."

Sandra sat up back again, giggling from what she heard. Laila yawned before she drew a smile for her mom. Sandra watched as Laila brought her chin on her knees and she could see the beaming happiness onto her kid's eyes even from the screen.

"I'm beautiful?"

Laila nodded.

She grinned, "But I have wrinkles, baby."

"Why do you have wrinkles, mom?"

"Because mommy's old. But, I also hope some of them are from laughing too much."

"You're not old, mommy. You're just happy."

"How do you know I'm happy?"

Lailw yawned once more, "Because mommy Catie loves you and you love her. And my teacher said that when two people love, they're happy. And I know you're happy, both of you and..," the little kid pouted, "I'm sleepy now, mommy."

Sandra chuckled, "Sleep now, baby. I love you and Louis. We'll see you both in three days. Mommy is sending you lots of kisses and hugs." She mumbled, placing a kiss on the screen before she screen completely turned blank.

She loved how much her kids grew up with an open mind. They understood that loving doesn't have to be based on genders, and at such young ages, they knew how imperative it is to be opened for inclusivity. She placed her phone down on the side table and was about to come off the bed when Cate tightened her arm on her waist, subtly pulling her back.

"Stay..."

Her voice was heavy, yet soft. Warm and thick. Dreamy and insisting. Sandra paused and smiled looking at Cate with her eyes still closed. She didn't know if she was awake, or if she was just sleep talking. But nonetheless, she went back to bed. She faced Cate as she gently tugged her head, placing it on her arm. Cate immediately moved, snuggling closer and burying her face onto Sandra's neck.

"Why are you awake?" Cate asked, kissing Sandra's pulse point.

"Laila couldn't sleep. We facetimed for a bit."

The blonde moved away. Lips pouting as she rubbed her eyes, "Why didn't you wake me up? I wanna talk to my peach."

The brunette giggled before she clipped Cate's nose with her fingers, "And that's because you were sleeping."

Cate rolled her eyes and was about to say something when her phone beeped on the bedside table. Who on earth would call on such ungodly hours? She ignored it and went to snuggling with the brunette, but it kept on ringing. After a few minutes, she lazily picked it up and was shocked when it had multiple missed calls from her ex-husband, Andrew.

"This couldn't be happening." She muttered under her breath as she sat on bed right away.

"What happened?"

"Dash... he. Oh, my goodness my son." And with that, Cate's tears fell like waterfalls as she sobbed.

Sandra, in full shock and horror grabbed Cate's phone on bed. And she too, upon reading what's on the screen was shocked. Her hand flew to her mouth as she looked at  Cate in despair. That couldn't be happening. She stared at Cate and for the very first time, after so many years, she saw that look again on Cate's face. She couldn't descibe the look being plastered on her partner's face, but she was sure she once saw it, back in the days when they first called their relationship quits. There was pain, worries, everything was mixed up. She knew it was definitely more than a heartbreak and she too, was feeling the same. With tears on Sandra's eyes and with her trembling hands, she spooned the blonde with a hug.

"I don't know... I can't.... I'm - I don't know what--"

"Shh, babe. I'm here." Sandra backed and cupped Cate's face, her thumbs wiping the blonde's tears right away, "Listen. We will go back home. And we will make this right. Everything will be alright. I promise."

Cate shook her head, "What if I'm late? What if it doesn't -- what if?" The blonde stopped, deadtrack as she stood up from the bed, her hands clutching her head.

"Babe..." Sandra stood up, reached out as she tried to hold  her again, "Calm down, please."

"How can I calm down? It's my son! It's my fucking son!"

It was loud. Too loud that Sandra had to sit down. Her knees felt too brittle and she thought that standing up would do her no good. She was silent and so was Cate. But the tears dripping out of her didn't seem to stop and she was worried. The whole space fell into a definite silence and Sandra had to watch as Cate slumped herself on the floor, sobbing. She wanted to hug her once more, to calm her down, to pacify her and to tell her that everything was going to be alright, but her body felt too weak and she had lost the feels of her own skin. She couldn't do it. She didn't know how to. All she was feeling was the cracking of her own heart having to watch Cate breaking down, crumbling into pieces and there she was, helpless too.

"Perhaps, this wasn't right." Cate broke the silence, voice firm as if she had been thinking the whole time.

And with that, Sandra cried silently even more. That wasn't supposed to happen.

***