Unofficial First Girlfriend

CHAPTER 13

Clark offered to wash the dishes so I could give Naiah a bath and put her to bed already. He carried the plates to the sink, and Naiah and I went to the bathroom.

"Am I still going to trace numbers?" she asked as I undressed her.

"No, baby."

"Yay. I'm tired."

It had been a busy day at the diner but I still managed to teach her how to trace numbers. She wanted to trace the number 8 because she thinks it was a cute number. I told her that she cannot trace 8 without learning the first numbers before it. After arguing, I was glad she conceded and later on, found tracing numbers interesting. At least it saved me from another day of scattered toys. Although, I still had to pick up a few pieces of crayons on the floor.

After Naiah's bath, I noticed that Clark had already kept the crayons in its box. We went upstairs to get her dressed. Clark was already watching TV.

"Dada, I traced numbers 1 and 2 and 3," Naiah cheerfully narrated.

He lowered the TV's volume and faced Naiah. He had listened to her talk about it earlier, but he was still giving her his attention. "That's good. Did you enjoy tracing the numbers?"

"Yes! Will you tuck me to bed tonight?"

He glanced at me before responding, "Sure."

He stood up from the couch and raced with her to her bedroom. I could hear her giggling inside the room, and I couldn't help but smile.

I walked to our bedroom to change the sheets. I had forgotten to do it in the morning when Mama had called me on the phone.

I pulled out the new sheets from the closet and placed them on top of our desk when I noticed one of Clark's documents. It was about a one-week out-of-town job caravan happening tomorrow.

I eyed the document. Clark hadn't mentioned this yet. Well, we hadn't had a decent talk in the past two days—since I hang out with Nick, Sab, and Bryce. He certainly didn't like the idea of me hanging out with the guy he hates, but he didn't say anything. Sometimes, we had a tendency to be passive-aggressive.

I returned the paper, back to its original place and proceeded to change our sheets as quickly as possible. When I was done, Clark was still in Naiah's bedroom, and I could hear him reading her a bedtime story. I went to the bathroom and took a quick shower. When I went back to the bedroom, Clark was already packing his things.

Wow, he's really going.

I pretended not to notice what he was doing—or not care about what he was doing. I walked over to the dresser and grabbed my lotion.

"Hey, there's a job caravan and the company picked a few employees from the HR department..." he began, and I still didn't bother to look at him. "I was one of the chosen employees."

"When's the job caravan?" I asked, turning on my heels to face him as I rub lotion on my arms.

"Tomorrow."

"Oh."

He zipped the front compartment of his duffel bag. "Are you going to be okay here? Or do you want to stay with your mom?"

"I think I'm going to be okay."

"Okay..." he replied but didn't sound okay. "But I'm not really comfortable leaving you and Naiah here alone for a week."

"Oh, right. I'll ask Mama if Naiah could stay with them until you get back here."

He nodded and went back to packing his clothes. I leaned against the dresser and watched him try to fit his stuff in his bag. He was having a hard time and it was uncomfortable to watch him because he was doing it all wrong. At least, he was doing my method incorrectly.