Still

11.

Chapter Eleven

Maia entered the classroom and greeted the preschool teacher. The children were scattered around, playing with me another. She didn't have to look hard to know that Olivia was in the corner playing dress up with her friends. When she turned around to see who had entered the room, her eyes lit up.

"Auntie Mai Mai!" Olivia's loud voice took over the classroom. She began removing the Elsa dress from her body.

Mai matched her energy, squatting down to her level with her arms stretched out. Olivia ran right into her arms like normal, wrapping her small arms around her neck. Mai wrapped her own arms her body and squeezed her gently. "How are you, my big girl?"

The teacher walked over, allowing them their moment. Mai had Olivia go and grab her belongings so that she could speak with the teacher. Liv's teacher, Ms. Sarah would always come and give a daily recap verbally, even though she would place one in her backpack, as well. Today, Olivia had done amazing. She was nice, smart, and well behaved, which is what Mai loved to hear.

"Alright, kiddo, how was school?" Mai asked once they were situated in the car. Olivia was safely buckled in her booster seat.

"It was fun, Auntie! We had splash day, so I got wet! We had so much fun."

Her excitement was through the roof, which led Mai to believe that she hadn't taken a nap today. She sounded like she was just running on adrenaline at this point. "Good. What do you want for dinner?"

"Hmmm," Olivia said, placing a finger on her face to ponder on what she wanted. She was one of the pickiest eater that Maia had ever met in her life. If there was one thing on the plate that she didn't like, she wouldn't eat anything. "Chick-Fil-A?"

Because she was tired from the week so far, Maia was thankful for the choice. The line for Chick-Fil-A was out into the street, but it didn't take the girls long to manuever through the drive thru and receive their food. Once they'd gotten it, they were back at Mai's apartment an devouring the food.

"Auntie, did Mommy really say not to call?" Olivia inquired, dipping her chicken nugget into the Polynesian sauce.

Mai sat across from her at the table with her own food. Asia had requested for this time to just be about her husband. As a mother, yes, you always wanted to talk to your children, but it was important that Asia didn't have to worry about Olivia. "Well, not in a bad way," Maia replied. "Mommy just wants to spend some time with your dad."

"Does she miss me?"

Mai gave her a look as if it were a silly question. "Uh, duh. Did you know that every time I'm away from you, I miss you?"

Olivia's eyes sparkled. "Really?"

Matching her energy, Maia exclaimed, "Yes! You are one of my favorite people in the entire world. I always miss seeing those beautiful brown eyes and that big ole wide smile."

Olivia cheesed happily and wiggled around in her chair. "Are we gonna do fun stuff?"

Yawning, Maia thought about it for a moment. Truthfully, she was hoping that they could just chill out tonight and do absolutely nothing. She had a lot of work to do. Because she was having to get Olivia to preschool on time, she had been waking up a bit earlier than she would have normally liked.

"Like what?"

Olivia scrunched her face up in thought. She had great ideas, but didn't know how to put a plan in motion. The two had decided on something simple tonight. After their respective baths, they put on the matching pajamas that Maia had purchased. She wanted to watch a Disney movie before it was time for her to go to bed.