Rumor Has It

Part 8

It was one of those days where nothing seemed to go smoothly and sometimes it was like having a stubborn 4-year-old back in their home. Bradley had been trying to work in his office, but a tense atmosphere was hanging around the house and he knew it was at least partially because Irina was going to have their daughter for the following week.

He was balancing his laptop in one hand and his coffee cup in the other when he came into the living room. The situation looked peaceful, his daughter kneeling on the floor in front of the table as usual, with her art supplies covering every inch of it.

But Bradley knew he had to bring it up when neither of them wanted to discuss it.

"Lea, go try your dress on, please."

The girl didn't look up and was instead still writing into a little notebook she had covered in stickers.

"Lea."

"What?"

"The dress for your grammy's birthday. Try it on, please, I need to let your mom know if it fits."

"What dress?" She asked, still not looking at him.

"The dress that Mommy got you for next week." He said, pointing at the bag still sitting in the kitchen.

"I already tried it."

"It's still in the bag, Lea."

"I tried it and it fits."

Bradley sighed. "It was in my car the entire time. I know you haven't put it on."

His daughter huffed angrily and finally jumped up to stomp out of the room. Before he could even begin to clear the table to make room for his laptop, her blonde head suddenly popped up next to him again and took the colorful notebook with her.

"It's PRIVATE." She grumbled as she left towards the kitchen again.

Bradley sat down on the couch, surveying the mess in front of him. His mother would understand. But he still had the slip of paper with Stefani's number on it too. He spent a few minutes wondering if it was too early. After all, they must have gotten home late.

He looked at his phone again and searched up that article with the photos he had seen in the morning. Both Todd and Stefani looked tired and red-faced in them and he was sure they were both handling hangovers by now. But she could always choose not to answer.

He was nervous when he punched the number into his phone, saving the contact as "Stefani" as if it were any ordinary new friend. Bradley turned the phone in his hand a few times, now unsure what he should even write. Maybe he was overthinking this. She had been the one giving him her number and she was going to expect a message sooner or later, so he overcame his nervousness and wrote it.

"Hi Stefani. It's Bradley. The show was amazing yesterday, thank you again for the tickets. I hope you got home okay."

Bradley sent it and then felt a nervous rush like he was a teenager who just asked someone out for the first time. Of course she got home okay, there were at least two large guys in suits whose job it was to get her home safely. Bradley groaned, annoyed at himself and nervous, and he was suddenly so relieved when he saw Lea's grumpy face in front of him again.

"It doesn't fit." She mumbled and turned to show him how the zipper on the bright blue dress wasn't going to close. Bradley was thinking about playing the "I told you so" card but she already looked so frustrated and he didn't need another argument.

"It's okay. That's why Mommy sent it early. So we can take it and get it fixed on Monday."

Lea nodded and started climbing onto the couch next to him. He ran his hand through her hair and threw a careful glance at his phone, but there was no reply yet.

"Let's both get changed and then we'll go out to the park." He suggested, hoping not to start another mood and he really needed some kind of distraction too or he would be looking at his phone every minute.

Thanks to Lea's new interest in dancing and ballet, she could keep herself busy at the horizontal bars on the playground for longer than Bradley could recall. He watched her "practice" and even talk to another kid about it, which was always a good sign. For a while she had only wanted to play with him right next to her and now it was enough if he stood nearby, watching every time she had learned something new.

Bradley startled when he finally felt his phone vibrate with a message. He quickly unlocked it, only to find another message from Todd instead of the one he was hoping for.

"Bradley, you really should have joined us yesterday. You missed out!"

He rolled his eyes, a bit of jealousy rising in him, because maybe that had been a unique opportunity he had missed out on and he couldn't get it back now.

"I had to go. Let's repeat it another time?" He sent back, hoping to sound casual.

The answer came quickly and completely ignored his question. "If we ever do make that movie, we have to get Stefani involved."

They were pipe dreams, he wanted to remind him, but chose not to answer for now. He guessed they would never be able to afford her involvement, if it even could ever happen.

His phone vibrated again and he got ready to tell Todd to knock it off because he was getting his hopes up uselessly, but it was Stefani's name at the top of his screen.

"Hey Bradley, hope you got home okay too. You should join us next time!"

Next time?

"I'm good. I'll definitely join you next time." He wrote back and then realized after sending it that he had maybe been a bit too quick to reply. He was thankful when Lea called for him again and his phone stayed awfully silent for the rest of the afternoon.

*

Bradley was having his mother over for dinner again and was discussing his options for his next job with her while getting everything ready. The one thing he wanted was something that would have less travel time, maybe even filming here around LA. Something that would let him come home in the evenings.

"I'll find a nanny for my next job, so you don't always have to jump in." He said and Gloria only looked at him, shaking her head in disbelief.

"I don't mind staying with her at all. Hopefully she can stay with me sometime too."

"When she handles sleeping over better." Bradley interjected quietly.

"She's not going to learn it if we never teach her." His mother reminded him. "You have to let go and send her over too."

It was the perfect moment to excuse himself before he would come up with an answer to that. He knew she was at least a little bit right and now wasn't the time to deal with it.

His phone was lighting up and Bradley's heart was beating faster when he saw she had sent a picture. He squinted at it when he opened it and recognized her living room, covered in a mess of art supplies and among them a notebook that looked similar to the one Lea had clutched to herself.

"I thought this was supposed to get easier as they get older." Stefani had added and a smile spread across his face, because it looked just like his own home at the moment.

He decided to take a picture of their current dinner situation instead, with Lea hands-deep in a bowl of dough and the kitchen a mess.

"My living room looks exactly the same. But then there are moments like this."

Bradley sent it without thinking but making sure his mother wasn't noticing. It took barely a minute before he got one back, but this time her comment calling Lea adorable was followed by a picture of herself, kitchen an equal mess and dinner half done.

"Mine wasn't feeling it, so I'm on my own here."

"Good thing we were going to come over next weekend." He wrote back and at least the messaging part suddenly felt very easy.