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(1) | .Riley. | Now

I take a sip of my coffee, holding my mug in my hand. 

You're my rainbow. 

The words were scribed over the ceramic in a black cursive font with a rainbow over the phrase. 

It was the newest gift Arabella had got her mother to buy me. 

Yesterday's gift was this mug along with a box of chocolates. Adam took them to work with him after I had eaten only three. I told him to share it with his colleagues at the office. I wasn't a huge fan of chocolate anyway. 

I sit on the green couch Adam had bought for the lounge only a week ago. We had originally gone with a blue and grey theme but he recently decided to switch it up to green. I suppose blue was my comfort colour and green was his. 

It wasn't an ugly green, it was a seafoam green. Like the waters of a lagoon. Almost meshing into a cyan. 

I watch the world beneath me as people walk along up and down the streets, carrying on with their day-to-day lives. 

Watching people in the city felt almost therapeutic. It's reassuring to know everyone has their own story to tell and their own problems and issues to contend with in this ever long lifetime. It's not just one person carrying weights on their shoulders. 

Someone was moving in. The truck taking up the road said it all. 

There were about three workmen helping to load the furniture inside the apartment. They would have to argue with Tony, the doorman, when it comes to discussing how they were thinking of getting that furniture up here from down in the lobby. 

I take another sip from my coffee and lean my forehead against the seafoam couch. 

The buzzer on the wall vibrates, gaining my attention. 

I tilt my head and look away from the truck outside. I keep my coffee held in the palm of my hand and crawl across the couch to press the tip of my thumb against the receiver. 

"Riley? I'm here to drop Arabella off," Sydney tells me. 

Shoot. I had completely forgotten I was meant to be looking after her today. 

Well, I knew I was looking after her because I look after her daily, but I lost track of the time, too-caught up in a novel. 

"It's open," I say through the speaker after pressing down on the button. The sound vibrates from the box and the door shortly opens to reveal my two favourite people other than Adam.

Arabella must have just finished her swimming class because she was wearing a pair of shorts with a tank top tucked into it while her curls had been packed up into a high bun on top of her head but was clearly dripping wet. 

She sees me and the second I see the warm smile crawl across her lips, I know to put my coffee down. Before I burnt at least one of us. 

I place my mug down on the windowsill and she runs up to me in an instant. Her arms fling around my neck as I pick her up. Her legs tangle around my torso and I adjust her weight so she wasn't as heavy on just one side of my body. I level her six-year-old self out and hold her to my side. 

"Guess what, Riley!" It was an exclamation and the grin on her face doesn't dissipate from her cheeks for even a second. 

I always wondered how children could smile so much for as long as they do. How do their cheeks not hurt from their cheesy grins? 

I suppose they're the one segment of the world who don't have problems and issues to fret over in both the day and at night. 

"I'm now a dolphin!"