𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 • 𝘣𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴 [✔]

chapter one hundred forty five.

JUNE 2020
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
ESME'S THIRD BIRTHDAY

"Where's the little love bug?"

"Hey, Jessie, how are you?"

"Oh my god, Esme!" Jessie practically ran past Ben, who held the door open for his castmates. One by one, they all greeted him.

"Hi, how are you, babe?" Jessie hugged Claudia. "You look amazing."

Claudia had recently dyed her hair to brown after years of it being blonde. When Ben saw her brown hair, he flipped, but in a good way as he put it.
"Thanks, you look even more amazing."

"Hand over the baby, woman." Claudia heard one of Ben's cast mates, Kit, say.

"Hold on, I was here first and Esme loves me more, right baby?" Jessie placed kisses on Esme's face.

"Jess!" Esme said as she laughed. "It tickles!"

Jessie took Esme out of Claudia's arms. "Mind if I show her our gifts?"

"She's going to love mine more than yours that's for sure." Kit teased, holding up a wrapped present.

"You didn't have to-" Claudia didn't get the chance to speak as Kit gave the present to Esme and helped her rip it open.

"Claudia!" The teacher heard Amita greet her. "How are you? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!" The two women hugged.

"Right? I keep telling Ben we should all hang out soon, but work keeps me busy. And so does this one," Claudia turned her attention to Esme, who was playing with the wrapping paper instead of Kit's gift which was a Barbie doll. "Sweetface, play with this one, Kit brought it for you." Claudia took the wrapping paper from Esme's hands.

"Oh, Esme!" The three year old heard her name and looked up to see Danielle and Calahan with more gifts in the hands. "I got you some pretty gifts." Danielle crouched down and took out a My Melody plushie and handed it to the small girl.

"Melody!" Esme gasped. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome, sweet girl," Danielle gave Esme a hug. "We sent Ben to get the rest of the gifts. They're in the car."

"Don't worry, everything is recyclable." Calahan added.

"She's all good on toys now." Jessie smiled as she took Esme's hand and led her to the living room to play with her new toys.

"She better not ask for anything else for Christmas."

By the end of the night, Claudia was tired. She had just put Esme to bed when Ben called her from the living room. He had just finished picking up all the trash from the table.

"Esme asleep?" He asked as he threw himself on the sofa.

"Yeah. She insisted on reading the book that Jessie got her three times. She even made me do voice for each of the characters." Claudia joined him on the sofa.

"Let's sleep in tomorrow," Ben grabbed her hand and gently pressed a kiss on the back of it. "We can ask Janis to look after Esme. They're best friends anyways."

"She's out of town with Edward. They're in Texas for a music festival. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are playing and Edward wants to see them. Plus he somehow got backstage passes because Flea is a big fan of Edward's movies. Can Lucy babysit?"

"Nope, she's with Andrew and his family in London for a wedding I think."

After going through a list of potential babysitters, Claudia heard a whimper come from the doorway. There stood Esme with a blanket wrapped around her tiny body and her my melody plushie. "What's wrong, sweetface?" Claudia stood up from her spot and walked towards her daughter then picked her up.