Love isn't easy

Chapter 27: June 12-14, 2028

June 12, 2028

Mondays had a tendency of being messy in the Park-Manoban household. It was almost as if the children forgot how to function like normal human beings over the two weekend days they had off and when it was time for them to return to school come Monday morning, they expectedly acted like uncivilized savages. Roseanne and Lisa silently dreaded Mondays because those were the days they seemingly had to retrain their litter in order to get them through the week.

This Monday was particularly hectic. It was the kids' last week of school before summer break and they each had different year-end events happening at different points over the next five days. When paired with Lisa's rebooting of the Fishing Line serial killer case after the last one was declared a mistrial and her ramping up the Lucchese investigation along with Roseanne's work schedule, it was all inconvenient, to say the least.

Roseanne's reputation as an artist, gallery manager, and curator, as well as a private art dealer, was quickly ballooning. She was included on the list of most respected private curators in New England which now meant Roseanne was also becoming a coveted consultant and dealer beyond the confines of Dante's MW. Today Roseanne had a meeting with the curator of Boston's Museum Of Fine Arts to discuss a possible limited exhibition of a collection she had recently acquired for MW. Roseanne had to fly to Boston and back within the span of twelve hours meaning Lisa had to take point with the million things happening with the kids today.

The week was kicking off with the year-end showcase that the kid's elementary school organized each year. Rose's first-grade class was putting together an original play based on spelling and reading, Mattheo's third-grade class was doing the musical rendition of 101 Dalmatians, and Annie's fifth grade had events designed to integrate the parents into the acts. The girls in Annie's class were doing a Father/Daughter performance and the boys were doing a Mother/Son act. Lisa doesn't mind crowds in the courtroom, but an audience staring at her while she danced around the stage in a silly costume is on an entirely different realm. That one isn't part of her skill set and even though she's more than slightly uncomfortable with the idea, seeing how happy it made Annie that they were doing this together made the whole venture worth it.

"Your shoes are on the wrong feet."

Lisa pointed out as she whizzes past Rose on her way to the coffee pot. Lisa drops the leash she was holding on the counter and the recently walked dog runs into the kitchen a millisecond behind her. Turtle immediately goes up to Rose. He begins to nudge her legs with his snout and begs for attention knowing full well she was the easiest target in the room. Thirty-five-year-old Roseanne stood behind Rose with a brush in her hand working on detangling her hair before she got to braiding it.

"Seriously, Ro? How did you not feel that was off?" Roseanne looks over the child's shoulder and chastises her as she notices the inverted shoes. "Fix them."

Roseanne lets go of Rose's hair and the six-year-old bends over to remedy the shoe situation, but not before giving the pup a few strokes. Lisa fills her travel mug with coffee and takes a sip of the scalding liquid before she hisses.

"Ahhh!"

"Every morning, Lalisa. Every morning."

Roseanne rolls her eyes because common sense would dictate that her otherwise brilliant and nearly thirty-nine-year-old wife would remember to allow hot things to cool down or at least blow on them before she puts them in her mouth, but apparently not. It doesn't give Roseanne much faith in hoping their children might outgrow it either.

"Run it with me again."

"Roseanne...I got this."

"Humor me."