Watermelon

Dinner & A Movie

[a lil spicy]

Camila's eyes moved towards the front door when she heard it unlock and open. It was Jace, his backpack slung over his shoulder.

"Hey. How was your first day back after break?"

"Alright," he shrugged. "I'm still not a fan of algebra but I got to see Chloe and my friends so I guess you take the good with the bad." Jace leaned down and picked up Maggie, who had been eagerly waiting for a hug at his feet. "Where's Posie?"

"She's sleeping."

"Babies sleep a lot," he noted, setting Maggie back down on the floor and walking towards the kitchen for an after-school snack.

"When they're that young, it's mainly sleeping, eating, and changing their diaper," Camila confirmed. Jace nodded toward Camila's laptop where she had been typing up a document.

"Whatcha working on?"

"It's actually something Shawn and I have to do for the adoption," she smiled. "It's an autobiographical statement. Basically, we just have to give some basic info about our life. They have this whole set of questions that need to be answered in the statement."

"What's the point of that?"

"I think it's mostly used so that parents that are putting their child up for adoption can get to know the people who might be adopting their kid. But in this case, I think it's more for the agency to know that we're well-rounded people with no crazy problems in their past."

"Hm." Jace sat down on the large armchair across from where Camila sat on the couch. "How is the adoption stuff going?"

"Good." Camila smiled, taking a break from typing to talk to the teenage boy. "We've done a few interviews with different people and had to take a training course, now we're doing this. After this, they'll do background checks and we'll have to get health reports done so they know we're both healthy and have a normal life expectancy. They'll have to do a report on our finances too, so they know we're responsible and financially sound enough to take care of two kids. They'll come and do a home visit, but that probably won't happen until we're in the new house. After that, I think the only thing left for us is referrals. Once we get those sent in, it's all just a waiting game."

"Referrals?"

"Mhm. Basically just giving them the names and contact information of people who will vouch for us being good parents."

Jace nodded slowly. "Well, I'm more than happy to be one of your referrals if needed. I mean, I feel like if anybody is able to vouch for your ability to parent it would be the kid that you're parenting."

"Appreciate the offer," Camila giggled. "I'm actually not sure if that would be allowed...but I'm guessing they'll talk to you at some point about whether or not you wanna be adopted by us. There are still some details about adoption that are a little foggy to me."

Jace looked down where his hands were anxiously fidgeting. "I, um...I really do appreciate you guys going through all of this. I mean, genuinely — it's still kind of hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that you guys care enough to actually legally adopt me and Maggie. Especially me. I...I don't know what I ever did to deserve that kind of compassion."

"You know, after our first time meeting, I was terrified. Not of you, but of the fact that there was a possibility that maybe Shawn and I wouldn't have worked out if you had issues with me being around."

"I have a feeling he would've picked you over me anyways," Jace snorted. Camila shook her head.

"I don't think that's true," she said honestly. "You two have always been his top priority since the beginning of our relationship. Did you know I actually accused him of cheating right when we first started dating?" Jace shook his head, clearly confused. "We had only ever met up at my place or somewhere else private. He hadn't invited me over to his place and he wouldn't stay the night with me. And a few times, he'd leave right after getting a text that he was obviously trying to hide from me. I know now that they were texts from you, asking when he'd be home. But back then? God, I thought for sure he had a secret girlfriend waiting for him back home."