A Very Good Place To Start

Dos

In the past week that they've been saddled with the baby, despite all the bickering and the arguing, they actually manage to get into a routine.

Lea, who usually reports early to the construction firm, is in-charge of looking after the baby during afternoons when Ian has to leave. Dinner is the busiest time at the restaurant and while he is confident with the team, dinner service is his to command.

They do not admit to it yet but what they are doing is definitely co-parenting at this point.

"Ian, did you get the diapers I told you to buy? The baby gets rashes with this one," she says as she moves to change the baby.

"Yep. Teka," Ian replies almost incoherently and steps out of the bedroom with a toothbrush still in his mouth to bring her the diaper pack by the bed where the baby is settled between two tiny bolsters to make sure he doesn't move to the edge.

"Thanks," Lea murmurs and proceeds to change the baby, grimacing as the smell of the soiled nappies fill the room.

"That's disgusting," Ian comments with a frown which earns him a glare from Lea.

"This is your doing," she replies while gently changing the baby. After she's gathered all the waste into the diaper and rolled it, she practically throws it at Ian who barely catches it. He shivers at the thought of not having caught it. He does not enjoy the idea of poop ruining his carpet. He had just bought it after all.

"Tonight, turn mo na ulit kasi I'm going to sleep," Lea declares and marches out of the bedroom, carrying the baby with her.

As two insufferables, it is no surprise that they banded together. Thick as thieves, their parents would say. It is not a rare occurrence that Lea crashes in his pad. She has her own room here, a design she herself integrated when she visualized his penthouse (his family owns the building so as usual, the asshole gets what he wants). It's a practical thing too since it is nearer to the construction firm so when she is done setting her employees' asses on fire for not being able to keep up with her workaholism, she sleeps at his place since the traffic separating the metro and Forbes Park is insane.

The past two weeks though, she's practically started living there the entire time since she promised she'd help him out (thick as thieves and all) and he isn't shy to express how desperate he is for that help too. At this point, he could pull out kulangot in front of her and not care. It's the same for her. She could fart at him (and purposely does so every once in a while) and pin the blame on him without remorse. It's just the way they've always been for decades. It's not about to change now, especially when there is a baby in the mix.

The first night with the baby was the hardest. They were both like fishes out of water, not knowing what to do. Neither of them got any sleep too since the baby kept on crying and crying until dawn came. But they're learning slowly each day and while they still have a lot of things they are confused with like whether to bathe the baby completely since the umbilical cord still hasn't dried up, they're also getting the hang of taking care of the baby. Ian now knows how to burp the little one (and it took quite a number of milk stains on his shoulder to get there).

He has enough time before he has to drive to the restaurant so after disposing of the diaper, he goes after Lea and the baby and reaches out for the little one which Lea hands him carefully. They both then settle on the couch, with Lea grabbing a granola bar to munch on.

"I can cook better food than that," Ian comments and frowns at her.

She rolls her eyes at him. "Bring me take out nalang tonight from the service pero wag ka na magreklamo diyan now ako naman kumakain."

He'd have put up another argument but the elevator sound rings and they both turn to the doors of the shaft, confused as to how someone got it to work. The penthouse is secure, only Ian has the key except the management who keeps one for safety purposes and... well, his mom who visits every once in a while to make sure he's still alive.