𝖫 𝖤 𝖬 • 𝖮 • 𝖭 𝖠 𝖣 𝖤

XXIV: Listen

be·gin·ning:

"Our men do not belong to us. Even my own father, left one afternoon, is not mine."

_ _ _

"Iced Vanilla Latte," The barista called out of the coffee shop and Tayla smiled grabbing her drink giving a small thank you before grabbing ahold of Ayla's hand.

"Don't tell daddy we came here," She told her daughter who happily sipped away the chocolate milk in hand as they exited the shop, heading back to the car. Ayla looked up at her mom confused,

"Why?"

"Because I'm not supposed to be drinking coffee and he'd be mad at me."

"...Why?" Tayla sighed and just shrugged because Ayla was deep into the why stage always wondering.....why about everything and anything and to say it was becoming annoying was an understatement.

She had just picked up her daughter from school with her oversized sweatshirt covering her mid section hiding the bump peeking through. Tayla's stomach was growing day by day and a bit too fast for her liking. You couldn't even tell she was five months, you would think she was at the end of her pregnancy with how big her belly was.

And even with watching her eating and craving habits, she thought she would've lost a few pounds not gain 50 more overnight.

They still had yet to share with their child that she was having a sibling and her being in her own little world, she never noticed her mom's stomach growing.

"Are we going to my dad right now?"

"We're gonna meet him somewhere." Tayla smiled looking down at her daughter while unlocking her car, "How do you feel about all of us living together again?"

"Really?!" Ayla squealed excited at the thought of having both parents in the same home all over again.

"Mhm. We're going to check out some new homes right now,"

"Why can't we move back to the old one?" She questioned as she got into her car seat with the help of mom who chuckled while buckling in her own correctly.

"Because mommy would have to sanitize everything for a week straight and then burn it down and rebuild it again and I don't want to do that." She shared in so little explanation without telling her five year old that her father gave someone else his cooties that wasn't her mother in the same home.

Ayla just let out a confused okay before Tayla closed the door and walked around to the driver's side, about to get in but stopped at the sound of her name being called. Turning around she was met with the face of the man that completely cut her off without an explanation and she couldn't understand if she was happy or mad at it.

"Damn, it's been a minute." Xavier chuckled pointing at her, his eyes looking her and down. He couldn't see her stomach so he couldn't see she was pregnant but you could definitely tell something was different about her.

"Mhm."

"Look, I hope everything straight between us-"

"You didn't respond to my calls." She chuckled in disbelief and he shrugged.

"You didn't come to my room that night so I just assumed -"

"Assumed. Yeah, exactly that," She told him even though he wasn't far off. Xavier stared at her and snickered and nodded his head understanding his wrongdoing.

"Nah, I get it but from what I heard you and the ex hubby getting along so it's no need to step back into the picture."

"From what you heard?" Tayla raised her eyebrow. She couldn't understand how he would possibly know her and Chris are....back.