Silver Lining

thirteen.

"Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, mango... ooh bubblegum!" Elise gasps, and Nova giggles at her big sister.

"You can't have all those flavours, you can pick two at the most," Nathan laughs, parking the car finally. It's so busy with it being a Saturday, so finding a parking space was more than difficult.

"I'm getting strawberry," Addie says and I smile back at her; it's her favourite flavour of absolutely everything.

"What flavour ice cream are you getting, Iris?" Elise asks me.

"Mint choc-chip, of course," It's my all-time favourite, but in response, I get noises of disgust.

"You're just like daddy!" Addie then points out.

I look over at Nathan with a smile, "So, I'm not the only freak in the car apparently."

"It's my favourite," he chuckles, turning around to the girls, "However none of my cheeky daughters agree."

"It tastes of toothpaste, daddy," Addie shakes her head with her tongue out.

"I agree," Elise says.

"Well, isn't it good that neither of you is eating it and we are," Nathan says before he opens his door, "Now, let's go, girls, ice cream and the park are waiting for us."

He opens Addie's door, helping her unbuckle so she can get out before going around Nova's side, all in the same time it takes for me to get out of the car. I'm eleven weeks pregnant, God help me for when I'm further along.

I walk around the car to Addie who's waiting patiently near her open door while Elise climbs out, and they take my hands without having to ask, keeping hold as we walk to the ice cream parlour across the road with Nathan behind pushing Nova in her stroller.

Nathan orders a vanilla scoop in a tub for Nova, mint choc chip for himself, and Addie orders strawberry independently, which just left me and Elise to choose.

"I'll have bubblegum please," she finally picks a flavour.

Feeling quite nauseated as per usual, I decide to go with a safe option by choosing vanilla like Nova, not because I want to, but because I feel like I need to if I don't want to be sick when we get to the park.

Nathan taps his card to pay and with our ice creams in hand, we leave and make our way down to the park, a very short walk from here. We take a seat on the nearest bench to the park, myself on the furthest end with Addie next to me, Elise in the middle, Nova between her and Nathan on the other end.

"Iris, you didn't get the same as daddy?" Addie questions with a serious frown.

"Why get the same flavour when I can just steal daddy's and I can have mine as well?" I propose a very good point to disguise the truth.

"So you're whole plan is to steal from me, huh?" Nathan chuckles.

"You caught me," I play along.

I have yet to have any of my ice cream, nervous for how my body is going to react to it, especially in front of the girls, with no way to hide it by running to a bathroom. The smell of it doesn't make me nauseous though, so I take that as a green light and go ahead, and I close my eyes at the flavour; yes, vanilla is plain, but it's so good.

"So, girls, you know how daddy's not been working?" Nathan starts, and both older girls nod, Nova swinging her legs focusing on her little spoon, "Well, it's time for me to go back, I'll be working again starting next week."

"Next week?" Elise frowns, disappointment set, "I really liked you being home."

"I know, baby, but we've had a great summer and I'm still going to be home, it's just like before," he reminds her of their old routine which I'm not familiar with just yet.