I Hate California

eighteen

"Babe, can you tidy up the living room please? I don't want anyone to trip over your toys on the floor" I ask Sage as I'm cooking our dinner. Travis should be arriving any minute now and let's just say, I was way more than nervous. 

Earlier today I tried to talk to Sage about her feelings about tonight and she was confidently telling me how she didn't need to meet him and how she wasn't interested in seeing him again. I was surprised, she has never acted this way around me before, maybe it's because she's comfortable around me now. Sage will always come first no matter what happens, so I'm hoping Travis will be able to get on her good side tonight.

"Mommy, the doorbell" Sage yells as she placed her toys in the basket. I take one more look at the food warming up in the oven and go look at the cameras. Travis is here.

"Come here baby" I say with open arms and she slowly walks towards me, letting me pick her up. I give her a cuddle and sway us back and forth before I open the door.

"Well, hello" I say as I smile at Travis who is holding a bouquet of flowers and a Squish mallow in the  other.

I rub Sage's back, "Look who's here baby". Sage keeps her head tucked into the side of my neck and I feel her head shake. 

"Come in" I say and close the door behind him. I place Sage down onto the floor and take the bouquet of flowers from Travis.

"And this is for the Princess" He says bending down towards Sage. Sage looks at the stuffy and takes it as slowly as possible making Travis chuckle.

"Thank you" Sage says in response and looks up at me as she cradles her new stuffed elephant. I knew Sage's favorite animal was an elephant so when Travis was looking for a plush, he had found this one and said it was perfect. 

I give Travis a look, it was going to take time for Sage to warm up to him. We all got settled around the table and I went to take out all the dishes out from the oven.

"Need help babe?" Travis asks from the table and I shake my head.

I started to plate up our food, it was spaghetti and garlic bread. For some reason Sage insisted on having broccoli and cheddar soup with garlic bread, so that was made specially for her.

"Here baby" I say as I set her bowl in front of her. 

I hand Travis his plate and he gives me a kiss on the cheek while Sage was watching us and she quickly looked back down, shivering a bit. Well that made me feel horrible.

The three of us ate in silence until I began to ask Travis about his schedule and what he was doing at the moment. Sage had already finished all of her soup and ate her toast, but the crust, basically leaving a gigantic hole in the middle of her bread. 

"Mommy" I feel a tug on my sleeve.

"Yes baby" I say as I tuck her hair behind her ear.

"Can I play now" She asks me pointing to the living room.

I pick her up, placing her onto my lap, "Later baby, why don't you tell Travis what you and I have been doing while you've been here!".

She glares at me, "I don't want to"

I sigh, "Baby please" I whisper into her ear. She wasn't having any of this and I didn't know what to do at this point, I didn't want to force her, but this already seemed like it wasn't going anywhere.

"Sage, what's your favorite color?" Travis asks from across the table. Sage looks up at him and huffs. 

"Hey, be nice" I say to her in a serious tone.

"Yellow" She responds.

"Wow, I love yellow, but my favorite color is red!" Travis says with excitement in his voice and Sage gives him the biggest side eye I've ever seen.