The Book Of Me & You

"May I Love You, May I Be Your Shield"

"He's passed out, and she's asleep - enough to recharge." She yawned tiredly, pushing her bangs away from her eyes as she took her place back at the kitchen table.

He nodded robotically, carefully maneuvering small stacks of various dollar bills from one part of the table to another, "That's great."

"Yeah, he ran around a lot today, so that probably helped… We should do something,"

"Like what?"

"I don't know - go to dinner, maybe?"

"And what are we going to do with our kids? Leave them here?"

"We could get a sitter?"

Ricky moved another stack of bills towards him, "Who? It's 7 o'clock on a Friday night, nobody is available, and besides sitters are expensive."

Shifting, Amy drew her knees to her chest, resting her head atop them, "We could call your moms? Or my dad?"

"My mom is working late, Nora is at her meeting - and your dad has Robbie for the weekend,"

That's perfect!"

"How is it perfect? Both kids are asleep, so your dad coming over with Robbie makes next to no sense."

She brushed some lint away from her jeans, "Ethan?"

He stopped, furrowing his brow at her idiotic suggestion and started replaying how Ethan tried to sneak a girl into their apartment while he was babysitting, in his head, "After last week, no way" before going back to focus on the three piles he'd made, taking a $20 bill and putting it atop one of them. "Besides, staying home is the best thing for us right now. We're not exactly rolling in money here." He sighed, "We can have a nice, quiet dinner here. For free."

"Oh, come on, you know that's not going to happen. Quiet doesn't exist, and we'd both be eating with one hand while the other held a child." She scoffed at his statement, untangling her arms from around her legs and getting up off the chair, "Don't you wanna go somewhere where we can be alone? No screaming, or crying, or distractions…" Amy stood behind him, wrapping her arms around the back of his neck, arms crossed over his chest, as her lips trailed light kisses down his jaw and around his ear, "we could find a dark booth somewhere and have dinner and maybe a little fun?"

"Bribing isn't going to work." Ricky smirked, leaning his head back a fraction and letting a small moan escape his mouth as she bit down on his earlobe. He put a hand over both of hers clasped on his chest, "As much as I'd love to make out in the back of a booth with you, we just can't afford it right now."

She sighed against his neck as he sighed and went back to his task. "We seem to be spending more than what is coming in -" Sorting through a pile of papers and paperclipping more dollar bills to them, he turned his attention to her again, holding up a white slip the length of his forearm, "Why did you spend $40 on baby clothes?"

Taking her hands off of him, Amy walked over to the fridge and pulled out a yogurt, "I had to get her some clothes that actually fit!"

"What about all the shower stuff you got?"

"Ricky, she was born 7 weeks early! None of that stuff fits her yet. Aside from what your mom got us when we took her home, she's just now starting to wear the newborn stuff we got - and that wasn't very much." She exclaimed, stirring the spoon before bringing it to her mouth