Chapter 21: Openings and Brotherhood
Standing inside the metal cart, Mini flicks her arm so that a jar of strawberry jelly tumbles inside. "Be careful, Mini. You don't even like jam."
She pouts and plops down on her butt angrily. Elena lifts the jar back onto the shelf. "Maybe we can get her some strawberry banana baby food. She really liked the strawberries I gave to her a few days ago."
"I've given her grape jam and she hates the consistency." I say, pointing at the jar next to the one Mini toppled over. "She just saw the strawberry and started wigging out."
Elena shrugs, rubbing Nellie's hair softly. "I can mash up some when we get home. She can move on to solids now, anyway."
Apparently, Mini wasn't just putting Ellie (her elephant) in her mouth for shits and giggles anymore. She was teething. She was putting any and everything in her mouth, which was giving me a heart attack. It also explained why she was crying more often, specifically when she wakes up in the morning. Mini had turned into a little grump.
She throws toys if they don't dull the ache in her mouth and she cries when we're out in public. I got her a teething ring that seems to help, but now that she knows we won't yell at her for crying over her teeth, she finds reasons to cry for other insignificant things.
I look down at her and notice the familiar mist in her eyes begin to form as we trudge further away from the condiment. I look at Elena and let out an exasperated sigh. She shrugs.
"She's so dramatic." I complain as Nellie lets out a whimper. Elena giggles and continues to stroke her back.
"I wonder where she gets that from."
Not me.
I'm not dramatic at all.
"Why is grocery shopping so expensive?" I whine, my eyes scrolling over the price of a case of beer. Elena pushes us past the items.
"That can not be qualified as a grocery."
"It costs as much as that nasty sh-stuff." I point down at the long bottle with a thick, sticky looking liquid flowing inside.
"Olive oil? You love olive oil, Jacob."
"I do not." I say, immediately repulsed and slightly offended. The liquid falls to another side of the bottle, sloshing around as Mini's foot comes in contact with it.
She snickers into her palm. "I put it on all of our food. I also bake with it. It's good for you."
I squint my eyes at her and shake my head. "I trusted you. I eat all the fruits and vegetables you make me buy, so why should I be forced to eat oil that's created from my worst enemy, olives?"
"Again, I wonder where Nellie gets her dramaticism."
We walk down the aisle until we're at the dairy. Elena reaches for a bottle of almond milk, her personal favorite. She tosses one in the cart and then goes to the next window to grab Mini's milk. I pull out a small 2% jug for myself, sliding it next to her almond and Mini's baby milk.
I almost smile.
It was such an odd thing to smile at. The milk itself was of no importance to me, but it represented something, I guess. It was the combination of all three different drinks in the same cart, standing next to each other.
I never intended to be single forever. I wasn't so naive to think that my life would forever be tossing back drinks with Nik and watching shitty television shows all day. It wasn't something that I was looking forward to, but marriage and settling down was something I'd mildly accepted. I never expected it to happen while I was still young, but I couldn't really imagine it any other way.
