One More Smile

12.

This is just a filler chapter!

Manhattan, New York
Wednesday, Oct. 9

"Knowles.... Ce-les-tine Giselle!" Celestine smiled, reading her name off of her brand new passport. "BB, does this mean I can go to Disneyland now?"

Beyoncé laughed a little, looking down at her child. As promised, after finishing their passport applications and getting their photos and documents, Onika was able to get everything expedited, and both Celestine and Beyoncé received their passports fairly quickly. The reality of the Monaco trip was really settling in, and Beyoncé was growing nervous as the days passed.

"Disneyland isn't out of the country," she corrected.

"Can I still go?" Celestine asked.

Beyoncé smiled. "Maybe."

Beyoncé grabbed Celestine's passport and headed upstairs to her bedroom to put both of them away in a safe spot. Once they were safely secured, she went back downstairs and began tidying up the living room. The day had been pretty boring for Beyoncé. After dropping Celestine off at school that morning, she ran a few errands to get Halloween decorations and groceries for an easy-to-make dinner recipe she'd seen online. After her errands, she spent a few hours studying then logged onto her employee portal to view her schedule and incomplete tasks. She had officially completed her job training and would begin her first day of work the following morning. Beyoncé felt a bit nervous about her new change in career. For years, she was complacent with her job at Dollar Tree, but now, she was entering new territory. Overall, she was confident in her new skills as an assistant, and she'd learned how to navigate Onika's calendar pretty quickly. Still, she was afraid to mess anything up.

Once she finished cleaning up, she allowed Celestine to watch television while she headed into the kitchen to cook dinner. Beyoncé felt good. Her child had completed all of her kindergarten homework for the day and taken her bath, their house was clean, and all that was left was dinner. Beyoncé truly felt like an accomplished adult in that moment.

It took a while for Beyoncé to finish cooking since she'd been following the YouTube recipe step-by-step, but after 45 minutes, she'd successfully cooked stuffed chicken breasts, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. She plated the food and took both plates into the dining room before heading back into the kitchen to grab utensils and two glasses of water. Beyoncé was very strict about drinking water with their dinner. Once everything was ready, she called Celestine into the dining room.

"Mmm, BB, this looks yummy!" Celestine smiled as she climbed into the chair.

Beyoncé smiled, sitting down beside her. "Thank you, baby. I tried something new. Let's bless the food."

"Can I say grace?" Celestine asked.

Beyoncé nodded. They closed their eyes and bowed their heads, and Celestine grabbed Beyoncé's hand.

"Thank you Lord for the yummy food that BB cooked. Please bless the food, and bless us too, and Nika, and Julius, and Ming, and Ming's mommy Ms. Carol, and my bestest friends Leah and Aria, and everybody in the world. Amen," Celestine said.

Beyoncé laughed a little, opening her eyes. "Amen. Good job, baby. You did so well."

"Thank you, BB. What's this green stuff?"

Celestine poked the asparagus with her fork, scrunching her face up at it.

"That's asparagus. It's pretty good. If you don't like it, you don't have to eat all of it, but I still want you to eat some. Do you want me to cut your chicken up for you?"