A Mialotte Story: Good in a crisis

With all due respect

Two months had passed since Charlotte and Mia's successful weekend with the kids. The more time Mia spent with Violet and Lily, the more she thought about how silly she felt for being so worried about their first encounter. The girls had really started to embrace Mia as a parental figure, they'd always get excited about seeing her and never disobey her instructions. Mia was comfortable being firm with the girls when necessary, being careful never to push them too hard as she took a caring approach. Charlotte was happy to let Mia be hands on with them, letting her build on their relationship and form boundaries. She could see how her daughters respected Mia and loved her as much as she herself did.

Charlotte and Mia still lived separately, still wanting to take their relationship at a respectable pace. But much like before their big blow up, Mia was spending majority of her time at Charlotte's house. As part of adapting to her jet-set free life, she had now taken up her previous role as deputy manager of the sister nursery. Reece wasn't exactly thrilled about it, given that his girlfriend wasn't too keen on the idea of Mia being around so much, but he couldn't deny that she was the best person for the job and that he had been struggling for months without a second in command.

Mia had even progressed to meeting Charlotte's ex-husband as the two of them, along with Charlotte, had planned Violet's tenth birthday party together. Violet was 10, something that Charlotte had found a hard pill to swallow at the time. Mia contributed whenever she could and in any way that she could. She was always careful to seek permission before making any suggestions or decisions around Char and her ex, as she knew the girls had two loving parents who were already doing such a great job. She'd never want to step on their toes by acting entitled, but luckily, both mum and dad were happy to see Mia so passionate about their daughters.

It was a challenging day at The Knight Nursery. Autumn and Winter had both called in sick, leaving them short staffed, and Marjorie already had a busy day scheduled with a list of perspective parents to show around back to back. There couldn't have been a worse day for Agatha to come and tell Charlotte that her daughter's school had phoned, requesting that Violet come and be collected early. "Something about a fight" Agatha informed Charlotte when questioned about the nature of the call.

Charlotte was only able to step out of the toddler to make a phone call due to nap time. There was absolutely no cover and she was now left with the conundrum of what to do about Violet. She knew her parents were on their annual cruise, so that wasn't an option. She called her ex-husband, hoping that he'd be able to slip out of work. "Sorry, Char, I've got an important meeting with the international investors this afternoon." Shit. Charlotte all of a sudden felt like she had no village. "Have you asked Mia?" Her ex-husband proposed, assuming that the redhead would be a good solution since even he thought of her as almost a third parent by now.
"I can't send my girlfriend to the school to pick up our daughter...can I?"

It hadn't even occurred to Charlotte to ask Mia, for multiple reasons. For one, she didn't want to ask too much of her after her only knowing the girls for 2 months. She was also very conscious that the parents at school had been discussing her affairs. Why wouldn't they? She "walked out" on an 11 year marriage and only a few months later she had started seeing a woman. Charlotte never felt any shame or regret for leaving her husband or seeing Mia, so why did the other parents believe she should? Char and her ex-husband fell out of love long before they had mutually agreed to call it quits, but of course the parents couldn't know that. They would never understand.

"Charlotte, you don't have to be so modest. I've seen Mia with the girls, and she cares for them as much as we do. Pretty sure that Vi would actually be more pleased to her than either of us" he reassured jokily. Charlotte was touched by her ex-husband's acceptance of Mia. It meant a lot to her knowing that the man she once loved and still cared for, was so supportive, allowing Mia into his own life and their daughters'.