The Mechanic.

Chapter 3

     Ella had had the best weekend. It had involved a lot of wine, a lot of good music - Otis Redding, Michael Bublé and Kanye West - and of course a lot of food. So basically, she had had a steady buzz since she had gotten back from her parents' on Friday night.

     Now it was time to go pick up Josh from Claudia's and she was still buzzed, and very attached to her sofa. Ella looked around the living room of her apartment. The tidiness of the apartment comforted her. She thought it looked very pretty. It wasn't pretty in pink like Claudia's but Ella loved it. She had darker colours here, like the grey and purple walls, the dark purple sofa and brown throw pillows. There was also a black bean bag in one corner of the living room. With all the colours in her living room, there was no white. Ella hated white. That was another thing for Jasmine to complain about. She said that Ella needed some brightness in her life. Ella scoffed. Brightness? That was why she had bulbs.

Ella finally decided that it was time to go and pick Josh. She stood up and when she was sure she could stand, she took two steps. She didn't wobble. She was good to go. She picked up her keys from the key dish on the table, and then she made her way outside to her car.

The ride to her sister's house was pretty okay, considering her inebriated state of mind. She knocked on her sister's door and waited. The house was a regular family house, with a fence and a garden and the works.

The door opened and Ella saw Claudia standing there in a white knee-length dress with cherries all over it and a red sweater. Her hair was in a ponytail and her face was bare of makeup.

"Hey Claudia." Ella said and hoped her words weren't slurred.

"Hey." Her sister frowned. "Have you been drinking?" She asked. Ella nodded sheepishly. Claudia smiled. "Don't worry about it, we all do it. When you get a break from all the mom stuff, you just want to relax and go crazy. Only, these days, going crazy is sitting at home, getting drunk and stuffing your face while watching Rom coms." Claudia said as they moved away from the doorway and into the house.

Ella laughed. She just realized how much she had missed hanging out with her sister. They had grown apart after high school when Ella had gone through her bad girl phase. Now though, she had gotten over that and was taking her career and her parenting duties seriously.

"Hey, Claudia. Maybe one of these days, we should go out for lunch." She offered and Claudia gave her a surprised smile.

"I would love that." Claudia said, then her smile turned mischievous. "I'm really glad I could take Josh off your hands for the weekend so that you could feed your drinking problem."

Ella laughed again. "I do not have a drinking problem." She said defensively. "And maybe one weekend, Jeremy and Millie can come and stay over to give you and Benjamin some alone time."

"Oh, that's okay. We normally just drop them off at Mum and Dad's." Claudia said.

"I would really like to get to know them." Ella said. "Or are you scared that I'll break them?" She teased.

"I'm more scared that you'll get them drunk." Claudia teased back. "But I would also really love that." Claudia dragged her to the foot of the stairs. "Josh, Jeremy, Millie! Aunt Ella's here!" Claudia shouted and all of a sudden, Ella could hear them all racing down the stairs. Then three children appeared. Two blonde ones and one brown haired one. The brown haired one was hers and was currently racing towards her. She crouched down before he got to her and hugged him.

"Mummy!" He shouted excitedly as he hugged her back with his tiny arms.

"Hey baby." She said and kissed the top of his head. "Did you have fun?"