Like Real People Do

Red Tropical Fish

The one with the day off.

//

It took me five minutes into the knocking to realize I wasn't dreaming. Groaning, I reached for the phone on my nightstand, wondering if I'd slept through my alarm, only to remember that I had the day off, which meant it didn't matter what time I got up.

The band had arrived to Los Angeles late last night in preparation for their performance on an award show tomorrow evening, and had decided to make use of the extra time by not working at all. Thus, Jaxon had given me the day off from my nanny duties and I had intended to spend my vacation doing a lot of sleeping and relaxing and eating room service and watching as much reality television as possible.

Which was why the knocking was confusing, because I wasn't expecting any visitors. Mostly because I didn't know anybody in the state of California.

Pushing back the covers, I swung my bare feet to the floor and dug a hoodie out of my duffel bag, tugging it up my arms and wrapping it around my body as I padded towards the door. I pulled it open to find Jaxon on the other side and tried not to show my embarrassment at my current state of undress as I sleepily mumbled out my greeting. "Morning."

"Hey...," he started off with a wide smile until he took in my appearance, at which point his expression faltered slightly, "sorry, I didn't realize you were still sleeping."

"Yeah, I uhhh....," I started, crossing my arms over my chest to cover myself more fully before realizing that maybe my sense of time was completely off, "shit, do I not have today off?"

I wouldn't be at all surprised if I'd thought today was a different day. We spent so much time traveling and were hardly ever in the same place for a full twenty four hours that half the time I had no idea where we actually were.

"No! I mean, yes, you do," he corrected himself as he spoke, and if I didn't know any better, I'd think he was nervous. "The twins just wanted me to ask you if you wanted to spend the day with us."

More than likely, he was saying that just to be polite and today was the first time in a while that he'd get to spend some quality time with his children and I didn't want to take that away from him, so I shot him a grateful smile and shook my head. "Oh, that's sweet, but you probably don't want me tagging along."

"Really?" he quirked one eyebrow upwards. "You're gonna deny the request of the world's most adorable three year olds?"

I tried not to show my surprise at the fact that he was actively encouraging me to come along. Despite the fact that he'd told me he didn't care whether or not anything happened between me and Trey, I got the sense he wasn't as excited about the idea as he let on. Which meant things between us for the past week had been a bit tense. Not as frosty as they had been when I first started, but we weren't anywhere near best friend status.

"Oh, well, I just thought...," I paused, wondering if he truly meant those worse, "you don't mind?"

"Of course not!" he shook his head and shrugged, "the more the merrier."

"Well, okay then," I replied slowly, thinking that spending the day with the kids was bound to be fun, no matter what, and I really needed to get out of the habit of being completely unproductive with my down time anyway, "give me like a half hour to get ready?"

"Sounds good," he nodded, turning in preparation to walk back down the hallway, "I should probably make sure they don't have Pete covered in maple syrup. See you in a few."

Thinking my day was about to take a turn for the interesting, I smiled as he walked away and returned to the bedroom to get ready. As promised, precisely twenty seven minutes later, I was knocking on the Rigali's hotel room door and being greeted by Peter holding Finn at his hip.