The Lovely Miss Maine

|| eight ||

4:15 pm

Maine is listing down the necessary shopping lists for the kids that Richard needs to buy everytime he does the groceries.

"These are the things you should buy everytime 'cause you're not allowed to run out of these here- always have stocks," she tells him while he looks down on her list.

He raises an eyebrow, "How do you know these things? You don't even have kids,"

"But I do, I have twenty of them." She smirks, he looks at her confused and she lets out a chuckle. "I'm a teacher, remember? I know what kind of things kids always need," she says, in a matter of fact way of speaking.

He just nods and looks down at the lists again, "Bloody hell, this is a lot. How am I-"
He is interrupted by the sound of Ellie's crying. They both look at each other and Maine nods at him before following him upstairs to the children's room.

Henry has woken up from Ellie's wailing and they find him standing outside her crib trying to sooth her.

"Awww," Maine looks at Henry adoringly as she leans on the door frame.

Richard just scratches his head and looks at Maine helplessly. "What to do now?"

"She wants to be picked up," she tells him and he does so by gently taking her out of her crib.

"And then?"

"You play with her," she simply says just as her phone starts to ring. Knowing that it's just Phil calling she ignores it and lets it ring. She really has no mood in talking to him. "You comfort her til she stops crying," As her phone starts ringing again, she declines the call and turns off her phone.

"Is everything OK, Maine?" he asks,

Sighing, "It... it's my boyfriend," she says, sadness seen in her eyes and Richard awkwardly avoids looking at her and focuses on Ellie instead. He's never good at comforting people. Maine just gives a sigh, "I might have to leave soon,"

Richard just nods, but deep inside he suddenly feels sad. He doesn't want her to leave them yet, he needs her and he is actually enjoying her company. Ellie starts crying again and Henry tries to get his attention. "What do you want, Elle? Are you hungry?" he asks, focusing on the infant instead. "Eew, what's that smell?" he crunches up his nose.

Maine giggles, "She just pooped,"

He looks disgusted, "Can you change her diaper before you leave?"

She raises an eyebrow at her, "Why me?"

"Because I don't know how,"

"So who has been changing her nappy for the past days?"

"Mrs. Rodriguez,"

"Who?"

"The lady next door, she babysits the kids while I'm at work and tells me about the day care centre; she's in Manchester at the moment," he explains. "And it so happens, Ellie poops while at the day care so I guess Miss Patty or one of your day care staff changes her nappy so I'm thankful I don't have to do it," he explains.

"Well, you're gonna need to know how to do these things. You do it while I tell you how,"

With a surrendered sigh, Richard just nods as Maine starts sprouting out instructions to him again. He listens intently and looks disgusted when he opens Ellie's nappy. Maine can't help but laugh at Richard's struggling to change Ellie's diaper.