pretty girl (Lauren/You- first person)

chapter five.

The rest of the week went by as usual, we went to work, Delilah went to preschool and we did boring things like grocery shop and vacuum. Lauren and I had tried to plan a little more about the wedding and we were able to start a guest list, which was just going to be family and our closest friends. We had Delilah this weekend, so we thought doing a cake tasting would be a fun thing to do with her. Lauren had made the appointment at the bakery Dinah recommended for Saturday afternoon, and since it was downtown we decided to walk around a bit after. When we got to the bakery, a woman who I presumed was the owner greeted us with a smile but doubled it in size when she saw Delilah.

"Hi sweetheart, are you going to try some cake with us today?"

"Yes ma'am for my Mami and Mama's wedding." She spoke a bit shyly, she usually started out quiet with new people but warmed up and became her regular silly self in no time.

"I think that's so cool that you have two mommies." The woman made comfortable conversation with our daughter as she walked us to a cute cafe table with a menu of flavor options and three forks set up, complete with a pen and paper for notes and comments.

"I actually have three!" Delilah's face lit up as she explained her family to her new friend. "See this is Mama," she pointed to me, "this is Mami," she tapped Lauren on the leg, "and then at my other house I have a Daddy and a Momma." She ended her statement matter of factly with a simple nod of the head.

"Wow, so you have all those people that love you!? I'd say you're a lucky girl!" Delilah beamed at the woman's compliment as she motioned that she would be back with samples. She returned shortly with a tray of small slivers of cake that all had different fruit fillings. Once we made it through those, we were presented with a tray of different vanilla cakes with creme fillings, and after that a final tray that was any kind of chocolate cake imaginable. Lauren and I laughed as Delilah's eyes nearly popped out of her head. We finished all of that cake, took down notes on what we liked and didn't, and narrowed it down to a final four choices. Since we didn't have a date or a theme yet, we just gave the woman our information and our cake choices and explained we would be back. We bought a few treats from the counter and headed out downtown.

Walking downtown was a good idea, it helped to not feel so weighed down from all of the cake we ate. Lauren and I walked with Delilah in the middle, holding hands mostly the entire time. We peeked inside a few stores but didn't end up purchasing anything. Eventually we decided on dinner at a simple restaurant that had outdoor seating, the three of us each ordering something different but somehow always stealing something from someone else's plate. It was about eight-thirty by the time we made it home, Delilah barely clinging to consciousness. I'll give her props though, I didn't think she would've made it that long.

By the time we got her upstairs, she was out. Lauren gently placed her on the bed and took her shoes off before asking "should I put her in pajamas?" I looked over at them to analyze her outfit.

"No don't bother yourself. She's got leggings on, she wears those as pajamas half the time anyways." Lauren nodded in agreement before pulling the covers over our daughter and kissing her on the forehead, as I walked over to do the same Lauren flicked on the nightlight and waited for me to shut the door.

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Sunday afternoon I received a phone call from Anthony asking if they could get Delilah Monday afternoon from school and keep her through the weekend. I agreed, as we didn't have anything going on that week that I needed her home for. Since we never got a legal custody arrangement and since we lived in the same city, we never kept a strict schedule of who got her and when. We liked to kept the total time divided as evenly as possible, so if she did a week here, soon she would do a week there, etc. I went upstairs to tell Lauren and found her laying on her stomach facing the corner of the bed, reading a book.