Ariana's ex-boyfriend is moving back to Arizona, leaving her and their daughter alone in California. Ariana doesn't know what to do since her family is back in Florida. She's raising her daughter by herself, until she meets Justin. He comes into her...
"How was your nap, princess?" I ask, tickling Lilia's stomach.
She giggles, trying to push my hand away.
"I love you, cutie pie." I lean down to kiss her adorable cheek.
"Are you ready for our daily Target run? As if we don't go there enough. Let's get you dressed, since you always have to wear more than one outfit a day." I pick Lilia up off the couch and walk into her room.
Placing her on the floor, I look in her closet to find an outfit for Arizona winter night. By that, I mean cold, but not that cold.
I wish Arizona would get colder, but since that's obviously not gonna happen, I've been thinking about moving. I just want Lilia to be able to experience a real winter as a kid. Snowmen, and snowball fights, and snow days, when she starts school, of course.
But vacation for Thanksgiving is almost over, and it's almost time for me to go back to work. That means she has to go back to daycare. At my job, of course. Because they literally have the best daycare ever.
But anyways, after I find the appropriate outfit, I change her diaper and get her dressed.
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Once she's dressed, I carry her into the living room and place her in her high chair for a snack. While she bangs on the tray, yelling 'eat eat', I cut her up some fruit, cheese and turkey. That's my go-to snack for her because she loves all three of those things, and I know it sounds like a lot for a snack but I just cut up a little bit and she eats it in about five to ten minutes.
While she eats, I put my shoes on and make sure she has everything she needs in her diaper bag, including diapers, wipes, toys, a change of clothes because you never know with her, and milk.
We don't necessarily need all of this for a Target run, but we're probably gonna eat dinner and I might get distracted somewhere else because that's usually what happens.
6:49 pm
"Alright, princess. Are you ready to go?" I pick Lilia up out of her high chair and grab her diaper bag before leaving the apartment.
Once the door is locked, I walk to my car and put Lilia in her car seat and buckle her in. I get in the drivers seat after placing the diaper bag in the passenger seat, then finally, leave the complex.
The drive to Target is just like always. A little bit of traffic and the radio on but quietly. The only thing different was the fact that Lilia was extremely quiet in the backseat. She usually was making some type of noise with a toy or her mouth, but today, she was quiet.
It takes the same amount of time to get to Target, 7 minutes, and the normal amount of time to put Lilia in the cart to where she's comfortable and happy with her toys and bottle of water.
I push the cart inside the store and immediately go to my favorite section, the baby section. Sometimes Lilia finds something she wants and puts her entire mind on getting it.
For example, today, she had her eyes on a stuffed bear that was bigger than her. It would be about up to my waist if I stood it up to it's full height.
I tried to ignore her cries and reaches for the bear, but she's my princess and I can't ever say no to her, so I grab one of the bears and put it in the cart. This makes Lilia extremely happy and now all she wants to do is sit with the bear, so of course, I have to put her in the part of the cart with the bear in it so she can play. Instead of playing, she lays on the bear and drifts off to sleep.
Maybe I should've gotten that sooner.
I could tell Lily was feeling a little different, most likely because of the shots from earlier. She would probably sleep most of the time we were out and get a little bit of a fever overnight.
As I'm looking through clothes in my own section for once, I hear a whistle from behind me. Not thinking anything of it, I continue to look through the clothes, but then it happens again. My curiosity gets the best of me and I turn around, only to see Justin, a smirk clear on his face.
"Hi." He says, the smirk changing to a smile.
"Are you stalking me?" I ask jokingly.
"No, dude. My sister is the manager here. I'm always here."
"I'm always here. Well, when I don't have work. I've never seen you."
"I've kind of see you around. When I'm in the office, I see you on the cameras. I've actually been meaning to say something for a long time now, but then your daughter threw something at me, and I changed my mind." His smile doesn't leave his face once.
"Obviously, you didn't, because you're talking to me now, and we talked a lot earlier."
"You're right, you're right. I see the little cutie pie is sleeping."
"Yep. Those shots always affect her. She literally just woke up from a nap about 45 minutes ago."
"Isn't that a good thing? Well, that she's sleeping?"
"Definitely. As long as she's quiet."
"Are you getting her that bear? She looks really comfortable right about now."
"Yeah, I think so. She found it and wouldn't be quiet about it."
"Yep, she's very verbal. That must've been her I heard when I was with my sister."
"She was that loud? Wow."
"I believe so." Justin looks down at Lilia.
"She's honestly so pretty. You better watch her when she gets to high school, maybe even middle school."
"I will definitely be watching. My little princess is growing so fast."
"I can't agree with you because I met you yesterday so I'm just gonna nod." He nods and I laugh.
"Hey, you wanna meet my sister? She happens to be walking over here at this very moment so I actually don't think you have a choice."
"Oh, that's nice." Justin turns to look at a tall brunette walking over to us.
"Hey, Tin-Can. Whatcha doing?"
"Talking to Ariana. Lacie, this is Ariana. Ariana, this is Lacie, my sister."
"Hi, Ariana. Nice to meet you. I know you're one of our frequent customers."
"Yeah, I definitely am." Lacie holds her hand out and I shake it, smiling.
"I met Ariana yesterday when that one threw a toy at me." Justin points at Lilia and I laugh again.
"Hey, it's not polite to point. Especially at a little angel like this one." Lacie goes to look at Lilia in the cart, sound asleep, and I look up at Justin.
"Me and Lacie moved here from Canada about two years ago." He tells me.
"Ooh, cool. I've never been to Canada."
"It's really nice. You should visit sometime."
"I think I will, actually."
We talk for a few minutes before Lacie tells me that since I come in so much and I kind of know Justin, she's gonna give me a discount on all my stuff. Every time I come in.
"Wow, thank you so much."
I recognize this as a moment to hug Lacie, then Justin, even though he had nothing to do with anything in that moment. I really just wanted to hug him.
