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...
"Princess, we have to get back on our schedule now. Mommy has to work today." I whisper, reaching my hand into Lilia's crib to stroke her soft head.
I do it every morning, that I have work at least, just to see if anything has changed. When it doesn't work, I go to the kitchen to make her a bottle so it'll be ready for her when she wakes up. Literally, because I leave the bottle in her crib so she won't cry when she wakes up. This is what allows me to get ready, or at least partially ready while she drinks her morning bottle.
Once the bottle is in her crib, I go to my bathroom to take a shower. After I take a shower, Lilia still isn't awake and the bottle is exactly where I left it.
I smile as I leave the room and return to my room. It's the little things that make me happy. I quickly get dressed because I also have to do my hair and makeup before getting Lilia ready. Well, before she wakes up.
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Once I'm done with everything I have to do, I go into Lilia's room, only to see her still laying down, but drinking her bottle. She smiles when she sees me, dropping the bottle and sitting up, holding her arms out for me to pick her up.
"Mama." She beams, using the crib to stand herself up.
"Good morning, princess. You said my name, babe." I kiss her head before picking her up along with the bottle.
"Who's ready for breakfast?" I kiss her cheek, giving her the bottle as I walk to the kitchen.
I place her in her high chair, letting her occupy herself with her bottle while I make oatmeal. I don't make coffee because I usually get some from the Starbucks at my job. I almost always go there so the cashier knows my name, how to spell it, and what I order. Sometimes she even throws in a cookie for Lilia.
When the oatmeal is done, I put some cut up fruit on her little baby plate and eat my own while she eats hers. I obviously finish before her because she doesn't like to eat by herself just yet, so when I'm done, I feed her myself. This is more efficient and less of a mess.
8:10 am
Once Lilia is cleaned up from breakfast, it's time to get her dressed. I picked her outfit last night so I wouldn't have to do it this morning because it takes me while to find the right match of everything.
Once she's dressed, I brush her hair into a tiny ponytail and put a bow in her hair.
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"All done, princess. Ready to go?" I make sure her diaper bag is packed before picking Lilia up and leaving the room.
I grab everything I need, including my keys and phone, before leaving my apartment and going to the car.
8:26 am
I get to my job, parking my car in my usual spot before getting out of the car. I get everything I need, including Lilia. I walk inside and immediately take Lilia to the daycare.
Caitlyn, the woman who is always in the daycare when I go there, is playing with another little boy, when I walk in. She smiles when she sees me come in, giving the boy the toy she was holding and walking over to me.
"Ariana, welcome back. How was your vacation?"
"It was amazing. My brother came from California and we had some really good food."
"That's great. I'm so happy my sweet Lily is back." Caitlyn takes Lilia from me along with her diaper bag while I sign her in.
"Alright, my little princess. I'll be back for lunch." I kiss Lilia's head, waving to her before leaving the daycare.
Caitlyn was literally the only other person Lilia would willingly stay with when I wasn't there. Otherwise she would scream and cry her eyes out. This made it really hard for me and Alex to go anywhere by ourselves.
8:36 am
After Lilia is in daycare, I walk to Starbucks and get my usual coffee from my favorite cashier, Rhonda. After I get my drink, I walk to the front desk and check in with the receptionist before finally taking the elevator to the floor my office is on. And all this happened before 8:40 in the morning.
I walk towards my office, greeting some of the people on my floor. Instead of going to my office, I go to my friends. She always gets to work before me and leaves after me, but she lives alone and can basically do whatever she wants.
"Ariana! How are you?" Tara gets out of her office chair and comes to hug me.
"I'm great, T. How are you?"
"Amazing! Did you already drop my baby off?"
"Yep. She missed Caitlyn. I was thinking, if you wanted, we could go to lunch today and you can see her."
"That's an amazing idea. I can't wait. Now I have something to look forward to."
"Yes, we both do. But, unfortunately, I have to get to my office. Lot of work to do today."
"That's the bad part of vacationing from work." Tara laughs, walking me to the door of her office.
"Have fun today." I say.
"You too." We both laugh and I walk to my office.
I really hate this place. The only good part about my office are the pictures of Lilia. I do have some of Alex too, and I'm not going to take them down. We may have broken up, but we're still friends. We'll always be friends. He's the father of my child.
I sit at my desk and take my laptop out of my bag. I do have the computer that came with the office, but I can do whatever I want on my laptop without them worrying about it.
I use the office computer to work, and my laptop to watch YouTube videos while I act like I'm working. The only people who come in here are Tara and my boss, sometimes, so I really don't care.
