Moving Forward

Arguments

Brad's POV:

I walk in the house, starving and tired after a long, exhausting day of filming in the heat.  Nobody seems to notice that I'm home, not even one of the dogs run up to greet me.  I make my way through the hall and into the kitchen, where I see that the whole room is a mess.  There's pots and pans all over, the sink is full, the table still has dishes laying on it from dinner, and there's what looks like a puddle of juice laying in front of the fridge.

"What the fuck?" I mumble to myself, confused and upset that Jen would leave the house like this, knowing that I was busy all day and need a break.  I know she was busy too, but we've always had the rule that whoever makes the mess cleans it up.

"Oh good, you're home." Jen walks around the corner feeding Kassie "Can you help with their baths?  I haven't had a chance to start them yet."

"What have you done so far?" I ask, genuinely confused about what she could have been doing "This place is a disaster.  There's not even a spot clean enough for me to sit down."

She looks at me in shock, ready to defend herself.

"What happened to you being home 2 hours ago?!?  I could have really used the help today.  She wouldn't sleep and Ava wouldn't listen for shit because all she wanted was to play!  This is the best I've been able to do all day and you have the nerve to complain when you swore you would be home 2 hours ago?"

"You know how filming works, Jen!  Sometimes it's not up to me when I can leave. I couldn't help it!  You could have at least tried to make this a little nicer.  You were home almost all day."

"You don't think I tried?!?  I was cleaning every chance I got, but as soon as I got some done one of them needed me!  You leave this place a mess every time you're alone with them.  I'm soooo sorry you had to come home to this once.  I'm sorry it ruined your whole day." She whips herself around, walking back towards the living room "If you want such a perfect house then maybe you should try to help more!"

I ignore her, knowing that whatever I say will just make things much worse.  I love the woman the death, but I don't know anyone who can get on my nerves more than her.  She knows exactly what to do and say to piss me off in a single second.  She's my best friend and the biggest pain in my ass at the same time.

Ava runs out to me a few minutes later, jumping on me and waiting for her bath.

"Mommy says I need it right now." She rolls her eyes "But I don't want one so let's not get it."

"You are so lucky you're cute." I laugh, carrying her towards the steps "But that isn't getting you out of taking your bath.  You're too stinky."

"Fine." She sighs dramatically "But I want realllllllly purple water tonight!  Please?"

"We'll see what we can do.  I think you used up most of the purple already."

I get her into her bathroom and dig through all her toys until I find the purple tabs.  She gets undressed as I start the water, watching to make sure that it is the perfect color.  I eventually get her in the tub, and she splashes around playing with all her toys.

"Hey, I just need her towel." Jen walks in with Kassie, completely avoiding eye contact with me as she reaches for the towel "Make sure she gets her hair washed."

"I think I know how to give her a bath by now." I mumble under my breath, pissing her off.

"Just wanted to remind you." She replies in a smart tone, trying to do the same back.

I wait until she's out of the room to start playing with Ava, who is luckily completely oblivious to what's going on between us.

"Come here," I pull her closer to the edge, pulling her hair behind her back as I rub the shampoo into it "Are you going to sleep good for us tonight?"

"Maybe."

"I think you should be a big girl and sleep in your own bed all night.  That way Kassie does that too when she's bigger."

"But she's too little to know now." She shrugs, moving under the shower head "She likes it when I sleep with you and mommy because we can play when she wakes up."

"Yes, I'm sure her little baby self loves that."

I finish her bath, and help her get dressed for bed.  She tries her best to get out of her bed and walk over to ours, but as soon as she sees the look on Jen's face she gives up.

"You okay?" I walk over towards Jen, noticing that her clothes look wet "You look like a mess."

"Oh thanks, you look great too." She grabs some new clothing, slamming the bathroom door shut "I cleaned up the mess so you would stop bitching and apparently your wonderful daughter decided to leave a whole bowl filled with water on top of the sink."

I try not to laugh, picturing what happened.  She must know what I'm doing because the door flies open as she's in the middle of putting her pajama top on, and she looks furious.

"You're such an asshole.  If you would have just helped me out for once instead of going right to screaming at me and bitching about it this would have been so much easier!"

"Jen," I sigh, trying to pull her closer once I see tears forming "I just don't like coming home and feeling like I can't even relax because there's too much to do.  I didn't mean to act like an asshole."

"It's okay."