The Unexpected

20

Jens pov

Another week gone by and I feel so distanced from Leah. I hate it. I really miss her. That's my girlfriend and I feel like she isn't. We aren't so close anymore. We're acting so different. There's something in the air that's just making everything feel different.

Me and Leah don't even have plans for the weekend which sucks but it's fine. I'm spending time with my daughter.

Today we're actually doing a last minute thing to shop for her cousins birthday party. We entered the toy section.. that's when Veronica lost it.

"Mommy look!" She says and points to a toy. Before I even get the chance to respond, she gasps and runs to another section. "Can I get this??" She asks. I go over to her. But of course. She sees something else.

"Mommy!" She squeals. "They have everything here mama" I giggle. "I know! I want" "you can't have everything though. I'll get you one thing so choose wisely."

"Aw Okay..welllll." She pauses and keeps looking around. Gasping multiple times every time she saw something she liked. She's completely had my mind off of Leah which is good. Because right now I'd be sad at home, overthinking about the future.

"This one" She says and walks to me and shows me what she got. "And how much?" I ask. "It said three something" she says intelligently. "Mm..."

She meant thirty.

"Pleeeease" she begs. "Well that means we won't go to Disneyland till a different week cause I have so much to pay for right now" I said. "But-" "you cant have everything baby. Mama isn't rich" I said. "Okaaaay" she pouts and holds onto it.

I went to look for the present I wanted to buy for her cousin. Then I bought a gift bag, gift paper to stuff in it and a birthday card.

Once we got to the register, Veronica did not wanna let go of her toy.

"Either you let them scan it or you're not getting it at all" I said to her. She gives me those puppy eyes and I take it out of her hands. "Thank you. See it's not that hard. It takes one second" I said and handed it back to her. She looks away. Now she's acting stubborn.

I continued paying for the things then we left the store. She climbs into the car as I put the things away. Then I sat in the car and looked at my phone first since of course, I can't drive and go on my phone and I also needed it for the navigation.

"Hey wyd" Leah texts me. Well, it was about 15 minutes ago that she did. I usually reply fast to her but I didn't even know she texted me until now. "Family party" I replied.

"Oh ok" she replies.

"Why babe?"

"Miss u." she replied. I kind of felt something but I know she's being all cold with me.

"I miss you too" I replied.

"When are u free?"

"Idk"

"U don't know??"

"No. Schedule has been messy lately with family, my daughter and work."

"Oh ok. Well when you're available let me know. I'd like to see my girlfriend.."

"So you're down to still be my girlfriend?" I ask.

"Well yeah I'm not just gonna randomly decide without telling you that we shouldn't be girlfriends anymore." She replied and I just left her on read the rest of the day, went to the party and just enjoyed the day with my family.

But later that night, I decided to FaceTime her. Veronica is in her room watching tv, trying to fall asleep. So I'm alone in my room.

"I am not ready for work on Monday" I said to her. "Why?" "So much going on...and..I don't know if you wanna come but we have a company party next weekend. I'm going alone but if you want.."

"You go to a party every weekend" she says. "Anything wrong with that?" I ask with a tiny tone of attitude.

"No. I was just saying"

"Okay" I said. "I'll come yeah" she says. "Okay. I'll pick you up. It's semi formal"

"Mmkay"

Then it got quiet. So I looked away at the tv. I really don't know what to say anymore now that the elephant in the room is bothering both of us. She likes me but she doesn't like that I have a daughter. I like her but I'm scared of what she thinks and I don't want her to reject Veronica. Ugh. Imagine a world that Leah was okay with dealing with a kid this early in her life and I wasn't so worried. Things would be so nice and happy. But sadly not everything goes the way I'd like it to be.

"So how was the party today?" She asks me. I lay to my side and looked at her through my phone laying sideways too. "Fun. There was a lot of food today. I had like four plates of everything" I giggle. "Haha damn" she responds. "But now I'm stuffed and I probably won't eat again till next weekend" I joke.

"Stupid" She giggles. I smile a bit and pressed my lips. "How about you? What did you do?"

"Well since I had nothing planned to do, I went and did a little shopping for some new clothes which luckily I bought something which can be for next weekend at your work party. But- okay so I saw this top that looked a bit confusing with all the straps it had. I tried it on in the fitting room..next thing you know I'm stuck and I had to ask the employee for help" she pouts. "What?!" I laughed out. "Yeah..embarrassing. The straps were confusing though! I didn't know where to put my arm then it kept wrapping around too tight so I was stuck"

"Weirdo" I scoffed. "Shut up. If you were there you would've understood how complicating it was"

"Mhm" I mumble. She smiles and shakes her head.

Now it feels right talking to her like this like we normally do. We continued to talk for hours until we both fell asleep. I'm glad I did call her. It felt refreshing to talk to her again after not seeing her for a week.