Desirable

~50. Mac & Cheese

"Louis, there's no point in being late! He's gonna figure it out within the next nine months!!" the short girl crosses her arms. 

Her tall boyfriend emerges from the bedroom with his arms crossed too. 

"Clementine Everrett, the love of my life, the mother of my child - last night, I had an epiphany. A big one." 

"And?" she cocks an eyebrow. 

"We cannot tell your dad."

"And why is that?"

"Just out of interest, are you prepared to raise the baby alone? Because he will kill me."

She groans, "You are so dramatic. He will not kill you!"

"Okay, then he'll slowly torture me!"

"So what's your plan then?" she rolls her amber eyes, leaning her shoulder against the door frame. 

"We go to Hawaii and buy a beachside hut and stay there for the rest of our lives. Doesn't that sound so much better than telling Lee about the baby?" 

Clem stares at him with an emotionless face, her lips pursed shut. 

"Louis, go get dressed. We're already late." 

"What if I don't?" 

Louis watches as her eyes narrow and her jaw tenses, her small hands ball into fists. He stutters and nods. 

"I'll get dressed."

~~~

Clementine knocks on the front door of her home. 

A part of her felt guilty, she had barely been here ever since she got comfortable at Louis' apartment. She never really asked Lee how he felt about the situation, but he seemed fine. 

"Do you think I could wait in the car? With the engine running?" Louis snakes an arm around her small waist and sighs. 

"We have to tell him, Lou. After this, we don't need to worry about telling anyone else." she gets on her tiptoes and kisses his cheek. 

"Yeah, I guess. Except for Brody and the others."

"But that'll be easy-"

The door opens and the teens are met with the tall bearded man, who was smiling from ear to ear. He snatches his daughter away from Louis and hugs her tight. 

"Clementine! How are you? I've missed you!"

She laughs, "I'm good. I've missed you too." 

Lee detaches himself from her and turns to Louis.

"Hey, Louis. Have your dreadlocks grown?" he chuckles, pulling the boy in for a hug too. 

Louis almost chokes on his own breath and pats the man's back. 

"Hey, uh- yeah, I tie them up a lot now."

"Well, come on in." he closes the door behind them. 

The two hang their coats on the rack and make their way to the living room, where a cooking show was playing on the television. Clem sits down and grabs the nervous dreadhead's large hand, bringing him down next to her. 

"Dad, why are you watching this? You hardly ever cook."

"Exactly. It's an important skill to have," the grown man sits down on the single recliner next to the couch. 

Louis pretends to tune into posh blond on the television as she mashed up potatoes, but he was really trying to distract himself from his imminent death. Clem could feel his fingertips shudder on her knee, so she slides her small hand to his one and curls her fingers between his. She squeezes gently but the gesture seemed to do nothing.