Cigarettes and Alcohol

Red Head

The kitchen door swung open and a young woman walked in with a baby carrier, the child inside absolutely shrieking.

"Kurt I can't do this for you anymore. She hasn't stopped crying since she left you, she misses her dad. I have to stop sitting for you so I can focus on my university work. I'm sorry."

Kurt started begging her not to,

"No, please, it takes weeks to find someone we can trust Millie! I really need you right now, please!"

"I'm sorry Kurt. Frances hates me and she really misses you, she cries whenever she's with me because you aren't. I have to go, I have class soon. I'm really sorry.'"

She didn't sound very sorry, at least in my humble opinion.

When she placed the carrier on the table she seemed to notice me. She gave me a funny look, and glanced at Kurt one last time before nodding to him and leaving without saying anything more.

Kurt's loud cursing and Frances crying easily drowned out the footsteps of the woman going back to her car. I had absolutely no clue what to do, I'd witnessed enough arguments today to last a lifetime. And with a hangover. Kurt wandered off into the house, I suppose he forgot I was there after all the shit that's happened to him in the last 45 minutes. I was just sat at the table with a crying celebrity baby.

I turned the baby carrier towards me and stood up. When Frances saw me she paused from her wailing to look up at me with an innocent curiosity, the kind only young children have when they see something unfamiliar. I looked down at her and smiled, she was an absolutely adorable baby. She reached out to grab my hair, so I gave her my finger to hold, and she started gurgling happily.

While I was talking and playing with the small child, Kurt walked back into the room and stared at me with a warning look.

"I didn't say you could touch my daughter."

"Hey, she touched me first! I couldn't just let her pull my hair out." I said, turning to face him with a smile. He wasn't smiling. I stepped back as he walked over, him hoisting her out of the carrier and giving her a hug.

"Look, could you just grab the bottle out from the top shelf of the fridge? She's probably hungry." I did as asked, and passed it over quickly. She kept looking over and reaching for me between drinks. After feeding her for a few minutes, he seemed to be considering something before he told me,

"Y'know she never acts like that with strangers. She normally shrieks and tries to get away. She seems to like you,"

"Maybe it's my red hair. It's naturally this colour so it fascinates all kinds of people, apparently your daughter included." I said, with a chuckle.

He responded with a simple nod. He looked down at her then back at me somewhat warily deciding whether I was safe. Frances seemed to decide whether to let me touch her before he could and reached out to me. I glanced at him to make sure it was okay before I let her hold my hand and lightly tug my hair with the other. I laughed softly and she giggled. The child was screaming a few minutes ago but calmed down so fast. Wish I could switch off being sad like that.

Once again I had a surreal moment of realisation. I'm playing with Frances Bean Cobain. And she's a baby. And she's in Kurt's arms. I must be dreaming, or dead and living out my dream life in heaven. Although waking up with a hangover and a screaming woman then a screaming child doesn't seem very heavenly, nor dreamlike.

After this realisation I quickly stepped back as she let go of my hair,

"I'm sorry, I've really overstayed my welcome. I didn't mean to be so invasive or anything, I'm really sorry-"

I stopped rambling and rubbed the back of my head when he looked at me. His eyes, I'll never get over them. They are so damn beautiful. I shouldn't be staring into them for so long but I might wake up at any moment and never get to see them again so I want to savour every moment.

He looked at me for a second longer, then down at Frances, then ran his free hand over his face.

"Look, I really shouldn't do this since my wife clearly hates you," using a hand to gesture to earlier,

"And I know you're a stranger and I'm a practically a stranger to you too,"

I liked where this was going.

"And quite frankly, I can't remember your name,"

Understandable.

"And I shouldn't trust you because you could easily be lying,"

Oh my God.

"But I'm in need of a new nanny and you're in need of a place to stay. And Frances really likes you, and that's the most important thing here."

I stopped breathing.

"Do you want to be a temporary live-in nanny until I can figure something else out?"

Holy FUCK.

"Seriously?"

"I'll interview you and things to make sure I can trust you around my daughter. And you've seen so much of my private life already, what more damage could be done if you saw some more?"

"Oh my God, thank you so fucking much, you have no idea how grateful I am!"

I shook his hand once again as a more polite thank you. He smiled at me, somewhat awkwardly. Relaxing my hand a bit, I decided to say,

"By the way, to reintroduce myself, I'm the new and improved sober Effy Waits. It's truly a pleasure."

Author's Note -

I'm back! I decided to go for this again as I think it's a cool story and want to keep it going. I decided to make Kurt a little colder toward's Effy as she was now sober and more rational, and he's a paranoid celebrity with a girl he doesn't know witnessing some private things. Hopefully he's gonna warm back up to her soon though ;)

Hope you're enjoying it so far, let me know what you think! I'll try not to do these often because I feel like it breaks the flow of the story but I felt like giving a bit of update and clarity to those who didn't get why he was being a bit mean.