Long Time No See

Us?

It took me a while to get all of the bags in the house. The hardest part was carrying the stools for the kitchen up the stairs. I ended going to multiple stores and even getting some things to spice up my place. I sat Aden in his pin while I put everything away. As long as Aden had his puffs he was just fine. I connected my phone to the speaker that I spent a fortune on for the first time instead of watching TV. I started off my cleaning the entire kitchen. Something about it just didn't seem right and deserved a good cleaning. I looked up every few minutes to check in on my son who was now standing up.

"What's wrong? You ok man?" I quickly took off my gloves and washed my hands. I left the kitchen to take few steps towards him. I picked him up to see if he needed to be changed.

"You just wanna stand?" I asked him showering his cheeks with smooches.

I put him down before stepping back in the kitchen. I finished cleaning the refrigerator before I started to put things a way. I sang along to soft music playing and started to take the candles out of one of the bags before looking at my watch. I shrugged thinking that I didn't want to clean one spot for that long. I decided to light the lavender and linen candles before clearing the counter. I took the rest of the bags to the living room, closer to Aden as I went through all of the random things that I got.

It took a little bit for me to separate Aden's new clothes from general gadgets.

"You're the apple of my eye." I sang along with Kirby to Aden. I loved her music and even though I was off key I continued.

"I hope there are actual directions in this one." I said opening the box to the shoe cubby I wanted to put by my door.

"Yeah." Aden said almost jumping out of the pin. I grabbed my phone turning the music down to see what the problem was. I sat for a bit to make sure I wasn't crazy. I listened for what made him so happy and then it happened again. I checked my watch for the time before getting up to see who was at the door. I slid my lip in between my teeth as I caught my balance. I placed my hand on the door before looking into the peep hole. I took a step back, unlocking the door, and opening it. He lifted his head and rolled his eyes.

"It feels good to hold you." He said. I used my tippy toes to wrap my arms around his neck as he stepped in the house.

"How did it go?" I asked him. The door closed behind us as he slid his arms around my lower back and held me in that moment.

Aden crying broke your embrace. I let him go knowing exactly what the cry was. Eric was the man in his life and it scared me. He crept over to Aden, scooping him so and lightly popping him in to the air.

"What's going in baby boy? You helping Amari the builder?" The tears stopped completely being replaced with his little teeth.

"He is getting heavy Amari." He said walking back over to me.

"Glad someone is noticing." I leaned in allowing him to kiss my forehead.

"How did it go?" I asked.

"It was a mess. She broke shit  on my place, poured shit all over my car, put her hands on me, and some more shit man. I don't even want to talk about it." I intstantly got upset. He was gone for a while and I could only imagine how hard talking to her could have been.

"She hit you?" I looked at his face as he stood inside front of me.

"It's not a big deal."  He sat on one of the new stools, sitting Aden in the counter.

"She cant just put her hands on you like you are her child Eric." I grabbed his cheek and he didn't seem to be in any pain.

"Don't sit up there and think that this has anything to do with you. You haven't done anything wrong." He grabbed my thigh. He was still dealing with swirling thoughts.

"She should put her hands on someone that can hit her ass back." I said remembering that he wouldn't want me upset.

"It took everything in me not to hit her back." He said staring off.

"What's on your mind? Are you hungry?" I asked wanting him to talk.

"She just makes me so fucking angry. She has never acted like that. I mean my dishes are broken, I need new cabinets. I'll need a new couch..." Damn I liked that couch.

"She really came and tore your shit up like that?" I asked trying to find something to fix him.

"Yeah. I mean the shit can be fixed. It's her putting her hands on me that I'll never forget." I stood quietly letting him pick up the conversation.

"Babe I'm not hungry. I'm just thrown off." He made me stop in my tracks.

"I mean for her  to fly all the way down here from New York to have that conversation let me know that She was her biggest problem. I could never look at her the same after the way she acted." He changed the subject after noticing that Aden was feeding of of his energy.

"I want to talk to you about something though." He stretched his hand across the counter for me to grab. Once I did, he lead me around the counter and do him.

"My boy and his girl, well his wife, are having this house warming dinner party thing and they want us to come." He shifted Aden from one leg to another.

"Us?" I asked. I did know that he was telling his friends about us.

"Is that surprising?"

"A little yeah. If that's something that you want to do then I'm down with it." He looked at me up and down.

"Is that really a surprise? It's been over a year." He pointed out.

"Not a surprise in a bad way Eric. I'd love to meet your friends." I assure him.

"You sure? You seem a little taken back."He bounced Aden on his knee.

"I wasn't expecting you to say that."

"It's been a long time since I moved back and we haven't gotten together in a while. They are all couples and once I told them I was seeing someone they just had to meet you." He continued.

"Well I stopped by Little Luxuries and got some shoes anyway so I guess I get to wear them." I slipped the statement in.

"Glad you had fun spending my money." He joked...