Just Peachy

- Chapter Fourteen -

@abrefigyimah on Instagram
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The door is pushed open and Audrey appears with Liv on her hip.

"Oh my god hello baby!" I grin at her and take her from Audrey. She giggles as I spin around. "Your hair is looking so cute, Liv." I tell her and poke her nose gently. She scrunches her face up and my heart melts.

"You're like the only one who doesn't talk to her in a baby voice." Audrey smiles and places the spare key down on my counter. "Oh, hi Sam." She smiles at Sam who moves over and places a kiss on my cheek before moving his attention to Liv.

"Oh hello, you look so much like your mom," he smiles and takes in the sight of me holding her.

"Okay I'm going to go give you back to your mom and then we'll set up a little play area for you." Liv smiles and claps her hands.

Audrey looks at me worried. "She's been slow. She hasn't formed any coherent words. I'm worried- what if she has autism?" I watch as worry consumed her face. She always worried like this. She's almost three, so I understand her concern.

"She might just be slow. She hasn't been around other kids much so that might be it, don't worry about it. You can do this. If you want I can start looking after her more when you work?" She looks in my eyes, trying to figure out if I was lying. "I can take you to work with me, can't I?" I grin at Liv as she gurgles at me.

"Ugh, you bitch you're too nice. Thank you." She groans out and I grab the stuff Rey brought over and set it down next to my coffee table.

I take Liv and lay her down on the mat. "Right okay, sit up bubs," I coo and she does what I say. "Great, you did so good." I smile at her and jump slightly when my phone starts buzzing. I accept the call.

"Why weren't you at work yesterday?" I hear her sweet, melodic voice flow through the other end.

Julia had called me in on Wednesday... my day off, so I went on a date with Sam and didn't show up.

"I was... unwell." That wasn't true at all but I'm not gonna tell her that. "I promise I'll be there tomorrow- that was literally my one day of rebellion, I swear."

"Okay but you owe me because Sara almost killed me for keeping her in the building." I chuckle and look back down at Liv who is happily gurgling. "Do you have a kid?"

"Uh, it's my friend's daughter."

"Huh. Well please don't do what happened yesterday again, thank you." She says quickly and hung up.

Liv cackles at me and I furrow my brows at her, "calm down, jeez don't laugh at my problems." She continues cackling and I sigh, standing up.

"Rey, your bitch child is ready for you." I joke and Audrey slaps my arm playfully. Sam is looking at me deep in thought, there was a strange hint of regret on his face and the pit in my stomach grew.

"I'm gonna go to work, babe." He smiles at me before I move my cheek towards him out of habit but he doesn't kiss it. 

I'm overthinking too much.

"See you later on then." I smile at him awkwardly and moved to the living room, I wait until I could hear him leaving. "Rey, we've been doing so well lately I have no idea what's wrong."

"I don't trust him but it might just be the period where you guys are pretty new to dating each other. You guys had moved so fast and now it's a standstill."

I roll my eyes at her but the knot in my stomach wouldn't leave. My phone buzzed and I glanced over thinking it would be Sam.

asshole: I need to talk to you tomorrow.
Me: that doesn't sound good
asshole: it's nothing about the job, I just I need to apologize for my behavior recently.

Seriously why does she have to be mature?

Me: alright i'll talk to you tomorrow then

"-I swear this baby formula was so gross." Audrey pulled me back to reality as she looks through her bag for something.

"Are you looking for this?" I smile, holding one of Liv's teething toys. She loved it and would get upset if she didn't have it at some point in the day.

"Thank you so much."

We sat and looked after each other. They stayed over night and Sam slept on the couch while we slept on the bed with Liv between us. It was fair enough. I could feel another rift between us. Hopefully it's just a hiccup and we can get over it.

It was overall such a good day with Liv she was honestly such an adorable little baby. Her beautiful hair coiled neatly with big, gorgeous brown eyes. She really did look like a mix of her parents.

But, for the first time, Sam plagued my dreams for the rest of the night. I couldn't help but feel like something was off. A strange scent entered my senses. It was sickly sweet and floral. It was something I wasn't familiar with.

"Audrey did you get a new perfume?" I groan out, my muscles sore from the tough shift today.

"Yeah, do you want some?" She smiled at me and I politely declined as we settled into a deep sleep.

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