Electric Impulse: A Bond UnBreakable

Chapter 34 | Finally Face to Face II

Ironically as I return to my seat, DaniLeigh's "Easy" plays overhead.

Taking a moment, I close my eyes.

This is anything, but. . . 

"Everything alright?" Nadia asks, as if she's coming back for seconds.

"Yeah, Aria. You and my dad. You good?" Nala chimes in.

"Oh, we're fine girls. Peachy keen. Things are going as smooth as a baby's bottom."

"I always hated that saying." Nadia tucks her hair behind her ear. "It sounds like something a perv would say. You know?" She asks looking sarcastically at Nala.

"Ya, that baby's booty, man! Can't stop thinking about it. It's so smooth, like, like this situation." Nala places an invisible gun to her temple and pulls the trigger.

Nadia laughs wickedly. "Who says that?"

"It's an idiom," I deadpan.

"A wha?" Nadia snickers.

"A colloquialism?" I lower my head waiting for her to get it.

"Uh." Nala tries to think of a comeback.

"A saying. It's just something people say. OK?"

"OK! Alright. We get it." Nadia holds her hands up.

They're gaslighting you.

Manipulative little shits!

"Scoot over?" Phoenix asks, sliding into the booth. He looks at everyone at the table. "Everybody alright?"

The girls and I glance at each other.

"We're fine. Good actually. Right? Girls?"

"Oh yeah," Nadia pipes up.

"We're awesome, Dad. Aria's just . . ."

"Peachy. Right?" I chime in.

"Oh, yeah. Great." Nala sells it well.

Phoenix smiles. "See? A little alone time will do the trick every time. Sometimes you just got to leave people to their own devices."

Pursing my lips to keep from spilling what really went down, I pat his thigh.

"I love this. Went better than I imagined. With you all getting along, it just makes everything go much smoother." Phoenix stretches his arm along the back of the seat, caressing my shoulder.

Nadia snorts. "There's that word again."

Nala giggles at Nadia's observation.

"What word?" Phoenix asks.

"Huh?" Nadia replies.

"Hmm?" Nala echoes.

"Anyhow." Phoenix waves them off. "I'm glad you're all getting along because there's something else we need to tell you."

Nala's breath hitches. Nadia grabs the edge of her seat.

Phoenix grabs my hand under the table. He looks at me and smiles.

Out the corner of my eye, Nadia pretends to gag while Nala laughs silently. Phoenix turns to them, they instantly wipe their faces blank.

These girls!

"I want you two to know, this isn't something we planned, but we're here now."

"Dad, we get that you and Aria like each other," Nadia speaks out of turn.

"That's not what I'm talking about, Nad. Ari and I are . . ." Phoenix gulps. "We're having a baby." He lets the girls sit with that thought.

They're completely silent. As if they hadn't heard him.