Baby May

The Start of Something Good

October 2017

"Girls!" Alyssia calls up the stairs, "Can you come down here for a minute, please?"

"Coming!" They both shout and hammering footsteps come across the landing and down the stairs. They race into the living room, Ivy skids to a stop in front of her mum and Olivia jumps onto the sofa.

Alyssia pats the spare spot on the sofa and Ivy takes it, "I need to have a serious big girl conversation with you both. Do you remember Joe?"

"The one that came to the fair with us?" Olivia asks.

"Yeah, that's him. Well, when I introduced him to you, I told you he was just a friend but since then he and I have become a lot closer and we... love each other."

"Like you did with daddy?" Ivy mutters.

It's hard for her to admit this because she will always love Toby but she's starting to believe she might love Joe just as much, "Yeah, I love him. What I want to ask you is how would you feel if he became part of our lives?"

They both immediately speak over each other, "Would he live with us? Do we have to call him dad?"

"Whoa, one question at a time girls. But to answer both your questions, yes Olivia, he would live with us eventually but not just yet, only once things become more serious and permanent. Ivy, you don't have to call him dad if you don't want to, if further down the line he and I got married, he would legally be your stepfather but if you don't want to call him dad you don't have to, same goes for you, Olivia. Joe understands that he is not your dad, he is not trying to replace him."

"Does he make you happy?" Ivy asks, it's a question Alyssia thought would be beyond her years to understand, but perhaps losing her dad matured her more than she realised.

"Yeah, he does make me happy, but so do you two and if you're not comfortable with me being with Joe..."

"I like him," Ivy interrupts her, "He'd make a cool stepdad."

"I'd like a dad, he can come and live with us," Olivia informs her, "Can I go back upstairs now?"

"Sure," She lets Olivia go.

Olivia is not her worry, with Toby gone before she even knew him, Joe coming in shouldn't affect her much, it's Ivy she needs the reassurance from, "You sure your okay with this, Ivy? You and Libby will always come first so tell me honestly."

"I'm sure mum, I miss daddy, but Joe will be a cool stepdad," She repeats her earlier statement leaning into her mum for a hug, "You were still sad before and now you're happy and smiley again."

Sighing, Alyssia squeezes her tightly, "I love you, my clever girl, you and your sister make me happy, I promise you that but Joe fills some of the happiness I lost when we lost your dad."

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With school closed for an inset day and Anita working, Alyssia has no other choice but to take the girl with her to work.

Today they are filming the We Will Rock You creation scene for which Alyssia is in, so she needs to be there.

She arrives on set with both girls in tow, "Oh, this is a surprise," Brian smiles lifting Ivy into a hug, while Olivia goes for Roger.

"School inset day that I forgot about and there is no one to have them since mum is working, so here we are..."

"Uncle Ben!" Ivy gets Brian to put her down and races over to the blonde actor arriving on set.

He doesn't hesitate to pick her up, "I was not aware there are kids in this film," Alyssia quickly explains, "Ah, well then. You can spend the day with us."