Where Promises Must Glide

12 - Juliette

Saturdays were my day offs, and my favorite days.

Never have I been more happy to be home all day, to just relax and decompress—especially after the events of last week. The babysitter is staying for the afternoon, while I do some work.

I get about four free hours to myself while Ophelia occupies the babysitter, Elisa. Ophelia had been jumping up and down all morning excited with activities her and Elisa could do while together.

"Mommy is Elsa coming now?" Ophelia asks, laying next to me while I was in bed. I smiled at her, rolling over to my side to kiss her on the top of her head. Ophelia calls her Elsa because she is the first person she met with blonde hair right after watching the movie Frozen. Elisa after a while got used to it and doesn't mind the nickname.

"She won't be here until twelve, baby. Maybe try to get more sleep," I tell her, hoping the slight begging in my voice wasn't apparent to her little three year old brain. It was still six in the morning and I had another six hours until I could relax. It always felt like before I had a break, Ophelia wanted to wake up as early as possible and annoy me as much as possible.

I love her to death, but right now she is waking me up and I feel like death. "But mommy!" She whined, bouncing up and down on the bed.

"Sweetie, the President isn't even awake right now, so how about we all go back to sleep. Because if the country is not awake neither should we." I explain, but she isn't taking no for an answer. She continues bouncing on the bed like I just told her I'm taking her to candyland.

I close my eyes, grabbing her and rolling her with me. She began to giggle and kick, pulling out of my arms. The energy this child has at 6 am.

"Goodnight sweetie," I whisper, while she strains an excessive string of noooo's which makes me laugh. She began to pluck at my eyes, opening them for me to look at her.

I shook my head, realizing how crazy this little girl is. "Time to sleep," I say, falling back asleep.

>>><<<

Elisa showed up just in time, and I was excited to start my day. A part of me wanted to stay and hang out with Ophelia, but another part of me—the one who hated canceling on people—decided to just go out with my friends who spontaneously invited me to brunch.

I got all dolled up too, Ophelia helping me slightly to curl my hair—obviously the curling iron wasn't on but she loved the idea that she was helping me get ready. I had on a corset top, trench coat, and jeans.

"Mommy you look like a princess," Ophelia says as I was putting on my shoes to leave. I couldn't resist showering her in hugs and kisses. She was wearing one of my old shirts she found from my closet couple weeks ago—when I was in my baby tee phase back in college. She wore it over a dress, and I didn't have the heart to tell her the outfit didn't match because she loves it so much.

"Thank you sweetie," I tell her. "But you are the princess." I twirled her around, which she loved when she was wearing a dress.

As I forced myself to leave, I made my way to the bus stop, and to the direction of the place I planned on having brunch with my friends.

Once arriving, they all screeched as I went over to give them hugs. It was a group of three girls, all friends from college. Some of us dormed together, while the others had a couple of classes together and we remained close afterwards.

"You look amazing girl!" One of them said, pulling back to look at my outfit. Monique, one of my closest friend of the four said. She had an orange top, matching her dark skin complexion. She was always the fashionista of the group—yelling at any of us if we didn't wear the correct color that wouldn't flush us out.