She dug her hand into her coat pocket and pulled out the smartphone. It was Gracie's iPad, she was trying to FaceTime her.
Grace swiped to answer and said, "Hi, buddy."
"Hi, Auntie Grace! Where are you?"
"I'm just out for a walk," Grace turned around and walked right out of the store without buying anything, "I'm glad you called me. How are you?"
"I'm good! Mommy is in the shower again and Daddy is at work so I wanted to ask you if you could help me do my math?" Gracie pushed her glasses up on her face and made a big sniffling noise like she was sick. She had her pencil in her hand and she waited patiently for her aunt's response.
"What kind of math are you doing?"
"Submarine," the nearly six year old responded.
Grace paused and knit her eyebrows, "Do you mean subtraction?"
"I don't know," Gracie shrugged, "Can you help or should I call Auntie Taylor or Aunt Nellie?"
"I can help," Grace truly laughed for the first time in a couple days, "I think you mean subtraction, bud. Are you taking numbers away from bigger numbers?"
"I have to do twenty minus seven," Gracie put her hands up with confusion, "I don't know it!"
"If you had twenty cookies and then you ate seven, how many would you have?"
"Probably my tummy would hurt."
"Probably would," the brunette crinkled her nose up at the thought of stomaching seven cookies. Gracie made a good point there, "What's Aunt Taylor's favourite number? She has it everywhere, all over our home."
"Why would I know?" Gracie sighed, "I'm gonna call someone else. Bye, Auntie Grace, love you a lot."
"Bye, Gracie, I love you, too," Grace watched her push the button after a nice close up of her nose and wondered where that attitude had come from. She had walked back to the outside stairs of the apartment and the doorman had the door opened for her.
She went up the elevator and Taylor was on FaceTime with Gracie. Taylor smiled at Grace as she said, "Uh, my favourite number is thirteen."
"Why?" Gracie started to count on her fingers, "Would you eat seven cookies?"
"Today I would, yep," Taylor admitted, "Your aunt just got home, want to say hi?"
"No, I just talked to her. She didn't help me do my math."
"Alright then," Taylor raised her eyebrows with surprise, "Try drawing a picture of your math and using it to count how many you need to take away."
"Huh," the five year old hummed and dragged out the sound, "I'll just call Aunt Nellie. Bye, love you."
She hung up before Taylor could respond and she looked at Grace with curiosity, "Where'd that attitude come from? Damn."
"I'd say puberty but it's a little early for that," Grace answered.
YOU ARE READING
The Lucky One (2) - Taylor Swift
Fanfiction"Being sober sucks." "I feel like being dead sucks more." Every second that passes by only makes the want for a drink feel greater. With every second that goes by, Grace is reminded that she is not who she used to be, and the new her doesn't drink. ...
