Lights Please II

2: Surprise, Biggie

Tess

"Lex!" I called out as I was fixing her plate.

"YAAAA MOMMMMY?????" she screamed back at me from upstairs.

"There's no reason to yell like that—come downstairs dinner is ready," I told her as I made my way to the bottom of the staircase.

"DADDY TOO??" she yelled.

"Yes, daddy too." I sighed. I swear if this child yelled once more my head was going to explode... she caused me the actual worst headaches ever. Soon after the two of them came down the stairs and I heard J warning her to not run to which she giggled then began to walk. They both came in the kitchen and Lex took her seat at the table before I told her to wash her hands and Jermaine came in behind me as I wrapped up his salad to go with his meal.

"This looks good," he mumbled, "thank you baby,"

"Yeah you're welcome—" I barely looked at him before situating Lex in her high chair at the table.

"Lex don't just be eating the chicken nuggets you have to finish your carrots too okay?" I told her.

"But dose is yucky," she said as she made a face.

"Listen to your mother Alexia," Jermaine said in his stern daddy voice and frowned before proceeding to eat. I grabbed some juice out of the fridge and joined them at the table. I was having the same as Jermaine for dinner cause I wasn't about to start making anything else. We ate in silence for a while before J said anything.

"This is really good T," he mumbled as he ate his food.

"I'm glad you like it," I responded softly focused on my plate.

"You good ma?" he asked as if he were trying to read me.

"I'm fine," I mumbled taking a sip of my drink and not looking at him.

"You don't have to do that with me," he sighed. "I'm not the rest of the world Tess, you tell me wassup... are you gonna let me in or no?"

I looked over at Lexi before saying anything and she was focused on her plate in front of her kicking her little feet in her high chair. "I'm just drained man," I mumbled.

"Long day?" he asked with a frown. He has no idea.

"Long week... try long month-- I have so much goin on and you're about to go on tour. I'll literally be like a single mother driving her to and from daycare, dance lessons, keeping up with the house and I still have a job to hold down. I'm supposed to be in the studio with some artists these next couple months—I have my own stuff to work on too... I'm just one person Jermaine..." I explained to him and he looked at me with a slight frown. "You don't consider that when you make these executive decisions to up and leave on tour... You've never been on tour while we've had a child, you didn't even bother having a conversation with me to see how that would work or how we could figure anything out. You just assumed I'd stay behind and hold everything down—like—I'm just one person."

He sighed before saying anything, "I ain't really look at it like that baby, I'm sorry... we don't have any dates set in stone yet, if you wanna sit in on the meeting and we can make sure that the tour dates accommodate you as well? So I can be around as much as possible..."

I nodded slowly, glad that he was getting where I was coming from. "I'm good with that... but at the same time you're gonna be away still and I'll be with her on my own—"

He frowned for a minute, "how about getting some help around the house? Like a nanny or something? Get that all situated before I have to go."

I don't know how I felt about that... I always wanted to be independent in raising my own daughter, you know? I didn't want outside help, especially because I didn't know who I could trust for the job.