Emma, Daniel and Hazel are The Aarons. They have everything one could dream of: money, family and love. But even when you have these there will always be things that money cannot buy.
The sort of mother you want yours to be.
The sort of mother you y...
The picture below is of fetus me in Paris when I was 3 years old, as old as Hazel. You'll see the picture reference in the chapter :)
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I manage to persuade Hazel to go shopping with me today only after I promise her that I'll take her to Disneyland tomorrow.
I get up from my chair and Hazel hops down from hers. I take her hand and lead her out of the hotel. We walk past one of the glass doors when she tugs on my hand making me stop and look down at her.
"What is it, Bunny?" I ask and she points at something.
I follow her finger to one of the gardens where there are a lot of pigeons collected, pecking at grain spread all over the ground.
"Wow. There are so many of them. Do you want to go see them?" I ask her.
"Yes!" She screams and I hold open the door for her as she rushes into the sunlight. A few pigeons get startled and they fly away but the rest keep pecking probably because they've gotten used to the children from the hotel.
After about ten minutes I call out to Hazel that I'm leaving. She runs back to me and takes my hand as we walk around the hotels lawns to the front where the parking is.
"You card please mademoiselle." The valet says.
"Oh! There's a car waiting for me. Daniel Aaron." I tell him.
"Mrs. Aaron?" He asks.
"Yes. That's me." I nod.
"I'll fetch the car." He pulls a key off a board and hurries away.
After a few minutes he drives up to us in a white Porsche. I help Hazel into the front seat and buckle her in before getting into the driver's seat and driving off.
We drive through the city for a while, the windows rolled down just enjoying the sights and sounds of Paris.
After an hour, Hazel starts getting cranky and instantly know she's hungry. I buy her some chips (French fries) and let her munch on them while I enter 'avenue des champs-élysées' into the GPS. We drive for another fifteen minutes till we reach our destination.
"My hands." Hazel says, making me realize that they're covered in oil and ketchup.
"Here." I hand her a tissue from my purse and wait for her to clean her hands. Once she's done, I step out of the car and help her out before locking the doors and taking Hazel's hand.
We go from store to store looking at dresses and perfumes and shoes. In one store Hazel puts on a large sunhat with a feather on it. I pick the most bizarre sunglasses and we take a selfie. The glare of a saleswoman makes us take the things off and hurry back onto the street, giggling together.
"Emma!" I hear someone call out.
"Tess! What are you doing here?" I ask, surprised to see my sister in Paris.
"My Professor's on maternity leave, so I have classes off for a month." She explains why she isn't at college in Toulouse.
"How's college?" I ask.
"Tougher than I thought it would be." She sighs.
"Told you so." I laugh at the grim look on her face.
"And how's the best niece in the world?" She asks, crouching down in front of Hazel.
"Good." Hazel smiles as Tess kisses her cheek.
"I'm going to get something to drink. Want to come?" She asks.
"Apple juice!" Hazel pleads.
"Okay." I say and follow Tess across the road to a small café.
"They have the world's best lattes." She says as we walk in.
"Can we please have an apple juice and two lattes?" I tell the man behind the counter who bustles off to make them.
He comes back a few minutes later with our order and I pay him before we sit at a table near the window.
"I got a new dress for a dance next week." Tess says, showing us the red dress which is really pretty.
"I got a new shirt." Hazel tells her aunt all about her Eiffel Tower shirt and teddy bear.
I look down at my bracelet and smile at it. I'm forced to look away when my phone starts ringing. Daniel.
"Hi!" I say, answering the call.
"Hi! Where are you?" He asks.
"Out shopping. We met Tess there." I tell him.
"Oh! I'm free for dinner. I wanted to ask if you were up for something."
"Where? I'll have to go back to the hotel and get Hazel changed..." Daniel cuts in, saying. "I was wondering if just the two of us could go out. It's been a while since we got time to ourselves."
"That will be great." I smile down at my latte. "But what about Hazel?"
"Well, lucky you met Tess, right?" He says and I roll my eyes, smiling.
"I'll ask her if she's up for looking after Hazel tonight." I say before say goodbye.
"Someone is happy about something." Tess teases.
"It was Daniel. Can you look after Hazel tonight?" I ask.
"Why?" She asks, sipping her drink.
"You still haven't changed you know. You're as nosy as you were ten years ago!" I groan.
She laughs. "Fine. I'll babysit her."
"Thank you." I start getting excited, already deciding what to wear.
