positive •irwin au•

part nine

Updating again so soon?? I know what you're thinking: who are you and what did you do with Tori? I'm asking the same question. Okay, enjoy. This isn't edited.

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"Thank you for working out the situation with my car, Benji. You're the best," Maddy kissed her brother on the cheek as they both stepped out of their respective cars in the parking garage designated to residents of the surrounding apartment buildings.

The pair had just returned from picking up Maddy's car in the shop. The mechanics had completely tried to take advantage of Maddy's lack of knowledge and rip her off, luckily Ben knew better and was there to help her out. Maddy was glad to have saved some money, but mostly she was just glad to have her car back.

"Well you're going to need it. You start work tomorrow and I don't think I could handle carpooling with Talia everyday so that you could borrow my car." Together they walked out of the parking garage and around the corner to enter their building.

"You need to spend more time with her and love her as much as I do," Maddy told him. "She says she's going to be around a lot more now because of the baby and I know you've always been secretly annoyed by her. Make nice, please."

"I'll see what I can do," Ben just wanted to change the subject. "So the job training went well?"

"Yeah, it doesn't seem too bad," she explained as she waited for Ben to unlock the door to their apartment. "Two weeks of training was a bit much I feel like because the job is pretty straightforward."

"They just want you to be prepared," Maddy agreed with a nod. "So do you get any cool benefits or perks?"

"I get an employee discount, 25% off. So I can get the little lentil plenty of clothes and blankets and bibs and things," she explained.

"Lentil?"

"I subscribed to this email list that tells you how big your baby is each week. This week it's the size of a lentil."

"Well that's... interesting," Ben began rummaging through the refrigerator looking for something to make for dinner.

"It is, actually. It also tells me how the baby is developing and how my body is changing."

"Oh yeah? How's that?" he asked.

"Well," she said, pulling out her phone and opening her email. "The baby's heart is beating strong and it's starting to get all kinds of things: nose, mouth, ears, arms, legs. All kinds of stuff. Brain, muscle, and bones."

"Oh my," Ben muttered, causing Maddy to burst out into laughter. "It's not that funny."

"According to this it's normal for me to have ricocheting emotions. Moody one day and joyful the next. Don't judge the way I feel."

"Who's judging you? Chill out," Maddy rolled her eyes. "I'm just going to make a frozen pizza for dinner, okay?"

"That's fine. I'm just going to have to have some fruits and veggies with it. You probably should too, by the way. If I have to eat healthy for the lentil, you do too. Keep me sane," she pleaded.

"You got it, sis. I'll wash some baby carrots and strawberries. Sound good?" Ben asked as he placed the pizza in the still-preheating oven.

"Just make sure you really wash them. Baby email says so," she wiggled her phone screen towards him and he laughed, agreeing. "I'm going to go pick out a movie."

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"You excited for work tomorrow?" Talia asked instead of just saying 'hello?' like a normal person answering a facetime call. Maddy laughed in response.