Fragile (age regression)

Chapter 28

"Camila, mama has told you no. Go sit at the table please, lunch will be ready soon" Lauren repeats for what feels like the thousandth time as she easily manoeuvres herself around the kitchen, seeing the girl from the corner of her eye as she dishes up their pizza finally doing as she was told.

The girl hadn't been bad today per say, but she hadn't exactly been cooperating either.

Lauren suspects the grouchiness and defiance were happening because she was due for a much needed nap, but as she knew better than to send her to bed on an empty stomach, she had to get some food into her tummy first .

"Here you go baby. Eat up then you may nurse and go down for your nap" she places the plate of chopped up pizza down in front of the grouchy toddler, quickly securing a bib around her neck before she could destroy yet another set of clothes.

Camila whines at the feeling of the restricting material fastened around her neck, her hand, that was already covered in the tomato sauce coming up to tug at it in an attempt at getting it off.

"No no. If you want your pizza then you leave that on" Lauren warns gently, grasping the girls hand in hers and moving it back down to her lap.

Although put out at not getting her way, Camila complies and allows the bib to stay where it is before eagerly digging into her food, the remanence of every single part of the pizza already covering the bottom half of her face. 

Lauren rolls her eyes playfully but sits down to do the same.

The meal was quickly demolished, and quicker than she ever had before Lauren was leading her upstairs and getting her into the tub for a quick bath.

She loved her job and what it entailed, but after this week of looking after a pushy and defiant Camila non stop, she was desperate for a much needed break and she knew that was evident on her face.

Maybe she could arrange something with Normani. Get Camila out of the house for a few hours whilst she cleans and settles down on the couch with a good book. Two things of which she hadn't been able to do properly since she had taken the youngster in.

No she wasn't regretting it, she just wasn't expecting Camila to be this hands on nor was she expecting her to want constant attention never allowing her to have a moment to herself.

Releasing a deep sigh, she brings her focus onto the small girl splashing happily in the tub as her hands reach for the shampoo.

She was the picture of innocence, the complete opposite of how she had been all day.

"Head back" she says with a soft smile after she had poured a decent amount of shampoo into her hands, waiting for the girl to comply with her words before disposing of it into her hair and allowing her nails to graze soothingly over her scalp.

Roll on nap time.

*

"You're not regretting this are you?" Normani's voice escapes the speaker of her phone that was resting on the couch next to her.

"No, mani, I'm not. I just haven't been able to get a single thing done since you dropped her off" Lauren adjusts herself on the couch as her eyes skim over the laptop screen, "the little thing demands constant attention and the only reason I'm able to talk to you now is because I bribed her with chocolate cake" she rolls her eyes at the length she'd had to go to just to get a few minutes to herself.

"Chocolate cake huh? Wow Lauren, look at you feeding the baby sugar" Normani laughs.

Lauren sighs, but allows a smile to appear on her lips, "I know. But it was a bribe and it worked so I can't find it in me to complain right now..." She trails off with a shrug.

"I'll be there bright and early tomorrow morning" Normani knew that a break in the industry Lauren was in was important, especially if she didn't want this arrangement that had taken weeks to sort of to end badly.

"Thank you" Lauren let's out a relieved sigh. She wraps up her goodbyes with Normani before hanging up, and just like expected, a small body pushes her laptop off of her lap and climbs onto it herself.

Tomorrow couldn't come quick enough.

**

Short but sweet as I'm just getting back into writing this book again.

Tell me what you think!

Stay strong and take care of yourselves ❤️