Three months later
Since Cheryl left, Sean has been at Lauren's house almost every day. Meanwhile, Sabbat has been working long hours to save up enough money for Milano's birthday gifts.
"Mommy, look at the magazine!" Milano lifts it, excitedly, "it's a beauty station, Mommy! Isn't it pretty?"
Not paying attention to a word that left Milano's mouth, Lauren stays quiet.
"Mommy?" Milano said, trying to get her attention, "Mommy, I—"
"What, Milano?"
"There's a beauty station that I—"
"Milano, I'm busy. Go call your dad and talk about...I don't know,...whatever. Just go-go call him..."
Milano pursed her lips, but complied. She closed the magazine and exited her mom's room, heading to the foyer where the house phone was.
Sabbat answered on the second ring, "Hello?"
"Hey."
"Oh, hi, princess. How are you?"
"I'm fine, thank you...how about you?"
"Don't worry about me, baby girl; I'm okay," He said, "but what's up?...why you sound like that?"
"No reason." She lied.
"You sure?"
"Yes, dad."
"Alright, well, are you ready to turn seven?...that's big, you know?"
"You said that last year about me turning six..."
He laughed, "alright, well, did I lie, though? It was cool being six, right? You got to pick your clothes when you went shopping, you got to choose the vegetables you had to eat...a whole bunch of cool stuff."
"Yeah, I guess..."
"Milano, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, dad—"
"Don't lie to me."
She sighed, "I found this beauty station in a magazine..."
"And?"
"And...I sort of—"
"You want it? Okay; I'll get it for you."
"No, I—"
"Milano, I insist."
"Okay," She mumbled, "thank you."
"You want me to drop by later?"
Milano's face lit up, "that-that's an option?!"
"Yeah, I'll tell my boss that I'm not staying late tonight."
"I don't want you to miss work, though."
"Stop it," He told her, "I'll do anything for you."
She smiled, "I love you."
"I love you more," He replied, "I'll call your mom when I'm near, okay?"
"Okay, daddy."
"Bye, baby."
When Sabbat hung up, she felt empty. Her father was the only person that she had now; 'auntie Cherry' only comes to visit once a year.
"You can get through it." Milano told herself, walking to her room.
The phrase, 'you can get through it,', is something that Sabbat would always tell her. There were several different moments in the past where incidents between him and Lauren have occurred and he would be limited to a phone call a week; at the end of the call he'd always say, 'whatever it is, you're strong enough to beat. You'll get through it, okay? I love you'. By that point, she'd usually be in tears-begging for ten more minutes, ten more hours with her father, but her mother wouldn't let her. Since then, things have gotten better when it came to communication with Sabbat-she can spend the night and stuff, but Lauren continues to make the time Milano spends at her house unexciting, especially when Sean's there.
"Hey, baby." Milano heard Lauren say to Sean.
"Hi," He responded, "how was your day? How's my baby?"
"Baby?" Milano whispered to herself.
"He's fine, I think."
Milano walked out of her room and closer to the staircase, "He?!"
"Good," Sean said, "you know...I was thinking today and...I think we should turn that room into a joint room; I don't want the baby in our room. It'll be too cramped."
"I feel the exact same way, babe."
"Good because I really wanted to start buying some stuff for him, you know? I don't wanna wait until last minute."
"Right."
Milano's jaw dropped-not only was her mother pregnant, but it was a boy and her mother's boyfriend was planning to turn her room into a joint room.
"This can't be it." She said to herself before going back to her room and closing the door behind her.
Five hours later
Sabbat and Milano were on their way to dinner with his friend, Nicole and Nicole's niece, Kayla. When they got there, there was a long wait for a table but it was worth it-the food was amazing and so were the conversations.
"We're gonna head to the bathroom." Nicole announced.
"Okay." Sabbat said.
Kayla and Nicole went off to the bathroom while Sabbat and Milano talked at the table.
"I like her, daddy."
"Who? Kayla?"
"Well, yeah, but I was talking about Nicole. She's really pretty and she's funny and nice and-"
"No, Milano."
She sucked her teeth, "why not?!"
"Don't suck your teeth, that's a bad habit..." He instructed, "I don't have time for a relationship...I told you this."
"You can make time, though!...You made time for me."
"You're my daughter."
Milano let out a deep breath, "you know what I mean, daddy!...you deserve happiness and when you're with her, you seem happy-less stressed."
"The only reason that I'm stressed out is because I wanna see you everyday, all day, but I can't," He paused to sip his water, "I'm not about to make it worse by getting into a relationship...they're a lot to handle, princess. I'm sorry."
Hearing 'no,' was another hard pill for Milano to swallow. Truth is, the idea of another woman being in her life would be great. She'd rather the other woman to be Cheryl, but she knew that her aunt would never leave Florida. Of course, she's thought of staying with Cheryl out there, but she knew that her father wouldn't move to Florida with her, thus it would be a lose-lose situation.
"Milano," Nicole called, "come..., look!"
Milano got out of her seat to go over to her, "yes?"
"Now that I've got you here, I need you to do me a favor...put this in your father's pocket, please (She hands her a $50 bill)," Nicole laughed, "I don't want him to pay the bills all by himself...you know? It's a lot and it's not fair for him to keep paying for everything, so give that to him for me, cutie."
"Alright."
Milano went back to the table and tried to do what Nicole asked of her, but couldn't-Sabbat stopped her.
"What's that?" He opens her hand and finds the crumpled bill, "where'd you get that?"
"From Nicole." She told him.
He shook his head, "tell her I don't need-"
"I knew you were gonna say that..." Nicole said, "I know you don't need it, but it's only right. Please take it!...use it for some icecream or go to an arcade or something with baby girl."
When Nicole addressed Milano as 'baby girl,', chills went down Milano's spine. She wanted that, badly...she wanted her own mother to call her that and to suggest and pay for icecream and other stuff like that.
Sabbat sighed, "I don't feel right about taking this from you."
Sabbat and Nicole went back and forth about who would pay the bill for about fifteen minutes before they came to an agreement; Sabbat would pay for dinner and in exchange, Nicole would take Milano on icecream dates-perfect for Milano since she was facing major mommy fever and craved more time with Nicole.
