Variables | Joshaya ✔︎

Baby Steps

𝕞𝕒𝕪𝕒

Gabi looks over at me in the same way that I do her. Confusion.

"Who is it?" she asks.

I shrug, "I don't know."

I hesitantly walk to the door and look through the peephole.

Wait....

Josh?

What is he doing here?

I open the door to see Josh with a few bags of food.

"Hey," he says.

"Hi," I reply, and then realize the awkwardness and quickly say, "Come in."

He nods in thanks as I move out of his way and let him in. He walks in and follows me over to the kitchen and I take out a bottle that Topanga left in the fridge for me, placing it in the microwave and turning back to Josh as I press Start.

"Who is this Mo-Maya?" Gabi asks, still incredibly confused.

"Is this her?" Josh asks me quietly, "Gabi, right?"

I nod and he kneels down to her, "Hi Gabi, I'm Josh, Riley's uncle."

He puts his hand out for her to shake and she grabs it, but then runs into his arms surprisingly and hugs him, "Uncle Josh!"

I laugh as I get a flashback from when I was younger. I used to say that.

We both laugh as Josh says, "I'm not your uncle Gabi. I'm Riley's uncle."

We make eye contact and I can tell that he sees that I remember.

As he stands up, I murmur, "I used to say that, and then you said the same thing."

He laughs lightly and smiles, nodding, "Yeah, probably one of my favorite memories growing up. You just couldn't seem to remember that we weren't related," he sighs.

We both laugh.

"So, Josh, what are you doing here? Not that you're not welcome," I say as I take the warm bottle out of the microwave and pick up Dillon, feeding him his bottle as we talk.

"Well," he starts, "I was going to just text or call you, but then I decided to come and tell you in person."

"What?" I ask, still confused.

"I'm all set for remote learning, and the person who emailed me told me I'm free to go 'help out my family' now and move in as long as I keep my phone and/or laptop close so I can receive updates, assignments, projects; things like that," he says, with a smile.

"Seriously?" I say, still in disbelief that he would actually think of this, let alone do it, "This is actually happening? You're going to help out? Because if this is a joke, it's a horrible one for someone so desperate."

He laughs, shaking his head, "If it's okay with you, I can bring my stuff within the next few days?"

An even larger smile comes to my face, knowing that I'll finally get some full time ish help with everything on my plate. All of it being exhausting is an understatement, and the fact that someone is willing to move in to help me get some of it off my shoulders is surreal.

"It's perfect. Thank you so much, I really appreciate it," I say truthfully, "You have no idea how hard it is to do it all, I give major props to all of those teen moms."

He laughs lightly, "Of course, and you don't give yourself enough credit. You're literally having a truthful conversation with me while simultaneously feeding a newborn, which seems like it's a thing you just do subconsciously now, which is absolutely amazing."