The Fake Parents

Chapter 18

The sun was shining and the weather was pretty good for late November as I headed for the small cafe near the mall. Iris was beside me, sitting nicely in her stroller, sunglasses on the tip of her nose. The waitress smiled at us and led me over to one of the tables that sat outside. It felt weird and she probably thought I was some teen mom. 

If only she knew. 

" fries?" She asked pointing to the small board that had a picture of one of the entrees on it. The one word Cameron had her learn was fries. It was completely out of the ordinary. Yet she caught on in minutes and now everything was a french fry for her. 

" of course" I grinned locking the stroller wheels in place. The same waitress came back with two menus placing the other in front of me. 

" may I get you anything to drink" She asked with a wide smile, obviously a fake one. 

" I'll just take a strawberry lemonade and a regular lemonade" I tell the girl as she nodded her head writing it down on her small pad. 

Iris started pulling at her straps as I helped her out of them and pulled her onto my lap. She immediately went for the ketchup bottle as I shook my head, taking it out of her reach. Instead I handed her a small toy from her stroller.

" no" She pouted rattling the thing around. 

" I'm so sorry, I had to pick something up for my mom and who is this gorgeous girl" Jennifer exclaimed starring at Iris. 

Iris immediately perked up, her eyes widening at the sight of Jennifer. The smile grew wider, arms outstretched. 

" I think she likes you" I tell Jenn as she grins, wrapping hezr arms around the baby. 

" she is beautiful" She whispered, playing with Iris's small locks of hair. 

We ordered our food shortly and I gave Iris her set of fries to which she didn't want. Instead she began to chew on some of the mashed potatoes that I got as a side order. This girl ate mashed potatoes a lot, which wasn't that good for her. 

" no more mashed stuff for you this week" I tell the baby her face full of potatoes. 

She giggled, the potatoes sputtering out in front of me. Some landing on my hand. I chuckled cleaning her face off quickly. 

" so why did you want to talk?" I asked Jennifer as she sighed, her face going from a smile to a sad look in seconds. 

" well-" She began only to be cut off by my cellphone ringing. 

I looked down and saw Cameron's face quickly shutting it off for her to continue. 

" sorry" I whispered, motioning for her to keep going. 

Soon the phone began to ring once more. 

" answer it" She urged handing me the phone. 

I took it out of her hand and answered the call. Jennifer leaned over grabbing Iris from my arms, playing with her. 

" so how mad would you be if I happened to call you saying I was in the hospital with Apollo" Cameron said into the phone. 

" what" I screeched, earning  looks from all around us. Jennifer looked at me startled as Iris frowned but continued to play with some french fries. 

" yeah, it's no big deal" He told me and I heard some voices in the background. 

My heart was racing a hundred miles per second. Palms sweaty against the phone I was holding. This was one of my biggest fears with these two. Having someone get hurt, and end up in the hospital. We could get in trouble for this, now they'll be angry.