A Mother's Bond

66

Beyoncé  December 6, 2016
I walked to the front door, adjusting a sleeping Blue on my hip. She made a soft snuffling noise before snuggling deeper into my chest. I smiled at the sight of her. So peaceful.

"All I'm saying is you could've just ordered your own," Sarayah complained to Solo, shattering my peace. I rolled my eyes.

Solo groaned loudly. "It was one piece. ONE PIECE!"

I looked over my shoulder, staring at the two of them incredulously. They'd been arguing about this damn calamari on and off for the better part of an hour. Can you imagine? No, actually imagine it. Arguing. About A PIECE OF CALAMARI! For an HOUR.

"Would you two stop?" I asked between gritted teeth, giving them both pointed glares.

"Honestly," Julez agreed, walking past me to step into the house.

Solo and Sarayah looked down, abashed. I eyed them up and down, before turning on my heels to follow Julez's path inside.

I brought Blue to her room and got her ready for bed. She barely opened her eyes through the whole process, even when I stuck her toothbrush in her mouth. I tucked her in, softly stroking her curls. Her small face looked so tranquil, completely oblivious to the world around her.

There was something so pure about a child's innate trust. She'd fallen asleep on me, knowing everything would be alright. That I would take care of her. That she didn't even need to open her eyes to see where I was laying her down. Didn't need to worry about if I was going to drop her. I could've carried her to the ledge of a cliff, and she would've just kept on sleeping. Like nothing was wrong.

That level of trust was unthinkable to most people. At what point in our lives did that trust change? Hopefully, for Blue the answer would be never.

I stroked her curls one last time and gave her a kiss on her forehead. She sighed in contentment. I smiled down at her before retiring to my own room.

I took my time getting ready for bed, letting myself get mindlessly lost in my nightly ritual. After the day I'd had, I wanted to empty my mind. To just be for a little while.

When I was done, I grabbed my laptop and switched it on, ready to do a little work.

"You really gotta stop working before bed."

I looked up to see Jay walking into our room. I shot him an unimpressed look. "You're one to talk. I know you went straight to your office to check the progress report Mike sent you during dinner."

Jay shrugged, walking to the bathroom to get ready for bed. I smirked at his back, knowing I'd won for now. When the shower turned on, I went back to my work.

Before long I heard the door open. "I'm almost done," I murmured before he could complain.

Jay smacked his lips but didn't protest. I felt the bed dip on his side. He shuffled around for a moment.

"Hey Bey, what–"

"Hold on," I cut him off, focused on getting my thoughts down.

I finished typing up my notes, making sure to save them before clicking over to my emails. You can't imagine how many 'important' emails I receive a day. I groaned at the vast amount of new emails I had waiting for my attention.

I peeked over at Jay, worried he'd be glaring at me. Much to my surprise, he wasn't paying me any mind, too busy reading.

Perfect. I thanked God for my good luck and turned back to my laptop, quickly sifting through my inbox. I sighed when I came across Isobel's daily report. It always said the same thing: no new leads. But I clicked on it anyway. Unsurprisingly, those same three disappointing words greeted me. Nothing had changed. No new leads.