Teach Me - Brollins

3.

Later that afternoon, after talking for another few hours to his mother, Colby knew exactly what he had to do no matter how much he hated the thought of having the conversation with Rebecca.

He picked Cali up at the normal time before the father daughter duo went to the store to buy supplies for their movie night before heading home.

Rebecca decided getting an Uber to Colby's house would be the best way to keep up this facade.

Arriving at the Lopez house at 7PM that night she felt herself become nervous. Nervous to blow their cover, nervous to be around Cali not in a school setting and extremely nervous to be in this house. She had never been to Colby's house because Cali was there almost 99% of the time. They always had their little rendezvous at her apartment.

She got out of the car, ran her hand through her hair and looked down at her outfit, she was dressed casually. Long gone were her clothes she wore to work that morning and now she was simply in jeans and a black sweater.

She knocked on the door and heard the locks being unlocked before the door opened and shew as met by Colby, dressed down like she was, a dish towel in his hands and she heard the loud beeping and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Daddy! It's going off again!" Cali called from the kitchen and Rebecca looked Colby up and down, he was stressed

"Everything okay?" She asked as she walked into the house and covered her ears to try and drown out the screeching alarm

"Oh yeah. Everything is great" he nodded as he walked quickly to the kitchen and began waving the dish towel under the smoke detector, it wasn't until she was fully in the kitchen that she saw the disaster it was in and the smoke filled the room "Did you catch something on fire?" 

"No" he said

"Yes" Cali spoke up from the chair she stood on next to the counter "Miss Quin" she looked at her teacher "Help" she said her little brown eyes made her puppy dog eyes look even more convincing

"What happened?" Rebecca asked as she sat her jacket down on one of the chairs

"I've got it under control" Colby shook his head

"Clearly" Rebecca and Cali said in unison and the two looked at one another with a small smile

"We were trying to make cupcakes" Cali explained

"Somebody put the oven on too high" Colby looked at his daughter

"Somebody didn't correct it" Cali argued and Rebecca laughed

"Well first of all, open that door" Rebecca pointed to the sliding glass door "And lets clean this mess up and we can start all over" she said as she began moving dishes into the sink "and throw these in the trash" she handed the cupcake pan to Colby with a towel and he grabbed it with the towel in his hand

"Are you gonna help?" Cali asked as she began wiping the counter down with a wet cloth

"I am" Rebecca nodded with a smile "because your dad clearly has no idea what he's doing" she said and Cali laughed

"Excuse me? She's the one that read the recipe" he pointed at the seven year old

"You always proof read" Rebecca looked at him "For future reference" she winked at him and he rolled his eyes at her

"NO!" The little girl let out a scream and Colby looked to see her holding the recipe card in her hands as tears quickly fell from her eyes

"What? What's wrong?" He quickly moved to her and took the card from her hand and it fell into burnt pieces on the floor

"That was mommy's recipe!" The little girl cried "Mommy wrote it before she died and she told me to take care of it and now its gone"

"Baby.." Colby kissed her head as he pulled her into his chest "It's okay" he nodded "I will call MiMi and see if your Mommy wrote it down somewhere else.." He said

"Promise?" The little girl looked up at him

"I promise.. I'll go call her right now.. why don't you go upstairs and get your pajamas on" he said and the little girl nodded and ran up the stairs

Colby looked to Rebecca who was loading dishes into the dishwasher quietly. Their eyes met for a brief moment and he saw the same feeling he had written all over her face.

"I'm gonna go try and call Nancy and see if she has any ideas" he said holding his phone up

"Good luck" she nodded as she closed the dishwasher quickly and he looked towards the stairs checking to make sure the coast was clear before he quickly placed his lips on her gently

20 minutes later, with no luck from Nancy, Colby came down the stairs with Cali following close behind. They walked into the kitchen to see Rebecca sitting at the island with a pen in her hand.

"What are you doing?" Colby asked as he saw the destroyed recipe card sitting in pieces on the counter

"Here Cali" Rebecca said handing the little girl a piece of paper

"MOMMY'S RECIPE!" The little girl exclaimed with a smile "How did you do that?"

"I pieced it together like a puzzle and rewrote it.. I know it's not her handwriting but we can tape this one together and laminate it" she said and the little girl nodded

After baking the cupcakes without burning them they put the movie on the flatscreen tv in the living room. It was on for a total of an hour before Cali passed out on the floor in the middle of the blanket fort she had made with her dad.

"I'm gonna go put her in her bed" Colby moved from the couch to pick Cali up careful not to wake her "and when I come back down you and I need to talk"

"Should I be scared?" She asked

"Do you want me to lie to you?" He questioned

"So be scared.. got it"