Unpredictable Match 2

Forty Six

"Come on, one bite." I always try and convince him to finally like sweets. But there's not one dessert that I've made that Anthony will eat, except for when I bake boring cake with reduced sugar. That's what he tolerates. Plain, low sugar cake. Where is the fun in that.

And like I thought, Ant refuses again at first, but Tamiyah's little hand starts to push the brownie in my hand towards him.

"Daddy. Brownie," she says.

"Daddy brownie," Ace says.

"You want daddy to eat the brownie?" I etch on.

"Yes." "Yes, brownie." "Daddy," comes from the triplets simultaneously, and since Takiyah is not verbal yet, she does her little screams that I assume is her joining in on the bicker.

I hold the brownie up to Anthony's lips, waiting for him to take a bite. He glances over at the triplets who are all giggling on the counter, finding joy in this. Anthony finally musters enough courage to take a bite of my brownie for the sake of the babies happiness, and possibly mine. I grin as he chews with an unreadable expression on his face. I know he probably hates it. I shake my head, pulling the brownie away from him until he grabs my arm and shocks me by taking another bite.

I audibly gasp with a big smile on my face, the triplets laughing and squealing in the back, "Shit good baby, ain't gon lie," he mumbles, heading to the fridge, "I need water but it's straight," he grabs a water bottle from the fridge, downing the whole thing when he's done.

"You liked it?!" I question in excitement.

Anthony laughs at me. No, this is a big deal. "Yeah," He says.

"Aww. So for your birthday, do you want a brownie cake?" His birthday is next week, and I've been trying to figure out what I could do for him. He doesn't want to go anywhere, he doesn't want a party. He just claims that for his birthday, he wants to spend the day with me alone. Drop the kids off at Tyler's house and spend time together at home and off work. But, that's so boring.

Ant shakes his head, "I ain't like it that fucking much," he says. My jaw drops and I playfully hit him for two reasons. One because he's so rude. And second because I told him a million times already to stop swearing in front of the kids.

"That fuck much," I hear from the counter. See. Ace picked up on that quick. And he's smiling about it too.

"That fuck much," Tamiyah repeats. "That fuck much."

I sigh deeply, and just stare at Anthony who is staring at the triplets with an observant look on his face. I told him to stop. I did.

"Aight, time for bed," he says. Oh really?

"Mm, time for bed huh?" I frown at him with my arms crossed. The damage has already been done. Sleep won't fix it.

Ant picks up Takiyah and Tamiyah, and I pick up Ace. They're all done with their brownies so there isn't any screaming. Plus, they're all clearly very tired.

We make our way to the bathroom first so that we can bathe them and brush their teeth before bed. Of course bathtime doesn't go by smoothly, because as soon as the water goes off and they're dried, all three of them run off to God knows where. Now I have three kids running all over the place.

"But brownies before bedtime right?" I scold Anthony. He kisses his teeth, knowing that I was right the entire time.

We eventually catch the kids. Takiyah fell and scraped her knee while running away, so while I was cleaning her up and giving her her meds, Ant dealt with Tamiyah and Ace. Soon all three of them are laying down in their beds, still wide awake. They share a big room that has three beds, so I focus on Takiyah again as Ant tries to put Tamiyah to sleep. Ace is a bit more calm, so he's just laying there staring at us.