harlem's perspective.
dangerously in love - beyoncé
"I wish you could've spent the day with me and the kids." I sigh, talking on the phone with Tiana as I cut up some fruit for the kids' breakfast. She's flying back home today, which makes me so sad, but she has a life to go back to.
"Me too, I miss the babies. But I have hella work back home waiting for me and I can't miss too many days."
"I know, I know. At least you got to take a break from it all. Even though that wedding wasn't worth it."
I put the pieces of cut up strawberries and mango on all 3 of the plates, alongside their scrambled eggs and breakfast sausage, and put Jeremiah and Harmony's plates on the dining room table, then put Caleb's plate on his high chair tray. "Come eat!" I yell to them, going back into the kitchen to pour them some apple juice.
"I'm surprised you up on mommy duty. I thought you'd want to be in bed sleep." Ti says.
"Yeah I do. I'm exhausted after talking with Kyree all night but I wanna give Chris's mom some time to herself and I miss my kids as weird as that sounds. I took the initiative to work from home to have more time for them so I'm trying to do that."
The kids come sit at the table to eat and I put Caleb in his high chair, then give them all juice.
"Is that daddy?" Jeremiah asks, referring to the person on the phone.
"No I'm talking to auntie. You need to talk to daddy about something?" I ask him.
"I miss him." Jeremiah answers.
"Me too! When is daddy coming home?" Harmony chimes in.
"He'll be home soon enough. Say hi to auntie." I say to the kids, putting Tiana on speaker.
"Hiiii!" All the kids say in unison.
"Hey auntie babies!" Tiana happily responds.
I take her back off of speaker as I go into the living room to relax on the couch while they eat. "I feel so bad when they ask for Christian."
"You still not talking to him?" Tiana asks.
"No but I lowkey miss his ass too. I'm not gonna call him and check up on him though I'll let his ass give in first cause I know he will."
Tiana chuckles, "You are petty. You the one that said y'all need a break but you want him to give in first."
I roll my eyes, "That's not the point. But honestly, I'm over the break shit. I know I don't want nobody else I guess I just had to prove that to myself. We just gotta work on not becoming such a boring couple. We need that spark back."
"Yeah I heard the first few years of marriage can be the hardest. Like once you get married things change for some reason. But y'all are a strong couple and clearly y'all are soulmates so y'all will get through it."
"Thanks Ti. Let me call you later, though. I'm gonna go do something with these kids. Maybe painting or something."
"Ok, have fun. Love you boo."
"Love you too Ti." I hang up with her and sit and watch TV for a little bit before going to check on the kids.
"Are y'all done eating?" I ask Jeremiah and Harmony as I take Caleb, who was somehow covered in eggs, out of his high chair.
"Yup!" Harmony responds.
"And what do we do when we're done?" I ask them both.
"Put our dishes in the sink and clean up our mess." Jeremiah, our angel child, responds.
"Good job! Let me see you do it! If you clean up fast enough we can do some finger painting!"
Being a mom, I've learned that you gotta make everything fun. Cleaning up after themselves, taking a bath, taking a nap; everything has to be turned into some game or contest or come with some sort of reward for kids to actually want to do it.
Jeremiah and Harmony put their dishes in the sink and make sure to clean up their crumbs while I clean Caleb and his high chair off. Once they're done, I put trash bags on the dining room table and bring out art supplies for us all. I got paint for the older kids and for Caleb, I have some crayons and markers and also some slime, just in case he doesn't feel like coloring today.
The kids love it, of course. They spend the next hour or so painting and enjoying themselves and of course, making a huge mess. That's why I made sure to do this before I gave them all baths so that they could hop right in the tub when they're done.
When they're done, we clean up, I wash everyone up and get them dressed, then put on a movie for them to watch with their grandmother while I take a shower and get myself cleaned up for the day.
As I'm stepping out of the shower, my phone rings which interrupts my music. I roll my eyes before looking at the screen, realizing it's Christian calling me. "The kids are downstairs, I'll have them call you back in a couple of minutes. I'm getting dressed." I say before he can even say hello.
"I called to talk to you though." He says.
I wrap myself in my towel and go back into my bedroom to sit on my bed while I talk to him. "What's up?"
"I just called to say that I miss you." He says.
I sigh, "I miss you too..I'm sorry about everything that's been going on too. I wanna work on us."
"You for real?"
"Yeah. You know I'm not going anywhere I just was feeling down about everything going on with the abortion and the fact that our relationship just got so mundane. I think we should go see a couples therapist and see if that helps."
"I'll do whatever you need me to do." He responds. "I just wanna make sure you're happy."
"I love you Chris and I miss you! I wish you'd come home."
"I love and miss you more. I sent you a gift, go check the front door. I just got a notification that it got delivered." He says.
"Ok." I throw on my robe and slippers and go downstairs to the front door, still on the phone with him. I open the door, fully expecting for a box to be sitting in front of my door but to my surprise, it's Christian. Just standing there with a big, goofy smile on his face. "What are you doing here?!" I excitedly ask him as he embraces me.
"I just decided that I don't need to be in Miami all that time. I can always go back to check up on things over there. Being home is more important." He explains.
"The kids are gonna be so excited. They were just asking about you this morning."
"Before we go back in there let me get a kiss or something, damn." He jokes, making me laugh. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him on the lips, letting him feel me up. It's bout to be a whole movie tonight after we put these kids to bed.
