Lennox POV
"Ugh, I hate when Mom and Dad fight." Gia pouted, laying her head in my lap. Brandt had called her over to comfort me.. Though that's not exactly what seems to be happening here. "Like why would Beckham treat us this way? We've been so good to him."
"Mmhmm..." I absentmindedly nodded in agreement.
"Then this thick-necked muthafucker is just gonna talk to us out the side of his neck."
"Wait what?!" I couldn't help but burst into a fit of laughter. Beckham does indeed have an abnormally large neck, and I can't believe I hadn't thought of calling him that before myself.
"Welp... Let's make his pockets hurt, which strip club are we hitting?" Gia finally sat up right on the King bed we were both sprawled across as we currently hang out in my hotel suite.
"Girl none. Read the room bitch." I playfully rolled my eyes at her.
Not only is Knox right next to my bedside sleeping in his car seat peacefully, she also seems to forget that the reason I'm staying at this hotel in the first place is to stay close to the hospital where Ms. April is.
"Oop." She covered her mouth with her hands. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! You were my cool friend for so long, I be forgetting you're all domesticated and shit now." She giggled out before taking a few moments to sober up, looking at me in all seriousness. "Look Len, Beckham is a douche. We agree on that. He was right when he said Ms. April is gonna pull through. For you, Miles, Christian and all those beautiful grand babies of hers. She has too many people who need her, too much to live for."
"No more mopey eyes, please. We are going to order room service on your fiancé's dime and binge-watch The Bachelorette, okay? She's Black this season."
I was going to object to watching The Bachelorette until Gia included that little fun fact. "Okay. I'll take a Penne Alfredo with Blackened Salmon, extra garlic bread. Chicken Tenders with a side of truffle garlic fries and ranch. And have them bring up a bottle of Prosecco, and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc."
"Wait, where are you going?" She questioned as I stood up from the bed.
"To the bathroom. You're gonna eat for free Gia at least order the food." I laughed lightly before walking across the room to the master bath to relieve myself.
I ended up having to rush back out only moments later when I heard Knox's wails. He's not a light sleeper so the fact that he's crying tells me he probably needs to be changed.
"Lennox? Are you almost done? I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it. Lennox! Come get him, oh my god he puked!"
Gia is great with children but babies, not so much. There's that whole thing she has about throw-up. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for a baby to spit up. Especially not Knox, I swear he thinks it's funny. He does it even when he's been burped properly and almost always erupts into a fit of laughter.
"Oh my god..." I mumbled under my breath quickly washing my hands and throwing my hair up into a messy bun to go free Gia from her misery.
As predicted when I emerged from the bathroom, Knox was no longer crying but giggling as he watched Gia freak out. Thriving off of the chaos he caused. He's a tiny sociopath, I swear. Those are Beckham's genes at work.
"Do you even need to be changed, hmm? Or did you just get bored?" I questioned taking the baby from Gia's arms who surprisingly came out perfectly clean, while Gia had spit-up running down her arm. She picked the wrong day to wear a tank top...
"Ughh!!" Gia exclaimed dramatically, stomping off towards the bathroom to clean herself up.
"You ordered the food though, right?" I called after her, checking the bottom of Knox's diaper which was unexpectedly dry. I looked down at the baby perplexed, "It's your bedtime Stink, why are you awake if you're not wet?"
"Aaah!" Knox responded animatedly.
I can't understand a word he's saying and yet I act like I do. It's good for his cognitive development. "Oh okay, well since you're up what do you want to do? You wanna watch the Bachelorette with us?"
It comes on ABC and they bleep out the curse words, so while it's not a child-oriented show. I don't see it being inherently harmful either.
"Uhblurbb." The child gurgled, which I think means yes. I'm going to say it means yes.
"You're so cute and smart!" I beamed proudly, kissing his chubby cheeks. He gets that from me, obviously.
I was prepared to crawl back into bed and eat my heart out, but a knock on the door interrupted me. It's far too soon for the food to be ready, so that's most likely Brandt.
"You wanna see who's at the door?" I bounced the happy baby in my arms, walking over to the door and swinging it open.
Not Brandt.
"Oh.. It's you." My smile dropped when I saw Beckham standing before me. I'm not even mad anymore but I thought I made it clear that I wanted space, this is like the opposite of that.
"I'm sorry."
"I know."
"You're difficult," Beckham walked into the room that I do not recall inviting him inside of, shutting the door behind him. "You're lucky I love you."
"AHH!" Knox shrieked when Beck leaned his head down to place a kiss on my forehead.
He might look like Brandt, but that's a child after my own heart.
"He says you should come back later." I laughed softly. "Beckham I'm not mad..." I paused, "I'm less mad. I'll be fine by tomorrow honestly, but that only works if you give me the space I need to sort through my emotions."
Had Beckham said what he said to anyone else, it wouldn't have been a big deal. Everyone has their hard limits, the line you're not supposed to cross. That was mine and he definitely crossed it. Whether or not it was intentional is in-circumstantial. It happened and it shouldn't have. A person's intent will always be secondary to their impact, the fact that Beckham wasn't trying to hurt me is not nearly as important as the fact that he did.
"So we'll talk tomorrow?" Beckham sighed softly, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Yeah Bubs, tomorrow. I'll be a bit more clearheaded by then."
"Len! The Bachelorette is all cued up." Gia called from the bedroom, I'm surprised she wasn't holed up behind the door eavesdropping. Thought that's more Brandt's MO, now that I think about it.
"I'll see you later okay, tell your son good night." I handed Knox to Beckham. The kid does adore him, even if I'm clearly his favorite parent. Beck is a close second.
"Bababa." The baby cooed happily, kicking his little legs.
Beckham let out a chuckle, "I'll see you in the morning buddy, gimme a kiss."
Knox doesn't give kisses. He's not even old enough to understand what that means, but as previously stated he loves slobbering everywhere. He also does this on people's faces. Beckham and Brandt have somehow convinced themselves these are kisses. Our son knows better than to use my face as teething ring.
After the child drooled on Beckham's face sufficiently he handed him back to me, but not before tickling his stomach eliciting a fit of giggles from him.
"Wave to Daddy, tell him bye-bye." I moved Knox's arm in a waving motion, since he wasn't going to do it himself.
The rest of the night was fairly uneventful. I ate my feelings, discussed it it's Gia about how who are top five picks are for the Bachelorette. Then eventually fell asleep.
"Len! Len! Wake the fuck up, dammit!" I groggily rolled over to find Gia still fast asleep next to me, Knox cradled in my right arm and Christian somehow standing in front of me.
"I'm sorry... Who let you in here exactly?"
"Mom is awake, get your ass up and get dressed! ¡Andale mijita!" Christian snapped his fingers, "I'll be ready to roll out in 5 let's go."
Christian doesn't even speak Spanish, this is obviously some shit he picked up from Malakai. That's not what's important right now. I can't even describe the amount of relief I felt once those words left his mouth. I'll check him for being a total asshole later, but right now I only cared about one thing. The fact that Ms. April is awake.
"Grab the diaper bag," I nodded towards the chair in the corner where Knox's diaper bag is located. "I'm gonna go get dressed, watch you nephew. Make sure he doesn't roll off the bed." I laid Knox down carefully as not to wake him before rising from the bed myself.
In the nature of true best friendship, Gia also arrived with clothes for me. More accurately, my clothes which she stole and now was being forced to return given the current state of events. I grabbed the pile of clothes off of the bench outside the bathroom, and walked into quickly throwing them on. I also did my makeup using the products that I always keep in my purse, because I wasn't gonna walk outside looking a hot ass mess. It's just not in my nature. As a final touch I used my travel brush and hair spray to lay my flyaways. There are some benefits to keep my hair straightened all the time, my morning styling routine is two minutes tops. My Keratin straightening treatments have yet to give me heat-damage, they're expensive as shit so they better work just as well as advertised. The Cezanne treatment, my preferred straightening method is all-natural, so no dangerous chemicals.
I was in and out of the bathroom in about seven minutes, since even in my drunken stupor I still felt the urge to shower last night before going to sleep. Because who wants to sleep musty? That's gross. I emerged from the bathroom to find Christian had strapped Knox into his seat and had the diaper bag slung over his shoulder.
"Let's hit it, Lil Bit."
I sent Gia a quick text letting her know where I had gone as I rode down in the elevator to the hotel lobby. There was no time for her to get ready and she's probably hungover as shit. Personally I'm running on pure adrenaline right now.
The second we exited the hotel, of course there was Beckham. Posted up right in front where valet most likely had pulled up just moments before, leaned up against his G-Wagon.
"Uh uh... Y'all aren't about to hold me up." Christian handed the car seat and diaper bag to Beckham, "I'll see you at the hospital, Len."
"You look good.." Beck cleared his throat awkwardly, getting Knox's carseat secured in the backseat.
"I'm in sweats." I couldn't help but shake my head at him. "We're good De Loughrey, really. There's no reason to stress, so be less... Uptight."
"You're not mad at me anymore?"
"No."
That's the truth. Ms. April is alive, I'm not quite sure what sort of condition she's in yet but she's alive and that's what important. Yesterday, she was practically comatose and the fact that Ms. April did pull through means that she wouldn't want me holding a grudge against Beckham's big headed ass for no reason. So, I won't. Even though she didn't technically raise me, she didn't raise me to be that way.
On the flip side though. God forbid had something happened to Ms. April, it would've made what Beckham said unequivocally the most fucked up thing that anyone has ever said to me. Since she's okay, I can release my anger. If she wasn't, I definitely would've held on to that shift for possibly eternity. Or at least the end of our contract.
"I'm in a really good mood, how about you don't question it and risk ruining it?" I tilted my head to the side raising an eyebrow.
"To the hospital?" Beckham questioned leaning down to peck my lips, this time I let him. Nodding my head happily. "For the record Len... The Williams aren't your only family, we're you're family too."
I glanced at our son through the car's backseat window, and thought about how Beckham had asked to adopt Jayce at Christmas time. He's right. It's a little weird to think about and makes me feel a little anxious if I ponder it too long, but also... Kind of nice.
See, more frequent updates as promised.
I had just updated like two weeks ago, or something like that... Thats my business.
Anyways, Lennox and Beckham made up! And Ms. April lived, tbh she almost didn't because I thrive off of chaos, but then I decided not to do y'all like that. I just hate pointless plot-twists. I wrote she had a stroke because I was definitely planning to kill her off. But now I'm gonna have to figure out another way to stir up some shit, so back to the drawing board!
~Lee