A/n: whenever Sophia says daddy she doesn't really mean it in a kinky way (I mean you can take it that way, i just know some people have a problem with that) but she means it bc he's the father of his children and essentially they Daddy. Lol.
Goal: 25 votes
Enjoy.
The next couple of days passed in a blur, Sophia went to get her dress fitted again and again. Never was I allowed to join, you'd think I was the one getting married.
I'm not.
She's not.
We're not.
Maya was allowed to join, since she got to pick out her dress as well. From what she told me, it was white and it had some type of embroidery on it. She raved about how much she can't wait to help sprinkle flowers down the isle, along with one of Sophia's cousin. She was four and was going to be coming over tomorrow, which was Tuesday.
Maya couldn't wait to meet her.
Sophia wouldn't say anything about her dress besides it makes her look like a elephant, which I'm sure is a little melodramatic.
She can look like a elephant without a stupid dress.
I'm joking.
It's a joke.
She's a beautiful elephant.
Sophia woke up, very upset. Her stomach was bothering her and she couldn't sleep without her body pillow. She nearly began crying because she was so uncomfortable. I ended up having to collect some pillows from the couch she had in her room and line them up. She said she still felt uncomfortable but it was better than nothing.
So when Sophia woke up, all of the emotions she had last night came crashing down. Not to mention, the babies were kicking extra hard today. Sophia says as soon as the come out, they are getting on a soccer field.
Anyways, Stephanie and Quincy, Sophia's parents, have taken a likening to me. Stephanie talks to me every chance she gets, thanking me for being in Sophia's life and helping make her happy again. Quincy and I talked about our businesses, since he himself is a business tycoon.
If I had realized who he was, I would have realized I did do a couple deals with them. Some of the more successful deals of my career.
We talked about Sophia and I's future; more specifically whether or not I saw myself with her forever or not, whether we would have more kids, and whether or not she would adopt Maya once we get married.
I completely forgot that we were still keeping up with the whole 'we are engaged' thing, so I almost questioned what he meant by the latter question. I caught myself just in time to remember and said some bullshit answer.
Truth was, I'm sure Maya would want no one else but Sophia as her mother. Im not going to push it and I tell Maya not to push it because she's already pregnant and then suddenly becoming the mother of a three year old is, im sure, overwhelming.
Currently, last I checked, Maya was downstairs playing a game or watching something on her phone. Chris, Chloe, and Stephanie went out for food shopping. Five more family members were supposed to arrive tomorrow. They would be stay in the guest house and then next week we will all be transferred into a hotel that's near the venue since it's two hours away. Quincy and his father, Quincy were cleaning out one of the rooms in the guest house. Jamal took Cameron with him to go pick up his medication. Sophia's Aunt and Uncles all walked to the beach so Sophia, Maya, and I were really the only ones home. Quincy was here technically but just in the other house. Sophia's cousin, Amanda? I can't remember her name but she popped in five minutes ago asking if I wanted something from the store. I said no.
Sophia was sitting next to me, glaring at me.
I told y'all, she's in a mood. We just got into a argument over baby names.
Sophia was wearing a sun dress, it clinging perfectly to her body and she actually wore her curls down for once.
"I like Bernard." I smile, hoping she'd ease up some. Of course I was joking, who would actually named their child that? That's more of a dog name.
"I will kill you, Alexander. You're not naming my child Bernard."
"I was joking." I mumble before speaking out, "I like Jayden."
"I like 'J' names." She mumbles, toying with her nails. Her and Maya went and got their nails and toes done yesterday. Maya got pink nail polish, her favorite color, and Sophia got purple nail polish.
"So 'J' names? That'll at least help narrow down."
"Yeah. I like 'J'." She frowns before looking back up at me.
"Jacob."
"Makai." She says my middle name sternly, her pointed eyes looking at me. "Jacob is like a tall bald guy with a receding hairlines name."
"How about Jasmine if it's a girl?" I question and she smiles widely at me. "I like it. That's the best thing you've said all day."
I think I've said a lot of great things besides that today.
"Marie as her middle name? Maya wants that to be apart of her name." She says and I nod. "I like it."
"What if they are both boys?"
"Then we will save Jasmine Marie for when we have our daughter. If it's a boy I still think we should do Jayden."
I don't think Sophia noticed what I said and if she did, she decided to ignore it. "I like Jalen."
"I like Jacob." I say, in all honesty joking. I didn't even mean to say it, j thought I said it in my head as a joke.
I did not.
Sophia automatically glares at me, slightly cocking her head and squinting her eyes at me.
These hormones really hate me, huh?
Maya's loud cry breaks Sophia and I out of our intense stare off. I immediately exit the room following her cries.
"I didn't even do anything!" Maya let's out as I damn near stumble down the stairs.
She doesn't cry often and for her to get this worked up to be screaming the way she is means either she's really upset or somebody hit her.
"Shut up!" A voice snaps at her. I enter the living room to see a average height blonde woman standing in front of Maya, her back to me. In the blonde woman's hand was Maya's red iPhone. Maya day on the floor, heaving as she cried. On her arm was a bruise that was already forming. It wasn't in the shape of a hand, but it definitely wasn't there a hour ago.
The lady's hand goes up as if she's going to hit Maya.
"Don't fucking touch my child." I say, making my stride longer so that I'd reach the woman in three steps. I pluck my daughters phone out her hands before reaching for Maya. She instantly puts her head in the crook of my neck while crying.
"What's wrong Maya?" I ask, as the unknown lady looks at me with an astonished look. I notice creaking on the steps and I see Sophia finally made it down.
"She took my phone from me and pinched me! I didn't do anything." She sobs again, tightening her grip while I stare pointedly at the woman. She's glaring at Maya.
"Excuse you? What's your fucking problem? Do you go around touching everybody's kids?"
"She had my phone."
"No, she had her phone." I say, clicking the power button to display Maya's lock screen of Sophia and her, both with their tongues out and messy hair. "Why the fuck are you pinching my child?" I say, moving to inspect Maya's arm. The bruise looked terrible, due to Maya's very sensitive skin. The bruise was a dark purple and took up almost a good two inches. That's a pretty fucking big pinch.
"Why does your child have a iPhone?"
"That's not what I fucking asked, I asked why the absolute fuck you're pinching my daughters arm."
"I thought she had my phone,"
"I don't give a fuck what you thought, refrain from touching my fucking child before I have you sued for everything you have."
"What's going on?" Quincy asks, walking into the room. He nudged Sophia when he passes her.
"Who's this?" The lady asks. She gestures towards Maya and I while Sophia makes her way further into the room.
"I'm Sophia, the girl you pinched is Maya and this is my fiancée, Alexander." Sophia says sharply, crossing her arms over her chest.
"She pinched her?" Quincy says, glaring at the lady that decided to sit on the couch. She smiles up at him before sending a glare towards my daughter. Immediately I adjust Maya so her face is shielded from the lady.
"Uncle Quincy, that's your girlfriend?" Maya says, her cries sounding weaker since her voice was muffled by my neck and shoulder.
"Fiancée. Sabrina Witteck, soon to be Matthews." The lady, Sabrina, says, reaching for Quincy's hand. He gets pulled back into the chair next to his fiancée with a groan. He sends a glare her way before pulling his phone out.
"Put a leash on her, Adrian." Sophia threatens.
"Sabrina, don't touch kids that aren't yours. I literally won't stop Sophia from beating your ass." Quincy warns. Sabrina frowns before turning towards Sophia and I.
"Oh, you already have kids? I thought you were younger than Quincy."
"I am." Sophia grits out while Sabrina smiles wickedly. Maya finally begins to calm down, just rubbing the bruise formed on her arm. Her head is still laying on my shoulder and Quincy is looking at her concerningly.
"So, you already have three kids? You're like twenty."
I won't hold Sophia back either, Sabrina.
"If I did, what's the problem?" Sophia says, cocking her head. Obviously Sabrina doesn't know who Sophia is.
Sabrina smiles, shrugging before putting her leg over Quincy's leg. He buries his face into his phone, completely ignoring his fiancée.
"You're mighty fine." Sabrina says, looking towards me. Uncomfortably, my hand searched for Sophia's. She grabs my hand, with a strong ass grip, before smiling at Sabrina.
"He's also mighty taken, as you are." Sophia bites back.
Sabrina is jumping on very, very, very thin ice.
"I don't like her." Maya whispers, quietly for once. Sophia and Sabrina are glaring at each other and Quincy is subtly sliding down in his seat, staring at his phone. Sophia's breathing increases, showing she's getting worked up.
"Alex, can we go get that stuff now?" She says. I nod, not even know what stuff she is talking about. When I go to walk, Maya just buried herself further into me while I follow Sophia. She's storming away, down the stairs and out the front door in record time for a pregnant woman. Maya's grip tightens while I try to catch up with Sophia.
As we walked out though, I swear Quincy mouthed 'help me'.
Yikes.
Sophia marches out to the car, ripping the keys from around her neck as she opens the door. I slide maya down and she climbs into the backseat. Immediately as I pull out of the long drive way, I hear "I don't like her." From both of my girls.
Neither do I.
"She flirted with you! Right in front of me? As if I wasn't sitting right next to you! She obviously doesn't know who I am because I will beat her ass, pregnant or not."
"Baby, calm down I'm with you."
"There's no calming down. That's going to be my sister-in-law and she openly flirted with you in front of me and my brother. If that isn't disrespectful and skankish I don't know what is. Matter fact, turn this shit around."
I press the gas a little harder, making the car speed up as we drove down a road. I didn't even know where we were going, I was just driving.
"Why is Uncle Quincy marrying her?" Maya asks. I look back and she has a frown on her face.
"Because he really loves her. Just like I really love Sophia."
"Well I like Sophia, she's really nice and doesn't snatch my phone out of my hands or pinch me."
"Yeah, I don't know why she did that. Quincy better watch her." Sophia says, practically shaking in her seat. I put my hand on her thigh in an attempt to calm her while Maya talks.
"I was just sitting on the couch watching Tangled on my phone and she pinched my arm and pulled me off the couch and then she took my phone! I was just sitting there and then so I started crying because the pinch really hurt."
"She's a bitch."
"Language."
"I'll beat her ass."
"Sophia."
"Fucking try me!"
"You're not going to. You're pregnant."
"Okay? They can beat her ass too. Touching their sister for what? Exactly. Maya didn't do shit to her. She just wanted to be a bitch. Quincy probably doesn't even like her."
"Then why is he marrying her?" I question. I sure as hell wouldn't marry a girl if I knew I didn't like her and she openly flirted with other guys in front of me.
Reminds me of someone I used to know.
"He's too damn nice to say no." Sophia immediately.
We sat in the car in silence for the next twenty minutes before we decide to get ice cream. We pull over at a parlor, Sophia, Maya and I walking hand in hand into the store. Maya immediately asked for birthday cake ice cream in a cup and I ordered for her. Sophia got a milkshake while I didn't order anything for myself. I was fine so I'll just let my girls enjoy their treats.
Of course though, both Maya and Sophia attempted to make me try some of their treats. The cup Maya got of ice cream turned out to be way bigger than we thought so Maya asked (more like begged, really) me to eat some. The ice cream was good and I had a couple sips of Sophia's cookies and cream milkshake. She ordered another one, claiming that if she needed to, she would throw it at Sabrina.
Sophia was still fuming by the time we left, sipping on her milkshake before grumbling about how much she knew she didn't like Sabrina. I wanted her to calm down before we got back to the house, but I didn't know what to do. Sabrina was literally the reason we were here.
"How's your arm, Maya?" I ask, looking at her in the rear view mirror. She turns around, her arm facing towards me and I could see the greenish-brown bruise progressing. "Does it hurt?" Sophia ask, facing Maya. Maya shrugs before talking. Looking at the bruise only makes me more upset and I know it makes Sophia upset. I want her to touch my child again.
I will make her life living hell.
"Only when I touch it or move my arm around like this- ow." She puts her arms back down before looking around. "Daddy, I like this car."
"It's the same car we have at home, it's just a different color." I say, which is probably the reason she likes it.
"This is Pineapple?" She says, using the nickname for my white Range Rover. We had a habit of naming my cars random things. So far there was Pineapple (my white Range Rover), Grape (my black Audi A6), Penguin (my black Range Rover), Mango (my white Tesla), Nachos (my black Escalade, most known for when Arabella threw up her nachos all over my back seat) and Ariel (red Honda Accord).
Yeah. I know.
I have a lot of cars for it to just be Maya and I.
I just like having something to choose from.
"No, this is Grape." I clarify for her as I drive down the road that will lead us to the house. Sophia sighs heavily just as I pull into the driveway. I Parker the car and Maya is out the door in a quick second while Sophia is slightly taking her time. We both find our way out of the car and I get close enough to Sophia to hear her speak.
"Just give her three chances.. three strikes? She's out, Sophia. Don't go apeshit." She says as she waddles up the remaining of the driveway.
"You'll be fine, baby." I try to encourage her.
"I'm telling you know, you better not entertain any of her shit, Xander. I'm so serious right now."
I put my hand on her back, reassuring her.
What type of man does she take me for? Why would I want Sabrina when I have everything I could have ever asked for right here next to me?
"Yes ma'am." I say as we enter the house. There is laughter going on upstairs and I already hear Maya talking loudly.
She wastes no time.
When Sophia and I made our way to the second follow of the Malibu house, the talking died down. I looked up, seeing practically everybody sitting around the giant kitchen island while Maya stood in one of the stools, just making it to be the same height of everybody else that was sitting down.
"Daddy and Sophia, do you like yellow and blue or do you think pink and blue is better?"
"Depends, what's it for?"
"I'm getting her a pillow for her room. It's pink, right?" Quincy says immediately while everybody around him nods.
"Maya you have like thirty pillows."
"I'll throw them away." She shrugs, reaching for something in the middle of the island. Stephanie slides it to her before saying that dinner would be served shortly.
"It's just teriyaki chicken, shrimp, broccoli and rice." She alarms us. I thank her while Sophia follows suit.
"Where's Sabrina?" Sophia asks, looking around warily.
"She went to go pick up her cousin or something. He flew in from New York today. He's gonna stay with her family but she'll be back tomorrow."
"Unfortunately." Jamal says.
"Quincy, you and I are going to have to talk."
"Quincy, I told you that girl was no good. You just too hardheaded." Quincy sr. says. He shakes his head and his red curls slightly sway.
The room begins to murmur at Quincy's statement while Quincy groans.
"I'll be back." Sophia says, grabbing my hand and climbing the stairs with me behind her.
"Your ass looks great from here."
"It looks great from everywhere." She says, turning around and sticking her tongue out. We finally make it back to the bedroom and she sits on the bed.
"I want to do something tomorrow."
"We're going to Disney world."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Only because Maya won't stop begging me until we do go. I bought day passes last week. I doubt Maya's going to actually ride anything so we probably won't be there long. There is a lot of people going to be there though."
"She probably just wants to meet the princesses. Maybe ride teacups. She's probably not even tall enough to ride certain things." Sophia smiles before slipping off her shoes.
"I hope so because I'm not getting on the rides and you can't."
"I know. I'm 7 months pregnant and my stomach looks like I'm 12 months pregnant."
"It's your first pregnancy and you're having twins." I say, grabbing her pajama shorts and passing them to her. She shrugs, pulling the shorts up under her dress and waiting for me to pass her my shirt. I hand her a white one, just because. She slips it over her head before folding her sundress.
"What should I wear?"
"Just whatever. It's a lot of walking." I warn
"Noted." She says, laying back on the bed. "I love you."
"What makes you say that?" I question, just curious as to why she said it out of the blue.
"I'm not allowed to love my fiancée?"
"You are." I say, laying in the bed next to her.
"They probably think we're having sex."
"We can be." I wink towards her as she hits my chest.
"We still don't have a nursery."
"We still haven't moved."
"We will! As soon as we get back, I promise." She says, turning on her side. "They're kicking again." She groans. I lay my hand onto her belly, feeling around for those soft pushes from the babies feet.
I moved my hand just in time to feel another kick. I smile, knowing in just a month and a half, they will be here and I'll be able to touch them.
I secretly couldn't wait. When Maya was a child, I did practically everything I could do wrong, wrong. I wish I could change it. Maybe I would have gotten my act together sooner rather than later. I was fresh from being a teenager to being a single father. I had no idea what to do, how to correctly warm up a bottle, bathe them, dress them and all of that stuff. I didn't know what to do. Despite living with three of my younger siblings, I just didn't know how to do it. My mom always heated up the bottles, all I had to do was poor the milk or mix the formula and water. When I finally got a chance to actually try with Maya, she wouldn't stop moving. Very often she would just wear her pull-ups because she's never stay still longer enough for me to dress her.
So, with the twins I want it to be different. I want it to be way different.
I want to be there for their first steps, first word, first bath. I want to be able to actually hold them, not just playing with their feet and tiny toes. I want to dress them in all the adorable little clothes you see at the stores and the tiny little shoes. I can't wait to have a picture of Maya, the Twins, and Sophia as my lock screen as soon as possible.
I hope they both come out healthy with no problems.
"What are you thinking about?"
"You're giving birth in basically a month."
"I know."
"The babies will be here, in basically a month."
"Yeah. I can't wait. I promise you, I can't not have another night of sleep. I need my sleep, it's making me cranky."
"I like cranky Sophia."
"Only because she's wants to fuck you."
"All Sophia's want to fuck me."
"Oh really?"
"Really."
"When are we moving?."
"As soon as we get back if you want. I have a few places in mind I just want to run them by you first."
"Sounds good."
-
The next day
-
"Daddy? You told me when I wake up you have a surprise for me!" Maya's voice says as I feel my eyes being opened. I swipe my hand up and remove hers from my face before closing them again.
I open a eye and glance at the clock. It wasn't even 7 o'clock yet. It was 6:03 and Maya was sitting here, prying my eyes open.
"I meant when I wake up, go back to bed."
"I can't, my arm still hurts. I laid on it while I was sleeping."
"Watch a movie on your iPad." I say, putting a arm over my eyes. I feel Maya grip my shirt to pull herself onto the bed. I feel her adjust her weight so that she's sitting on the edge of the bed. "You forgot to put it on the charger."
"Watch a movie on your phone."
"You never gave it back to me." She whispers. Sophia shifts behind me and Maya sucks in a sharp swing of breath.
"Just go back to sleep. When do you ever wake up this early?"
"Because I'm so excited for today."
"Can you at least go back to sleep until 7?"
"Daddy.." she drags out my name, attempting to pull my arm off my eyes. I don't budge, keeping my arm right where it is while her small body attempts to pull it away. "I'm going back to sleep. Feel free to wake me up when the clock has a 7 on it."
"Fine. Can I have your phone?"
"Don't take it off the charger." I say, turning around to lay on my stomach.
I hear Maya softly play a show on my phone while my eyes begin to get heavy again. I feel my breathing even out as my body falls back asleep.
I promise, five minutes hasn't even passed before Maya was jumping back onto the bed. This time, she started at the bottom of the bed, climbing in from underneath the cover before crawling all the way up and laying her head right next to mine.
"The clock has a seven on it now Daddy."
"I meant a seven as the firs- okay, I'm up." I say groggily, sitting up. Maya slides off the bed, dragging her suitcase over.
"I'm going to go brush my teeth and wash my face, okay?"
"Knock yourself out," I say, immediately laying back in bed when the bathroom door closes. I know how long it takes Maya to brush her teeth and wash her face, so I will gladly take this time to try to go back to sleep.
"Why are you up so early?"
"Maya woke me up."
"You're getting ready now?" She mumbles, beginning to sit up.
"No, we aren't even leaving until about seven. Go back to sleep." I say and automatically see her lay back down. Sophia is out like a light already.
Now I'm thinking.
Is disney world really a good idea?
-
"Wait, Daddy! Can I touch the giraffe?" Maya says, adjusting the small Mickey Mouse visor she begged me to get her.
We've been at Disney world for six hours and Maya has already gotten two hats, a visor, a shirt, a book bag, a phone case, a pillow, a special charm bracelet that has three Disney Princess as long as Maya's initials in them, ma candy apple, two bags of cotton candy, a silly cup and a large Donald Duck stuffed animal. She marched in front of me with most of these items filling up the back pack while I carried her second bag of cotton candy and her silly cup that had half sprite-half water inside of it.
I didn't mind getting Maya as much as she got because she couldn't and wouldn't get on any ride besides the dumbo ride, teacups, and a train ride.
She absolutely hated the Dumbo ride, which consisted of each person sitting in their own fly elephant while the ride went in circles while each elephant went up and down. As soon as we got off, she cried, saying how she didn't like how high it went. That immediately knocked a couple rides off the list.
She loved the teacups though, so we got on that nearly three times before she got distracted by the cotton candy stand. So, two bags of cotton candy later, we are now in Animal Kingdom.
Maya wore her white huaraches and some sweatpants and she changed her shirt as soon as I bought it for her so she wore the navy blue shirt that contained all Disney characters on it. Sophia had twisted Maya's hair into a bun after we officially woke up.
Sophia strolled beside me, pushing the stroller. I knew Maya was going to get tired about halfway through so I bought one just in case. There happened to be a extra one at the house so we just wiped it down and brought it out to the car.
Sophia wore a tank top, clinging perfectly to her upper body and a pair of my shorts. They were basically the same material as sweatpants but they were shorts. She had her feet slipped into a pair of black and white Nike Roche's. Her hair style mimicked Maya's.
I had on almost the same thing, just a different color shorts and an actual t-shirt. Maya and I wore the same shoes. We had a lot of the same clothing since she tended to like whatever I wore.
Plus, I wasn't good at buying girly shit and half the time she didn't even want to wear it so it was a win win situation for me.
"Where do you see giraffes?"
"Over there." Sophia says. Maya is point to the left where you can barely see a giraffe coming out of its pen. Maya and Sophia already begin walking over there and I have no choice but to follow. Once we get over there, you see people taking pictures and posing with the giraffe behind them. There was a area where you can climb to be closer to where the giraffe was feeding from.
"Let's take a picture." Maya says, putting her hands up, silently asking for me to pick her up. I bend down, swinging her onto my hip. Sophia pulls out her phone, snapping what I am sure is several pictures before putting her phone down.
"Now take one with all of us." Maya says, gesturing for Sophia to come closer. Sophia comes in, on the same side as Maya and wraps her arm around me while I hold the phone out, taking the picture. I definitely took more than one photo.
Who cares though?
"Okay, where to next?"
"Ummmm. There." Maya says, pointing towards a arcade. We all head in there and Sophia takes a seat as soon as we enter. Maya and I go to the machine and I get her some tokens to play the games. I give her a bunch of tokens just so Sophia has more time to sit. I know her ankles are probably the size of her head by now.
Just kidding.
When I walk over to her, she's on the phone.
"Yeah, we are at the arcade." She nods a couple of time, giving very vague answers before hanging up. "That was Jamal. Their trying to get us to come back."
"What happened?"
"I don't know, he was being very secretive. Kinda makes me nervous." She shrugs, sliding her phone underneath her belly before leaning back against the wall. I watch as her eyes dart across the room; looking for Maya.
"She's at the whack-a-Mickey game." I say, seeing Maya attempting to hit all the Mickeys that pop up. She was unsuccessful, since she could barely see them. Her head barely peaked over the game but she still blindly choose.
"I think she needs help."
"Yeah, I know." I smile, watching her struggle for a couple more tries before getting up and deciding to help her. I walk over to her and lift her up so she can see the Mickeys bouncing up. She hits two of the last five Mickeys, so she gets a couple of tickets from that. She smiles widely before rushing to the next game: the Claw Machine. It was filled with different Disney characters.
She put in two tokens, automatically getting to work. When she grabbed a Minnie Mouse stuffed animal and dropped it right before she could get it into the disposal, she had a fit.
So she tried.
Again.
Again.
And again.
Twenty six tokens later, she finally got the toy, but had accidentally grabbed two. She jumped, reaching down and grabbing the Minnie Mouse stuffed animal and a Dumbo stuff animal.
"Daddy! Look I got this one for Sophia and you can have this one!" She says, pushing the dumbo into my hands before sprinting to Sophia. I catch up with her just in time to hear the rest of her rant.
"-nd I got two! Instead of one! This was the bestest day ever. I'm ready to go home now." She says, climbing onto the seat beside Sophia and smiling with content on her face. I look at Sophia before shrugging. Maya climbs into her stroller and Sophia puts all of the stuff into the bottom of it as we start to leave the park.
Twenty minutes later, we a buckling our seatbelts and Maya is in the back seat raving about all the things she got and how happy she was. Sophia called Jamal and alerted him we were on the way back. We still had a two hour drive left so it was still quite the drive.
"I love this stuff so much, thank you mommy and daddy. I'll never be mean again and then when the babies are born we can take them to Disney world and I can show them all the rides. Just not the Dumbo ride because I didn't like it but they are going to love the teacups! They just can't eat before it or they are going to throw up because babies throw up a lot. Gosh I love it so much! Look how big Goofy is!" She rambles.
I see Sophia smile out the corner of my eye, so I'm not sure whether or not she heard Maya call her Mommy but said she did, she definitely didn't show any (bad?) signs of it. She smiled, agreeing with Maya, saying how she had a good time as well.
We spend the rest of the car ride, talking about our favorite parts of the day. Eventually, Maya begins to watch her new favorite movie, Tangled. Sophia falls asleep for the last hour and a half of the ride. I stop and get Maya Subway once we are around the corner from the house. Sophia declined my offer to get her a sandwich. She said she was craving some of the left over teriyaki from last night. So Sophia stays in the car while Maya and I run in and get Maya's regular.
Maya is anxious once we get back into the car, saying she couldn't wait until she got home to eat her sandwich. When I pull into the driveway of the house, Maya is practically out the car before I can even park. She's dashing to the door, leaving all of her stuff, including her sandwich. I watch as she knocks and the door opens as quick as it closed.
Sophia and I share a laugh. Maya must have had to go to the bathroom. I go to collect all of the things she left and Sophia grabs her sandwich while I lock the doors. We walk up the long driveway. The door was unlocked when we got to it, so we walk inside. The house is eerily silent and the only noise you hear is the low hum of the refrigerator.
Sophia gives me a look before walking up the stairs. On all the nights we've been here, at this time, the second floor kitchen and living room are always occupied. I trail behind Sophia, wondering where everybody, including Maya is.
Sophia and I both hit the top step at the same time. As soon as we turn the corner into the living room and kitchen area, everyone yells in unison.
"Surprise!"