Unlucky in Love

“Okay, Emma, I’m going to give you your first official Disney lesson.” I told Emma, who was staring up at me with her naturally pouty expression. “Sleeping Beauty is good—you can like Aurora. She’s German, and she’s pretty and you got your middle name from her.” I showed her my Sleeping Beauty book that I got the last time I was at Disneyland. “Cinderella—it depends on which version. French Cinderella, like from Ever After, which we can watch when you can comprehend Drew Barrymore’s fake British/French accent, is a good movie.”

“What’re you doing to our daughter?” Dominic called down from upstairs.

“Nothing!” I called back. I paused from my Princess lesson when Blondie started barking at me. I picked her up and sat on the couch with her in my lap. They were about four weeks old—and the chubbiest little things I’ve ever seen. All of them had varying degrees of cuteness, but my alliance still resided with Blondie and Cooper.

Emma crawled over to my lap and sat on my thigh to get in petting range of Blondie. She stroked Blondie’s fuzzy ear and giggled when Blondie flopped over and started batting at Emma’s hand.

I just shook my head. “There’s no getting rid of Blondie, is there Emma?” I asked Emma, and she leaned back against me and rested her head on my chest.

I took that as a sign of her agreement.

“You want to take a break from the History of Fictional Princesses?” I asked her, and she looked at me with an unenthusiastic expression. Another yes. “Just wait till Shakespeare and French Language and Culture.” Another unhappy look. “Do you just want to do ballet and speak only English?” she turned back to the puppy.

There was no communicating with a nine-month-old.

Dominic came downstairs and grabbed his keys and schoolbag. “You need a ride to school?”

I sighed. “I don’t wanna go. Emma and I are having so much fun!”

He glanced down at the baby. “She’s chewing on your necklace,” I pulled it away from her and tucked it into my shirt. She reached up and pulled down the front of my shirt to get it.

I grabbed her hand and pulled my shirt back up. “They don’t belong to you anymore,” I told her sternly. Dominic reached down and grabbed her.

“We’ll be in the car,” he said, and I sighed exasperatedly and got up and slipped on my shoes. I was wearing a short black dress and black ballet flats. I didn’t have any appointments today—thank God—but I did have a class.

Today was waxing.

Super fun, right?

I grabbed my bag, put the puppy back in the cage, and went out the door, locking it behind me.

I set my bag in the backseat next to Emma and then got in on the passenger’s side.

“You’d think they wouldn’t make you wear black in the middle of June.”

“It’s air conditioned inside,” I replied, rolling down my window as a temporary relief while waiting for the air conditioning to kick in. I flipped down my visor and put my hair into a ponytail, and then put on a black headband while looking in the small, somewhat insufficient mirror. “So, I’m not going to be done till December now.”

“Why?”

I put on a layer of ChapStick. “Because of our trip that took three weeks.” I replied, not sounding the least bit bitter. “That’s fine, though. It just means that I’ll have something to do in the fall when you go back to school.”

We entered downtown Portland, and traffic was totally backed up—on a Thursday.

“What’re you guys going to do when I have class?”

He shrugged. “I’ll teach her calculus, the German language, explain how English is the hardest language to learn, maybe throw in some World War Two stuff in there to make it interesting.”

“Yes, she really wants to know she’s, what, a quarter German?”

“There’s nothing wrong with being German,” he said, somewhat defensively.

I scoffed. “I never said there was—and trust me, I’ve gotten enough shit over the years for being French. At least your not fully German—she can take some relief in that fact.” I smiled. “But, if she needs braces, I’m blaming it on your Britishness.”

“My teeth are just fine,” he countered.

“Daveigh’s weren’t.”

“Touché.”

* * *

“I hate you so much for making me walk right now.” I complained to Daveigh.

We were meeting Leah and Autumn for dinner—oh yeah, they’re kind of friends again—that was about ten or so blocks from school. It was called Rose’s, and apparently they were really good…and also, I couldn’t turn down a meal that Daveigh was paying for.

Daveigh laughed and held the restaurant’s door open for me.

How thoughtful.

I followed her in and we went to the table that Autumn and Leah were already sitting at. We slid into the seats across from them, I having a little more difficulty than Daveigh.

“Ember, why are you walking so weird?” Autumn asked, trying not to laugh.

“I was hoping it wasn’t obvious.”

Daveigh snorted. “It was waxing today, and apparently somebody’s never had a Brazilian done.”

I smacked her arm. “You suck at keeping secrets, you know this, yes?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t know it was a secret.”

We ordered our food and talked meaningless crap until the food came out, and then we were quiet.

Well, I was quiet.

I didn’t understand why Daveigh and Leah were best friends again—it must’ve happened when I was gone. But Autumn seemed a part of their little clique…which was something I never would’ve predicted.

“Are you guys busy next Saturday?” Autumn asked us as we were leaving.

“Nope, why?” I asked. We walked towards the cars.

“We were thinking we could take a day trip to the beach—just girls.”

Daveigh and I met each other’s eyes suspiciously.

“Sure,” Daveigh said, somewhat unenthusiastically.

“Next Saturday,” I said in agreement.

Daveigh and I got in her car and we started over to the east side, where I lived. Daveigh lived in the Pearl District, and often got frustrated when she had to give me a ride home.

Just as we pulled into my driveway, Autumn and Leah got to their house. It was so weird living this close to them.

I sighed. “I’ll see you later,”

“Goodnight,” she said cheerfully as I got out.

I walked up to the door and unlocked it. Dominic was sitting on the couch and Cooper was on his lap. He was just flipping through channels.

“Hey, babe,” I said, dropping my bag lazily on the floor. I got out of my shoes.

“I’m officially done with school for the summer,” he said.

I plopped down on the couch. “Well whoop-dee-do for you.” I muttered.

“Emma talked today,” he announced. My eyes popped open wide and I turned around and stared at him.

“What?” He nodded, a smile on his face. “What’d she say?”

“‘Pincess.’” He said, and I laughed.

“She tried to say ‘princess’?”

“Yup.”

I laughed. “At least her first word wasn’t something so stupid as ‘Mommy’ or ‘Daddy’, right?”

“Yeah, no kidding. Those other parents have nothing to brag about.”

“Exactly.”