This Masterpiece Will Fall Apart

“What do you mean, 'you don't remember where you parked the car'?” I exclaimed at Josh. We had just gone grocery shopping, and Josh, being who he is, 'misplaced' the car. Joshes parents had agreed to look after our two little hellions (Finley was in school) while we did that. I was standing in the middle of the sidewalk on a not-so-busy part of town, three bags of grocery in each hand, at the end of November. Josh looked around desperately, running a hand through his hair at one place.

“I know it's in this general area.” Josh said. “I just don't remember where in this general area.”

“Oh, bloody hell Josh. What am I going to do with you?” I asked him. Josh frowned. “How could you honestly forget where you parked?”

“I don't know, I just did!” Josh replied. “We do have a red car, right?” I inhaled sharply at him, giving him “the look”, which was completely unintentional. “Don't look at me like that!”

“I swear to God, if we have to take the bus home...” I started to say.

“Why don't we just walk back that way and see if it's there?” Josh suggested.

“Fine, as long as you take some of these.” I said, extending a hand out to him. Josh came over and took three of the bags from me and we started walking back down the street. “By the way, we have a blue car.” Josh looked down at me with a look of disapproval.

“We should just have a pink car. We'd be able to find it.” Josh said.

“Yes, I could see you driving around in a pink car.” I said. “You'd look more like an idiot than you already are.”

“Hey, come on.” Josh peered at me.

“I'm kidding.” I said. “I'm just cold, and crabby, and tired.”

“I thought you were only like that when you're pregnant.” Josh said. I eyed him. “You're not pregnant again, are you?”

“God, let's hope not. Three is good enough for me.” I told him. Josh opened his mouth to say something. “If you want more kids, you take that up with your second wife!” Josh closed his mouth and smiled.

“Could you imagine if we had like, 5 kids or something?” Josh wondered aloud.

“I think we'd both be sitting in little padded cells if we did.” I told him. Josh chuckled.

“That is definitely true. I mean, Finley's almost sent us there a few times.” Josh said.

“Your mum was telling me that Finley acts just like you did when you were little!” I told him. “See, you have more in common with him then you think!” Josh smiled a little. We both continued to walk down the street, looking for the car Josh had misplaced. Finally, we gave up and went to have a cup of coffee in a little restaurant that had opened up a few weeks before hand. It was a quaint little place, with not much business. It was run by an older woman her her two teenage sons. They were also from Britain, so whenever I came in, they were always excited to see me.

Josh and I were talking about something pointless (for some reason, the topic of cats and kittens came up in conversation) until I took his hand that was on the table in mine. “You know, I'm really going to miss you when you go on tour again. You're leaving me with three kids all on my own.”

“Well, I'll feel bad about that, but I will miss you too.” Josh smiled. “I could barely handle two months with just me and Finley. I don't know if I could handle Finley, and the twins at the same time.” He explained. “We should probably get married soon, huh?” Josh said, taking a sip of his coffee.

I had honestly completely forgotten that I was engaged. I looked down at my left hand to see that the ring Josh gave me was still there. “I haven't even started thinking of anything. We need to set a date for this wedding.”

“Tomorrow.” Josh said. I snorted slightly.

“I don't think we could throw together that big of an event in a few hours.” I said. “We're both very creative and determined people, but I think that kind of a project would be too much for us to handle. And besides, my mom wants to help out.”

Josh nodded, “Yeah, I was just kidding about tomorrow. We'd need to start planning right this second if we did do that.” Josh said, taking another sip of coffee. “Hey, do you think your mom would make the cake? It would save us a couple bucks.”

“She'd probably do that, yeah. I mean, you've seen the birthday cakes she's made for dad, Airin and myself. They're so extravagant. She actually gets up at fucking 4 in the morning sometimes to start making those cakes!” I said.

“I will not deny she is a dedicated woman.” Josh said.

“She's more than dedicated, She borderline neurotic.” I said. Josh snorted into his coffee.

“I guess that's where you get it from?” Josh smirked I tilted my head and glared at him.

“No, I get that from being in a relationship with you. Especially when you lose the car!” I told him. Josh had an embarrassed look on his face.

“I didn't mean to lose the car!” Josh said. I heard the owner, Kathleen, laugh from the kitchen. The eldest of the twins, Scott, shook his head at us. “Oh, just you wait Scott. You'll be in this situation one of these days with your girl.”

Scott leaned on the counter, “That may be so, but a' least I wont lose the car.” Josh narrowed his eyes at him.

“Touché Scott. Touché indeed.” Josh said, taking a another drink of coffee, his eyes still narrowed at Scott. “You're a worthy advisory in this battle of wits.”

“Oh, well if it's a battle of wits, you lost at the start.” I grinned at him. Josh then narrowed his eyes at me.

“You best be glad you're cute.”

“And that I have boobs.”

“...that too.”

Josh and I finally found the car (it was in the back parking lot of a store) and we drove to Joshes parents house to pick up the two hellions. When Carolynn opened the door, she had a look of worry on her face. “Mom, what's wrong?” Josh asked when we entered the house.

“I'm not sure. But,” she paused and walked over to pick up our youngest son, “I'm a little concerned about Kodi.” I took Kodiak from Carolynn.

“Concerned? How?” I asked, looking at my son. He seemed rather content with his surroundings, like he always did.

“Well, Autumn is very responsive to noise and is extremely curious. But Kodiak...he barely even notices a loud noise.” Carolynn explained. She went back into the living room to get Autumn, and when she came back, handed her to Josh. I looked at Autumn, and her head was turning around trying to see her surroundings, and Kodiak was just clinging onto my jacket. “The dog barked quiet loudly earlier today, and Autumn responded to it, nearly scared her half to death, but she acknowledged the noise. But it was as if Kodiak didn't even hear it.” That was really starting to worry me. I snapped my fingers around Kodiak's head. Autumn immediately looked around for the source of the noise. Kodiak kind of moved his head once, but that was probably because he saw my hand move. “I don't mean to frighten you two or anything, but I think it'd be wise to get it checked out.” I nodded at her. We both said goodbye to Joshes mom and went back outside. We put the twins in their car seats, and when I was buckling up Kodiak, I couldn't help but feel a little worried about him.

I really hoped nothing was wrong with him.