Bulletproof Love

“That’s a baby.” Vic stated from the living room, where he had been watching reruns of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

“Congratulations Vic, someone should give you a Nobel Prize.” Emily rolled her eyes, carrying Jonah into the kitchen. It was half an hour past his breakfast time, and he was cranky.

“That didn’t make any sense!” He shouted at her retreating figure.

“I wasn’t trying to make sense!” She shouted back at him. Jonah made a noise of protest from her arms, reminding her that unless she gave him breakfast within the next minute or so, he was going to be a very unhappy little boy. Emily sat him down on the kitchen floor, and went to the fridge to see if they had anything that he could eat; normally his mom had something picked out and ready for him, all Emily had to do was feed it to him, but she had been in a rush this morning and had forgot, but assured her that anything she gave him would be fine. Thankfully there was a cantaloupe (one of the few things she was capable of preparing) already cut up in the fridge, so she popped the lid of the tupperware open and put it in front of him, letting him go at it with little fingers and much enthusiasm. It was a messy cantaloupe, and the juice dripped down Jonah’s pudgy little fingers and onto the kitchen floor, but Emily figured it wasn’t a big deal; it would be easy enough to clean up.

The kitchen, much like the rest of the house was decorated with a Spanish flare. The house itself was a two story Spanish style building, with cream colored adobe exterior walls, and lots of asymmetry, and she and Vic had decided to decorate the interior in the same way, with lots of neutral colors, and stone fixtures. The kitchen floor was Italian tile, somewhere in between a beige and a light brown, and super easy to clean. When they bought the house it originally came with wood floors in a great deal of the house, but the wood itself was rotted, and so they had bought the discontinued tile from a factory for half price and replaced the wood in the front entrance, three bathrooms, kitchen and hallways. In the bedrooms they had decided to stick with wood, but replaced the old stuff with new dark oak boards.

“Why do you have a baby?” Vic asked, walking into the kitchen and sitting down at the island, looking down at Jonah with curiosity.

“It’s my job.” Emily worked full time as a nanny, for a real estate developer and his wife, who worked for a record company down in LA. She had worked for a bunch of different families over the years, but the Matthews family was by far her favorite. Joy and Steve were young, in their mid to late thirties, so they weren’t really as strict regarding Jonah as some of the other families she had worked with, and Jonah was the sweetest little boy you’d ever meet. He was a little small for nine months, but she’d been with him since he was just shy of three months, and he had always been a little tiny; Emily accredited that to the fact that his mother, a native Hawaiian, was tiny herself. He had a full head of thin brown hair, and the biggest, roundest chocolate eyes you’d ever see.

“You’ve never brought work home before.” Vic observed Jonah as he put a piece of cantaloupe up to his mouth, thoroughly coating it in a layer f drool before sticking it back in the container and picking another one up, a look that just screamed ‘grossed out’ adorning his features. He looked back to Emily, awaiting an explanation while she served herself a cup of coffee.

“Their house is being fumigated so I volunteered to bring him here instead of watching him in the hotel room they’re staying at.” She explained indifferently, struggling with the mostly empty bottle of chocolate syrup. As soon as Jonah saw what she had in her hand, he dropped the piece of cantaloupe in his hand into the small puddle that had formed on the floor in front of the tupperware container and came crawling over to the other side of the island, using the cabinets as leverage to pull himself up. Emily poured a small drop of chocolate syrup onto her index finger and gave it to Jonah to lick off. She scrunched up her face when he stuck it in his mouth; his little baby teeth were a lot sharper than you’d expect. When all the chocolate was gone and Jonah released her finger, she stood up straight. The look on Vic’s face was priceless; she didn’t think she’d ever seen him so grossed out. “What?” She asked, amused.

“That was disgusting.” A small, soundless chuckle shook Emily’s chest, and a crooked smile overtook her face. She couldn’t believe he thought that was gross, considering some of the things she’d seen him do over the years. She looked at her drool covered finger, then back to Vic, and if it was possible, smiled a little more to herself. Vic probably saw something though, because he was off the stool and out of the room, Emily hot on his heels, as fast as he could get up without tripping over himself. They ended up in the living room, each on a different side of the couch. Anytime Emily would go one way, Vic would go the other and vice versa. It seemed like an impossible situation until Emily threw herself over the couch, vaulting off the edge of the cushions and straight into Vic. The pair landed on the floor with a thud and Emily grinned in triumph. “Don’t do it Em.” Vic’s voice was deadly serious. She pretended to think about it for a few moments, putting on her best thoughtful face, but in the end, did what she had planned on doing all along and wiped her finger down the side of Vic’s face. He made a noise somewhere in between displeasure and disgust, reaching down and pulling the bottom of her shirt towards his face to wipe the drool off, washing Emily with a fond sort of feeling.