Paige's lips close tightly. “Hi, B. Sorry. I love her so much.”
It makes me happy how much Paige loves Amari. She loves being around her. I remember how worried it made me, thinking having a baby was going to end our friendship. It definitely has changed a lot, but she still comes around and loves Amari so much. It’s more than I could ever ask for.
We make our way through the mall. It’s so weird to be here now with a baby. The mall used to betheplace for me and Paige to hang out. It’s the same mall where I first laid eyes on Kai. I was too shy to approach him. Now look. I’m pushing our daughter through the mall for Halloween. It’s crazy to look back at how much has happened in such a short time.
“Why didn’t you dress up?” Paige asks.
I shrug my shoulders. “I didn’t even think about it. I was too worried about getting Amari an outfit.” Paige has always been all about dressing up and spending so much time on it. I would dress up but not spend so much time around it.
“I know you’re a mom now, but you still need to have fun, too.”
“Priorities change once you’re a mom.”
Paige’s eyes go wide. “That’s the mom-est thing you have ever said.”
We both chuckle.
“Are we going to have Amari trick-or-treat at the stores?”
“I don’t know. It’s not like she can eat the candy.”
“Yeah, but we can,” Paige says in between her laughs. She thinks she’s so funny. “Let’s try it.”
We walk passed a group of kids and go over to the lady dressed as a witch standing in front of Wet Seal. Good thing Paige is dressed up, or else I would think they would assume we were using Amari to get free candy—which is Paige’s plan. I stand to the side and snap pictures of Paige and Amari as they walk over to the lady.
“Say trick-or-treat,” Paige says to Amari.
“Oh, my gosh. Who is this cute little ladybug?” the lady asks and grabs Amari's hand and gives it a little shake. Amari’s mouth opens wide in a huge grin as the lady talks to her. “You want to pick a candy?” She lifts her candy bucket to Amari’s hand. Paige grabs Amari’s hand, guides it into the bucket, and grabs a couple of fun-sized Snickers.
“Thank you.” Paige walks back over to me. Seeing how happy Amari is fills my heart with so much happiness. It makes me regret not having Kai with us.
Paige’s face drops when she sees me wipe a tear from my eye. “What’s wrong?”
I let out a sigh. “I wish Kai were here.”
“Did he want to come?” she asks as we make our way to another store.
“He did and I told him no.”
“Oh.”
“We haven’t talked much since that day he reached out to you looking for me.”
Her eyes grow wide in surprise. “What! Why?”
“There is not much more I can say to him I haven’t already said.”
“I thought he wasn’t going out anymore.” We walk over to Charlotte Russe next, to a girl dressed as Minnie Mouse and another girl next to her as Mickey Mouse.
Paige walks Amari over to them so they can say trick or treat.
She hands me a bag of Skittles as we continue to the next store.
“Is he back on his same bullshit again?”
“Yes,” I say.
“B, that’s not healthy.”
