The girls chose that moment to clear the table. Kehlani placed her dirty plate in the sink before plopping down on the couch. Sienna, not wanting to miss out on any amount of fun, rushed down from the table and followed after her sister. I grabbed her dirty plate just as James finished up with my mum and ended the call. He handed me back my phone before dipping down and planting another kiss close to my mouth.
He sauntered over to the fridge, yanking it open. "What's for dinner?"
My breath puffed as I folded the tea towel over the oven door. "You can sort yourself out tonight."
His head popped up, his brow pulling in. "You didn't make dinner?"
"No, I didn't make dinner," I said between clenched teeth. "Sienna had gymnastics today."
James' head reared back, his brow furrowing. "But it's Friday."
"Yes, her teacher told us a month ago that this week we had to swap Thursday for Friday because she wasn't available."
"What? Shit." He ran a hand through his hair.
On the days the girls had practice, he was always home on time to take care of whomever didn't have an activity on. Or he took them, and I stayed home. Either way, I had to take Kehlani with me…hence the cereal for dinner.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I did," I gritted out. "And then I put it in our shared calendar."
He rolled his eyes. "You know I don't check that. Why didn't you remind me?"
If steam had the possibility of coming out of ears, mine would be setting off the fire alarms.
"Because you're their parent too and should remember these things. Because I don't have anyone remindingme. I also texted you when you said you were at the pub."
"You did?" He slid his phone out of his pocket and flicked through it. "Shit. You did. Sorry, I must've missed the notification. Pretty silly that she changed the day. Why not just cancel?"
God, give me strength.
"Because she informed us a month in advance and gave us the option of cancelling this week or coming on Friday. When I told you, you said you didn't care, so I told you I would confirm Friday and that I would put it in our shared calendar."
He groaned as he grabbed butter and ham out of the fridge. "You know how I hate those calendar reminders."
I reached into our pantry and grabbed the loaf of bread and a butter knife for him. When he started making his sandwich on the bench, I pointedly grabbed the breadboard and placed it under his ingredients.
"Please, just check the calendar next time. It's not that hard." Or look at your fucking phone for messages from me. But his lack of communication was a point of contention we kept circling back to. Plus, I was sick of sounding like a broken record.
James waved the knife in the air. "Okay, babe. I'll check next time."
I watched in silence as he slathered on butter, then placed two slices of ham on top and slapped on the other slice of bread.
"So what did your mum want?" James mumbled while chewing.
I was still annoyed about today, but decided to drop it. There was no point holding onto this familiar feeling of frustration.
My fingers itched to pack away the butter and ham, but I fought my natural instinct and decided to let him pick up after himself.
"She's coming back on April twenty-seventh. She just wanted me to air out her apartment a bit."
He nodded as he took another large bite.
"What date is it today?"
"The third."
Another nod before he demolished the rest of his sandwich in two large bites. He went back to the fridge, grabbed the milk, and poured it into a glass. "Oh, it's the third?" He belatedly mused. "That means Valentine's Day is next week."
