“Why doesn’t Mommy have any tattoos?”
I shrug, scooping some more chocolate onto my spoon. “I don’t know. You would have to ask her that.”
“My daddy doesn’t have any tattoos either.”
“No?”
She shakes her head.
“What kinds of things do you and your dad do when you’re together?”
“He takes me to a bunch of toy stores and buys me lots of toys.”
“Really?”
She nods.
“He tells me if I’m a good girl and talk to all the mommies he’ll buy me whatever I want.” She looks up at me, fear flashing in her eyes. “But you can’t tell Mommy. Daddy says we can’t tell her.”
“It’s not nice to keep secrets from your mommy,” I say, taking a bite of my ice cream.
“I know, but Daddy says if I don’t keep this a secret he won’t buy me any more toys.”
“It’s okay. I won’t tell,” I tell her with a wink but there’s no way I’m not telling Marley about this.
She grins a toothy grin then hops down from her seat. “I need to go potty. Mommy says I should never go anywhere without an adult,” she states, holding out her hand.
Well shit.
I certainly did not anticipate this.
I walk her down the hall toward the bathroom, and fortunately, it’s a single. “You go ahead, I’ll stand right here and wait for you, okay?”
Nodding, she ducks inside and closes the door behind her. A few minutes later, she still hasn’t come out so I knock on the door. “Everything okay in there?”
“Yep, I had to poop, too!” she shouts.
I chuckle when I hear her grunting.
“And it’s all pokey,” she informs me.
What the hell is pokey poop?
She grunts harder.
It takes everything I have to contain my laughter. Finally, the toilet flushes and she opens the door.
“I can’t reach the sink to wash my hands.”
I step inside the bathroom with her and lift her up to reach the soap dispenser then turn on the water for her. She scrubs her tiny hands back and forth then rinses them off.
“All clean,” she declares as I lower her to her feet.
“Good job,” I praise, handing her a paper towel to dry them. She tosses it in the trash before we walk back out to the table to finish our ice cream.
“Will you play princesses with me when we get home?” she asks, hope dancing in her green eyes.
“Uh, sure.”
