“Gem.” Ace is calling me from the other side of my door. “Dinner is ready.”
“I’ll be down in a sec,” I call back, grabbing a dress and changing into it.
The food is already plated up when I enter, and the children are stuffing their faces. I can't believe we did it. We managed to cook something they like. I take my seat next to Alex. He seems uncomfortable, and it's then that I realise I forgot to put on a bra.
“Wine?” he offers. He doesn’t know where to look, and his cheeks are stained a little red.
“Sure.” I could use a drink.
He pours me a glass of white. A very large glass. I feel his knee scrape mine as he sits back down, and we both freeze, looking at each other. He mouths an apology. I think he’s avoiding me as he turns his attention to the food. I take a large gulp of wine. This is definitely uncomfortable.
“Gemma, your face is red,” Eden says as loud as she can so nobody could possibly miss it.
"It looks like you are burned."
I could die. I don't want Alex seeing me as anything other than calm and collected.
“This wine,” I joke, ignoring her comment.
Eden giggles again. "Is it because you're drinking wine?"
"Eden, enough, honey." Alex’s voice is firm. "Leave Gemma to eat her meal. We should cook together more often." He takes a huge bite.
"I can't cook, you can't cook, but together we make a decent enough team." I try to break the tension between us.
Alex smiles, and then I see him glance again at my breasts before he clears his throat and looks away.
"Gemma, will you read to me again tonight?" Eden asks. "I want to hear about the princess unicorn."
"We read that last night. Why don't we pick something else?"
"Because that's my favourite.” Her eyes go all watery and her lips start to wobble.
I look at Alex, who shrugs. "It's her favourite."
"Fine. First, we need to run a bath and don’t forget we need to wash your hair and dry it, and we need to take off that nail polish."
"I don't want to," Eden pouts.
"Well, you have to," I respond. "No arguments or we can't do it again."
Eden goes back to her food, and I feel guilty. Next time, I'll take her on a Friday to do her nails so they can be pretty for the whole weekend. Ace finishes first and goes upstairs to shower by himself. Once he's done, I run a bath for Eden and get her in. I wash her hair, then her body, and then take her into my room to dry her hair. I've already laid out her pyjamas on my bed, so I dress her as well. Once her hair is silky soft and dry, and her nails are clean, I lead her back to her room.
"I'm going to sleep by daddy," she starts to get out of bed.
"You know you don't have to. Big girls sleep in their own beds," I say, my voice is soft. "But if it makes you feel better, why not?"
Eden climbs into her bed and hugs her teddy bear. "Where is Mr Snuggles?" she asks in her innocent little voice.
"Mr Snuggles?"
"My unicorn, he's always on my bed." She looks around, worried.
I check under the bed. "You sure you didn't take him downstairs?" I ask.
"No," she says, tearing up.
"You're very tired. Maybe you did without thinking. I’ll go look and be right back for our story," I say, getting up.
