“Puppy!” Lola shrieked way too loudly for April’s eardrum health.
Rohan glanced up to his mom, tilted his head to the side, and said, “Ribbit.”
She was 99 percent certain that one meant that he wanted to be with the dog, too.
Ugh.
Rachel turned, frowned, and gestured toward April’s chest. “There seems to be a…” Rachel raised her eyebrows.
April glanced down.
“There’s a goldfish on your boob,” Rachel said matter-of-factly, like it was the time of day.
Crap. April handed off Rohan to her friend and pawed at her chest.
Rachel brushed at April’s temple. “How the hell did you get a cracker in your hair, too?”
Kids. That’s how.
April brushed at that spot, as well. “Good now?”
Rachel shook her head but smiled. “You’re good.”
I’m good. We’re good. It’s all good.
She squared her shoulders, hoping no additional crackers adhered to any part of her body, and introduced herself to the camera guy while Rachel convinced Harmony to put the damn black shoes on her feet.
Then they went live on social media.
Starting with the dog.
Nothing went sideways. Everyone behaved. Even Pete, one of Rachel’s golden retrievers.
Though April was careful not to actually say he was her dog. She just implied. Which only put her on the fringes of a lie, right?
She’d take it because she… Well, she had to. The trip going so well was, frankly, an Earth Foods miracle. The miracle she needed. Rohan was happy to sit next to his toddler sister in the red and yellow little-kid plastic car attached in front of the normal cart. These things were fun for the kids, but a total bitch to maneuver.
The dog safely outside, April was breathing much easier, answering the camera dude’s questions, relishing the ease of the filming. This wasn’t so bad. Not bad at all. Maybe she should plan more outside-the-home videos.
She selected a bag of coffee beans—pre-ground—and set it in the cart. Next stop, frozen foods.
That’s when she made her first mistake. Things were going well, and she got cocky. Sure, she’d almost made it out of the aisle, but the cart got too close to the shelves, and Rohan ran his hand outside the plastic vehicle, pulling a whole slew of coffee cans onto the floor. The Illy whole-bean kind that came fresh roasted from Italy. Not that the coffee brand had anything to do with anything in the moment, but it was what she noticed as the excessive crash ricocheted through her brain…and the store.
April stared at the mess scattered all over the aisle. She swallowed. Hard. “I’m just going to clean this up.” She glanced at her daughter. “Harmony, why don’t you tell the people on the internet a story? Like you do at school?” She looked at the camera. “Harmony tells the best stories.”
She’d even won a contest once with her butterfly story: an inspirational short about a butterfly with a broken wing.
Harmony took a deep breath. Looked into the camera and said, “Mom buys the blue kind because the yellow bag is what my goddamned dad used to buy.”
Harmony delivered this gem with a full-on cheerleader smile for the camera.
This was not the butterfly story.
April’s entire body stilled. Straight-up, she stopped functioning as a human being in that moment. She was pretty sure her blood wasn’t even pumping right then.
“Harmony, why would you say that?” April asked, pausing her cleanup to kneel at her daughter’s level, while trying to keep her cheeks from flushing as red as the car cart. She was pretty sure she failed. “We don’t say things like that. That’s a grown-up word.”
April gave a look to the guy filming her likewhatcha gonna do?And pulled ayeeshface into the camera.
