// i miss myself

“Hi Ava,” Mamie smiled, seeing her favourite guest. “I can make the reservation for you no problem, as long as you’re comfortable leaving us a credit card number to book under,” she replied. “Oh goodness, you didn’t have to get me anything! I was just doing my job,” she blushed a little, curiously eyeing the box. She had a weakness for pink and couldn’t help but reach for it. 

“Oh perfect! I’ll get my card,” she replied, an easy grin still spread across her face as she moved to pull out her wallet. Flipping through the cards, she tsk’d at the number of cards before making a mental note to organize it later on. She held out the card for her to take. “I’m going to need, two rooms and there’ll be two adults in each room. And I’ll need them from the sixth of December through the fourteenth, darling.” Waving the other off she insisted, “Nonsense, you went above and beyond --- and we both know it.” 

kelsi shrugged her shoulders, flipping through pictures on her phone before she found the one she was looking for.  it was one of the gecko that she’d brought into her classroom, who her students had voted to name flynn.  “he’s a leopard gecko.”  kelsi explained when she flipped the phone around to show ava.  “the class picked flynn for his name.  the second name was goofy, surprisingly.”  the brunette chuckled, which she could only think of the disney character–and she was sure that’s what her students had thought of too.  “i got a stuffed lizard too, so they can bring that home on weekends instead of the real guy so the parents aren’t stuck doin’ everything for ‘em on the weekend they’ve got the stuffed animal, y’know?”

 At the spur of the moment, Daniel decided it was the best time to surprise his younger sister at work and invite her for lunch. They have a lot of catching up to do for the years they’d been busy with school and now the hectic schedule they have with work. With a huge smile on his way, he was making way to her office when he heard a voice so familiar. He completely stopped on his pace and turned his head back, locking his eyes on his cousin. “Oh god, Ava? What are you… doing here?” he asked, shocked yet still managed to pressed a soft kiss on her cheeks. “When did you come back?”

The shock caused her to stutter, stumbling over her words for a moment before managing to explain, “I work here, I’ve been back in town for about six months now.” She wraps her arms around for the world’s briefest hug before pulling away, as if suddenly remembering herself. “And what about you? Oh, it’s been way too long, hasn’t it?” The urge to apologize for not trying harder tugs at her insides but she manages to suppress the urge, biting down on the inside of her cheek. 

@avalynncartwright​

Grocery shopping was an art. Ben cut the coupons, he always found the best ones. Cam watched Harper at home, and Nick and Adam went through the store to get everything. They always split up, put on invisible blinders, only grabbed what they needed, and met back up at checkout. Once a week, every Tuesday at noon when the store would be emptiest so they could get what they needed and get out. 

Except today, Mr. Adam Oliver Bailey was sick in bed, and Nick was ready to kill him if the flu didn’t take him when it left. One cart, shopping for six people, just him and his two hands. He had a tight budget, small window of time, and very short rope. If even one cart blocked his way today, so help him God, Nicholas would turn into Satan and cause a ruckus. 

He didn’t want to, couldn’t be one of the reckless Bailey boys who didn’t know how to behave when their father wasn’t around, and what was Samson Bailey doin’ with those boys and that adorable little girl anyway if he couldn’t take care of them and— 

None of that happened. Thankfully. Just a longer than usual line at one of the two checkout counters open, and Nick stuck trying to unload the weekly haul. In between lifting cereal boxes onto the conveyor belt, he caught the eye of the blonde standing behind him. Odd. 

He knew this one didn’t he? 

He squinted at her, stopping with the cereal box in hand. “Can I help you?”

Ava Lynn had tried to learn that she no longer needed to shop for the two of them, that the frozen wings and other party snacks no longer needed to find their way into her cart. Alongside the frozen foods were bottles upon bottles of wine and by the time that she stopped at the end of the line, she was bored beyond belief.

Her fingers itched for the glossy pages of a tabloid magazine, she could almost feel the photo spreads beneath her finger. It was in that moment, of boredom and exhaustion that she made eye contact with a familiar face, her lips setting into a comfortable frown, nose drawing itself into a sneer.

“I don’t suppose you ever could, darling,” she answered, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips despite herself.

@frostfordstart​