always you

Dixon offers a small smile to the girl saying her apologies to him before hiding behind the woman’s legs. It wasn’t that big of a deal and takes another box of cereal off the shelf to put into his cart. Those puppy dog eyes are something he recognizes and appreciates; those are going to go a long way in getting things that she wants for years to come. 

“It’s alright,” he tells her and offers his hand for Charlie to shake. “I’m Dixon, it’s nice to meet you. And your grocery helpers.” He chuckles a little. 

He wanders down the aisle with her and picks out a few other things he might need and tries to do math in his head. He should have enough for everything. 

“Honestly, I think you’re doing a great job, sometimes I have trouble shopping by myself–forget if I’m hungover. You’re doing it with tiny humans and one of them is strapped to your chest.” 

She followed him for a bit, hoping she didn’t seem like a mom desperate for conversation with someone who wasn’t three-feet-tall. “Oh, hangover? You should try...This,” Charlie searched through her cart before pulling out a bottle of kombucha and presenting it to Dixon. “I swear, this stuff is a cure all. Blackberry-ginger-green-tea,” she read off of the label. “It sounds like a bunch of health food trigger words, but it’s really great.” She offered it to him, “You can have this bottle if you’d like. There’s a sale on aisle...Uh, four I think? I grabbed a bunch, I learned after my twenty-first that there’s nothing fermented tea can’t fix.”

“He must’ve been happy to see her. I think he likes her way more than he likes me,” Jeremy admitted. “I won’t hate it, babe. I’m always into whatever you make. Or at least pretend to be and if I don’t like it, I’ll just buy something across the street,” He appreciated all the time and effort she put into catering him and helping him. He was busy a lot but with her, she made it way easier for him. “I’ll be totally surprised if he makes it through the night now. He’s lucky he’s so cute,” Jeremy gushed. “You really wanna know that someone got a hole in their tire from going over a curb? Is that really interesting to you?” He said sarcastically. “I almost got in a fight with my boss about Deadpool, but that’s been about it. And then Zach was texting me that his girlfriend’s boobs were better than yours so I wanted to defend you and your boobs. How were your lessons today?”

“I think he likes her more than anyone else,” Charlie was so happy her children had Jeremy’s cousin in their lives. She didn’t have any brothers -- especially not since Ayden and Jalen moved away. She’d always pictured her children growing up with the twins around somehow, but Zach more than filled the void so there almost wasn’t one at all. “She always has fun at his house, I wish he’d just marry her and have a baby already so the kiddos can have cousins,” she picked a piece of lint off of his shirt and smiled up at him in disbelief. “He said what? Would you guys ever stop talking about our boobs?” She laughed out loud. “I don’t know though, these days the girls aren’t what they used to be after nursing two little leaches on them. Mommy needs a boob job, bad.”

Ivy grinned a bit and rolled her eyes. “Okay you got me, lack there of pores.” She grinned, sticking her tongue out at her friend.

Charlie laughed, “Well if it works maybe I’ll try some out with you.”

Jeremy kept his eyes on her as she sat down next to him. “I am tired, babe.” He admitted as he rubbed his eyes. “The best part about today was that it was payday. I love payday,” This was hard for the both of them. He worked all day and she worked all day. Her job was probably even harder than his. “How was our threenager today? Was she being good?” He couldn’t believe that they had an almost four-year-old. “Zach told me that she kept telling him that he had a big ugly head. At least she’s honest because she’s not wrong.”

Charlie moved on the couch so that her legs were draped across his. “We had a very good day, she hung out with Uncle Zach for a few hours while I did some lessons and then we made grilled cheese and I tried out my mom’s tomato soup recipe. I packed your lunch for tomorrow with it, so let me know if you hate it.” Being mom and devoted girlfriend had been an natural transition for Charlie, she loved every second she got to take care of her family. “Alex napped for a long time which was dumb of me to let him do since he just took forever to lay down, but...” She shrugged, snuggling closer to him. “How was work? Tell me everything -- even the boring car stuff.”

It’s just fucking cereal, buy it, skip it next week. Dixon sighs but his decision is already made and he goes to lean down and put it into his basket…except.

Except there’s a tiny girl reaching for the cereal in his hands and she, yep, she takes it. Nice grip; he almost laughs, a small smirk itching it’s way onto his face as he sees the determination of the small child. 

“Well then, guess you earned that box.” He wasn’t about to take it back from her like some sort of tug-o-war–there were other boxes on the shelf. He glances up at, he assumes the mother, rushes over with another little one tied to her chest. 

“Oh it’s,” He shakes his head and waves her off, grabbing another cereal box from the shelf. “It’s fine. Clearly, I was mistaken, that has her name written all over it.” He offers a small smile, “Besides, I’ve had adults with even lesser manners take things off me before.” 

Dixon’s never really been around kids much but they seem to like him, usually. When he lived back at home he had a next door neighbor who had a baby girl that liked to pull on his curls and giggle so…he always took that as a good sign. 

He pushes his basket towards the little girl, good humoredly, “Anything else you want?”

Charlie was so relieved that this guy wasn’t angry with her. Too many times something would happen in public, like a toddler meltdown or a case of bad manners, and someone would be incredibly rude to her about it. People figured since she was so young, she must be irresponsible. They always took the opportunity to give her unwarranted parenting advice or belittle her about it. 

“Immy, tell this nice man you’re sorry,” She prompted her daughter, who at this point looked quite embarrassed.  The small girl looked up at him through her long eyelashes, giving him her own blue eyed version of the puppy dog face. “I’m sorry,” she said sweetly before she ran to hide behind her mother’s legs.

“I’m Charlie, by the way. Charlie Daye. And little miss polite over here is Immy,” She ran her hand through her daughter’s curls. “And this little guy is Alex, he’s a gold star napper, and we’re very thankful for it,” she laughed a little, moving so the understanding stranger could see her son’s face again. “Shopping trips are always an adventure when daddy is at work.”

“It’s avocado, mint, honey, and lemon.” Ivy informed. “Okay - you won’t be laughing when you see my invisible pores on TV.” 

“Am I actually going to be able to see them since they’re invisible?”

“Maybe it was a secret offer to let you and Jer have some couple-y time. Throw the little tyke in there too, it’s never too early to start education.” 

“The little tyke has lungs that can scream louder than anything you’ve ever heard, but sure yeah if you’re game to watch my kids so I can hang out with Jeremy, I’m more than willing to take you up on that.”

Dixon hates going grocery shopping, usually because he rarely has any money to do so. But with Annabel splitting prices with him lately, he’s had a little extra cash. At least enough to stock up on important shit like coffee, milk and eggs. Sometimes he splurges on chicken but it’s so expensive. 

He sighs and pauses in front of the cereal, eyes ticking back and forth over different boxes and prices before he sets his basket down on the floor. 

“Why are you so pricey?” He mumbles, picking up a box of Cheerios. 

Being a mother of a nearly one and four-year-old was a constant job. Diapers, bottles, laundry, dinner, cleaning, Charlie’s life was a continuous list of things to do. Grocery shopping was by far one of her least favorites. She used to enjoy shopping when she was younger and had her parents money, but now she had a whole lot more to buy and her fiance’s card definitely had a limit. With Alex calmly asleep strapped to her chest in the baby carrier and Immy being preoccupied with her own mini shopping cart, she took the moment to pull her full cart into a mostly empty aisle to regroup. 

“Milk...Check. Pasta...Check. Apples...Check,” Charlie went down her list, noting everything she had and didn’t have. “Mommy?” Her daughter’s familiar voice called from her side. “Can we have cereal?” The young mom glanced over the list again, “Sure baby, I have to get your daddy some Poptarts or he’ll pitch a fit, but you can have cereal if you’d like.” She pointed her daughter in the direction of the cereal, only a few feet away from her and not out of eyesight. She noticed there was only one other person in the aisle with them, but he didn’t seem to even notice they were here yet to bother him. Charlie had only turned her back for two seconds to search for Jeremy’s breakfast pastry when she heard her child speaking again. She whipped her head around just in time to see her take a box of Cheerio’s out of the stranger’s hands.

“Imogen!” She yelled, quickly rushing over to where they were. Her face was beet red, clearly embarrassed by how ill-mannered her daughter was being. “Imogen Eliza that is a no-no! We do not snatch! Especially not from strangers. -- I am so sorry,” she turned her attention to him. “She -- I want to say she isn’t usually like this, but she...We’re trying to teach her that she can’t take things. Having a baby brother has been a difficult transition,” She pointed to the sleeping baby attached to her, hoping maybe some cuteness could make this random person not blow up on her for her rude child.

↳ @CharlieDaye uploaded a new photo with @Jeremy_Band

Yes, I gave you life, but really you gave me mine 💕

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