cxldhcartsā:
āgod, you have no idea. my husband decided that this would be the perfect week for his business trip and heās much better at the whole morning routine thing than i am so when they woke up and saw that i was in charge, they were devastated because, wellā¦you know how bad my breakfast making skills are.ā she said with a sigh, rubbing her forehead. she had been a mother for eighteen years and had four children and yet, motherhood still didnāt come easy to her, no matter how hard she tried. she still made novice mistakes on a daily, still didnāt know the right things to say or do in a crisis and often questioned her abilities. but as long as the rest of monterey thought she had it together, she supposed that that was what mattered.Ā āyou do know threatening them is only going to make things worse, donāt you?ā she said with a raise of her brow.Ā āand as much as i would love for them to not act like absolute brats, i want them to look at me as a friend, too, you know? i mean, for fucks sake, iām thirty three years old and talking to my mother still terrifies me. i never want the girls to feel that way.ā she said with a sigh. becoming a mom at such a young age, she always tried to do the opposite of what her parents did when it came to her own children and while it seems to have backfired on her immensely, she still didnāt have the heart to be the disciplinary figure like archie was able to be and she envied him for it. she was always more concerned with being liked, especially after their divorce, but it seems as though trying to hard came with a price. reaching for her wine glass, she lifted it to take a sip before realizing it was empty. lips pressing into a tight line, she once again gave a cautious once over of the cafe before slightly leaning forward in her seat.Ā āthis wine was absolute shit and i have a brand new bottle at home. i think itād be pretty pathetic if i were to drink it all by myself and the kids donāt get out of school for another four hoursā¦ā she said, her voice low enough for only him to hear as she flashed him a smirk.Ā āare you busy?ā
a grin silently tugged up the corners of his mouth to expose rows of pearly whites, amused to know that cooking the most important meal of the day still wasnāt exactly her forte. it certainly wasnāt his either, but thatās why he and clara had interviewed countless nannies before finding the perfect fit to make balancing their careers and parenting a little easier, including meal preps. āiām choosing to plead the fifth on this one, still, but you should get the nanny to help you out. thatās what theyāre there for, you know.ā there was a teasing quality to his tone, though archie stopped himself short instead of going on and on about her basically driving herself insane to be super mom. of course, a similar conversation had unreeled a few times before, but he knew better now; he had his parenting tactics and she had her own, which generally balanced each other out in one way or another. ātheyāre eighteen, gisele. i doubt any teenager looks to their parent as a friend, unless their parent just so happens to be that cracked out mom from mean girlsā which you are not.āĀ the fact that he even remembered the title of a chick flick so promptly had to be proof enough of the amount of time heād spent with his daughters.Ā āyouāre also not your mother,ā he continued and picked up the coffee cup heād forgotten about to finish off its contents, tip of his tongue poking out to smooth over his bottom lip afterward.Ā āso just relax, donāt overthink all this parenting fuckery. the girls arenāt afraid to talk when they want to, and you donāt have to bend over backwards to be their best friend. itās just some shitty adolescent phase ... itāll pass.ā and the day that it did pass couldnāt come soon enough. archie adored his daughters, he really did, and he couldnāt imagine his world without them, but the bratty sass experienced from whatever hormonal transition they were going through was exhausting. while heād been warned countless times before by family and friends, he really hadnāt been prepared.Ā
just as he was about to reopen his laptop, curious to see if heād received a prompt reply from his chief accountant, gisele was not so subtly offering an alternative to focusing on his work, a tempting offer that archie could hardly ever pass up. despite the resulting guilt that ate away at him from the inside out when he returned to his wife, he just couldnāt stay away. āwell, since itās the first day back to school, i decided to take the day off and work from home, but...ā he trailed off momentarily, leaning forward a bit in his seat and eventually matching her smirk with one of his own. āyou know iām never too busy to pass up a glass of fine wine.ā














