Routine: For better, and for worse.
”Now, sweetheart, I have a big job for you,” he says, kneeling down in front of his daughter and looking at her with his ”serious face”. “I need for you, to go over there,” he paused to point a few feet down the aisle. “And I need for you to pick out a packet of spaghetti? You know what that looks like right? It’s on the bottom shelf. So go help Daddy, and I’ll get you a treat.” He smiles and pecks her forehead before she nods.
“Of course I know Daddy!” she giggles and then wriggles out of his grasp to run over to fetch what he father requested, while he turns to look at the sauces. He grabs one and puts it in the cart, the one that he always gets for her, and then goes to see if he can find something new to try for himself. He leans down and picks up a jar claiming to be heavy on garlic, which he adores, though before he can stand up he hears a voice that is so familiar to him, yet makes him cringe.
“Gabriel? Gabriel oh it is you, it’s been so long!” she says, but he can hardly believe it. He doesn’t even believe it until he stands up and turns in the direction from which the voice came. His eyes widen at the sight, and the glass of sauce slides out of his hand, breaking on the floor.
”N-Natalie?” he stammers, not even noticing that the glass has slipped from his hand. In fact, he doesn’t come out of his shock until he feels arms slipping around his thighs and a face pressing against his hip.
“Is Daddy okay?” a small voice says, and he quickly shakes his head, and in cartoon form there would have been question marks falling from where they had been floating around his head. He turns around slightly and looks down at his concerned daughter, smiling warmly at her and nodding.
“Yeah, Daddy’s okay sweetie, just a bit surprised,” he replies, his hand moving down to pet her hair. She’s more important to him in that moment than the other woman standing there. “Now where is that spaghetti you were supposed to get?”
She giggles and points to where three, not one, packets are lying, and the fact that she must have dropped him when she heard the glass break makes his chest tighten, because it shows that though she’s just a toddler, she’s already clearly compassionate about those she loves.
“Silly girl, go get it for Daddy, or we won’t have any supper,” he tells her, and she squeezes his thigh to hug it before turning back to get the strewn packets.
Now he can finally turn his attention back to the woman who made him drop the glass in the first place, though the look he gives her isn’t one of warmth and welcome. His brows are firmly knit together as he scowls at her, whereas he had had a slight pang of longing in him when he had first heard the voice, now all he feels is anger.
“What are you doing here?” he snarls, and for once in his life hopes that his daughter gets distracted by something before coming back to him (though of course he doesn’t want her leaving from where he can just cast a glance over his shoulder and see her), because he doesn’t want his daughter to see him angry.
“Well well well Gabriel, in all my years of knowing you I’ve never seen you angry like this before,” she laughs, and her laughter that used to be like music to his ears is now like nails being scraped down a blackboard. “She looks beautiful, like me when I was little.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” he practically snarls at her, his jaw tight and his teeth gritted together, and she frowns at him. “And don’t you dare talk about her. You have no right to talk about her.”
“Gabriel, America is a free country, I have every right to be here, and every right to speak about my daughter,” she replies coolly, rolling her eyes a bit. “I see that you still haven’t gotten that stick out of your ass, still see your mother every other day?”
He presses his lips together in a thin line, now the whole truth is coming out, and he realises just how glad he is that he chose having their daughter instead of marrying her. However, that doesn’t make anything better, no, he’s annoyed, and once to know what she’s doing there. Where she would know that he was going to be, or at least, chances were that he would be.
“Yes obviously I am well aware that this is a free country Natalie, but what the hell are you doing here?” he continues, taking deep breaths to calm himself down somewhat, because above all he just doesn’t want to make a scene.
“I’m shopping Gabriel, picking up some ingredients for the dinner I plan to make. We’re at a super market after all, I would have though you would have known that,” she replies, almost as if they’ve been talking every day, and don’t have the unique history that they do. “I needed some ravioli.”
“I have been going here twice a week since I moved out from my mothers apartment. We went here twice a week when we were together, and now I go here twice a week with my daughter, but I have not seen you here a single time,” he growls under his breath, still clearly on high alert if she tries to make any move towards his most prized possession.
“Well just because you don’t Gabriel doesn’t mean that other people don’t change their habits. Not everyone is anal the way you are and have to have routines with everything,” she replies just as airily as before and smiles at him, though that doesn’t make his frown dampen at all. “Look, I’m not here to take her away. I don’t want her, I just thought that I would say hi.”
It hurts him, even though he’s glad that she’s not going to take his little girl away, it hurts to know just how little she cares. He’d always had some little flicker of hope deep down that she would want to come back on day, a flicker of love for her, but her words extinguish any hope or desire.
“So you’re back in New York?” he asks, his teeth still gritted and frown on his face, but at least he knows she’s not there to try to rekindle things. Besides, he has the documents that she signed, giving up all rights of their daughter, and he would fight, hard for his little girl in court if that ever became necessary.
“Just for a little, I’m staying with a few friends before I…” But she’s cut off, the little girl as returned and tugged at the bottom of his cardigan, and all his attention is turned to her.
She watches with her head slightly tilted, clearly a trait the whole family as, in slight awe at the way he kneels down and takes the spaghetti from her, and then covers her with kisses to her face, making the little girl flail and shriek with giggles as she tries to fend her father off. For a moment there’s a hard tug on her heart strings as she sees before her just what she could have had. A happy family, a loving one too, and her mind briefly wanders to the question of perhaps it was a mistake to give the ultimatum that she did. She is however pulled from her thoughts by a tiny voice, and when she looks down, a little girl with wide eyes looking up at her.
“Daddy? Who’s that?” she asks, and the older woman bites her lip. She glances first at her ex, and sees it plain as day just how uncomfortable he is with this whole situation. Of course she’s tempted to tell the little girl the truth, but, even though the two of them split many years ago, she doesn’t want to hurt him.
“Oh, I’m just a friend that your Daddy went to school with, I haven’t seen him in a few years, and thought that I would say hi,” she replies, reaching out to touch the girls cheek, though she immediately moves behind her father for his protection. She can actually understand why the girl does it, she remembers how safe she always felt in his arms, even if he does look like a bit of a wimp.
However, much to her surprise he looks down at her, and then at his daughter, and then with a slight smile on his face he puts his hand on the back of Molly’s head and urges her forward.
“It’s okay honey, you know I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he says softly, and the little girl moves from behind his leg to stand beside it instead, though her arms are still clamped around his thigh.
She reaches out and strokes her cheek, and again her heart strings feel as though they’re being tugged, though this time it’s so strong that she briskly gets up and gives him a forced smile.
“It was nice seeing you again Gabriel,” she says, before looking back down at the little girl. “And you. But, it’s getting late and I have places to go and people to see. I’m sure we’ll run into each other again, we do live in New York after all,” and with that she turns and walks away before he can say a single word.
He frowns slightly at the way that she leaves, the change surprising to him, and he doesn’t quite grasp the reason for it. However, that doesn’t matter so much, and he leans down and picks his daughter up and pecks her cheek.
“Alright honey, since you’ve been my excellent little helper, it’s time to go get you a treat,” he tells her with a smile before placing her into the child seat of the cart and heads off.
As hostile as he was to seeing his ex again, he was glad that it had happened, at least now he could get rid of any hope that the two of them could get together again, and he was glad to have that off his mind.
[Molly is humanmapquest and is used with permission and love]
“Of course I know Daddy!” she giggles and then wriggles out of his grasp to run over to fetch what he father requested, while he turns to look at the sauces. He grabs one and puts it in the cart, the one that he always gets for her, and then goes to see if he can find something new to try for himself. He leans down and picks up a jar claiming to be heavy on garlic, which he adores, though before he can stand up he hears a voice that is so familiar to him, yet makes him cringe.
“Gabriel? Gabriel oh it is you, it’s been so long!” she says, but he can hardly believe it. He doesn’t even believe it until he stands up and turns in the direction from which the voice came. His eyes widen at the sight, and the glass of sauce slides out of his hand, breaking on the floor.
”N-Natalie?” he stammers, not even noticing that the glass has slipped from his hand. In fact, he doesn’t come out of his shock until he feels arms slipping around his thighs and a face pressing against his hip.
“Is Daddy okay?” a small voice says, and he quickly shakes his head, and in cartoon form there would have been question marks falling from where they had been floating around his head. He turns around slightly and looks down at his concerned daughter, smiling warmly at her and nodding.
“Yeah, Daddy’s okay sweetie, just a bit surprised,” he replies, his hand moving down to pet her hair. She’s more important to him in that moment than the other woman standing there. “Now where is that spaghetti you were supposed to get?”
She giggles and points to where three, not one, packets are lying, and the fact that she must have dropped him when she heard the glass break makes his chest tighten, because it shows that though she’s just a toddler, she’s already clearly compassionate about those she loves.
“Silly girl, go get it for Daddy, or we won’t have any supper,” he tells her, and she squeezes his thigh to hug it before turning back to get the strewn packets.
Now he can finally turn his attention back to the woman who made him drop the glass in the first place, though the look he gives her isn’t one of warmth and welcome. His brows are firmly knit together as he scowls at her, whereas he had had a slight pang of longing in him when he had first heard the voice, now all he feels is anger.
“What are you doing here?” he snarls, and for once in his life hopes that his daughter gets distracted by something before coming back to him (though of course he doesn’t want her leaving from where he can just cast a glance over his shoulder and see her), because he doesn’t want his daughter to see him angry.
“Well well well Gabriel, in all my years of knowing you I’ve never seen you angry like this before,” she laughs, and her laughter that used to be like music to his ears is now like nails being scraped down a blackboard. “She looks beautiful, like me when I was little.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” he practically snarls at her, his jaw tight and his teeth gritted together, and she frowns at him. “And don’t you dare talk about her. You have no right to talk about her.”
“Gabriel, America is a free country, I have every right to be here, and every right to speak about my daughter,” she replies coolly, rolling her eyes a bit. “I see that you still haven’t gotten that stick out of your ass, still see your mother every other day?”
He presses his lips together in a thin line, now the whole truth is coming out, and he realises just how glad he is that he chose having their daughter instead of marrying her. However, that doesn’t make anything better, no, he’s annoyed, and once to know what she’s doing there. Where she would know that he was going to be, or at least, chances were that he would be.
“Yes obviously I am well aware that this is a free country Natalie, but what the hell are you doing here?” he continues, taking deep breaths to calm himself down somewhat, because above all he just doesn’t want to make a scene.
“I’m shopping Gabriel, picking up some ingredients for the dinner I plan to make. We’re at a super market after all, I would have though you would have known that,” she replies, almost as if they’ve been talking every day, and don’t have the unique history that they do. “I needed some ravioli.”
“I have been going here twice a week since I moved out from my mothers apartment. We went here twice a week when we were together, and now I go here twice a week with my daughter, but I have not seen you here a single time,” he growls under his breath, still clearly on high alert if she tries to make any move towards his most prized possession.
“Well just because you don’t Gabriel doesn’t mean that other people don’t change their habits. Not everyone is anal the way you are and have to have routines with everything,” she replies just as airily as before and smiles at him, though that doesn’t make his frown dampen at all. “Look, I’m not here to take her away. I don’t want her, I just thought that I would say hi.”
It hurts him, even though he’s glad that she’s not going to take his little girl away, it hurts to know just how little she cares. He’d always had some little flicker of hope deep down that she would want to come back on day, a flicker of love for her, but her words extinguish any hope or desire.
“So you’re back in New York?” he asks, his teeth still gritted and frown on his face, but at least he knows she’s not there to try to rekindle things. Besides, he has the documents that she signed, giving up all rights of their daughter, and he would fight, hard for his little girl in court if that ever became necessary.
“Just for a little, I’m staying with a few friends before I…” But she’s cut off, the little girl as returned and tugged at the bottom of his cardigan, and all his attention is turned to her.
She watches with her head slightly tilted, clearly a trait the whole family as, in slight awe at the way he kneels down and takes the spaghetti from her, and then covers her with kisses to her face, making the little girl flail and shriek with giggles as she tries to fend her father off. For a moment there’s a hard tug on her heart strings as she sees before her just what she could have had. A happy family, a loving one too, and her mind briefly wanders to the question of perhaps it was a mistake to give the ultimatum that she did. She is however pulled from her thoughts by a tiny voice, and when she looks down, a little girl with wide eyes looking up at her.
“Daddy? Who’s that?” she asks, and the older woman bites her lip. She glances first at her ex, and sees it plain as day just how uncomfortable he is with this whole situation. Of course she’s tempted to tell the little girl the truth, but, even though the two of them split many years ago, she doesn’t want to hurt him.
“Oh, I’m just a friend that your Daddy went to school with, I haven’t seen him in a few years, and thought that I would say hi,” she replies, reaching out to touch the girls cheek, though she immediately moves behind her father for his protection. She can actually understand why the girl does it, she remembers how safe she always felt in his arms, even if he does look like a bit of a wimp.
However, much to her surprise he looks down at her, and then at his daughter, and then with a slight smile on his face he puts his hand on the back of Molly’s head and urges her forward.
“It’s okay honey, you know I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he says softly, and the little girl moves from behind his leg to stand beside it instead, though her arms are still clamped around his thigh.
She reaches out and strokes her cheek, and again her heart strings feel as though they’re being tugged, though this time it’s so strong that she briskly gets up and gives him a forced smile.
“It was nice seeing you again Gabriel,” she says, before looking back down at the little girl. “And you. But, it’s getting late and I have places to go and people to see. I’m sure we’ll run into each other again, we do live in New York after all,” and with that she turns and walks away before he can say a single word.
He frowns slightly at the way that she leaves, the change surprising to him, and he doesn’t quite grasp the reason for it. However, that doesn’t matter so much, and he leans down and picks his daughter up and pecks her cheek.
“Alright honey, since you’ve been my excellent little helper, it’s time to go get you a treat,” he tells her with a smile before placing her into the child seat of the cart and heads off.
As hostile as he was to seeing his ex again, he was glad that it had happened, at least now he could get rid of any hope that the two of them could get together again, and he was glad to have that off his mind.
[Molly is humanmapquest and is used with permission and love]