Day One - Cookies And Birds

So. 

For my first day of my 40 day challenge, I wrote two scenes while on my lunch break at work. I had a conversation about someone's divorce last week and their custody battle over their child and just listening to this person talk about their love for their child and reading between the lines on what this battle was doing to this child broke me down. 

So I've been thinking about that conversation ever since, and it kept wearing on me. So I did what I always do best to get my thoughts out about divorce and children and second chances - I wrote it out. 

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Robbie meant to never fall in love again.

He thought he didn’t have to worry about that, that he was a cranky enough man that no one would ever bother looking at him twice again.

Robbie knew he had been a crappy husband to Elaine when it came right down to it.

He knew he probably didn’t deserve to be cheated on that many times by her, or pushed around the way she used to push, or made to feel like he deserved the Worst Father And Husband Of The Century award, but he knew nonetheless that he was a crappy husband.

He thought he loved her when they got married. He thought he was doing the right thing by marrying her when they both knew full well the baby she was pregnant with wasn’t even his. He thought maybe they wouldn’t be perpetually happy, but they could at least make it work.

But apparently not.

He probably would have stayed married to her despite everything if she hadn’t filed for divorce. He would have kept on being a crappy husband, kept on not being in love with her, kept on never showing her any true affection.

But she had to go and file for divorce.

He may have been a crappy husband, but she was even more of a crappy mother.

It amazed Robbie that she even thought for one second that she could get full custody of Leslie. And when everything came out in the open, when the line between punishment and abuse was shown to have been crossed multiple times, when the numerous affairs were brought up, and when her drinking problem was finally exposed for what it was, Robbie was granted custody, seeing as how no one knew that he wasn’t Leslie’s real father. Elaine was at least smart enough to keep her mouth shut on that case.

It honestly broke Robbie’s heart that Elaine was such a crappy mother. And it broke his heart to see Leslie, his beautiful Bird, his special nickname for her, suffer because of it.

But he did everything in his power to make up for it, to be a good father to his Bird.

And that seemed to include never dating ever.

It was fine, he often told himself. He built up an I-hate-the-world attitude around everyone but Leslie, and almost made himself believe it.

He was content with just Leslie, with the way they had built their life. He adored her, and he knew she knew it, and that was enough.

Until Rosalyn ruined everything by making everything better.

He would be lying if he said he hadn’t noticed her from the beginning. But he wasn’t about to let down his guard for some gorgeous, intelligent, witty, wonderful girl of a woman.

If it hadn’t been for her cookies, Robbie’s guard would have never come down.

But those cookies.

She cooked them not all the way through, the dough still gooey and delicious in the middle. And she used these giant chocolate chip pieces, not the little puney ones. And then, when she got to work, she heated them back up, so the chocolate melted the moment it touched your tongue and then mixed with the gooeyness of the dough to create perfection.

And then she brought two to each employee herself.

Maybe Robbie could have overlooked the heavenly aroma of the cookies or the way they brought up a memory of his mother’s kitchen before she died.

But he couldn’t overlook her smile as she sat the napkin with the cookies down on his desk, or the way she stepped back a little and waited for him to try one, looking like a kid on Christmas morning.

That was when he first really noticed her, when he realized she would not be ignored.

Maybe that’s when he first fell in love a little bit, too.

                    *                                               *                                                  *

“Well? How do I look? Should I do a twirl or something? That’s what models do, right, twirl? I’m going to twirl.”

Robbie just smiled. She looked beautiful.

He looked over at his Bird Leslie, who was staring at Rosalyn like she had never seen anything so beautiful in all her life. 

"Wow," Leslie finally said quietly. "You are so pretty." 

Rosalyn blushed before running over, picking Leslie up, and twirling her around with her. "Not half as pretty as yoooooouuuuuuuu, Birdie!!!" she sang out as Leslie squealed in delight. 

He knew it made him a sentimental fool to buy Rosalyn an outfit for a date, especially a date that wasn’t even a big anniversary to most people. Eight months may not have meant anything to most people, but Rosalyn and Robbie never had been most people.

But he seemed unable to help it.

When he had seen the dress in the shop window, he knew he had to get it for her.

Rosalyn could wear one of those long, flowy dresses Robbie didn’t know the name for like nobody’s business. It seemed counterintuitive because she was so short and small, it seemed like a dress like that would swallow her whole.

But somehow it never did.

Rosalyn loved colours, all thrown together in designs that were as unique as she was. She never bothered with jewelry or fancy headbands; all of her colour and accessorizing came in the patterns of her outfits.

So when Robbie was the dress, almost floor-length and covered in colour and designs, he knew. He had to get it for her.

He didn’t even look at the price, just bought it with a new pair of shoes and left the store feeling like he had to give it to her now or he’d explode with excitement.

He pulled out his phone and texted her on the way home.

<< Tonight. Six o’clock. Just wear sweats >>

<< Bob, you are weird. Why am I wearing sweats? I do actually enjoy dressing up for you, you know darling >>

<< It will all make sense at six >>

<< But are we going out? I don’t want to wear sweats to go out. Are we getting fat kid food or something?  Are we celebrating Birdie's achievement? Did she ace that math test? What am I saying, of course she did. She is brilliant. Plus I helped her study. So is that what this is? >>

<< You ask too many questions >>

<< I love you >>

Robbie grinned from ear to ear as he read and re-read her message.

<< I love you back. Now go put on sweats >>