📲: First of all, that’s rude
📲: Second of all, noon absolutely works for your petting zoo appointment
📲: Just remember a peanut could end Emmy’s life 😬 😬 😬
Why the hell was the urge to add more to her first message? Obviously, explaining the dying husband, the impending single motherhood to now two kids wasn’t necessary, nor was that something to explain over text. Surely, Toni would learn about that situation sooner or later. Later, probably. No need to scare her away yet.
But that was a little too condescending, even for someone with Eden’s level of natural dramatics. On the off chance that Toni was worried, she should give the other woman some clarity. Cryptic texts late at night never did anyone good.
📲: I am okay by the way, dandy was maybe an overshot
She was seeing not one, but two therapists. Therefore, on paper, Eden was far from okay. But it was late, and none of that was anything to explain over text. There was also no need to scare Toni away yet. Not that it should’ve scared the other away, given the fears and worries that Toni had unintentionally instilled on Eden years ago.
“Now, if the kid lives, do I get paid more? Or, like, do I have to pay a security deposit?”
“Emilia Louise,” Eden groaned, eyes rolling dramatically.
Emmy’s head shook as she continued cleaning up her pile of shoes by the front door, unable to hide her dimpled grin, “I’m just asking a question, mother. I think it’s a valid question. I also put all of my legos in Hudson’s room, he said that was okay. I have too many sets in progress, too much on the line here.”
“Good priorities.” Tucking her hair behind an ear, Eden flashed her daughter a smile. The idea of Toni’s kid getting a lego stuck in her nose or ears wasn’t something that crossed her mind, but the fact that her house was now a cleaner, less young-child friendly home became slightly more apparent. She was grateful that Emmy and Hudson were (mostly) very independent, but now she realized that there was way too much for a young child to get into. Maybe a security deposit wasn’t a bad idea.
Though, there was no time to be concerned when there was a knock at the door and Emmy was halfway up the steps with her arms full of shoes. There was no turning back, and no middle men this time. Opening the door, Eden greeted Toni and Violet with a smile. “Emmy’ll be down in a second, she’s in the middle of cleaning,” she said as she stepped aside, allowing the two into the house. “And, um, Sam’s working today, so he won’t be home until later.” Not a necessary detail, but it felt important to throw into the mix.
Perfectly timed, Emmy zipped down the steps, nearly busting her ass on the hardwood at the bottom. “Mama told me that there’s no security deposits for kids, and I don’t know how insurance works, but I’m gonna keep her as safe as I can,” she giggled, looking down ath Violet. “My name’s Emmy, let me show you to the… um… recreation room.” Sounded more professional than play room. “First door on the right upstairs is my brother’s room, he’s in the basement right now but he can, like, smell when his door opens, and there’s a lot of… valuables in there. So it’s best we avoid that room. Let’s go, kid.” Grabbing the younger child’s hand, Emmy led her upstairs quickly.
“Well, that handles that,” Eden chuckled, “we can go to the kitchen.” Leading Toni through the family room, she cleared off counter space for her to set things down. “So, um, the bunny’s upstairs, Puddles — that’s Sam’s little fluff ball — he goes to work with Sam. The other dogs are out back, and the chickens are out there, too.” Her head nodded to the kitchen window that led to the backyard, which showed the little bull terrier running in circles chasing a toy, and their much larger wolfhound mix sleeping in the shade under the tree. “Little one’s Monet, and the ginormous one’s Atticus.” Turning to Toni, she smiled softly, “any questions about the zoo?”
📲 ; i would never kill a child, this is my good person era.
📲 ; see you tomorrow at noon, Eden Myer.
With that, Antonia was quick to go back to her show, although she never made it through a scene before her phone buzzed again. Dandy was an overshot, maybe Eden hadn’t changed as much as she’d been scared over. Without responding, only figuring that she wouldn’t want to interrupt anything that the blonde might be doing, she simply haha reacted before plugging her phone back in and setting it down again.
Something told her that everything wasn’t as okay as Eden told her it was, but she knew at this point, none of that was her business. Not unless the other told her anything about it. She had no room to pry into the others life, not anymore. At least rehab had taught her that boundary.
Shaking off her worry the brunette let her eyes close as she fell asleep to some woman talking about how some dude shot her mother when a second date didn’t pan out. Tragic, but also a great reminder as to why she was single, at least until Violet was old enough to live alone.
Since Vi had woken her up at eight am, Toni considered cancelling multiple times. What if this was some joke and Eden was sending her off to a trap house with her child? Absolutely ridiculous and very un-Eden like but all morning she’d felt nauseous. Even as she got Violet ready, even as she made the homemade macatonironi that she’d perfected a couple years ago. Although, after stopping at the store to get her favorite sparkling apple juice on the way to the blondes, she was feeling okay minus the mutter of how she was going to piss her pants after knocking on the door.
Her smile as the door opened seemed to match Eden’s. Somehow it was infectious, and yet before she could get a word in, Violet was speaking well kicking off her shoes haphazardly. “Do you have a bathroom? My mama said she’s going to piss her pants,” the words had Toni freezing, her mouth opening and closing even as the soon to be third grader bounced on the heels of her Sponge-bob socks.
“I NEVER said that, Violet and don’t curse,” gentle scold as she bent down to straighten the girls shoes on the floor as well as her own.
“Lying is bad mom and you said it!” The girl responded, and Toni almost sighed in relief when Emmy came bounding down the stairs, gasping slightly when the girl almost fell.
The tinier blondes words had Toni biting her cheek to keep from laughing, only giving her a very serious nod. “Don’t worry, dude, I won’t sue you today - consider it a trial run,” a teasing wink before the two girls ran off upstairs and Eden and Toni were left alone together. “Sorry about her, she’s - we’re working on a filter and the politeness. I only adopted her a couple of years ago and she really had a shit home life, so..” trailing off, Antonia gave an apologetic smile as she followed after the other into the kitchen. “Thanks for having us.”
Peaking out the window into the backyard, Toni sighed softly. It was adorable although it was still a surprise to see Eden have a literal zoo. “Very sweet, I approve,” opening the fridge to set the casserole dish inside, she then set the sparkling juice on the counter. “Apple. It actually tastes better than booze,” was she just trying to say ANYTHING so that they weren’t left in awkward silence? Maybe. “No, no questions . . Except you roasted Kevin as a name and Sam has a dog named puddles? How did that happen?” Slowly, almost nervously she took a seat at the kitchen table, before really glancing at Eden.
“So tell me, what’re you doing now? Minus being a zoo keeper and Carol Brady impersonator? ‘Cause I don’t know about you but even thinking about working at another facility makes me want to have a panic attack. Nate attacking me was truly my breaking point, won’t lie, so now I turned into a less bubbly version of you and am working with children, at a school come August.”
