We've Got Unfinished Business

Alex had just dropped me off at home from the airport, he was supposed to stay in New York but Rian convinced him to come back so they could go to someone’s party tonight. I wish I would have known it was that easy to get him to stay.

I walked into my house and my mom was already waiting on me do we could talk. I was dreading having this conversation with her. She was just going to try and talk me out of leaving, but it was too late. Alex had already signed the least and I was staying with him no matter what.

"Is it because you feel that I'm being too controlling? Is that why you want to move away so badly?" My mom asked as I sat my bags down in my room.

"No mom it's not that at all. I just really love Alex and he loves me too. And we want to start acting like a family with Aubrey. That's all. I'm not doing anything in-spite of you I swear."

"I just don't understand why you want to do all of this at such a young age. You're only eighteen and you said yourself, Alex is the only guy you've ever dated. Don't you want to see other people and see if Alex is really the one for you?"

"No mom I know Alex is the right guy for me. I don't need to date other guys when everything is perfectly working between Alex and me."

"I was your age once and I was naïve and thought your dad was the one for me and you see how well that turned out for me. I was seventeen years old taking care of May all on my own."

"No offense mom, but Alex isn't Bassam. He actually cares about Aubrey and me. He tells me so every day." I told her and she rolled her eyes. "Look I know you want to help me from making the same mistakes you did, but I really feel like my situation is different. And if it turns out it's not and Alex actually does leave Aubrey and I then I'll move back home. I'll also give you permission to say I told you so every day for a year." I said and she chuckled.

"I just want what's best for my two babies." She kissed me and Aubrey on the cheek.

"Alex wants that too." I said and she sighed.

"I want to talk to Alex again. Invite him over for dinner tonight." She told me.

"Okay." I agreed. I wanted to show her that Alex was really a nice guy. I picked up my phone and texted him.

From Jack:
Hey are you doing anything before you go to that party later on?

From Alex:
Nope nothing! Why what's up?

From Jack:
My mom wants you to come over and have dinner with us.

From Alex:
Did I say nothing? I meant I’m very very busy.

From Jack:
Lmao shut up. I think she's finally is okay with the idea of me moving with you. She probably just wants to talk to you to see if you really want to do this with me.

From Alex:
Ugh what if it's just a ploy to get me to come over so the cops can arrest me.

From Jack:
I doubt it. She really just wants to talk to you.

From Alex:
Okay fine I'll come. What time is dinner?

From Jack:
6pm

From Alex:
I'll see you then.

"Alex is going to be over at six." I told my mom.

"Okay, I guess I better get dinner going now."

"What are we having?" Avery asked as he walked into the kitchen.

"I was thinking of making baked potatoes and baked chicken."

"Sounds good to me."

"Me too." I agreed.

I went to say hi to Aubrey and to change her diaper and clothes. She probably wanted to look nice for her dinner with her daddy.

“Hi Baby! Did you miss me?” I asked her and she squealed. I picked her up and kissed her cheeks then I carried her to her changing table. “I’m sorry I left you, but I had to go help pick out our new home. In a few months we'll be living in New York with your daddy!" I changed her into a new diaper and she cooed. "Yeah we'll have our own little happy family."

I picked her up and kissed her on the cheek. I went to her closet and pulled out her pink dress. She sat down on her changing table like a big girl and calmly let me put her dress on her. Then I picked up her pink and white headband.

"Can you hold this while I brush your hair?" I handed her the headband and it immediately went to her mouth. "Why do you have to taste everything?" I sighed. I took her brush and softly brushed her hair. She fought me and whined while I did it.

"Okay okay I'm done. Let me have the headband back." I placed the headband on her head and smiled at her. She was so cute it was a shame that this outfit was going to be ruined by her dinner.

"I need pictures of you!" I exclaimed and grabbed my phone. I sat her up against the wall of her changing table and snapped a few pictures. Then I went to my room to change into something better than sweat pants.

When I finally went back downstairs I saw May in the kitchen helping my mom cook. I didn't even hear her come in. She was probably going to interrogate Alex just as much as my mom was.

"Aw she's so cute!" May walked over and took Aubrey from me.

"Why are you here?" I groaned.

"Because Mom said that Alex was coming over for dinner and I didn't want to miss this conversation." She chuckled and I rolled my eyes. I sat on the couch with Avery until it got closer to six.

I set the table twenty minutes before Alex was supposed to arrive. We usually didn't do that, but I wanted this dinner to be perfect. The doorbell rang ten minutes later.

"Hm he's early." My mom said as she walked to get the door.

"Hi Ms. Barakat." Alex said shyly. He handed her a bouquet of flowers. He was holding another one for me in his hands and a single pink rose for Aubrey.

"Oh thank you Alex." My mom told him and moved to let him in.

"Hi May and Doctor Adams." Alex greeted them. He handed May the flowers that I thought were supposed to be for me. I glared at him and he mouthed sorry to me as he walked over.

"Hi." He hugged me and kissed Aubrey on the cheek. He handed her the pink rose and she reached up for him. He picked her up and she cuddled into him.

"Dinners ready." My mom said and we all went to the table and sat down. The food was already on the table for us so we just dug in.

"How are your parents Alex?" My mom asked.

"They're fine, thank you. I meant to apologize about my mum, I'm pretty sure she was uh not very friendly when you first met." He said and my mom chuckled. That had to be a good sign right?

"It's fine, I understand where she was coming from. She and your dad were very sweet when they came to get Aubrey while you two were in New York."

"Thank God." He exhaled in relief.

We ate in silence for a minute or two. I'm pretty sure my mom was going to bring up Alex wanting me to move with him any second now. It made me nervous to think about the conversation, I had no idea how it would work out. I just hoped it was calm and didn't end in my mom yelling at him.

"I never got to ask you how your trip went." May told me.

"It was fine. We did a lot of exploring." I said and she nodded.

"Apartment exploring?" My mom asked, just to bring up the topic. I stared at her and she shrugged as if she honestly wanted to know.

"I should probably apologize for taking Jack there without your permission-" Alex said and I stopped him.

"-No you told me to ask my mom and instead I asked Kellin to go with me so she wouldn't become suspicious. It was my fault." I said.

"I still should have checked with her to make sure it was alright. I'm sorry Joyce." He apologized.

"It's alright. It seems like you’re the more responsible one." She joked and Alex chuckled.

"I probably am." He smiled at me and I playfully rolled my eyes.

"So when exactly are you two planning on moving?" She asked.

"I sighed the lease for July first." Alex told her and she nodded.

"Where exactly is it in New York?"

"Um it's like in the middle of the city."

"That must have been super expensive."

"It's a little pricey but I get paid enough." He shrugged.

"What is it that you do again?"

"I'm in a band with my two best friends. It's called All Time Low." He told her.

"I've never heard of it. Are you popular?"

"Eh somewhat."

"Yeah mom they're kind of huge. Especially in the U.K." I said and May agreed.

"That's good. I just want to make sure that you can take care of them just as well or better than I do." She told him and he nodded.

"I will." He promised.

"I also want to make sure we're on the same page. I obviously still uncomfortable with my son dating an older guy, but he's too stubborn to listen to anything I say. So as much as I don't like the idea of my son taking my granddaughter and moving away I'm going to let him because he needs to make his own choices in life. But let's be clear if your hurt him I will hurt you. Don't underestimate my ability to sense when he's in distress and fly out to New York to help him. I would rather spend the rest of my life in jail than have him spend one second in pain because of some guy. Is that clear?" I think she was trying to discourage him from ever hitting me, but I was sure that wouldn't be a problem.

"Yes ma'am. I-I understand." Alex stammered.

"Good." She smiled and continued eating.

I rubbed Alex's leg under the table to relax him. I would have to explain to him later why he was getting this serious of a talk later on so he wouldn't feel personally attacked.

"I think you're doing a great job so far, Alex." Avery told him to give him some appraisal for the right he's done.

"Thank you." Alex said.

We finished eating and Alex helped me wash the dishes. Once finished, my mom said Alex could stay over until ten, but he had to leave at nine for the party. That gave us a little bit over an hour to spend time together. We went up to Aubrey's room and sat on the floor with Aubrey just to talk about our new home.

"Did you look at the nursing school I told you about, in New York?" Alex asked me.

"Yeah and its four-thousand a year and I need to go for two years. That's eight-thousand dollars." I stressed. I didn't have that type of money just lying around and I needed to set up a payment plan to pay for it.

"Jack that's nothing compared to the amount of debt other people have. I'll pay it for you." He offered.

"No Lex, you're already paying for our apartment. I can just get a job and set up the payment plan with them."

"You'll have to go to class, study, and do practice rounds. I don't want you become over whelmed doing all of that on top of working."

"But that's too much for you to pay for me. I've been saving up my child support checks. I can use that to cover half of my first year and work to pay off the rest of it."

"Or you continue to save your money and let me do something nice for my boyfriend. I don't want to watch you struggle. Just let me pay it for you." He pleaded. I didn’t want him to go broke trying to do so much for me.

"What if we go halfies?" I asked and he chuckled.

"No I can cover the whole cost for you. You can buy me dinner one night to thank me." He said making me smile.

"Okay. Thank you." I kissed him.

"Mhm no problem. But I should go, I need to change into something more comfortable." He said, and picked up Aubrey.

“Okay, whose party is it?” I asked as we walked to the door.

“Rian’s cousin. We used to go to his parties all the time in high school so I felt it was only right for me to come back for another one.” He said and I chuckled.

“Aubrey tell Daddy bye-bye!” I tried to take her from Alex, but she wouldn’t let go. “Honey he has to go.” I tried to grab her again, but she began to whine.

“Aw she doesn’t want me to go.” Alex said.

“Yeah, she’ll only cry a for a few minutes after you leave but it’s okay because it’s her bed time.” I explained.

“How about I just stay with you until you fall asleep?” Alex asked Aubrey and I smiled. “I can be an hour late.” He said and walked back upstairs.

We went back into Aubrey’s room and he sat on the floor and held her to his chest. He began rubbing her back and humming a lullaby to her. I sat down next to them and he placed a kiss on my forehead as we waited for her eyes to close.

Notes

There are two more chapters left! I'm pretty sure there won't be another sequel to this story, but the epilogue will be four or five chapters long.