For the Guy with Kids and a WW 23

[hopeful4her]

Roger to the rescue.

I was taking my sweet time leaving work yesterday evening. At about 10 till 6, the wife calls from her cell phone. I've been answering calls from her cell because D7 has been calling me from it.

"Hi, are you still at work?"
"Yes. Why, whats up?"
"Do you think that you can pick up D7? I ran out of gas."
"Yeah, I was just getting ready to walk out anyway. Where are you?"
"At the gas station next door to work."
"Okay."
"Then....I'll see you at the apartment?"
"Yeah."

I pick up D7 with just a minute to spare. Poor baby, she was the last one left and excited to see me.

"Daddy, why are you here? It's momma's week."

In the apartment parking lot, I see the wife is already there. At the apartment, D7 walks right in and I stay at the door. GBG pokes her head from the kitchen and tells me to come in. I kind of ignore her and call for D11 from the doorway. She comes out and over to me. While we are standing there at the entrance, GBG asks if I would like to stay for dinner. I ignore her again and am messing with D11. She asks me again and I tell her, "Thanks, but...no."

Because D11 and I are now starting to wrestle, I'm now further inside the apartment, inside the entry way. Then D7 comes over to get in on some action and S14 comes out to say hi. GBG pokes her head out again and asks me if I would like anything to drink.

"Yeah, ok" I say. She asks what I would like to drink and I tell her whatever, tea, coke, water. She nods her head and then tells me to close the door.

Playing with the kids, I was already past the entry and I had left the front door open.

The kids are drawing me in more into the apartment. We're playing and talking about their day. Just past the entry, still playing with D11 and D7, at the same time I'm glancing into the bedroom.

No pics. Not there anymore. She either took it down before I got there, or it's in a different place that I cannot see it, but it's not on the headboard anymore. S14 and I are discussing his track tryouts coming up and I ask him to make sure his shoes still fit. I find myself at the bar to the kitchen and the wife gets me my cup of tea.

I'm not having any conversation with the wife, but we're both talking to the kids. D7 is just hanging on me. The wife announces that dinner is ready and for them to come get their food. As I'm getting ready to tell the kids goodbye, the wife has filled a bowl with steamed rice and asks,

"Chicken or beef?"

I must have looked surprised and relunctanly say "beef".

S14 and I stand at the bar eating and talking. The wife takes her food to sit with D11 to watch a dvd. We look for D7 and the wife finds her in their bathroom taking a shower. She comes back out,

"She's taking a shower" the wife says with a grin. "She says that wants to take better care of her body and her hair." We both smile and give each other the roll of the eyes. She goes to sit back down on the sofa. She looks over to me and tells me,

"You can come sit over here."

D7 calls the wife from the bathroom and she goes to check on her. I motion for S14 to go sit in the living room and we go sit down. I sit in the chair and everyone else is on the sofa, but I next to the wife. She and D7 come out and D7 wants to eat sitting on my lap. We watch some girlie gymnastic movie that is just out. Like "Step it Up" or something.

While I was there, GBG's phone must have rung at least 5 or 6 times. Each time she hit ignore. It looks like she doesn't have cable again too. I hear her mention something about paying it next week. While we're all sitting there, there is a loud knock on the door.

Everyone starts to talk at the same time.

"Who's that?" "Don't know. Is it (S14's friend)?" "The neighbors?"

S14 gets up to open the door. The wife looks uncomfortable, staring at the door.

So am I. What are the odds?

Its the couple from across. They were asking if the wife had any videos they could watch. I know they see me, but totally ignore me. Like uncomfortable. The stand behind the sofa and D7 goes to talk to the husband. I hear him talking to her and telling her that they had gone to the coast to fish. How he didn't catch anything, blah blah. I finally throw him a question and we start talking about fishing and other stuff. What he was using blah blah. Nice couple, but I think they just kind of felt weird. I'm sure they've met OM. We also talk about the local UT college that we both attended and discuss the new football program they are trying to build.

After about 20 minutes, they take off. The wife yells to them that she'll be over later to see what videos THEY have.

D7 comes back to me and starts to mess with me. So does D11. The wife starts to pick up our dishes. I mean, the girls and I are having a blast! Our usual tickle fighting and wrestling. They are both ganging up on me. Finally, I announce that it must be time for D7's bedtime. I try to get them to wind down and tell D11 its time for a bath. I begin trying to wind them down.

I figure I'll be nice and ask the wife a question. I'm still in the living room with D11 and she is in the kitchen.

"So, where did you run out of gas?"
"As soon as I pulled out of the parking lot."
"On the access road?"
"Yes."
"And you rolled it into the gas station?"
"No, they had to help push it in."

I laugh at her and put my jacket on. I call all the kids again adn say goodbye again. I tell the wife thank you for the dinner. As I'm walking to the door, she tells me thanks for helping her and getting D7. We just kind of look at each other and nod our heads. I give a smile, a wave and walk out.

Yeah, I know. But I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I had a fantastic time with my girls, she had to watch it and I keep moving forward.

Movin' forward.

And she is aging more. And I feel like I'm getting younger.