All She Can Take

E I G H T

Sid hated the way Aiden looked in her apartment. His gray khakis against the faded brown suede couch and crisp white converses resting on the pale orange rug. She wished she had time to run a vacuum over it. Hell, she wished she had a vacuum. He looked like he didn't belong there, largely because he didn't. Sharing space with him was an uncomfortable necessity. Every other week AJ trekked into the hood from his beautiful house in Bay Ridge to take AJ away from her. She always missed AJ like hell when he wasn't with her. She made it better by remembering that every other week it was his chance to experience a place where he had his own room, space to move, and all the cookies he wanted.

"This week is not yours." Sid thrust her phone into AJ's face. Their shared calendar was pulled up on the screen. Aiden threw AJ up in the air and his tiny giggles echoed across the small living room.

"No. You had him the last two weeks because I had that conference in Phoenix and then the Mayor's reception. Remember? I adjusted the calendar and re-sent it. Did you accept the changes to the schedule?" He had AJ poised and ready for another flight into the air. Sid analyzed the screen. There was a notification in the bottom right corner. She opened it. Alas, the changed schedule. She made a face. It was physically uncomfortable for her to get caught slipping. The last person she wanted to seem undone in front of was Aiden.

"Oh," She said, "Ok, well let me pack some stuff for him."

"We've got stuff at the house."

We've. The house. She hated when he did that.

"Yeah, but he loves his Elmo blanket and will not sleep without it." Sid rushed off to the bedroom and grabbed the blanket out of his crib. She sniffed it reflexively and filled her nose with the sweet scent of shampoo, baby powder, and baby drool. Her baby.

Their baby.

Knowing that the thing she loved most was forever attached to Aiden...it caused her pain that seemed to stretch into the future beyond her life, past her flesh.

Back in the living room, Aiden kneeled on the dusty rug and slid a shoe over AJ's tiny toes while he listened to nursery rhymes on a tablet that looked massive in his short stubby fingers. Sid smiled despite what she knew was coming. A whole week alone. With her thoughts. Typically she was able to prepare and fill her days with activities but not this time. It would be a long week. Sid handed the blanket over to Aiden reluctantly once he was done putting on AJ's shoes. He stood, dusting off little specks of lint that clung to the knees. He made his way over to her while AJ stretched out on his tummy watching cartoons. He'd need to be dusted off as well.

"You good? You need anything?" Aiden asked.

It was his typical line of questioning. A question that always grated on Sid's nerves. They agreed before AJ was born that they would have equal roles in AJ's life. Complete half and half. No child support. Sid would pull her half and Aiden would pull his. No courts. Only thing is, she didn't anticipate Aiden's half being so much more abundant than hers. 

While she struggled to land a job as a pregnant new grad, Aiden landed a position right away in one of Tomi's parent's hotels in Manhattan, right off of Washington Square Park. It was boujee, super posh, and right up his alley. He started as Night Auditor but quickly worked his way up through grit and the purest form of ass-kissing, and was now the Northeast Regional Director for Ito Hotels. This officially made him AJ's one successful parent. To his credit, he was generous and offered to help but she refused every time. Like she would do now.

"I'm good."

"You still seeing someone?" Sid blushed for a minute thinking her was talking about a love interest. Someone to share her bed and get tangled in her sheets. But Aiden would never ask that. He was talking about someone for her other issues. Trains. And binge eating. And depression.