Mr. Mom

19

FP wakes up as the sound of a cell phone going off again and again. He opens his eyes and sees Alice scrambling to turn it on silent. "You're up early." FP comments when he sees Alice wide awake and cooking in the kitchen.

"Oh hey sorry, did I wake you?"

"Yeah but it's fine, was probably gonna be up anyway."

"I'm making breakfast, and there's coffee."

"You don't have to do that you know, I don't mind making breakfast for all of us." He rubs his eyes as he stands up from the couch, walking towards her.

She smiles at him. "I don't mind either, besides you've had a stressful last couple of weeks, it's the least I can do. You just focus on getting yourself and Ellie up and ready for the day."

"Thanks, Al." He walks into Ellie's room and smiles as he sees her sleeping peacefully, clutching a teddy bear in her arms. He always feels bad waking her up but she doesn't seem ever seem to be too mad about it. "Morning Ellie." He whispers as he lightly shakes her awake.

"Morning daddy." She greets, her eyes still closed as she rolls over and snuggles up to him.

"Allie's making breakfast."

Her eyebrow perks up and she reaches her arms out for him. "Carry me?"

He chuckles and carries her out to the kitchen.

"Hey cutie pie." Alice greets.

"Hi, Allie! What's for breaky?"

"Your favourite."

"Chocolate pancakes?"

"You know it."

___

"Why don't you go brush your teeth I'll come do your hair in a few minutes."

"Ok daddy." Ellie skips off to the bathroom and he helps Alice with the dishes.

"Breakfast was great, Al, thanks."

"Glad you liked it."

She reaches for a plate and her hand meets his, finger twining slightly. She's about about to fully join them when her phone goes off. "Your phone is going nuts today." FP comments as her phone continues to goes off. "Everything alright?"

"Yeahs everything's perfectly fine." Alice smiles calmly at him and he raises an eyebrow.

He peeks over at her phone and sees multiple messages all saying the same thing, "Happy Birthday!"

"It's your birthday?" He questions.

She gasps. "You peeked!"

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I don't like making a big deal about my birthday, it's just like any other day to me."

"Well that's tough because in the Jones household we love making a big deal about birthday's." He teases. "Ellie-belly! Come here!"

She comes padding into the kitchen a few moments later. "Daddy?"

"Guess what," he pulls her up onto his lap and she wrinkles her eyebrows in confusion. "It's Allie's birthday!"

"It is?" Her eyes go wide and Alice blushes as she confirms it with a nod. "Holy cow! Happy birthday Allie!" The girl hops off of FP's lap and throws her arms around Alice.

"Thank you, sweetheart."

She skips back over to FP and waves her little hand for him to come closer so she can whisper in his ear. "I'm gonna go make Allie a pretty card."

"I bet she'd love that, honey." Ellie smiles and skips off into her bedroom to get to work on the card. "So what, do you just not celebrate or acknowledge your birthday?"

She joins him at the table. "No I do, I just don't like making a big deal of it. When I was with Jason we used to go out for dinner, maybe a movie, just something low-key."

"Well that settles it then, I'm taking you out for a birthday celebration tonight."

"FP you don't have to do that." Alice insists.

"I know I don't have to, I want to. Everybody deserves to feel special on their birthday."

Little did he know he made her feel special every day.