A Melwood Story

/chapter fourteen/

A Melwood Story
Chapter 14

—a year later—

Melissa

"They'll probably sleep for less time then it took them to fall asleep in the first place," I tell Chris.

We're sitting in the living room of his new house. The twins have just fallen asleep and it's almost midnight now. Luckily, Nya has been asleep for a couple hours, but once one of the twins start crying the other will cry and then Nya will wake up and it'll just be a disaster.

"Max has been sleeping okay the past few nights," Chris says. "It's Lulu who is waking him up."
He makes a gesture towards the baby monitor. There's Lulu, crawling around her crib. Once she realizes that she's all alone, she'll start crying.

"I'll go," I offer, pushing myself off the couch.
"No, it's fine. You get some sleep. You have work tomorrow."
I sit back down. "Fine."

This happened last week when I had work and I fell asleep multiple times between scenes. It was a difficult day to get through. I won't argue if I'm offered at least an hour of sleep.

He squeezes my hand reassuringly, tosses me a blanket, then leaves to go upstairs to the twins room.

I guess I should update you on what's happened in life the past year. I sold my apartment and moved in with Chris when the twins were four months old. I was getting complaints from the neighbors about the twins crying, so Chris offered to let us stay at his place until I find a house. Which I desperately don't want to do.

Blake and my divorce is in the process of getting finalized. I've only seen him once since he left me over a year ago. He doesn't even know about the twins or about Chris which is good.

Chris and I's friendship is very strong. He's been nothing but kind to me since I met him and I thank him for that everyday.

Nya (Chris's daughter) started preschool a few months ago, so occasionally when I have work around the time she needs to leave, I'll drive her. She's good around me now, not shy anymore. She's also very good with the twins, although I think she prefers Max because he's calmer.
Today is a work day. It's 6 a.m. I roll off the couch and slowly make it upstairs to get the twins. When I open their bedroom door, there's Chris sitting there with Lulu in his arms.

"Hi?" I say, but it comes out sounding more like a question.
He looks up from the sleeping one year old in his arms. "Melissa! Hi! Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, I did," I say. "What are you doing up so early?"
"Uh, well," he stutters. "I know you'll hate to hear this, but I didn't go to bed."

I smack my face with my hand. "Chris..."
"I know what you're going to say, but Lulu wasn't going to sleep and I couldn't leave her or else she would cry and then she would wake up Max, who would wake up Nya and then you'd probably wake up and you have work today. Okay? It was worth my nights sleep if the most important people in my life could get a good night sleep."

"I'll take the twins and Nya to work. You have to sleep," I tell him.
"Not happening," he says, shaking his head. "You know that won't ever happen."
"We've done it before," I protest.
"Exactly," he says. "We have. Not just you. If you want them on set with you, I'll tag along."
"You need to sleep," I argue.

He stands and goes over to Eloise's crib, sets her down gently, then he walks over to me. Close to me. Closer than ever before.
"Melissa," he whispers. "I admire your want for me to get some sleep, but I'm alright. Really. I went at least three days of no sleep after Nya was born. I'll be fine."
"Okay," I whisper back.

He smiles and then before I can argue more, he plants a small kiss on my lips, then walks out of the room.

He's never kissed me before. I take a deep breath and lean against the wall. What in the world just happened?

Eloise starts crying again and interrupts my thoughts. "It's okay, baby girl," I whisper, calmly.

It's 6:45 a.m. now. I have to be at work at 7:15 a.m. and no one is ready to leave.

"Chris?" I say, walking into the kitchen where he's feeding Maxwell his morning bottle.
"Yeah?" he asks.
"I've got to go. Like now."
He sighs. "Okay. You take the car that doesn't have the car seats in it, and I'll be there at eight. At the most. Alright. I've got two more children to feed."
I nod, then grab the car keys to the smaller car and head to set.

Chris

After feeding the twins and making Nya some waffles (and by making, I mean heating up some pre-made ones that we had in the freezer), I get all three kids into the van then head to visit Melissa on set and drop Nya off at preschool. Yes, she'll be late. It's not like it hasn't exactly happened before. Even before Melissa and the twins.

"Daddy?" Nya asks while we're in the car.
"Yes, sweetheart?" I say as I glance quickly in the mirror to see her.
"I don't want to go to school," she tells me.
"Nya, you have to," I say.
"Nooo," she whines.
"I'll pick you up early, okay?"
"Okay," she says with that cute little smile she always does.

We arrive on set at 8:10 a.m. A little after what I told Melissa, but Nya would not go inside her preschool, so I had to hold the twins and make sure she actually got inside.

"Hey!" I say as I walk up to Melissa, who is leaning against her trailer.

I have both twins in their separate carriers, because I didn't have enough time to pack the stroller.

"Hi!" she says, looking up from her lines.
"Are you not filming right now?" I ask.
"No, I just finished for now," she says, the leans down to see the twins. "Hey, you two."