Mr. Mom

59

He barely got any sleep, it was pretty much pointless going to bed at all. He thought about calling her but deep down he feels like he did the right thing. Gladys had a point, he didn't want to possibly hurt Ellie if things between him and Alice went south.

Though he didn't picture things going south with her, he really thought he would marry her, have children with her. He knows Ellie would be on board and he's pretty damn sure Alice would've been on board with it too. But now he's screwed it all up.

Ellie comes running into his room, crawling up the middle of the bed like she usually does to lay between he and Alice. She's come to realize that more often than not her daddy and Allie share the bed and she loves coming in to snuggle with them in the morning. Only this time is different. This time, Alice is gone.

"Allie?" Ellie calls. She shakes FP awake when she gets no response.

"El?" FP jumps as Ellie shakes him, panicking slightly. "What is it, baby? Are you alright?"

"Daddy! Allie is missing!"

He sighs, takes a deep breath and pulls her onto his lap. "No honey, she's not missing."

"Well then where is she?" Ellie questions, her eyebrows furrowing as she waits for an answer.

"I told her to leave."

"Why would you do that, daddy?" He can see tears starting to fill her eyes and his heart breaks.

"Me and her were fighting and I told her to leave."

"You're supposed to talk it out when you're mad, not tell people to go away. That's what you told me." Ellie crawls off his lap and slumps against the headboard, her head hanging down. "Now both my mommy's left me." Her lip quivers and his heart feels like it's being shattered into a million pieces. She considered Alice her mom? "How come nobody wants to stay with me, daddy? Am I a mean girl?"

He takes a deep breath and tries to hold back his tears in order to console his daughter. "No, no, no, Ellie, you are the sweetest girl I have ever met." He wraps his arm around her and hugs her tight. "I'll never understand why your mommy left but I'm the reason that Allie left."

"I love Allie. I wanted her to be my new mommy. And I think she wanted to be too!"

"I'm sure she would've been. I'm sorry that you're sad babygirl." He wipes a tear from her cheek and she moves onto his lap, throwing her arms around his neck.

"Daddy?" She mutters tearfully.

"Yeah, baby?"

"Will Allie come back?"

"I'm not sure, honey."

She sighs and lays her head on his shoulder. "I hope so."

He doesn't say anything further, just holds her and rubs her back, trying his best to comfort her.