Never The Same

Chapter Twenty

For once, we sat at the table and ate, but Asher moved the TV because an episode of Friends was on and he couldn't miss it. It was only a two person table, so he set Avie in a highchair across from me and put himself in the middle. He positioned himself closer to his daughter, so he could feed her.

The episode of Friends was the one where Phoebe pretended to be a cop by using someone's lost badge. It was kind of funny. She kept bossing people around trying to abide by the law and when people ignored her, she'd flash the badge. We laughed about it a few times and every couple of seconds I'd look over at Asher to see him smiling at me.

"Here comes the airplane," Asher said in his baby voice. He fed her using this tiny fork, but she spit out her omelette and stuck her tongue in and out continuously. He glanced at me and pointed with the baby fork. "Do you want me to feed you?"

"No, no I'm fine." He pushed the fork towards me and stood up a bit so he could reach me. I shook my head and closed my mouth tightly. "Thanks really."

"Open your mouth," Asher said in his baby voice again. "Come on, open up Emma."

"Stop. I'm good. I can feed myself." He refused to stop and got up out of his chair to come feed me, so I got out of my chair and ran.

"Don't run away, Emma," he mumbled like a toddler, although it sound more like 'No wun a way, Emmy.'

Avie's little eyes followed us as we ran around the kitchen island. She laughed as we moved quickly trying to escape from or capture the other person. Asher finally got his arm around my stomach and trapped me from behind. His mouth was right next to my ear.

"Come on," he whispers. "Do it for the kid, she loves it."

"Alright."

"Open up, here comes the rocket ship." I hated it when grown people made baby voices, especially when Asher did it. I opened my mouth and let him feed me. He turned me around and kissed my forehead. "Now that's a good girl."

I shook my head and went back to my seat. Avie seemed to get a kick out of the whole thing, so I guess it was worth it. We sat back down and finished eating. The episode of friends was over and so Asher turned it to a kiddy show for the rest of breakfast.

I didn't recognize what was on, but Avie knew it by heart. She sang the little theme song as best as she could. It still sounded more like 'Aba sing sa'. It came on and we were pretty much all done with breakfast, so Asher took our plates and our main focus now was n the television.

"Park," Avie mumbled after she saw the animated characters, on the show, going to the park and playing. "Park."

"You want to go to the park Avie," Asher asked. She nodded and he nodded back. "I actually think there's one down the street."

"Park," she repeated.

"Okay, Emma, can you get her and yourself ready while I clean up?"

"You want me to go?" I was really confused.

"Yeah, there's not too many people down there. So it should be alright."

"Oh, yay. I'm excited." I really wasn't too excited, but I was kind of happy that I'm finally able to get out of the cabin.

I grabbed Avie out of her high chair and carried her over to the door where our shoes were. I've never put on baby shoes before, so it was quite challenging. But once I got them on, it seemed like a bigger deal than it actually was. I put on my shoes and grabbed a light coat, because I wasn't sure how cold it would be.

"Does Avie have a little jacket?"

"Yeah," Asher responded. It was really strange the way we talked around the kid. It felt like we were married and she was our child. "It should be in the bag on the coffee table."