13. Sterling
“Hey, y’all, what can I help you with this morning?” The salesclerk greeted us with enthusiasm.
After the dressing down Cecelia gave me, I followed her inside the store. She was right, there was nothing wrong with buying a used stroller to get us through today. She tended to be right, and she wasn’t afraid to put me in my place.
Her spunk was refreshing in a world of women trying to appeal to my better nature by agreeing to everything I said. I had a few colleagues who wouldn’t just do what I said because I said it. But for the most part, no one challenged me the way she did.
“We need a stroller. We ordered one and it showed up needing to be put together. Until that can happen…” Cecelia told the sales lady.
“Let me show you what we have in stock. Now if that fancy stroller you have at home continues to give you fits?—”
“How do you know it’s fancy?” I asked.
“Oh, it’s always the fancy ones. I swear, the more they cost, the more DIY they require. Anyway, we do offer an assembly service. Now, is this just for this sleeping beauty?” She continued until we were in a row of strollers.
The quantity and variety were a little staggering.
“Only one,” Cecelia said.
“They have strollers for more than one?” I asked.
“Of course. We have strollers for multiple infants, and for infant-toddler combos. You want something you can lock that car seat into?”
“Yes, please.”
We left with a stroller that was more a frame to convert the car seat than an old-fashioned pram. There was an under-carriage storage area that Cecelia insisted on. We were in and out of the store in a matter of minutes.
“Why don’t you have Wayne gather all the parts up to the other stroller and get it delivered here for them to put together?” Cecelia suggested as we continued on toward the zoo.
When she suggested the zoo, I hadn’t realized it was a haven for mothers and babies. Cecelia and Georgie looked like they belonged. I stuck out like a sore thumb.
“Did you know it was like this?” I asked as we waited in the line for entry tickets.
“Crowded? I thought it would be empty on a weekday.”
“I meant all the mothers and kids.” I spoke low so that I wasn’t overheard.
“Kids love animals. It seems like a natural fit to come here.”
I paid for the tickets, and we followed the flow of the crowd into the park.
“Is everything I do with Georgie going to be overwhelmingly mothers and their kids?”
Cecelia smiled at me and laughed a bit. “Probably. I’m sure there are ‘daddy and me’ groups you could join, but?—”
“Daddy and me?”
“Groups for dads who are the primary caregiver in the family. A lot of early development classes are called ‘mommy and me’. You could go, but as you already mentioned, lots of moms.”
I muttered about the term ‘daddy and me’. Cecelia kept glancing at me and laughing.
“That makes you really uncomfortable, doesn’t it?”
I let out a low grumble. We were still in a big crowd of moms and strollers. I leaned in close, my lips almost brushing Cecelia’s ear. “My last date called me ‘Daddy’. I’d be more comfortable if you were the one calling me Daddy and not some child, if you understand what I’m saying.”
The blush started on Cecelia’s cheeks and then spread over all of her exposed skin. It was a charming look on her. I would have to remember that.
Her eyes went wide, and she smiled but then stared hard at the ground. “Sterling,” she said through clenched teeth.
That’s all she said, my name, and then she kept blushing. Yeah, she could call me Daddy anytime.
“So, where are we headed?” I asked as if she weren’t lit up like a beacon and my jeans weren’t getting tight in the crotch.
She cleared her throat. “I’m not sure. I’m just following the crowd.”
The tide of zoo visitors pulled us along until we entered a petting zoo area. Strollers were lined up like motorcycles at a roadhouse bar. Toddlers scrambled everywhere.
“Is this what I have to look forward to?” I muttered out loud.
“If you still have custody of Georgie when she’s walking, then yeah, probably.”
I grabbed the stroller away from Cecelia and kept walking. I didn’t want to be overwhelmed by all the kids. They outnumbered the adults, and I didn’t want them to overwhelm us. I navigated back to the flamingo display before I lifted Georgie out of the stroller and held her so she could look at the pink birds.
“Hey, look at me,” Cecelia said.
I turned. She had her camera phone pointed at us. “I thought you might like a picture.”
“Come here. You should be in this picture with us.” I held out my hand and took the phone from her.
We positioned ourselves, and I held up the phone for a selfie.
“Oh, we should get the flamingoes behind us,” Cecelia said.
As we tried to get situated so I could take a picture that also showed the birds in the background, someone’s grandmother approached us. “Would you like me to take that for you?”
I handed her the phone. I held Georgie in one arm and wrapped the other around Cecelia, tugging her in tight against me. She felt nice. Like she belonged tucked in against me.
“What a lovely family. This is going to make a great picture,” the lady cooed as she pointed the camera phone at us.
“Oh, we’re—” Cecelia started.
“We’re so grateful you could help us out.” I cut Cecelia off. That lady did not need to know we were not a family. “Thank you.”
I looked at the photo before sharing it with Cecelia. The lady was right. We looked like we belonged.
“Were you going to say anything about how we are all in yellow?” I asked Cecelia. I must have subconsciously picked this shirt so that I coordinated with her and Georgie.
“By the time I realized it, we were already in the car. You aren’t mad, are you?”
I shook my head. I actually liked it.
We strolled past enclosures and through exhibits. I carried Georgie for a while before setting her back in the car seat, now stroller. Cecelia carried her for a bit, and after a while, we only picked her up when we reached a new animal to look at. When we reached the tigers, Georgie made the same set of noises that meant cat for her.
“I guess cats really are her favorite,” Cecelia said.
“I’m still not getting her a cat,” I insisted.
After a snack and a bottle, Georgie grew fussy.
“I’ll change her,” Cecelia announced. She picked up the diaper bag and headed into the restroom.
I found a bench and waited. I could handle this. This was easy. Take the kid to the zoo, feed her snacks. There was a shack decorated to look like a village hut where I could grab something for Cecelia and me to eat. We’d be through the zoo by lunchtime. Georgie would be exhausted and take her first nap.
My utopian ideas of a blissful zoo outing were shattered when the diaper bag landed in my lap.
“You haven’t restocked this. There are no diapers that fit Georgie in there. And there are no changes of clothes,” Cecelia snarled with anger.
Georgie, only in a diaper, was sniffling and crying. At least she wasn’t howling.
“Some nice lady in the bathroom had an extra diaper I could borrow.”
I rummaged in the bag. I hadn’t really looked to see what was inside. I pulled out a handful of diapers. “What are these?” I asked. It was a rhetorical question. They were obviously diapers.
“Those are newborn size. Georgie is bigger, and her output quantity is higher,” she said.
Diapers come in sizes. Of course they did. But the dress I pulled out next, I knew fit Georgie.
“Clothes.”
Cecelia huffed at me. “Look at that, Sterling. It”s all scratchy lace and velvet. Do you really want to put her in a hot, miserable velvet dress today? This bag needs to be restocked after every outing. It needs diapers, and it needs at least two full changes of clothes.”
I didn’t deserve all the anger she was focusing on me. “And I know this how? Cecelia, please, this is why I need your help. To you, it was obvious. I have no idea what goes in a diaper bag.”
She pursed her lips and breathed heavily through her nose.
“I’m sorry, you’re right.” Her voice was clipped, but loud enough for it to be clear that she meant it. “Georgie had a bit of a meltdown, and then there were no diapers that fit. The bag is now completely out of wipes. I felt like I had completely messed everything up. I’m sorry I let my frustration get the better of me.”
I stood and placed an arm around her shoulder. She was getting tired, and unlike Georgie, who had ready access to snacks all morning long, Cecelia hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since she arrived at the penthouse. “It’s okay. We’re both learning.”
She wiped her eyes. “That wasn’t very professional of me. Could you please buy Georgie a T-shirt at the gift kiosk so she’s not exposed? There isn’t any sunscreen in the bag either, and I don’t want her to get a sunburn.”