One Little Bit

by Tey Holden

  “Thanks, Karen. Good night, Addy. I’m sorry to burden you with my problems. I know how busy you are with the little one. Good night.”

  ***

  The minute they hung up, Addy faced Karen “You need to go there. You can’t do this from here.”

  Karen was floored by Addy’s statement. “Addy, if I take this on, it will require long hours of work. I don’t want to be away from you and Alex for so long. I need to think carefully about how to handle this and any possible ramifications. Do you mind if I stay up to give this some thought?” Karen seemed troubled.

  “No, babe. But you don’t need to worry about us. We will be fine. You do whatever you need to do. Phillip has always been there for us and he is the one needing help now. I’ll support you in whatever you decide. Come on, Little Bit, let’s you and I go up and get ready for bed.”

  Karen kissed her. “Thank you, babe.”

  Addy took Alex and went up to the nursery to get ready for bed. Addy sat in the rocking chair, fed her and rocked her to sleep while singing softly to her. Addy always sang Spanish songs. It was a ritual, which Alex loved and went on for years. Karen made her nightly security check downstairs and went into the office to work on ideas for Phillip.

  It was well past midnight when Karen came to bed. She didn’t want to wake up Addy, so she came close, but didn’t cuddle up to her in the customary way. However, Addy sensed her proximity and moved back fitting her buttocks into Karen’s pelvis. Karen realized that Addy knew she was there, so she snuggled into her and placed her arm around her waist, tucked her chin into Addy’s shoulder and gently kissed her neck. Feeling Karen’s body heat, Addy pushed back even more. Karen kissed her again and caressed the body she always craved. Addy turned and embraced her. “Are you ready to save the world?” Addy asked in a very sensual tone while Karen combed her hair back placing gentle kisses on her eyes, and along her jawline and neck. “No, I need my strength first. I need you.”

  “You already have me, baby.”

  Karen took a deep breath to take in her scent and caressed the soft skin under her hands. Brushing her arms, her stomach, her outer thigh, and her breast with the tip of her fingers. She kissed her behind the ear, along her neck and finally buried her face in her hair. “I love all of you.”

  Addy held her face between her hands. “Sometimes when you make love to me, I think I’m dreaming. Do I make you feel as good?”

  “It’s not just you dreaming, Addy. If I were to die making love to you, I’d die happy. There’s nothing as absolutely wonderful as when we are together in bed. This is my favorite moment of the day, when I feel your body in my arms, and when we touch. You make me feel alive.”

  “Still?”

  “Always, like the very first time.”

  “Me too.”

  They kissed and shared themselves with the usual reckless abandonment. There could be no wrong where everything was perfect. Karen once told Addy that she didn’t think there was any drug on earth that could put her as high as she became whenever they were together. To adore and be adored with such passion overwhelmed them, and they were consumed by their mutual desire. Neither was ever able to comprehend the incredible need and want their passion aroused. Ultimately, exhausted and satisfied, they’d fall asleep in each other’s arms.

  ***

  When Alex had said her first words, which was something like ‘mamamamama’ she had been with Karen. Karen was so delighted to hear her say what she thought was ‘mama,’ that she screamed for Addy scaring Alex to tears, as usual.

  Addy ran, expecting the worst. “What? What happened?”

  “She talked! She said ‘mama’ but I think I scared her when I called you and she started to cry.”

  Karen was holding the little one in her arms trying to comfort her. Alex’s face was swamped with tears.

  “Aaawww, my poor baby, did Mommy Karen scare you?”

  Alex immediately threw her arms to Addy, and practically jumped out to her. Karen loved to watch the relationship between the two.

  The excitement of the first words ended when they’d hear it every morning. Invariably, Alex made her call loud and clear. “Mamamamama.” A sleepy Karen would always mumble, “umm,” or “the call of the wild,” or “baby, your daughter is calling you.” Addy always smiled when she heard Karen’s comments or words of protests. But nevertheless, unless Addy held her back, it was Karen, who after kissing her, would get up to check on Alex. However, when both were really sleepy, they would ask the other to go. “Please, go. I need sleep.”

  “Okay, but you owe me one.” They really never kept track. It was a game they played. The only one not playing games was Little Bit. She was up at six every day, rain or shine, weekends included, she was relentless. Addy took every opportunity to liken Alex to Karen. “She takes after you. You are always the first one to get up. I guess someone is beating you at your own game now. And you are always hungry too.”

  “Well, I have a reason. Our extracurricular activities take a lot of calories. I have to replenish my energy to keep up with you. I don’t know what keeps you so energized.”

  “Certainly not food. If I ate like you, my butt would be even bigger.”

  “Hum, maybe I should feed you more.”

  “What? After all this time, you are not happy with the merchandise?”

  Karen chuckled. “Au contraire, love, just wondering how much better a great thing can be.”

  “Don’t try to fix it, Larsen, you screwed up.”

  “You know better than that. I love your butt no matter what size. And for the record, I happen to think it’s the perfect size.”

  “Hum.” Karen began to get all cozy again while grabbing on to Addy’s buttocks, but Alex was resolved to get some attention.

  “Mamamamamam!” Her call was louder this time.

  “Looks like the wild one is determined!”

  “Umm, I thought the wild one slept with me.” Addy smiled.

  Karen smiled. “I meant the little wild one.”

  Then they heard the BANG!

  “Oh, my God, Ker!” Both women ran naked towards Alex’s room. The little one was getting to her feet and looked up to them grinning, opening her eyes, and raising her eyebrows as Addy would. The women froze when they realized that Alex had climbed up to the crib railing and jumped.

  “Alex!” Karen exclaimed.

  Addy went down on one knee to check her. The smile was gone from little one’s face, her lips drooped and pouted and humongous tears began to fall down her cheeks. Karen’s alarmed tone had frightened her. “Are you okay, baby?” Addy picked her up and held her as Alex was covered in tears. “It’s okay, baby, it’s okay.”

  “Is she okay?” Karen checked the crib trying to figure out how she jumped. “She didn’t remove the latches. She simply climbed over and jumped!”

  “Yeah, she’s fine from what I can see. Let me check her better.” Addy placed her on the dressing table, undressed her and checked her from head to toe. Karen stood behind Addy watching. “Yeah, she’s fine.” Addy started to dress her up.

  Karen left the room and came back in her robe, bringing Addy’s robe with her. “Here, babe, put your arms in.” Karen helped her with the robe.

  “Thanks, hon. Let’s take this one with us and feed her before she bites a chunk out of one of us!”

  Downstairs, Addy handed Alex over to Karen. “Here, you hold her. I’ll get her bottle, you feed her, and I’ll make coffee and breakfast for us.”

  Karen smiled taking the little one with her to the living room. “So, Alexandra, how the hell did you jump out of that crib? What are we going to do with you now that you have apparently gone into bungee jumping?”

  Addy looked up from the kitchen. “I guess we should shop for a bed, or maybe just a mattress on the floor, that way she won’t fall from too high. I’m afraid that now that she has already had her first jump, she’ll try it again.”

  Karen looked at the little one making a face and Alex laughed. “Yeah
, a mattress on the floor, for now, sounds like a good idea. I think that she might jump again, now that she’s figured it out. This child is too smart. We were lucky this time that she didn’t get hurt, but I don’t think we should risk it.”

  “Yes, when she’s older, we can get her a nice bedroom set. For now, we need to make sure she’s safe. Of course, Ker, you do realize that if we do that, she can get up and go anywhere. On the other hand, it appears that she’s ready to do just that from the crib and can certainly hurt herself.”

  Karen looked up. She was now worried about Alex wandering off. “We are going to have to put some kind of latch high on the door to the hallway so that at least we can constrain her to the bedrooms. The next thing will be her figuring out how to open the door to the staircase and going down the stairs.”

  “Ker, I don’t think she’s going to wander off. I think that she’s going to come looking for us.”

  “Oh, God, Addy. She can’t come into our bedroom just like that! We may be busy in the middle of something.”

  Addy smiled and pursed her lips listening to Karen. “We could put a gate at the entrance to our bedroom that way she wouldn’t be able to come in and we’d have time to dress up when she’s standing by the door.”

  Addy raised her eyebrows to Karen as Karen approached the kitchen area with Alex in her arm. “And no! Don’t even suggest it! I’m not putting on pajamas, or t-shirts! We said from the start that she was not going to change us. So, don’t even go there! We have to come up with alternatives.”

  “Well, the alternative is that this child will be getting A’s in anatomy at school!”

  “Ha, ha! Think and think fast. This little thing here seems to have the upper hand and we need to strategize!”

  ***

  When they added Alex’s room to the upstairs part of the cottage, the room was designed with two doors. One of the doors opened to the small hallway as the other two rooms. Now that Alex was mobile, precautions needed to be taken. Alex’s room door and the master bedroom door were always closed at night so that if Alex got up in the middle of the night she would not wander out the rooms. Still, there was the matter of Alex walking in on them. The only solution was to place a gate at the door between the two bedrooms.

  After breakfast that morning, they went to Edinburgh to shop for a mattress for Alex. “This reminds me of the last time we shopped for a mattress. Remember, Addy?”

  “Yes, that old mattress was in terrible shape but we had some fun on it.”

  “Yeah.” Karen grinned remembering those nights. “If we weren’t in public, I’d kiss you right now.”

  “Don’t! With so many mattresses around, you would be taking a great risk!” Addy laughed and moved along looking for a good mattress. After some searching and many questions, they found a good quality twin size mattress for the little one, paid for it and arranged the delivery. As they drove back, Alex fell asleep in the car. A ride in the car always did the trick. They sometimes would get in the car and drive just to get her to sleep. Karen preferred to go for a drive to get her to sleep than to have Addy put her to sleep. Addy’s routine to put Alex to sleep was to sing lullabies. Karen was convinced that Alex took longer to fall asleep with Addy because she actually liked Addy’s singing. In contrast, when Karen tried to put Alex to sleep, Alex cried because she wanted Addy and her singing. So, sometimes the less time-consuming thing was to take Alex for a drive.

  “I swear, that child is hypnotized by your singing.” Addy just laughed.

  “Maybe I missed my calling and should have been a famous lullaby singer.”

  “Lullaby singer? Whoever heard of that?”

  “Well, apparently, I have a fan in the next room.”

  “I think she’d be your fan, even if you stood in front of her and said nothing. She adores you.”

  “Jealous again?” Addy teased.

  “No. It’s been a while since I’ve resigned myself to share you with her. At least, I get certain privileges she will never have.” Addy smiled and picked up her tablet, as they settled on the living room couch. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about the Phillip matter.”

  “Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about that with the whole crib jumping episode. “What did you decide to do?”

  “Addy, in order to help Phillip, I’m going to have to review documents and run numbers. I don’t want access to records from our computer. I don’t know what’s going on there, and I want to keep our distance. He could come over and bring stuff, but that doesn’t look right either. The only thing for me to do is to go there and check things out in person. I really don’t want to go to the city, but I see no way to stay distant and at the same time investigate.”

  “I already told you, you do what you need to do.”

  “I’ll call him tomorrow and arrange some scheme to justify my being there. However, if this looks like it’s going to take longer than expected, would you come and stay with me? I don’t want to leave you alone here, and I also don’t want to be alone there.”

  “Karen, if you will feel better with us there, we will come. Whatever, honey, just let me know what works best for you. Just make whatever arrangements, and we’ll take it from there.”

  “Okay. You know, I should check and see if my old suits still fit.” She got up to go upstairs and check her closet.

  Addy smiled. “I’m sure they do, baby, you look just as gorgeous as ever. And since I suspected that you’d be needing them, I sent them to the cleaners and they are all nice and ready for you in the office closet.”

  Karen grinned. “You did that? Really?” She leaned down and kissed Addy on the lips. “I like how you take care of me.”

  “My pleasure, baby, my pleasure.” Karen went upstairs to check the closet, and then came back downstairs.

  “Addy, which one should I wear? Can you come up and help me pick one?” It amazed her that she couldn’t even pick what to wear without Addy’s input.

  “I already did sweetie pie. It’s hanging inside the closet door.” Karen turned and went back upstairs satisfied that Addy knew her so well. Shit, I hope it fits!

  ***

  Monday of the following week, it was time for Karen to go to Edinburgh. Karen agonized over leaving that morning. Anyone looking at the scene from a distance would have thought that Karen was departing to never return. “I’ll call you when I get there. Please, have the phone with you all the time because if you don’t answer immediately, I’ll worry. I asked James and JP to check on you later. And you call me if there’s an emergency.”

  “Ker, just go. We will be fine and don’t rush coming back. We want you back in one piece.” Addy kissed her lightly on the lips, but Karen grabbed her and held her tight and again kissed her with passion. “God, you smell good!” Addy smiled. Karen looked sad. “This is the first time since we’ve been together that we will be separated for an entire day.”

  “I know, honey. Just think that I’m at the grocery store and that it’s just for a little while. Alex and I will be here waiting for you. Be at ease. You have our love. Just call me when you get there for my peace of mind.” Karen kissed and hugged Alex.

  “Be careful, she’s going to drool all over you.”

  “I want to smell the two of you on me all day.”

  “Karen Larsen you sound pathetic! Go, or you are risking me stripping you naked right here!”

  Karen grinned. “Want to go back upstairs?”

  Addy chuckled. “Go! Do what you have to do.” Reluctantly, Karen started the car and left. In her rearview mirror, she could see all that mattered in her life.

  ***

  Karen arrived at the offices of Sparrow and Finch and called Addy as agreed. She then met with Phillip and talked about how to approach the matter. To justify Karen’s presence at the office, Phillip hired her as he customarily did to handle the financial aspects of one of his larger accounts. While there, she would be able to snoop around other accounts and conduct her audit.

  At lunchtime,
they ordered food and ate in the office. Karen called Addy to check on things. “All is well, baby. We just had our lunch and we are going to take a nap now.”

  “Make sure all the doors are locked.” They said goodbye and Karen resumed her work. Karen called again at two and at four pm. “All is well, concentrate on what you need to do, baby, really all is well.”

  “I’ll try to head home around five.”

  “Okay.”

  She then looked at the ton of papers in front of her and thought that the job ahead would require a lot of time. She picked up the phone and dialed. “Phillip, this is going to take time. A lot of time and I need to go home.”

  “I understand, Karen. Do what you need to do, work out your schedule as you need.”

  “I’ll come back again soon. I’ll call you tomorrow and tell you how we are going to do this.”

  “Alright, good night, Karen, and thanks again for your help.”

  ***

  As she drove home, the traffic was terrible getting out of the city. By the time she made it home, it was about eight o’clock. “Babe! I’m home.”

  “We are upstairs. We’ll come down in a minute!”

  When Karen saw the twosome, she hugged and kissed both as if it hadn’t seen them in years.

  “Sorry I got home so late. I left at 5:15 and by the time I got to the car and made it to the highway, it took forever. I had no idea the traffic was so bad out of Edinburgh at that time. I guess I’m totally out of the loop with the commuting stuff.”

  Addy put Alex in her playpen. “I’m going to warm up your dinner, go up and change into something comfy.”

  Before going upstairs, Karen stopped in the kitchen and hugged and kissed Addy from behind and dropped a quick kiss on the top of Alex’s head. She then went upstairs and changed. When she came down, her dinner was warm on the table, and she sat down to eat. “Umm, this is good. I didn’t know I was so hungry! So, what did you guys do today?” Addy sat next to her at the table.