No, he couldn’t do it.
Pulling away, he stepped back and left the library. When he started, he wasn’t going to stop.
Chapter Three
Tessa finished changing Caesar’s diaper. She wrapped up the old one, placing it in the trash bin in the corner and washing her hands. Once that was done, she started to dress Caesar. She knew she had to get ready for her day out with Alonzo, but no one had responded to Caesar’s cries. She could only take so much, so she didn’t have much choice but to come and take care of him.
“There, there, all better now. You really know how to poop through the night, don’t you?” She kissed Caesar’s head and sighed. He was such a good boy.
He started to play with her necklace, and she smiled at him, letting him do that. With him in her arms, she sat down with him in the rocking chair. If no one came to relieve her of him in the next ten minutes, she’d take him down to feed him.
She loved her job and taking care of Caesar, but now her thoughts kept going to Alonzo and why he demanded she spend some time with him. It made no sense to her, none at all.
In fact, she found the entire thing stressful.
When Caesar started to make a fuss, she knew she had to feed him.
“Come on, little guy. Let’s take you downstairs and get some food.” She placed him on her hip. He was so happy when she did that, as her hips were quite large, and he settled in so nicely.
Humming to herself, she walked downstairs to the kitchen.
Louise, the cook, wasn’t even there when she entered the kitchen. Pulling the high chair to the counter, she grabbed Caesar’s food, which Louise always made in advance for him. It was something mashed together.
He didn’t like a lot of the mushed-up foods. If he didn’t eat this porridge-looking stuff, she’d mash him up a banana to eat.
She took a seat next to him and started to do the helicopter noises. The moment the food hit his taste buds, he gave her that horrible baby look and proceeded to spit it out.
“Oh, no, is that really nasty? It looks really bad, and I shouldn’t be saying that. I’m an awful person.”
She took a small taste and scrunched up her own nose. “Don’t you worry. One day you’ll be able to have fried chicken, meatballs, ice cream, and I love cookies so, so much. I also love putting ice cream between cookies, and that is even better. This though, is nasty.”
“You shouldn’t be encouraging him to not eat that,” Alonzo said.
She jerked up in her seat, taken aback by his sudden appearance.
“Alonzo,” she said.
“I was waiting for you in the library.”
“I’m really sorry. I … I had to take care of Caesar.”
“I told you today was your day off.”
“No one attended to him. I did wait. You know, I did wait. I remembered.” She pointed at the clothes she wore. “I got changed.” Realizing one of her stained shirts covered the evidence that she had changed to go out, she quickly tugged it off. Her cheeks heated when the shirt rode up, and she had this horrible feeling she’d just shown her boss her bra. “See, I had changed.”
“And no one responded to Caesar’s cries.”
“I did wait a few minutes.”
“I understand.” He already turned his back on her and was pressing buttons on his cell phone.
“I hope I didn’t get anyone in trouble,” she said, talking to her charge.
Caesar slapped his hands, and she grabbed a banana, a small bowl, and another spoon. She mashed it up so there were also a few chunks.
“Wait until you can have peanut butter. That stuff is deadly. Honestly, it will go straight to your hips, but it will be so worth it.” She winked at Caesar as she fed him.
She didn’t know what Alonzo said, but Jessica was the first to enter the room. She looked awful.
Her hair was all matted as if she’d just passed out with hair gel in it.
“I can’t believe you woke me up to take care of my kid. Tessa is doing a perfectly good job of it.”
“He’s your son, Jessica,” Alonzo said.
Tessa watched as he stepped back into the room. She hated all kinds of conflict, and seeing these two argue always unnerved her.
Jessica, for the most part, was nice.
“So! I don’t see you getting Benedict here to deal with him. Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I have to feed him. I’ve got a life as well.” Jessica let out a cry as she was pulled out of the room.
They hadn’t gone far, and Tessa heard everything that was said between the two.
“Right now, you are a fucking embarrassment to me and to this family.”
“Why employ nannies if we’re not going to use them? Tessa is damn good at what she does and you know it.”