Sunny sits down at the table where the kids are eating breakfast and reads over the sheet of paper in her hand one more time, before clearing and gaining everyone’s attention.

“Ok, everyone, here’s how our day looks: First we’ll drop off Sophia at her art lesson, then we’ll take Bella to the beach for her surfing class. Then Jamie and I will come home and make pack lunches, grab his kit and head back to pick up Sophia. We’ll hurry to the beach and collect Bella, and then run over to the park for Jamie’s match. Then we’ll all go back to the beach for Bella’s Junior Lifeguards class, where we’ll eat lunch and wait until the class is over” Sunny exhales.

“Sounds good”

“Ok, Mama”

“Whatever you say, Sunny”

Sunny rolls her eyes at their nonchalant attitudes toward the schedule she spent two hours putting together.

“Can we stay at our house tonight?” Bella asks.

“I suppose, why?”

“Um… not that your place isn’t great and everything, but I really don’t want to sleep in that itchy sleeping bag again”

“And that way, we’ll be home when Mom gets back” Sophia adds.

“If that’s what you want to do, it’s ok with me. But we’ll need to gather all your things to take back…” Sunny trails off as she looks at her schedule and tries to figure out where this will fit in.

“We’ll do it right now” Bella says, pushing her chair back and picking up her empty bowl, quickly carrying it to the sink. Sophia and Jamie aren’t far behind.

“We leave in ten minutes” Sunny calls to the kitchen, “and you all need to brush your teeth”

“Ok!” three voices harmoniously call back.

...

...

...

“Stop biting your nails” Jessica swats at Taeyeon’s hand.

Taeyeon’s leg begins to shake, picking up where her nail-biting left off. Jessica puts a hand on Taeyeon’s thigh.

“Stop” she says firmly.

“I can’t just sit here and wait patiently. Do you not realize that we hold the well being of twenty families in our hands?”

“We’ll get the funding” Jessica assures her.

“You don’t know that”

“We’ll get it” Jessica repeats. “And what’s with you, anyway. Where’s the confident shark of an attorney I’m used to seeing?”

Taeyeon shakes her head and shrugs.

“Is this about Sunny?”

“What? No!”

Jessica raises her eyebrows.

Taeyeon glances at her friend from the corners of her eyes and lets out a defeated breath. “I feel like I’m going crazy”

“Thought so”

“I hate it. One minute I want to eject her from my life; when I think back to the pain she caused us. But then, when I see her, when she says something wonderful in that voice of hers I… I just want to fall into her arms and stay there forever”

“One of those is the right choice”

“I can’t do it though, Jessica. I can’t take that chance. Not for myself, not for my girls”

“Your girls adore her, and you adore her kid, too. And now that she’s…” Jessica stops herself.

“And now that she’s what…?” Taeyeon faces her. “You know, don’t you. You know what’s wrong with her”

“You need to ask Sunny”

“Tell me”

“Nope. My lips are sealed on this one, lover. Sorry”

“I hate you”

“I’m sure you do”

The doors to the conference room open and a secretary invites the two women inside.

As Taeyeon stands, Jessica grabs her wrist. “Clear your head”

Taeyeon looks down at her friend and nods twice, taking a deep breath and picking up her briefcase, she walks in first with her chin in the air. And Jessica confidently follows behind.

...

...

...

Sunny collapses onto the sofa in Taeyeon’s living room, exhaling an exhausted but triumphant breath. She puts a hand over her belly and rubs gently, allowing her eyes to close for just a moment as she leans her head back into a cushion.

...

...

...

“Hello?”

“…Bella?”

“Oh, hi Mom, what’s up?”

“Why are you answering Sunny’s phone?”

“Because she’s asleep on the couch”

“Where are you?”

“At home; we told Sunny we wanted to stay here tonight”

“I see. And what sorts of trouble are the three of you getting into unsupervised?”

“None, Mother, we’re just hanging out” Bella huffs.

“Hmm. How did everything go today?”

“Fine. Sunny had a schedule and we almost stuck to it”

Taeyeon laughs.

“When are you coming home?”

“In the morning”

“Ok”

“Alright, darling, I have to go; Jessica is going to eat her own hand if I don’t get her something to eat. But tell Sunny I’ll call later”

“Ok, bye!”

“Bye”

...

...

...

Sunny stands sideways and lifts up her pyjama top. She stares at her abdomen in the mirror and runs her hand up and down a small but noticeable bump. She turns to her other side and repeats the action, smiling at her tummy as she rubs it.

A loud noise causes her to stop mid-rub, and she drops her shirt and peeks out the bathroom door to see if one of the kids has gotten out of bed. As she looks down the hallway she hears another noise. Can tell it’s coming from downstairs. And now, she feels a tickle of fear in her belly.

Sunny turns off the light and tiptoes across the hall to check on Jamie. Finding him asleep, she checks on the girls, who are also sound asleep. She takes a deep breath and quietly makes her way toward the staircase. Steps carefully down each step, hoping her bare feet don’t squeak against the hardwood. And once she’s on the first floor, Sunny grabs the closest object she can find in the darkness and moves toward the area she hears the noise coming from.

She stops and thinks about going back for her cell phone, but decides that would take too long. So she inches her way toward the entrance of the house, where the shuffling and banging is now growing louder.

Sunny knows there is a light switch just on the other side of the wall, so she takes a deep breath and jumps into the doorway, switching on the light as her feet make contact with the floor, and yells, “I’ve called the police!”

Taeyeon turns with jolt, holding her chest as she bursts out laughing.

Sunny exhales and leans on the wall. “Jesus, Taeyeon, I thought you were an intruder”

Taeyeon continues to laugh and slowly sits down on the floor. The heel of her shoe is caught in the strap of her luggage bag and she struggles to untangle it as she laughs, finally giving up when her arms are rendered weak by laughter and exhaustion. She looks up at Sunny as her laughter tapers off.

“What the hell were you planning to do with that, paint me to death?”

Sunny tilts her head and shakes it, moving toward Taeyeon with one of Sophia’s paintbrushes in hand. She bends down and untangles Taeyeon’s heel with ease and then grabs Taeyeon’s hands and pulls her up.

“Thanks” Taeyeon lets go and dusts off the bottom of her skirt that isn’t dirty.

Sunny can smell the faint scent of alcohol on Taeyeon’s breath. “You gave me a real fright, you know”

“Sorry” Taeyeon says, and picks up her bag, “but really, Sunny, a paintbrush?”

“…It’s all I could find!”

Taeyeon slips off her shoes, smirking at her, and walks down the hallway toward the kitchen. Sunny follows, leaving the paintbrush on the table in the entrance way.

“We weren’t expecting you ‘til morning” Sunny says, sitting on a dining room chair while Taeyeon opens the refrigerator.

“We managed to get on a flight tonight; Jessica was eager to get home”

“The girls will be excited; I think they missed you more than they’ll admit”

Taeyeon turns her head and smiles affectionately as she closes the fridge door and walks into the pantry.

“Are you hungry?”

“Starving” Taeyeon calls back. “I refuse to pay for airline food, and we had to skip our meal in the city to make the flight, so”

Taeyeon turns off the pantry light and inspects the fruit in the fruit bowl on her kitchen counter.

“I suppose it’s a bit late to eat” she sighs.

“You won’t pay for the food but you’ll pay for the drinks?” Sunny eyes her with a knowing smirk. “I can fix you something light, if you’d like”

Taeyeon looks between the bowl of fruit and Sunny, ignoring the question. “Why are you even awake, it’s half-one?”

Sunny smiles and stands up. She opens the fridge door and grabs some leftover ingredients from dinner.

“I took a very long and unintentional nap, earlier. I only woke up five hours ago” she laughs at herself, and puts the food on the counter. “Sit down, I’ll make you something”

A hint of a smile appears on Taeyeon’s lips. “I’m too tired to argue” she says with a raised eyebrow, obeying Sunny and sitting down at the table.

“I should’ve known it was you” Sunny says, concentrating as she peels and slices an avocado, “Bella told me you were going to ring, and I thought it odd when you didn’t”

“I guess I should have let you know, but I wanted to surprise the girls”

Sunny smiles and nods, taking a leftover piece of chicken and tearing it up into pieces.

Taeyeon watches with her lower lip caught between her teeth as Sunny her fingers one by one.

“So how did your work thing go?” Sunny asks as she washes her hands.

“Very well, actually”

“Good” Sunny focuses on opening a box of soup and pouring some into a saucepan. “So why was it an emergency?”

Taeyeon shrugs off her suit jacket and hangs it on the back of another chair. “Mm, it’s a long story I’d rather not get into”

Sunny looks up from stirring the soup. “So give me the short version”

Taeyeon looks away from brown eyes and clears . “Well, let’s see… when I quit the firm, a few of my clients practically begged me to stay on as their attorney, even though I wanted nothing to do with corporate law, I stayed on with Jenkins Corp because they agreed to donate a percentage of prophets to local projects I was becoming involved in”

Sunny takes two wheat tortillas out of their bag and puts them in the microwave. “What kind of projects?” she asks, her eyes wide with curiosity as she sticks a cherry tomato in .

Taeyeon clears again. “All sorts, really. The current one, is restoring a condemned building downtown for subsidized housing”

Sunny chews and nods, laying a tortilla on a plate and spreading cream cheese across it. “So why go to New York?”

Taeyeon stretches and Sunny doesn’t hesitate staring at the exposed skin that peeks out from beneath a tight white blouse.

“Jenkins was threatening to pull out because of this and that, so I had to go and convince him otherwise and… there you are”

“Well I’m glad it went in your favor”

“Me too”

Sunny adds the ingredients to the tortilla and rolls it up, then slices it diagonally and lays both pieces on a plate. She pours some soup into a bowl and sprinkles the top with some dried parsley and serves it to Taeyeon.

“Hope you like it”

“It looks wonderful, thank you”

Sunny can’t resist touching Taeyeon’s shoulder to say you’re welcome.

“It does look good; think I’ll make one for myself as well”

Taeyeon makes appreciative, satisfied little noises, as she bites into the wrap, which makes Sunny tingle and smile.

When Sunny’s done, she sits across from Taeyeon and they become a duet.

“I’m hungry all the time, lately” Sunny comments with a full mouth. She looks away from black eyes and covers with a napkin when she realizes what she’s said.

Taeyeon puts a spoonful of soup into and swallows. “Any particular reason?”

Sunny, looking down at her food, just shrugs and shakes her head.

“So… how did everything go around here?”

“Good; I’m still in one piece”

Taeyeon laughs into her napkin. “It sounds like you nearly didn’t make it”

“Mm, well, I was running on empty by the time we got back here”

“Then your nap was well deserved”

“Yes”

Taeyeon points to Sunny and squints. “I told you two extra children wouldn’t be easy”

Sunny stops chewing and leans back in her chair. She covers the remainder of the wrap with her napkin and stares out the sliding glass doors toward a dark ocean.

“Was it something I said?” Taeyeon asks a few minutes later, when Sunny remains quiet and distant.

Sunny’s head shakes and she forces a small smile. “Perhaps I’m more tired than I thought”

“Oh, well, go on; I can clean up”

Sunny looks at Taeyeon with watery eyes and opens , but nothing comes out.

“What’s wrong, Sunny?”

“… No, nothing… I just…”

“You’ve never been one to not speak your mind, so just say it. Whatever it is, I can take it”

“I don’t want to… I can’t lose you again”

“Sunny, you can only lose something you have…”

“Why do you say things like that”

“What, the truth?”

Sunny can’t stop the tears.

“… don’t cry”

“I can’t help it”

“Jesus” Taeyeon mumbles, rubbing her temple, “I’m sorry, alright?”

Sunny wipes her cheeks. “Are you?”

“I wouldn’t say it if I wasn’t”

Sunny takes a deep breath and stands up, collecting her plate and taking it to the sink.

“Is this the way it’s going to be?”

“What...”

“Us; from now on”

“There isn’t an…” Taeyeon doesn’t finish the sentence.

Sunny sighs and pulls a chair up next to her. Taeyeon crosses her arms.

“This isn’t healthy, Taeyeon. Not for us, and especially not for our children. It isn’t fair to them that you and I can’t find a common ground”

“And that’s my fault?”

“No, it’s no one’s fault. It’s just... the way it is. But I think we can work through it for them, don’t you?”

Taeyeon doesn’t answer immediately. “I don’t know what you want from me, Sunny”

“I want you to stop being a prick every time you’re around me. I want you to stop apologizing like you mean it, only to turn around and say something snarky all over again. I want you to forgive me - I mean really forgive me - for pushing you away. And I want you to let me inside your heart again, the way you’ve always been in mine”

Black eyes glance into sincere brown ones.

“I can’t just forget, Sunny. I can’t snap my fingers and welcome you back into our lives with open arms; it doesn’t work that way”

“How does it work, then”

“Huh?”

“How does it work? I want you to tell me so we can do this your way”

“There isn’t anything to do, Sunny. You left; you made your choice. And this…” Taeyeon waves her hand between them, “is what we’re left with”

“So there’s no chance for me to be a part of your life again”

“Sunny, you’re in my home, in your pyjamas, caring for my children, how are you not a part of my life?”

“I want more than to be a weekend mother to your children, Taeyeon, you know that”

Taeyeon sets her jaw.

“I want you, Taeyeon. Every day. Every night. And that’s never going to change” Sunny swallows hard and takes a deep breath, “I love you. So much”

“If you love me so much, why are you keeping something from me?”

Sunny lowers her eyes. “Because I’m afraid after you find out, there won’t be a chance for us”

“Not to be snarky but, what makes you think there’s a chance for us, anyway?”

Sunny looks at her with wounded brown eyes. “Maybe there isn’t”

...

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...

BAM!

hi guys :) still there wait for my update ? :P