A few months later…
“Are you sure you want to move out? We really don’t mind having you both here.”
Elaine chuckled at Tasha’s pout. “The house is crowded Tasha with Damien’s parents still here, and they should be.” She laughed when Tasha pushed her lower lip out further, “I’m moving next door. The way you are carrying on you’d think I was moving across the country.”
“I know but…” she sighed again, “I liked having you guys here. It was fun.”
Elaine threw her arm over Tasha’s shoulders, “We are just moving across the street and besides, we’ll be here every day all day. I have no plans of finding a job just yet, and Katya might be calling me mommy now but…”
It had gutted her when she arrived to find Katya calling Tasha mommy and Damien daddy. It made her a little murderous, but she forced herself to understand the truth. The child had been abandoned by her real parents and had adopted surrogates. It had been a long and persistent fight, but Elaine finally got her to call Tasha ‘titi’ because Aunty Tasha was still quite a mouth full, and her mommy.
“Hey,” Tasha wrapped her arm around Elaine’s waist, “she trusts you now, and she remembers you too. You two will be just fine. And maybe moving away and living just the two of you will strengthen your bond.”
Elaine pulled her close and pressed a big noisy kiss on her forehead, “I knew you would understand.”
Tasha grumbled like a petulant child.
“Let me guess,” they both turned to look at Ellie as she entered the kitchen and settled herself on the bar stool next to Tasha, “she tried to talk you into staying and then ended up giving you a great reason to leave.”
Tasha’s pout amazingly grew bigger, “I know, I’m my own kryptonite. Hey, why don’t we go out tonight, just the three of us.”
“Out?” Ellie asked her.
“Yeah, dancing, clubbing, drinking, you know all the stuff I don’t remember doing and essential will be trying out for the first time ever?”
Elaine and Ellie stared at each other unsure. The homebody wanted to go out clubbing? Tasha had always been happy to stay home. Of course, she loved date night with Damien but usually those turned into date weekends spent inside a hotel room. Elaine highly doubted they got to do any of the things they had planned beforehand. It was probably why she had the itch now. But Elaine was feeling a little unsure about this, and by the look on Ellie’s face so was she.
“Oh come on girls. We haven’t had a night out for ourselves in years. We are always too busy taking care of these men and their children,” she teased with a mock sneer on her lips, “it’s time they stayed in, and we went out. What do you say?”
Elaine shook her head, “I don’t know Tasha. I haven’t finished moving in, and I’m expecting more furniture tomorrow. And I think I should be there to put my daughter to bed in her new room at her new house.”
“Then let her stay here just for tonight and tomorrow morning—afternoon,” she quickly corrected herself, “because I’m guessing we’ll be nursing some serious hangovers, you two can make an event of it.”
Elaine fought a smile, “She’s eighteen months old. Making an event of it would be me cleaning up after her then arranging the house when Katya takes a nap. It will be too much work.”
“I’ll come help,” before Elaine could be adamant with her refusal, Tasha turned to her twin, “Come on Ellie, please!” her hands clasped together in a prayer gesture.
Ellie shook her head, “No can do sis. I start my first round of fertility treatment day after tomorrow and filling my body with alcohol before that is one of the no-nos.”
Wait, what? Elaine turned to look at Tasha. She was conspicuously keeping her eyes down. The little rat. She hadn’t told Ellie yet about what they’d done, in fact, it was clear that she not only did not approve of the plan, she didn’t know anything about it. Fine. If Tasha was too scared to fess up, Elaine would just have to. But maybe being in a club with free flowing alcohol would lessen the impact and the reaction.
“Ellie, Tasha and I have something to tell you, but we’ll only tell you when we go out tonight.”
Ellie’s head turned slightly to the side, and she stared at the two of them suspiciously, “What exactly is this news that requires a club scene?”
‘Club? Who’s going clubbing?”
Tasha visibly sighed with relief at the interruption. She jumped off the stool and approached her husband, “We, the girls are going out tonight. You guys are staying in, watching the kids.”
Dale frowned moving to stand behind Ellie, “Why don’t we just come with you? The grandparents are here.”
Ellie shook her head, “Nope. It’s a girls’ night out.”
“But babe—”
Ellie cut Dale off by squeezing the hand he had on her shoulder, “I’m the designated driver.”
That seemed to answer whatever concern he had because he nodded kissing the top of her head.
“But why can’t we come?” Damien whined.
With her hands on her hips, Tasha glared up at him, “What part of girls’ night out don’t you understand.”
“The part where I can’t come. I want to go clubbing with you,” he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him. He rubbed his lips against hers and whispered in his sexy voice, “Please. I promise it will be more fun with us there.”
Elaine just had to chuckle at that. She envied their easy banter; they were silly at times. Dale and Ellie had this ‘I move you move’ thing going with them that sometimes Elaine wondered if there was an hour in the day when they didn’t talk, update each other on how many steps they’d just taken and to which direction.
Ellie jumped off the stool, grabbed Damien’s arms and dislodged them from Tasha before pulling her back and away from him. “No, no using sex as a bargaining tool. We can all go clubbing together next week, but this Saturday night is for us. Now, go start moving stuff around at Elaine’s house while we get ready.”
They moaned and grumbled about it being their day off, how they had bad backs and how they were missing kick off. But their wives would hear none of it, pushing them to the door.
Elaine got off the stool, “Come on guys, I’ll walk with you. I need to get some stuff for tonight.”