Blue Plaid

Found

In which Stella doesn't feel so lost. 

I had just stepped out of the shower when Tyson burst into my room. Horrified, I clutched my towel tighter around my body and fixed him with a heated glare.

“What the hell, Kingsley?”

He didn’t bother rolling his eyes or stating the list of things he’d rather do than see me naked. Actually he looked pretty frazzled, his hair left messy and further mussed by his fingers as they ran through it.

“I’m really sorry, but I have to ask a huge favor,” he panted slightly.

I raised an eyebrow warily. “Alright…”

“My boss called me into an emergency staff meeting this morning and I know I’m supposed to look after Cooper, but there’s no way I can bring him to the restaurant, so can you watch him for a couple hours?”

“Tyson, I have a shoot today,” I sighed. “I told you that last week.”

“I know!” he replied quickly. “But I really can’t afford to get fired and you know I wouldn’t ask unless it was an absolute emergency. Please, Stel? I’ll owe you.”

Well, that was an intriguing thought.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll take him to my shoot. He’s pretty low maintenance, so I’m sure I can find a way to keep him entertained while I work.”

“You’re a goddess,” he sighed in relief. Leaning forward, he quickly pecked my cheek and I found myself utterly horrified when my cheeks heated at the contact. “Like I said, it’s only for a couple hours. Text me the address of your shoot and I’ll come pick him up when I’m done.”

“No problem,” I replied quietly as he shot me a grateful glance and hurried out the door.

A few minutes later, I made my way down the stairs to find Cooper– we were still living in the house as we looked for a more affordable place – dressed super casually in dark wash jeans, a gray t-shirt, and my favorite navy blue boat shoes. I never dressed up to go into shoots because I figured they’d just end up changing everything anyway.

Tyson had left Cooper in his play pen in the living room, where he sat contently, pushing a large toy car across the floor. The toddler looked up as I approached, grinning widely as he dropped his car and held up his arms, insisting I pick him up. I obliged, bringing him to my hip and immediately dropping a kiss to the top of his head. On instinct, I sniffed his hair to find him smelling of baby shampoo, meaning Tyson had already given him a bath.

As I walked towards the kitchen, I wondered if that meant that Tyson had also fed Cooper. I received my answer in the form of a post it note stuck to the refrigerator door which read ‘Bathed and fed Cooper cause I’m awesome’.

I rolled my eyes. Apparently Tyson was well versed in the art of sucking up. But if he thought this meant he didn’t still owe me, he was sorely mistaken.

“Alright, bro,” I cooed, settling Cooper into his high chair. “Give me like ten minutes to eat and grab my stuff and we’ll head out.”

It actually took me about eight minutes to toast and scarf down a pair of frozen waffles, grab my purse and the diaper bag Tyson had so graciously packed (boy really knew how to kiss ass when he needed to), tuck Cooper into his stroller, and head out the door.

We were doing print ads which would be sent to fashion magazines for their fall issues, which meant that the shoot was at the headquarters for the company of which I was currently the face.

As I pushed Cooper’s stroller into the lobby, his diaper bag hanging off one shoulder and my purse nestled in the crook of my elbow, I was well aware that I was receiving many confused looks. I’d actually gotten pretty used to it. Most of our temporary neighbors knew the situation, so they didn’t ask questions, but that didn’t mean they didn’t stare whenever they saw Tyson or I loading Cooper into a car or pushing his stroller down a sidewalk.

It’s like they could tell that neither of us had any clue what we were doing.

The elevator was empty when I entered, but a voice from the lobby called out for me to hold, so I reached over the top of the stroller, sticking out a hand and smiling politely when a man who looked to be in twenties stepped in beside me.

“What floor?” I asked politely.

“Five, please,” he replied, shooting me a grateful smile.

I pushed his button along with mine for the eleventh floor and we stood in awkward silence for about ten seconds before he broke it with a question.

“Are you babysitting?”

Startled, I raised my eyebrows when I turned to face him, wondering if I really did look that out of place around Cooper. “What makes you say that?”

His eyes flashed with guilt and regret when he realized he had misread the situation. Though I guess it wasn’t hard to. Cooper was fair, blonde, and blue eyed, which was a stark contrast to my own olive complexion and black hair. Anyone with eyes could tell we weren’t blood related.

“Oh no, I’m sorry,” he stammered, “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that he looks nothing like you, which I now realize is an extremely stupid reason to think you aren’t his mother seeing as people adopt on a fairly regular basis and hey, aren’t you the girl from those ad campaigns.”

He spoke so fast that I had a hard time keeping up, but by the end I was grinning widely because I found his rambling to be pretty adorable. “Stella. It’s nice to meet you.”

He gulped and nodded, sighing a little as he realized I hadn’t taken offense to his words. “Alex. Likewise.”

“Do you work here?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Yep,” he replied, taking a deep breath. “Just started a month ago and I feel like they think I’m completely incompetent.”

“I’m sure you’re doing great,” I smiled reassuringly.

“Thanks,” he grinned gratefully when the elevator came to a stop on his floor. “I didn’t know you had a kid.”

“Um yeah,” I said, gripping the stroller a little tighter. “It’s a recent development.”

“Well, he’s adorable,” he said affectionately, glancing down at Cooper as he stepped out onto the floor. “Good to meet you.”

Then the doors closed and he was gone.

I laughed and shook my head, pushing Cooper’s stroller out onto the floor a few moments later when I arrived.

I was immediately flocked with stylists and wardrobe people, all scolding me because apparently, despite the fact that I had come fifteen minutes before instructed, the photographer was almost ready to go. Taking a deep breath because the crowd of people was stressing me out, I scanned my gaze over the unfamiliar faces before it landed on Mia, my agent.

“Mia,” I called out, pushing Cooper’s stroller forward to pave a way through the crowd, sighing in relief when she pulled me to the side and smiled down at Cooper. I had let everyone I work with know about my situation, so none of them were surprised when I showed up with a child that I hadn’t had a month before.

“Hello, Cooper,” she cooed, causing him to giggle happily. “Don’t you get more adorable every day?”

“I don’t think flattery works on him, Mia,” I laughed, smiling down at Cooper affectionately.

She crinkled her nose before looking at me. “As cute as he is Stella, what is he doing here?”

I cringed with guilt. Despite Mia knowing about Cooper, she had informed me that she thought it was best if he didn’t accompany me to work. Up until this point I hadn’t either, because Mia was afraid that if Cooper was around, I would be so worried about him that I wouldn’t be able to focus on my modeling.

She wasn’t entirely wrong, but I also knew that Cooper was borderline angelic and there really wasn’t a lot for me to worry about.

“I’m sorry,” I began, hurtling headfirst into my apologetic spiel, “But Tyson had an emergency and you know I’ve never done this before and I promise it will never happen again. Besides, he’s not going to bother anyone. He’s the lowest maintenance child ever. Just sit him to the side with a pile of toys and he’ll be perfectly content.”

“He’s not the one I’m worried about,” she sighed in defeat, rubbing her temples with her thumb and forefinger. I had a tendency to give Mia gray hairs and migraines. “Fine, I’ll have one of the stylists keep an eye on him. You better be on top of your game today.”

“Aren’t I always?” I grinned, leaning down to kiss Cooper quickly on the cheek before turning to let the stylists, hair dressers, and makeup artists have their way with me.

The shoot was for fall fashion and I was ultra-excited because fall was my favorite season to dress for.

The first outfit consisted of a strapless navy dress with pink and white polka dots beneath a brown leather biker jacket, paired with brown ankle boots. They curled my hair and pulled half of it back in an attempt to give me a sweet, carefree sort of look.

The second look was more mature, with maroon jeans, a floaty white top trimmed with black lace, and the most adorable Mary Jane stilettos I’d ever seen in my life. This time, my hair was slicked and pulled back into a high ponytail, made fancy when they used a piece of my hair to hold it together and make it look like there was no hair tie.

Modeling had always been my favorite thing to do and I was pretty convinced that it was just about the only this I was good at. I wasn’t really sure what it was that made me love it so much. Maybe it was because it gave me a chance to become someone else. To tell a story with my body and my facial expressions. I’d been told since I was young that I showed my emotions way too freely, so I figured I could use that to my advantage.

This particular shoot was infinitely more fun because it was being done with other models. Basically, we just had to frolic around on a set full of leaves and get into play fights with each other.

Around the time we’d had our third outfit changes – I was now in a multilayered combo with denim shorts, tights, a white long sleeved shirt, a black leather jacket, black combat boots, and a bright red scarf – Tyson showed up and stood to the side until we finished. 

He still looked frazzled and guilt ridden and as he made a beeline towards me as I walked back towards the dressing area, I smirked when I noted my fellow models checking him out. Not that I blamed them – Tyson was damn fine.

“Hey, Stel,” he said, slightly out of breath when he finally reached me. “Sorry, that took so much longer than I thought it would. Is everything alright? Where’s Cooper?”

I had a momentary heart attack before I spotted Cooper sitting contently beside a bunch of camera equipment, playing with his toy cars. I smiled at Tyson. “Breathe, Kingsley. It’s fine. Everything is under control.”

He glanced towards where my gaze had gone moments before and let out a sigh of relief, his muscles visibly relaxing as his posture slackened. “Sorry, it’s been a stressful day so far.”

“Yeah,” I said, holding in a laugh when he jerked to turn around as I shrugged off my jacket and began to unbutton my shorts. “That stick up your ass seemed to be farther than normal. What gives?”

He ignored my beautiful figure of speech. “My boss told us that there’s some huge client that wants to throw a party at the restaurant and he can’t say no even though its last minute so we had to come up with the menus and everything so that he can do the ordering of the supplies today.”

“When’s the party?” I asked as I successfully stripped off the tights and tugged on the leggings for my next outfit.

“Next weekend.”

“So do you have to go back to work tonight?”

“Sadly, yes,” he sighed.

I held out a hand to his shoulder so he would turn around once I had shrugged on and buttoned my denim shirt. He watched me step into the tan knee high boots before stepping to the side so a nearby stylist could strategically wrap a leopard printed scarf around my neck.

“Poor baby,” I jutted out my bottom lip as a hair stylist quickly teased my locks into the look they wanted.

He rolled his eyes, crossing him arms over his chest. “Thanks for the support, Stel.”

“Anything I can do?” I laughed, standing as still as possible until my hair transformation was complete.

“Actually,” he paused, shoving his hands in his pockets and rocking forward on his feet. “Are you almost done?”

“I’ve got one more outfit to do after this one,” I replied, smiling gratefully when the hairstylist finished and went off to work on another model. “Why? What’s up?”

A sly smile stretched his lips, his eyes twinkling naughtily. “I want to take you somewhere.”

“I don’t know whether to be frightened or intrigued,” I said slowly.

He snorted when he realized his words had almost sounded dirty. “Chill, Stella. I found us a place.”

“To live?” I raised an eyebrow.

He rolled his eyes. “Yes. To live.”

“Alright,” I grinned. “Just hang out and you can take me there when I’m done.”

“Sounds good,” he nodded, turning to go join Cooper on the floor.

I modeled the next two outfits, being sure to watch Tyson and Cooper out of the corner of my eye before making my way back to the dressing area to change into the outfit I’d arrived in.

As I pulled on my jeans, I had the strange feeling that I was being watched and I looked up to find the two other models staring at me. Their eyes scanned my body quickly, probably mentally further confirming that I could not have given birth recently within the past two years.

“So that little boy…” the one named Hannah said, “He’s yours?”

I paused because I wasn’t exactly sure how to respond. Legally, I was now Cooper’s guardian. But calling him my son felt strange. I supposed it was something I would have to get used to. “Yes, he is.”

“Did you adopt?” Hannah asked.

Explaining what really happened was a surefire way to get looks of pity and I wasn’t about to become the center of a sympathy fest, so I just nodded because it was partly true.

“He’s adorable,” she smiled, turning back to pull her purse from a nearby rack and swinging the strap over her shoulder.

“Thanks,” I sighed as I pulled on my t-shirt, slightly relieved that this conversation was ending.

“And your husband is hot,” the one named Delia blurted out.

“Who? Tyson? We’re not…” I stopped as I realized if I explained that we weren’t together, it brings up a whole other line of questioning. Instead, I told the truth, just not extremely specifically. “We’re not married.”

“You guys are cute, though,” Delia smiled and Hannah nodded in agreement. “You make an adorable little family.”

I blinked because it was the first time anyone had ever referred to us as a family. When I spoke, the word came out shaky. “Thanks.”

Nodding, they both exited the dressing area. Taking a deep breath to stop myself from trembling, I slipped into my shoes and grabbed my purse before heading out to join Cooper and Tyson. Tyson was comfortably nestling Cooper into his stroller, squatting down in front of him and crossing his eyes to make the toddler laugh.

I smiled softly as I approached. “Ready to go?”

“Yep!” Tyson grinned as he stood. I grabbed Cooper’s diaper bag from the ground and we made our way out of the building.

“You know, you were kind of amazing in there, Stel,” Tyson said once we safely seated on the subway, Cooper held firmly against Tyson’s torso by a large hand, the stroller stored to the side.

“How so?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “I mean, I’ve seen you on billboards and in magazines and stuff, but actually watching you do it – it was incredible. You make magic, Stella.”

I blinked at him rapidly, wondering if I had missed a layer of sarcasm in his words, but there was no amusement in his eyes. The sharp contrast from our usual dynamic set me on edge. “Um, thanks.”

“You’re really bad at accepting compliments aren’t you?” he laughed.

“No, I’m just not used to hearing them from you,” I shot back.

“Don’t worry,” he smirked. “You won’t have to get used to it. It’s probably not going to happen again.”

He spoke again before I could respond. “This our stop. Will you get the stroller?”

I stood as the subway came to a stop, removing the stroller from its storage space on the side and trying not to laugh as I noticed the way the women across the aisle were staring at Tyson as he rotated Cooper and easily held the toddler against his chest.

They were looking at him the way I imagined I looked at red velvet cupcakes.

I don’t know what it is about men and children that instantly makes them ten times more attractive. No wonder Tyson always took Cooper with him when he went grocery shopping. It was probably almost like speed dating for him.

Tyson paid no attention to them however, ushering me off the train when the doors slid open. Once we were up on street level, he strapped Cooper back into the stroller and offered to push. I briefly wondered if he already knew the effect he would have on the female pedestrian population, but decided to let him have it.

“So how did you find this place?” I asked, realizing I had no idea where we were going.

“My friend Danny that I work with lives in the building and told me someone just moved out,” he replied. “I called the building supervisor on the way to meet you and, because he loves Danny, he agreed to let us have the first look.”

“Look at you,” I grinned, “Working your connections.”

“Let’s just hope this place works out,” he sighed, his fingers tightening around the stroller handle.

“Hey, if it turns out to be a cockroach infested meth lab, at least we’ll be able to tell interesting stories at work,” I teased.

“About how we scarred Cooper for life?” he replied. His words were serious, but his tone was lighthearted, so I could tell he was playing along. “He’ll grow up to tell his therapist about how he knew how to cook meth before he could read.”

“On the bright side,” I added, “he’ll be amazing in chemistry.”

He was holding in laughter. I could tell by the way his lips were pressed together and quivering. He finally let it out, his eyes squinting and his head thrown back as he shook his head.

“Don’t worry,” he finally said when he could breathe properly again, “If it’s anything like Danny’s place, it’s great. It’ll just be nice to finally have a place sorted out, you know? Have a place that feels like home.”

“Yeah,” I replied dumbly, because I never really knew what to say when Tyson got sentimental. He was right, though. The house never really felt like ours. Maybe because, despite the fact that we knew they weren’t coming back, it was still theirs. It was the house they’d put all of their savings into as an investment, thinking they’d raise a family there. And it just didn’t seem right for us to continue living there as though nothing had changed.

“This is us,” he nodded as we came to a stop in front of a building that looked to have about fifteen stories.

“Cool,” I replied, walking up to the entrance and holding the door open so he could push the stroller through.

The building supervisor was a short, balding man wearing a bright yellow striped polo shirt and faded blue jeans. He let us into the apartment, his gaze entirely vacant as he waited by the door and gave us a few minutes to check the place out. I pulled Cooper from his stroller and held on my hip as we wandered around.

It was pretty small, but everything seemed to fit nicely. The front door opened to a living room with a kitchen to the right. There were three bedrooms, one to the left and two the right. The two to the right were connected by a bathroom and the one on the left had its own, making it the master bedroom. A window that was visible just as you walked in had an incredible view of…well, the building across the street, but hey, you couldn’t have everything.

Actually, it was exactly what we were looking for. Just the right size with the right number of bedrooms in a neighborhood that we could actually afford. Tyson really got lucky when he told his friend Danny that we were looking.

“Tyson, this is perfect!” I exclaimed, turning a little too quickly on my heel and causing Cooper to giggle excitedly. “We should definitely make an offer.”

“You think?” he replied, not sounding at all convinced. “It’s a little small. Especially the kitchen.”

I rolled my eyes. “Tyson, when we’ve both saved enough money, we’ll move into a penthouse apartment with a ginormous kitchen that you can cook in to your heart’s content. For now, this is exactly what we’re looking for.”

“Ok, but there’s only three bedrooms. What if someone wants to spend the night?”

“Do you know how much it would cost us to get a four-bedroom apartment?” I glared. “Getting a three bedroom at this price is a miracle. Besides, do you plan on having a lot of overnight guests?”

I stared at him pointedly before realizing the implication and cutting him off before he could speak. “Don’t answer that. I don’t wanna know.”

This time, he rolled his eyes.

“What’s your deal, anyway?” I laughed, hoisting Cooper higher on my hip. “You were the one that said this place was going to be great.”

“I know,” he sighed, stepping towards me. “I guess if we decide we want it, it makes everything official.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I guess it does.”

Tyson dropped his gaze to the toddler in my arms. “What do you think, Coop? Think this is our new home?”

Cooper grinned widely and giggled, which in turn caused Tyson to smile like an i***t. He lifted his eyes to look at me again. “I guess we’ve got answer.”

Ecstatic, I turned towards the front door to find the supervisor leaning against the door frame and looking as though he was about to fall asleep. I spoke louder than necessary to make sure he heard me. “We’ll take it, sir.”

He jolted, standing up straight and staring at me vacantly for a moment before nodding and turning back towards the hallway. “I’ll go get the rental agreement.”

“Thank you!” I called to his retreating back.

Tyson reached out to take Cooper from me, pressing a kiss to the top of his head.

“Well, Coop, I guess this is it,” he said softly, glancing towards me and lifting his lips into a small smile. “Home sweet home.”

I nodded, feeling suddenly weightless, as though all my worries had disappeared. Returning his smile, I repeated his words.

“Home sweet home.”