Page 28 of Bred By the Minotaur
Milo darts into the living room first, where Darla is sitting on the arm of the couch, sleeping. He rushes over to her, then gently pats her head.
“This is Darla,” he tells Phoebe with great importance. “She talks to me sometimes.”
Phoebe shoots me a surprised look.
“You can pet her,” Milo allows. Obediently, Phoebe pets Darla on the head, and the cat leans into her touch. Milo oohs. “She likes you,” he says, nodding firmly. “She just told me.”
I thought I was giving the tour, but I fall backseat to Milo, who drags Phoebe down the hall to show her the bathroom and the garage. Then we’re headed up the stairs, and Milo makes a beeline for his room.
“This is mine!” he shouts proudly.
His room is kind of a mess, and I’m embarrassed for Phoebe to see it. I’ve always believed that my kid’s space is his space, and though I try to encourage him to keep it neat and put his clothes away, they still end up all over the floor.
“Here. This is my ant farm.” He pulls Phoebe by the hand across the room to his desk, where the ant farm is busy, as always. “That one’s Hambone, that’s Cupcake, and that one is, uh...”
He gives up pointing out each of the ants, then hops out of his chair and gestures to his bed, which is covered in spaceships.
“I’m going to be an astronaut,” he declares, patting the comforter. “I’m learning how to hold my breath so I can be good at it.”
Phoebe furrows her brow at this, but eventually smiles and nods. “Very important for astronauts,” she says as Milo heads back out the door.
Unfortunately, he decides to visit my room next. The idea of Phoebe seeing it sends prickles up my back. I’m not messy by any stretch, but it feels... personal. I can imagine her there too easily, on my bed, lying naked on her back.
Milo pushes the door open, and I have no reason to hide it, so I let him. He peeks in and then gestures for Phoebe to follow. She gives me a questioning arch of her eyebrow.
“It’s all right,” I mouth to her.
My room is dark, as I often have to sleep during the day to be ready for my shifts. Milo hops onto my bed and jumps on it. “I sleep here sometimes!”
“Don’t bounce on the bed,” I call, and he quickly stops.
“Just when I’m scared, though,” Milo says, patting his little chest. “Not as much as I used to.”
Standing here with Phoebe so close, the scent of her shampoo in my nose... I wonder what it would be like to be alone with her. To push her down on that bed, surround her with my arms, and actually kiss her like I almost did at the hospital.
Then we’re off to the next room, and I thank my lucky stars for Milo’s short attention span.
“This is for the baby,” Milo says as we reach the last door to the guest room. He bounds inside, spinning around in a circle next to the bed. “We’re going to decorate it, right, Dad?”
I nod and smile. “Of course. We’ll pick out some nice colors and paint the walls.”
“Can we do dinosaurs?”
I rub my chin thoughtfully. “What if the baby doesn’t like dinosaurs?”
Milo gasps in indignation. “Everyone likes dinosaurs.” He shoots Phoebe a suspicious look. “You like dinosaurs, don’t you?”
She grins. “My favorite is Argentinosaurus. I mean, it was the biggest animal to ever live. Pretty amazing, huh?”
I cock my head. The woman knows her dinosaurs.
Milo squeals. “Totally amazing! But I like velociraptors better. They had feathers, did you know?”
He prattles on about dinosaurs as we leave behind the guest room, but I catch Phoebe glance back over her shoulder at it. Maybe there’s still a chance.
After Milo’s shown Phoebe the upstairs bathroom and the crawl space, the doorbell rings.
“Pizza!” he howls, sprinting for the door.
