Page 62 of Own the Eights Maybe Baby
She sighed. “Surprisingly, no nausea after that catastrophe.”
He stroked her arm. “Do you think it was a catastrophe?”
She glanced up at him, cocked her head to the side, and gave him wife-eyes.
He gave her a defeated nod. “Yeah, you’re right. Even without the crap glitch, it was a catastrophe. We were a mess in there.”
They were. Granted, watching a virtual baby levitate in the air probably would have thrown even the most seasoned parent off their game. But she and Jordan had gone intochicken-with-its-head-cut-offmode. No plan. No strategy. All panic.
Lenny opened the door to the infant care simulation nursery, and they settled themselves at a table in the center of the room. She was grateful to leave the glass box, but her husband was right. A baby doll daycare was creepy.
They’d grown used to Faby staring at them. But to have ten other pairs of doll eyes boring into them hit somewhere along the lines of a B-level horror movie.
“We always like to start with a couple’s strengths and go from there,” Stu began, but the look he shared with Lenny wasn’t encouraging.
“Stu’s correct. It’s always good to start with the strengths,” Lenny reiterated.
A glimmer of hope flickered in her heart. Perhaps it wasn’t as bad as she’d thought.
“What were our strengths?” she asked, ready to glean some knowledge off these child development experts.
“You both did a great job navigating the headset,” Lenny answered.
Navigating the headset?
She frowned. “Are you saying that our strength is that we put the headset on our heads?”
“Ding, ding, ding!Good job, good job! You did a good job!” Stu sang out, switching to crooning vagabond, which was quite odd when the guy wasn’t dressed as a kindly hobo armed with a tambourine.
She shared a worried look with Jordan.
“Just to be clear. You’re saying that Georgie and I used the VR headset as prescribed,” Jordan questioned with a crease between his brows.
Kudos to the man for trying to make it sound better.
“Yes,” Lanny and Stu replied in unison, each donning a grin that would have earned them bonus points in a pageant.
All she wanted to do wasWicked-Witch-of-the-West-itout of there and melt into the ground because here’s what it boiled down to. Their strength was putting a hunk of plastic on their heads. It didn’t get much more bottom of the barrel than that.
“And sorry about breaking into song back there. It’s my go-to in challenging situations,” Stu replied with a weak grin.
And the punches kept coming! Not only had they failed, but Stu had also labeled them challenging!
Lenny steepled his hands and rested his chin on his fingertips. “Do either of you have siblings?”
“No, Georgie and I are each an only child,” Jordan answered.
“And how often do you interact with small children?” Stu queried.
“Here and there. I own a bookshop, and we have a story time,” she answered.
Lenny’s expression brightened. “That’s great! How do you structure it?”
She could feel her beauty queen expression coming on. “Well, I don’t exactly structure anything. I have a high school student who volunteers and another employee who leads them. I can recommend books for children of any age, but I work more with the teens, suggesting classics and pertinent series to encourage a lifelong love of reading.”
There! That wasn’t a half-bad answer.
Lizzy, Jane, and Hermione, her trusty trifecta, nodded their fictional heads. Still, Georgie nearly fell out of her chair when imaginary digital numbers appeared above each member of the trifecta, noting how many times she’d suggested each of their books.
