So I'm cheating a bit today for WIP Wednesday and using the short I wrote for Lex Chase's Flash Fiction Friday last week, mostly because I've been at work all day and I'll be busy all night cleaning out the junk closet so the wildlife exterminator dude can reach the attic tomorrow. (Did I mention that something is living in my roof? SOMETHING IS LIVING IN MY ROOF. It ate my house. Literally. It chewed through the soffit outside, and I already paid my handyman $200 to fix the hole...only to have it appear again three days later. So now I have to pay some Duck Dynasty enthusiast cash money to come extract whatever it is, and then pay my handyman again to fix the hole. At least the painter hadn't come yet to finish the exterior job. *sob* Home ownership.)
Anyway, I'm not up for writing tonight because there is something that is capable of eating through solid cedar nestled somewhere in the eaves above me, probably breeding, oh my god.
But I wrote a nice little short for Lex last week, so we'll use that here. And bonus, I'll link to it so you can read the whole thing over on her blog.
Her prompt was a stay-at-home dad joining the neighborhood mommies club. *snort*
SAHMies
He’d resisted for the last month. Surely the snow and cold must let up at some point, he’d thought. It’ll only be another day until we can get to the park or break out the jogging stroller.
But it snowed. And sleeted. And snowed some more. And when it didn’t snow or sleet, it was too cold for the park or for Jack to nap in the stroller while he ran.
So they stayed in some more.
“You’re being ridiculous, babe.”
Kade glared at his husband, though it was a wasted effort, since Tony was busy watching himself in the hallway mirror so he could get his tie just so. He was still dressing to the nines every day since he was the new guy at the firm, and Kade knew Tony was under a lot of pressure to make a good impression on the partners.
Kade took a breath and counted to ten. They’d moved across the country so he could stay home with Jack. Tony had walked away from a firm where he could have been made a partner in the next five years to take a more lucrative position with a place where had to start all over again building up his reputation and climbing the ranks.
Kade was grateful that he was able to stay home with their six-month-old son. He was. Two months into his one-month paternity leave, he’d come to the realization that another few weeks weren’t going to matter—he couldn’t leave Jack with someone else for the day. He didn’t want to witness his son’s milestones through pictures the daycare sent him.
So they’d left sunny Orange County for the cold, barren wasteland of the Midwest, with its much more reasonable cost of living and its snow. God, the snow.
“Just try it,” Tony said, tightening his perfect winsor knot and turning around.
“It’s just for women.” Kade knew he was being petulant, but he didn’t care. The SAHMies seemed perfect, if not for the fact that it was the acronym for Stay At Home Mom. The group met twice a week, once at a yoga studio for a “Mommy & Me” class and once at a local coffee shop that had a nice, gated area for the babies to play. Both were opportunities for Jack to play with other babies and for Kade to get some much-needed adult interaction—except he was expressly not welcome, given that he didn’t have boobs.
“Babe, it’s not. It says ‘parents and caregivers’ on the website. It’s just a name. You and Jackie should go. It’ll be good for both of you.”
Kade sighed and looked out the window. The predicted one inch of snow had turned into four overnight. It was mid-March, but spring just wasn’t springing. He couldn’t take much more of this.
“Fine.”
Want to see what happens next? Hop on over to Lex's blog for the rest!
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