Chapter 19

Megan was mildly shocked to realize that she had fallen asleep. She could feel Tasha’s chin on her head and one of Tasha’s arms still around her. Before she could say anything, she heard a small snore and realized that Tasha had fallen asleep, too. Megan smiled, and she had just closed her eyes again when she heard the unmistakable sounds of Sophia waking up and coming out of the bedroom. She tried to delicately extricate herself from Tasha, but her movement woke her friend.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry that I fell asleep on you.”

“That’s okay. I think we all needed some rest after this morning.”

“Yeah. I think you’re right. I’m going to check on Sophia.”

“Okay, I’m…,” Nocturne hopped up into Tasha’s lap, “...apparently not going anywhere.”

Megan laughed as she walked toward the bedroom. “Hi, sweetheart. How are you feeling?”

“Better, Mommy.”

“That’s good. Come here and give your mom a hug.” Megan would have liked a longer hug with her daughter, but Sophia was quickly getting wiggly.

“You can talk to me about anything. You know that, right?”

“Yes, Mommy. I have to pee!”

Megan laughed. “Okay, go! I’ll be out in the living room with Aunt Tasha.” Out in the living room, Nocturne was making cat biscuits in Tasha’s lap. As Megan sat down, Tasha grabbed the cat and placed her in Megan’s lap.

“I gotta pee, too!” she exclaimed as she jumped up. Nocturne gave her human a baleful look before turning her head back to the important task of now making cat biscuits in Megan’s lap.

“Oof, you’re a pokey little lady.” Megan said as she scratched Nocturne behind the ears. “Okay, time for you to get down. I have an idea.” Nocturne gave a squeak as she was rudely interrupted and placed on the floor.

Megan quickly stripped the bed of sheets and pillows, then raided the closet for more. Tasha looked at her strangely as she lumbered into the living room with her arms overflowing. “Sophia, do you know what I think we need to do?”

“What?”

“I think that we need to make a pillow fort over here by the couch.”

“Okay!”

The first effort collapsed unceremoniously; however, the second attempt fared better when Tasha suggested adding chairs to the construction. The final result wasn’t so much a fort as something vaguely resembling a stall at a market, but that was perfectly fine. Tasha unplugged a stand lamp and placed it in the middle to make the sheet draped over the top convex rather than concave. In the epicenter of all of this, Nocturne supervised from her position exactly in the middle of the blanket on the floor.

Tasha microwaved popcorn and the trio watched movies. Megan offered to grab a bake-at-home pizza from Papa Murphy’s. Tasha used that opportunity to get the oven started and feed Nocturne. Once Megan returned, they all settled in and watched a fun rom-com about a single dad who falls in love with a stranger, all orchestrated by his meddling daughter.

When Sophia started to fall asleep, Megan knew that this magic little moment was coming to an end. She and Tasha disassembled the pillow fort and remade the bed, with ample “assistance” from Nocturne. Then Megan left Tasha to play with Nocturne, who was having a grand time under the covers, so that she could get Sophia cleaned up and ready for bed. Once Sophia was tucked in, Megan went back to the living room and sat down next to Tasha.

“What a roller coaster of a day.”

“Yeah, how are you feeling?”

“You know, pretty good, actually. As awful as Brad showing up unannounced was, deciding to divorce him has freed my mind. Yesterday, I felt buried under all of these questions. Don’t get me wrong, I know that there are still a lot of questions and a lot of decisions ahead of me, but now I can at least see a path forward.”

“I can understand that.”

“I know that I’ve said this a lot, Tasha, but thank you so much. You have been amazing. You are amazing. I don’t think that I could have done this without you.”

“Yes, you could have. You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for, Megan.”

“Thank you for saying that. I mean, I could have done this alone, but I’m in a much better place right now because of you. We have a home because of you. This afternoon, the three of us together… You aren’t just my best friend and Sophia’s godmother. You’re part of our family.”

Tears welled up in Tasha’s eyes as she reached over to hug Megan. As they hugged, Megan added, “You even let me fall asleep on you, which was amazing, by the way.”

“Stop, you’re going to make me cry!”

“Okay, I’ll stop being mushy. Speaking of mushy, what’s going on in this movie?” Another rom-com had started auto-playing and was about halfway done.

“Ummmm, I see a castle, so I’m betting there’s a prince.”

“Good call. I’m betting that she’s American and the king… no, the queen disapproves.”

“Probably wants him to marry some duchess or countess.”

“Right… and she’s a baker.”

“Nope, that was The Princess Switch. Sophia watched that yesterday.”

“She could still be a baker. Or maybe a chef.”

“Should we restart it?”

“Nah, this is more fun!”

Once the movie ended, Megan looked over at Tasha and said, “I don’t want you sleeping out here on the couch again.”

“Really, it’s fine.”

“Come sleep in the bed with me and Sophia…”

“...and Nocturne…”

“I admit, it might be tight with the four of us, but after today, I don’t know. It just feels… finding the right words is hard. Like, it would feel right to me if you were with us. You know, we should all be together… and stuff.”

“That was very eloquent. Especially the ‘and stuff’ at the end. Really pulled the whole speech together.” Tasha grinned.

Megan really did feel much better as she and Tasha climbed into bed, Sophia sleeping peacefully between them. Nocturne surveyed them with feline glee. She had always liked snuggling with her original human, and now she had two more to choose from. She decided to snuggle the smaller one first.