10// ~Restaurant~

Looking down at the precious girl in my arms, I traced her delicate feature with my eyes. The slope of her button nose, the freckles adorning her nose and cheeks, with some splattered along the rest of her face, although lighter, the long eyelashes brushing against her cheeks, her pouty lips that were closed with a pout and she breathed in slowly in and out of her nose. Her cheeks slightly rosy from the deep sleep.

Her head and shifted and now laid on my chest, her body curled up to my side. Her hands were pulled to her chest.

I couldn't believe what I was looking at, who I was looking at. I never thought we would find someone as perfect as she is. Everything she does, everything she says, every interaction I have with her, and that she has with my girls. It's perfect. I don't know how else to describe it. I feel as though there are no words in the dictionary to describe her.

"Not gonna finish watching the movie?" Dani jokes.

I chuckle and look up at her, ignoring her obvious teasing tone of voice. "Would you?" I raise my eyebrow, already knowing the answer.

She puts her hands up and smirks, looking down at Ara. "God, I can't, she's too cute."

I nod. I look at Athena and see her already staring down at Ara as well, a slight smile on her face, looking entranced. I let out a quiet laugh, not wanting to disturb others.

Athena looks up at me. "What?"

"Oh nothing." I smirk. "She just has no idea how much she has us wrapped around her little finger."

They both agree and we put our focus back onto the giant screen in front of us for the last bit of the movie.

Once it finishes we let the credits roll and most everybody leaves the theater before we decide to wake her up. We didn't want her to be overwhelmed waking up in a theater full of strangers, plus by waiting she was able to take a little bit of a longer nap.

"I guess we have to wake her up now." Athena says.

"I know, I wish I didn't have to. I just want to keep her close to me forever." I pull her closer to with the arm wrapped around her. I know I sound whiny, sue me.

Dani leans over and runs her hand through Ara's hand a few times, causing the small girl to stir slightly, her eyes open a little before closing right away and nuzzling into close to me, whining.

I laugh and lean my head down slightly to try and look her in the face. "Honey the movies all done, we gotta get up now okay?" I phrase it as a question, but it's more of a command.

"Sleepy." She mumbles, keeping her eyes closed.

"I know you are sweetheart but we have to get up now, you can take a little nap later if you really need to alright?" Athena tries to reason with her. "We have to get up so we can go and get some nice yummy food to fill your belly."

She tries to open her eyes slowly, squinting due to the light that's now turned on in the theater. She blinks a few times and rubs her eyes. I would usually not allow her to do that but I'm not going to fight her on it right now because I already know she's having a hard time waking up. She pouts, a sleepy look still on her face. Stretching her arms above her head, she yawns and leans up off of me slightly.

"Okay, m' ready." She mumbles.

"Good girl." I praise her. We all stand up and I grab her hand as we walk out of the theater. She sways slightly on her feet and uses my hand as stability. "Do you know what you want to eat sweetheart? We can somewhere that has burgers, pizza, salad, anything sounding good?"

Athena pushes open the door and holds it as we all walk outside, thanking her. Ara shrugs as she looks down at her feet and swings our arms back and forth slightly. "Want you to pick." She mumbles. I can tell she's still a little sleepy, taking a few minutes to fully wake up.

"Alright, how about we go to a restaurant that has a bunch of different options that way you can get whatever you feel like there."

She nods. "Thank you." She very quietly reply's.

I open her door and let her sit down. She doesn't let go of my hand. "Sweetheart you have to let go so I can buckle you up." I smile warmly at her, bending down.

She blushes and lets go, allowing me click in her seatbelt. I pinch her cheek slightly before standing up, causing her to smile and whine, moving her face away. I smirk and close the door going around to the drivers seat. Dani sits down in the passengers seat this time while Athena sits in the back with Ara.

I turn on the car and put on some upbeat music. After I start driving I look back to check on her and can tell the music has woken her up a little bit and she's wiggling back and forth to the music and looking out the window with a smile on her face.

We pull up the restaurant five minutes later as it was only write down the street from the theater. We park and all get out. Ara waits until Athena grabs her hand to start walking across the parking lot to the entrance.

I'm glad she already looks to us for guidance. It makes me happy that she trusts us so much and allows us to act in her best interest. The way she listens to us so well too and doesn't question our decisions or argue with us. I'm sure there will be moments where she acts a little bratty and throws a tantrum because she she's tired or simply just doesn't want to listen and do what we say, but we'll deal with that when it comes. Plus when it does happen it kind of shows us that she's comfortable enough to feel like she can really tell us how she feels and voices her opinion.

We would obviously never force her to do something she didn't want to as long as it didn't impact her safety or her health, as of now, as we haven't discussed our relationship or the rules around it. We can still suggest or try to guide her in the right direction but we're not going to force her to do anything right now.

I open the door and allow them all to walk in. We get seated right away in a booth towards the back of the restaurant. Ara and I sit down on one side and Athena and Dani sit down on the other, Athena across from me and Dani across from Ara.

"Hi, I'm going to be your waiter for the day, my names Josh, can I get you guys started on some drinks?" A boy a little older than Arabella's age comes around and asks us.

We all go around ordering our drinks. Me, Dani, and Athena all order a lemon water, but when it gets to Ara's turn she freezes up a little bit and looks over to me.

"Do you know what you want honey? They have lemonade, chocolate milk, apple juice, or you can just get a water."

I don't want to push her too hard but I also want her to try and use her own words to order.

"Chocolate milk please." She whispers, so only I can hear.

"Okay, can you tell him please sweetheart." I rub her back with my hand.

She nods shyly before moving her head a little towards the waiter. "Um...can I p-please have some ch-chocolate milk?"

"Got it. Alright I'll be back soon with those drinks and to get your food orders." He puts his small notebook into his pocket and leaves the table area.

"That was so good honey, I'm really proud of you for using your words." Athena said from across the table, with Dani nodding along with her.

She smiles slightly and blushes, looking down and trying to hide her face from us.

"Aawwww is someone blushing." Dani teases.

"Ssttooppppp." She draws out, whining.

We all laugh at her. "Alright, alright, we're just teasing you sweet girl." Dani says.

Ara lets out a strangled mumble noise and sits back up all the way as we all look at her, trying our best not to laugh.

The waiter comes back a few minutes later, setting out drinks down. We all thank him and he pulls back out his notebook and asks us if we are ready to order our food, which we tell him that we are.

Dani orders some kind of pasta, Athena gets steak with potatoes and roasted vegetables, and I decide to get a burger with vegetables on the side.

Arabella seems more confident this time she order. "Can I please have a cheese and chicken quesadilla." She says pretty quietly, but the waiter seems to have heard her.

"Of course, would you like a side of fruit or vegetables with that?"

"Um...fruit please."

"Okay, I'll go get those orders in right now."

We all thank him as he walks away. I make eye contact with Athena and Dani and we decide that now's the time we should ask her.

We were thinking that tonight, if Ara wanted too, we could have her sleep over our house so that we can get closer and potentially talk about taking our relationship further with her if it feels like she's comfortable.

"So, munchkin, no pressure at all, but we were thinking if you wanted to you could sleepover our house tonight. We could go home after this and hangout for the rest of the night, play some games maybe, whatever you want to do and then at night instead of going home you could sleep in one of the guest rooms, then in the morning we can all have breakfast together and we can bring you home at any point you want."

After Dani explains this to her, her face lights up and she wiggles around in her seat a little. "Really?"

"Ya, really." Athena laughs and nods.

Ara's smile drops slightly. "I want to but I need to take medicine in the morning and I don't have it with me, plus I don't have tootsie either." She mumbles the last part.

"Tootsie?" I ask her.

"My...stuffy." She whispers, almost as if she's ashamed of it. Playing with her fingers that are in her lap and avoiding eye contact with us, she waits for our response.

"How about we stop by on the way home and you can grab anything you need before we go back to ours?" I offer.

She furrows her eyebrows a little bit and looks up at my, tilting her head. "You would do that for me?" It looks as though her eyes were actually tearing up a little bit.

"Awww, of course we would do that honey, it's not a problem." I open my arms. "Come her sweetheart."

She leaned over and into my arms, allowing me to wrap her up and squeeze her to me. She layed her head down onto my chest. Her arms curled up into her, not wrapping around me but instead she just laid on me and enjoyed the warmth and comfort.

I pulled back after a minute and kissed her forehead, my hands holding onto the sides of her face. "You all right now?" I rubbed my thumb gently on the side of her cheek. She nods and smiles up at me, her pearly white teeth showing, making me smile back at her. "Good." I remove my hands letting her face back towards the table again.

She picks up her cup and takes a sip of her chocolate milk, and we return to normal conversation until Josh brings the food out to our table.

"Thank you!" Ara says when he places the quesadilla in front of her. We all thank him as well and he asks us if there's anything else we need before he leaves.

"No, I think we're all good, thank you." Athena says.

He leaves the table once he's sure we're all set and we start eating. Ara picks up a piece of the quesadilla and wiggles around her seat doing a little happy dance once she takes a bite.

We all smile at her trying to contain our laughter as to not embarrass her and make her stop her little dance. "Is it good honey?" Athena asks.

She dramatically nods before taking another bite. "Don't forget to eat your fruit too." Dani reminds her.

Ara puts down her quesadilla and eats a couple of her grapes before returning to the rest of her food. "Good job sweetie." I praise her.

"Thank you!" She squeaks out, making me smile at her again.

We finish up eating, everyone ate most of their food, Ara finished all of her fruit and almost half of the quesadilla.

"Do you want to get that in a to go box?" I ask her. When she responds yes I ask the waiter to bring one out with the bill and he goes to get it.

We get her food into the box and get out stuff before exiting the restaurant and getting into the car to head over to her and her Grammys house and grab anything she needs for the night.

We drive over and pull into the driveway within about five minutes. I drive as per usual. I'm usually the driver, not that Athena and Dani don't, but it just usually works out that way cause I don't mind.

We all get out and Ara looks a little surprised. "You guys don't have to come in, I can go get my stuff really quickly."

"It's fine, we don't mind coming in honey." Dani says softly.

"Okay." She mumbles, before running up to the house as we follow behind her. She twists the doorknob and opens up the door. "Hi Grammy!" She shouts.

We all walk into the house and see her hugging her Grammy, a male who looks around her age sitting in the chair next to her. It looks as if Ara doesn't realize he's there for a second but when she does her eyes widen slightly and she waves slowly.

"Hi." She says to him.

"Well hello there, you must be Arabella, I've heard a lot about you. All good things." He chuckles, a full belly laugh.

Ara smiles softly. "That's good. Grammy, is it okay if I go have a sleepover with them, they said I can, so I just have to get some stuff."

"Of course dear, that's fine, you go up and get your stuff."

"Yes!" She whispers before turning around to run up the stairs. "Be right back!" She shouts.

We stand around chatting with Elaine and who we now know is Arnold, before we hear Ara run downstairs. "Careful on the stairs." I tell her as she comes into sight.

"Sorry." She says, before going into the kitchen for a second. She comes out and holds up a little bag in her hands, smiling. "All ready!"

"Okay then, let's get going. It was great talking to you Elaine, we'll drop her back off sometimes tomorrow." I say.

"Alright, have fun!" She says as we all head out the door and into the car once again.

Once we're all buckled in and on the road I look in the mirror back at Ara. "You excited?"

"Yes! So excited!" She kicks her legs slightly.

She's so cute.

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2760 words

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Hi all! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Question for this chapter is:

What is your favorite movie and tv show?

I think mine right now is Charlie's Angles (the 2019 movie), and for a tv show right now I'm obsessed with watching 'The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives', I've rewatched it probably four times already lol. I don't usually like reality tv shows and can never get into them but this one is kind of different so if you guys don't like reality tv, this could be a good one to try and watch.

Ok that's all, bye bye!

- lauren 💕