SF Chapter 23: Come Fly with Me IV
Alan was still on the phone with his brother.
"Anyway, where are you?" Daniel asked from the other end of the line.
His brother replied, smiling again as he approached the baby, "I'm visiting Mitchell and Cam, meeting Lily for the first time."
And the two of them ended the call.
"So, Alan, we were thinking of going out to buy more diapers," Cam commented as he grabbed the car keys. "You can come with us, if you want," he invited.
"Oh, okay. Where are you going? Costco is the cheapest." Alan said, using his cheapskate knowledge.
Mitchell rolled his eyes, but Cam nodded in agreement.
"Yes," he agreed. "That's where we buy diapers."
"Costco?! Since when?" Mitchell gave his partner an astonished look, followed immediately by a grimace.
"Since... do you remember when we adopted this baby a few days back?"
[Cam and Mitchell Commentary]
The two of them were still sitting in the chairs in their living room.
Cam declared, pointing to the side, "Mitchell is a snob."
"No," Mitchell denied, raising one hand. "N-no, I-I'm discerning."
"Official slogan for snobs," his partner shot back, then started telling a story. "When we first met, he wouldn't even look at me... because I was a hick from a farm in Missouri, and he's a big city mouse."
"Okay, okay. But the real snob is my younger brother," Mitchell pointed out, making it clear there was someone worse.
"Yeah, Daniel is almost in Pepper's level," Cam agreed. "Oh, Pepper is our gay friend."
[Commentary ends]
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At the Dunphys' house, Leonard chatted a bit longer and said he had a few other things to take care of.
"See you tomorrow, Leonard," Daniel waved at him.
Claire did the same as she started putting the cookies in the tray.
Before the two siblings could start talking again, the doorbell rang.
"Huh, did Leonard forget something?" Daniel wondered, watching his sister brush oil onto the cookies.
Claire stopped and then remembered, "It might be Gloria and Manny. I invited him to play with Luke. Would you get the door, Dani?"
"Fine."
A moment later, Claire turned out to be right, as her brother came back with two more guests.
After exchanging greetings, Gloria placed a hand on her son. "Manny brought his favorite game to play with Luke."
"It's called Empire." Manny pulled a board game box out of his backpack. "You use strategy to expand territories and take over the world."
"Luke is gonna love that," Claire said, glancing at the box, then jerking her head toward the back. "He's out back playing."
Manny took a look and sighed when he saw Luke jumping on the trampoline with a cardboard box on his head.
And Alex appeared in the living room once again.
"Okay. What about this?" She was wearing a long blue T-shirt, pants, and shoes.
Her mother looked straight into her eyes, a little frustrated. "You don't even say 'hello' to Gloria and Manny?"
"Hi, Gloria and Manny." Alex lifted one arm and gave a half-forced smile, then quickly turned back to her mother, repeating her earlier question. "Okay, Mom, what about this?"
"No." Claire barely even looked. "You're wearing a dress."
"Mom, come on."
"What? Is it going to kill you to look like a girl for one afternoon?"
She went back to using the same argument as before. "But it's a wedding for some friend of yours I've never even heard of."
"It's non-negotiable. You can borrow one of Haley's dresses again."
Alex made a face. "No. That sends an ugly message - that I'm Haley."
And she continued with her usual sass. "You know, instead of trying to force me to wear a dress, why don't you worry about getting Luke to wear some pants?"
"What?" Claire finally looked at her son. "Why does he do this?" She took a deep breath, seeing that he was only wearing his underwear.
She walked toward the back door and yelled, "Luke! Pants! Come on!"
Seeing his sister starting to get genuinely frustrated, Daniel decided to intervene.
"Okay, sis, leave this one with me." He pointed at Alex. "I'll make sure she comes back wearing a dress."
He walked over to his niece and picked her up like a sack of potatoes, tossing her over his shoulder.
"Daniii, put me down," she whined.
"Nope. I'm giving you a princess day. And I'm making sure you come back in a carriage and wearing a dress," he announced, completely ignoring her complaints.
"Ohhh, I'll come too," Gloria said excitedly, joining them as well.
Claire walked over and kissed her brother on the cheek. "Don't take too long, people are coming over this afternoon."
And the three of them headed out.
"Come on, if I have to be a princess, at least carry me like one," Alex mocked, already resigned to her fate.
"Nope," Daniel denied again. "You're a modern princess. Anastasia, the potato princess."
Alex tried to kick her uncle.
[Claire commentary]
Claire made a brief comment, "Dani is like that. He keeps pressing my buttons, annoying me, but when he saw I was getting really frustrated.... He steps in and try to fixes the problems."
"And he's good at it..."
[Commentary ends]
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"Hey Daniel, same as usual?" the attendant at the luxury spa asked one of her VIP clients.
"Yep," he agreed, "but this time I came with Mami Gloria, who you already know, and with my niece."
Daniel had his hand on Alex's shoulders while she stood there with her arms crossed.
"For this little one, I want you to treat her the way she deserves - like a potato!" he stated.
Alex made a face. "It's like a princess."
"See? She's already full of herself!" he smirked.
"No, I mean…" she tried to correct herself, realizing she had fallen right into her uncle's rhythm.
After a while, the three of them were already relaxed in their chairs, while the attendants worked on facial massages and their nails.
"So, little beauty, any special event today?" the one applying cream to Alex's face asked.
Alex got embarrassed. "You don't need to force a compliment."
"Huh, a troubled beauty," Mary, the attendant, said amused. "Believe me, little girl, if I wanted to force compliments on someone, it would be your uncle - who's paying for all this."
"Yeah," Daniel chimed in, "where are my compliments?" he added, outraged. "Ouch, Liss."
Liss pulled on one of his cuticles.
"Don't worry, with this facial treatment and your hair done, I want to see you saying the same thing," Mary spoke as she massaged Alex's temples, making it hard for her to refuse or argue.
Liss, noticing that Daniel was humming, looked at him. "Dani, are you trying to write songs now?"
He shrugged. "I seem to have some inspiration these last few days, and I asked myself - why not?"
"Because your dad is going to kill you if you keep jumping into new areas without finishing the rest," Gloria lightly scolded.
"It's all in the bag, Mami Gloria," he dismissed. "I'm only releasing Wimpy Kid on my birthday, so there's still time. I just finished writing Percy Jackson, and I might need to travel to New York to get new inspiration."
He concluded, "And Superbad is making good progress right now."
"What about Juno?" his niece remembered, already with cucumber slices over her eyes.
"Oh, yeah," he waved over another attendant and took her hand, folded bills visible between his fingers. "Anna, Liss told me your teenage sister got pregnant. Why don't you tell the story?"
"You're impossible, Dani," Anna scoffed, but pocketed the money and started gossiping.
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