Angela

She scrubbed the countertop down, working her hand in circles to remove some of the buildup that had occurred over the past few days. Normally she was a fairly fastidious person, but with a young infant on hand now, she was quickly learning to live with a less than sparkling-clean place. That was all changing now that she’d agreed to have Noah come over for dinner and a movie, whatever that was supposed to mean.

“You should have just agreed to Rachel’s offer,” she muttered to herself as her curly locks bobbed and wove while she put some elbow grease into cleaning the counter.

When Rachel had heard, she’d offered to look after Cooper. A playdate with him and Karlie she’d said. But Angela wasn’t quite ready to do that yet, though she knew the time was coming soon where she would have to start distancing herself. Not a lot of course, but enough so that the two of them could learn a little independence.

Of course, now she was going to be having Noah here, in her house. Alone. With her. What was she supposed to do after dinner? Just tell him to get up and leave? Would he go if she asked him to? Another thought struck her. What if she didn’t want him to go? What if he stayed?

Just go with the flow. Stop overthinking it and just let happen what will happen.

Like she would ever be able to do that, Angela thought with a snort, using the ridiculousness of the thought to power her arm’s strokes as she lifted the last of the grime. A quick rinse of the sponge and she stood back to admire her work.

“Excellent.”

The kitchen had been the worst of it, and so she’d saved it till the end, naturally. Now all that was left was to shower and dress herself. That was a tough prospect, and made even more so as she worked to get herself back to a semblance of her old pre-pregnancy self. After four months of classes she was starting to feel better, but the truth was, Angela had never been carved from the typical feminine mold.

Picking up Cooper, she took him back to the bedroom where she doffed her clothes, looking at herself in the mirror. A distinct lack of curves stared back at her. The one term that had always seemed to best describe Angela had been “blocky” or “sharp-angled.” She had no real hips to speak of, nothing that flowed and curved in a delicious manner that men might be interested in.

She’d often thought if she worked out a lot she’d resemble a bit of a weightlifter. She had the frame for it, that was certain. She had breasts and a butt, sort of. A turn sideways in the mirror proved that fact to her. Neither were large, or as perky as she’d have preferred, but they still existed, so she felt lucky that way.

But cladding herself was, in her opinion, a little more challenging if she wanted to pull off the feminine sexy look. A lot of clothes just sort of hung there on her, refusing to add shape or flow to her body.

“Okay,” she said out loud, tearing her eyes away from the mirror at last. “Let’s go get Mommy cleaned, shall we?”

Cooper just sort of stared at her wide eyed.

“Yeah, I’m speechless too,” she said, closing her eyes and smiling to herself. Picking up the carrier once more she moved back out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. Showering had become an interesting prospect, because Cooper seemed to hate her shower curtain.

Angela was fairly certain that it wasn’t the fact that he couldn’t see her, because she’d been out of his sight numerous times before. She’d also showered with no shower curtain, and that didn’t bother him, so it wasn’t the shower itself. But pulling the curtain across while she showered always seemed to provoke an intense reaction from Cooper.

“So just face him the other direction, you idiot,” she said out loud, the solution suddenly striking her.

Angela spun him around so he faced the door, gave him a couple of kisses and then hopped into the shower. Blissful silence followed.

“Mommy One, Silly Baby Zero,” she intoned, keeping track as she luxuriated in having a shower without worrying about having to try and keep the spray aimed away from the floor, and then cleaning up all the water that made its way there anyway. It was pure heaven.

The peace helped her relax and not worry as much about her upcoming date, and she lounged under the water for longer than intended. Cooper never made a peep though, and she figured that perhaps he was aware she’d needed this badly. Whatever the case, he was smiling and burbling happily when she got out and checked on him.

“Good baby,” she crooned softly.

It was almost time to feed him, and so she set about doing that before getting dressed, deciding it would be easier while already topless.

Eventually she was able to start focusing on getting herself dressed, picking out the perfect outfit to hopefully impress Noah. He didn’t seem like the type that cared, as long as she was happy. But she still wanted to make him look twice, if possible.

“Go with Rachel’s suggestion this time,” she told herself, speaking out loud to try and make it more forceful.

Her eyes roamed over the little closet, landing on the outfit she’d set aside, that Rachel had told her to wear. She’d called her best friend right after finishing up talking to Noah, half freaking out, half out of excitement. Rachel had immediately told her what to wear, and also what to make food-wise, to try and deliver a good impression.

“After all, the end goal is to ensure he comes back enough times that he stays, right?” was what Rachel had said.

Angela wasn’t quite as convinced of the way things work as Rachel was, but she had to admit, so far she was liking just about everything she’d seen from Noah, which was a major plus.

“Fine,” she said, agreeing to the absent Rachel’s demands and pulling the chosen outfit from the closet. “I’ll put this on.”