Page 75 of The Bonus

I roll my eyes; it would have been easier to find them myself in the first place because now I’m going to have to walk upstairs and get them anyway plus clean up the mess she made while looking for them.

“I can’t find them,” she screams, on the edge of a meltdown. “I’ve looked everywhere.”

“Coming,” I call.

Ugh, every Saturday it’s the same.

Running around like a chicken, getting ready for ballet class.

I swear someone must break into our house and hide shit to make my life difficult.

I’m forever looking for something.

I walk upstairs and from the corner of my eye catch sight of her twirling in my bedroom, she’s checking herself out in my full-length mirror. I stand and lean against the doorframe and watch her for a moment.

She’s wearing a pastel-pink leotard and tutu, little white stockings. Her long dark hair is up in a bun and she is so stinking cute I can’t stand it.

“Wow.” I smile. “Fabulous twirling.”

“I’m getting really good at these.” She holds her hands out all professional like.

“I can see.” I nod. “Very impressive.”

“Maria says that I might go up to the next class next year.”

I smirk. She will go up because she’s older but I’ll play along. “Wow, I didn’t know that. Great.”

I walk into her bedroom and look around at the chaos, everything is out of the bottom of her wardrobe and strung all over her bedroom. “What happened in here?”

“What?”

“The mess.”

“Oh…I was looking for the ballet shoes.”

“Couldn’t be bothered to put things back after?” I roll my eyes as I begin to look for these bastard ballet slippers.

“I’m twirling.”

I roll my eyes as I look around her room, not in the wardrobe, not in the toybox, not under the bed.

Where are these stupid shoes?

“Maybe you should go barefoot today,” I call.

“No,” she cries.

“Well, where did you put them?”

“Maria must have touched them.”

Ugh, she’s probably right.

Maria has moved out and is living with her boyfriend, she’s here three days a week while I work and she still knows more about our house than we do.

I walk downstairs and text her.

Hi Maria,

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