Page 9 of Falling Together

Blair shook her head and pointed to the plate. “Your mommy said this is what you’re supposed to eat.”

Nolan flipped the plate upside down and shouted, “Chicken nuggets,” so loud that Blair was sure the next-door neighbors could hear him. Hell, the whole town could probably hear him.

“Chicken nuggets! Chicken nuggets! Chicken nuggets!” Nolan continued to shout. As if that wasn’t bad enough, as she sat staring at him, completely dumbfounded, he stood on his chair and started jumping up and down. With each jump, he came closer and closer to falling off.

“Fine!” Blair shouted before she even realized what she was doing. When Nolan stopped jumping and stared at her, she took a deep breath. “Fine. We can go get chicken nuggets on one condition.” She held one finger in the air. “Don’t tell your mommy.”

As if she had just performed magic, the feral child from a few seconds ago disappeared, and the cute little boy returned. He giggled into his hand before holding it out to her. “No telling.”

Blair shook his hand as she breathed out a sigh of relief. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

Thank god Erin had moved Nolan’s car seat to Blair’s car that morningin case of emergencies. This was definitely an emergency. The kid could’ve fallen off of the chair and cracked his head open. Chicken nuggets were the much safer option.

It was only a five minute drive to McDonald’s, and because he was getting what he wanted, Nolan acted like a perfect angel the whole way there.

As soon as it was their turn to order, Nolan started to shout again. “Chicken nuggets! Chicken nuggets! Chicken nuggets!”

“I know, buddy. Let me order.” Blair stuck her head out the window to try to muffle the sounds of the shouting child. “Could I have a six-piece Chicken McNugget Happy Meal with juice, please?”

“Of course,” the voice over the intercom said. “Would you like apple slices or double fries with that?”

Blair smiled. That was an easy question. What kid would choose apple slices over extra fries? “Double fries, please.”

A high-pitched wail erupted in the back of the car. “Nooooooo.”

“One moment please.” Blair turned around to look at Nolan, who was now thrashing around in his car seat and screaming the wordnoover and over again. “What’s wrong?”

“Apples! I want apples!”

“Okay, chill.” Blair turned back around and put her head out the window again. “Sorry. I’ll actually take apple slices.”

“No problem. Is that everything?”

Blair’s stomach growled just from the question. She was so distracted by Nolan, she almost forgot about getting food for herself. “Actually, could I have one more six-piece Chicken McNugget Happy Meal, but that one with a small Coke and double fries instead of apple slices?”

“Nooooooo!” Nolan screamed once again. “Apple slices!”

“Sorry. One moment again.” Blair turned around to face Nolan once again. “Chill, bro. The fries are for me. I already got your apple slices.”

“Apple slices. Apple slices.” Nolan kicked his feet and whipped his head back and forth so hard, Blair worried he might give himself whiplash.

“Fine. Fine.”Let’s try this again. “I’ll actually take the apple slices with that one too.”

“And isthateverything now?” The employee didn’t try to hide their annoyance this time around.

“Yep. That’s everything.”

Blair was happy when they made it back to the house with no further meltdowns. After getting inside, she cleaned the mess from earlier off of the table and replaced it with their new meal.

Blair had barely finished dipping her first chicken nugget in barbecue sauce before Nolan finished all of his fries. He held the empty box in the air. “More!”

Blair pointed to the untouched bag of apple slices. “Why don’t you eat those? I know how much you wanted them.”

Nolan picked up the bag, studied it, then threw it across the room. “No! No apples.”

Blair took a deep breath as she tried to not completely lose her shit. “You told me you wanted apples, remember? You screamed about it loud enough for everyone in the state of Pennsylvania to hear.”

“No!” Nolan pointed to the fries sitting in front of Blair. “Give me yours!”

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