Chapter Text
Christen takes a deep breath, trying to rally all of her patience so that she can get through the next five minutes without losing her temper. It will be a close call, but she can do it. Maybe.
Realizing she’s been garnering courage on the porch for a good five minutes, she pushes the doorbell quickly and hopes (against all odds) that her seven-year-old daughter is ready to go so they can leave right away. She should have known better, she thinks, when her ex-wife Alex Morgan opens the door scowling like she’s already preparing for a fight.
She probably is.
When Alex makes no move to let her in, Christen’s polite smile fades. “Uh, Allie called and said she couldn’t make it today to help us with the switch. Didn’t she call you?”
“She did.”
Christen chuckles to herself and tries not to roll her eyes at Alex’s childishness. “Is Mia ready?”
“Not yet.”
“Oh.”
Alex looks pained, but is apparently putting forward more effort than normal. “Would you like to come in?”
No. She doesn’t want to. But if she stands out here any longer, she just might melt in the California heat. “Sure. Thanks.”
Alex leads her to the main room and gestures to the couch for Christen to take a seat. “She’s cleaning up her bathroom. She should be down any minute.”
“She couldn’t have done that any other time?” She doesn’t mean to sound critical. She just wants to make sure that she spends as little time with Alex as possible.
It’s better that way.
When Christen was in college, she thought there would be no one in the world who knew her like Alex Morgan did. Alex was the popular girl that Christen knew she didn’t have a shot with. Still, Alex was the girl that waited outside in the rain just to make sure that Christen got inside her apartment safely. She was funny, charismatic, and driven. Alex knew her inside and out and she knew Alex just as well. When they pledged their love to one another in front of all of their friends just after graduation, both of them knew that their love could conquer anything. Two years later, Christen gave birth to Mia and she thought she would feel this same blissful happiness forever.
Turned out, forever was only about two more years.
If Christen looked back on it, they were really just too similar and too selfish to be good for each other. Both of them were too stubborn to admit when they were wrong and too proud to apologize when they were right.
Their jobs didn’t help either. At the time, Alex worked for a large company, leaving Christen to be Mia’s primary parent while she travelled to foreign countries Christen had never heard of before. Christen trudged through her last semesters of grad school with a part-time wife and full-time baby and felt her own resentment grow until she could barely recognize herself. Alex quit her job so they could try to work on their relationship, but things only got worse. The more time they spent together, the more they fought. It was like a never-ending cycle of arguments and hurt feelings.
In short, it was a recipe for disaster.
The divorce was hard but they tried, for Mia’s sake to be civil as they tried to navigate the waters of divorced parenthood. But when Mia was five, she sat both her mothers down and asked them to stop ‘making each other sad’ because it was ‘not nice’. Being put in time out by a five-year-old was almost too much to take, but it was the catalyst that forced both of them to admit that they had a much better relationship at a distance. Allie, Alex’s longtime best friend and Mia’s godmother, stepped in to help and all three of them found that Christen and Alex did much better at co-parenting through a mediator.
For the last year, the system has worked perfectly. Allie swings by to pick Mia up every Sunday night and drives the ten minutes to the other parent’s house. They alternate weeks, holidays and birthdays and for the most part, Mia seems just as happy with the arrangement as Alex and Christen are. Christen and Alex live close enough that they are both in the school district boundaries so she never has to worry about missing out on something important with her friends, but far enough away that they don’t accidentally run into one another at the grocery store. They check in (through Allie) on major decisions and both have vowed to never criticize the other in front of their daughter.
It is the perfect system.
Well, it was the perfect system.
Because Allie was busy today and now Christen was forced to face her ex-wife in enemy territory.
“Hello? Are you listening?” Alex crosses her arms over her chest and glares at Christen impatiently.
“Sorry.” Christen shakes her head, a little embarrassed at having tuned out whatever rant Alex had likely spewed at her.
“I said I thought that you were the one that wanted her to have, ‘the same rules at my house that she has at yours’? I asked her for the last three days to make sure it was done and here we are.” Alex retorts. “The bathroom doesn’t bug me, so do you want me to tell her that she doesn’t have to do it?”
Christen bites her lip, tempted to tell Alex to do just that. But her long-time irritation at always being the responsible parent overpowers her current discomfort. It drives her crazy when Mia snarks back that she doesn’t have to clean her room at Mommy’s house or that Mommy lets her have ice cream for dinner. Some of that surely can’t be true, but years of gently reminding Alex—okay fine, it’s nagging. Whatever—to actually be a parent isn’t something that she wants to undo for her own convenience.
Plus (and maybe more importantly) she doesn’t want to give Alex the satisfaction of being right. “No. It’s fine. I’ll wait.”
Alex grimaces as if she had been expecting that. Looking almost as pained as Christen feels for them to spend even a few minutes together, she sighs. “She said she’s looking forward to spending time with your new girlfriend.”
She takes a deep breath even though she knows Alex isn’t going to believe a word she says. She’s really not looking for an argument, right now. She just wants Mia so they can spend their week together in peace. “For the last time, Julie is not my girlfriend. We’re just friends.”
“Right.” Alex rolls her eyes. “Because it’s totally unlike you to go after the hot blonde barista that you’ve known for all of five minutes.”
“First of all, she owns a café. That hardly makes her a barista.” Christen snaps. “And secondly, I have known her for over a year. Finally, what the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means you have a type.”
“I do not.”
“Do too.”
“Do not.”
“Really? That is your best response?” Alex rolls her eyes.
“It is because I don’t have a type.”
Alex arches her brow, folding her arms over her chest. "You do."
“You don’t know anything about my ‘type’.” Christen snaps, wondering just where Alex is getting all this ammunition.
“Of course I do. You like successful women who put up a challenge. They call you Christen Fuckboy Press for a reason.”
Christen bristles at the nickname she always hated. Sure, she appreciated flirting, but that was during her first years in college, before Alex even came into the picture. Now that she’s single, this shouldn’t even be an issue. “Nobody calls me that.”
“Really? Because I’m sure the string of broken hearts you left behind begs to differ.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You think we can live this close to each other and I won’t hear how you’ve probably slept with half of the moms on Mia’s soccer team? Get a clue, Chris.”
“You’re exaggerating.” Christen folds her arms over her chest. It was maybe two of the moms at best. And really, they weren’t even that good so it should hardly count.
“What type of example do you think that sets for Mia?”
Christen hates it when Alex talks down to her like this, and can’t help but snap back at her. “That I have a healthy sex life? I don’t know Alex, do you want our daughter to be afraid of her sexuality?”
“No, but I also don’t want her to be some whore.” Alex snaps back.
‘And you think being a frigid bitch is any better?’ Christen wants to retort. But instead, she grinds her teeth, glancing up at the staircase and willing her daughter to come down and end her torment. But just like Alex, Mia has never been on time for anything. When it is clear that Mia isn’t coming down any time soon, she narrows her eyes at her ex-wife. “Watch your language, because if I hear words like that coming out of Amelia’s mouth, I know who to blame. The last thing I need is to have her asking Julie if we’re fucking.”
“Then you admit it!”
“Would you stop twisting my words? There is nothing to admit! We aren’t just sleeping together—”
“I thought you were just friends?” Alex challenges.
“Not that it is any of your business, but we’re taking it slow.” Christen feels her cheeks heat up at the admission. She hasn’t been in an actual relationship in a while and things with Julie are different. It’s new and she still isn’t exactly sure herself what it is completely. She doesn’t appreciate having to explain herself to Alex of all people.
“It’s my business when it affects my daughter.”
“Our daughter.” Christen corrects. She’s nit-picking, but she really doesn’t care. Mia may be her biological daughter, but she is every bit as much Alex’s daughter as well.
“Whatever.” Alex waves her hand dismissively. “You know what I mean.”
“Do I?”
Just then, Mia thankfully starts make her way down the stairs rescuing Christen from any further interrogation. “Mama!” She breaks out into a run as soon as she sees Christen, launching herself at Christen as soon as she gets close and jumping into her arms.
Christen, for her part, had been slightly ill prepared for Mia’s signature greeting and has to take a step back to keep herself from falling backward when Mia wraps her legs around Christen’s waist. Mia really is getting too old for that, but Christen isn’t going to say anything. “Hey! Are you ready for our week?”
Mia lets herself down, nodding excitedly. “Yeah, Emily’s having a party Friday. Can I go? Mom said I had to ask you first.”
“Mom?” Christen looks over Mia’s head at Alex, somewhat surprised. ‘Not Mommy?’ Christen mouths.
Mia frowns and pulls at Christen’s elbow, reminding her mom that she is still waiting for an answer. “So can I go?”
“Uh, sure. Do you have all your stuff?”
“No. I’ll be right back.” She rushes to go up to her room but stops before she gets too far. She turns around and looks at her mothers suspiciously. “Will you two be nice?”
Alex holds up two fingers. “Scouts honor.”
“Promise.” Christen agrees as soon as Mia is out of earshot, Christen shakes her head. “Mom? When did that happen?”
“A few weeks ago.” Alex smiles sadly.
“But you’ve always been Mommy.”
“I know. Apparently ‘Mommy is for little kids’.”
“Ouch.” Christen winces, still reeling at the thought of her baby being a snarky seven-year-old that won’t call her own mother Mommy. “I thought we agreed that she would stop growing up?”
Alex laughs at that. “I know, right?”
“I’ll tell her tonight that she can’t get any older.”
“Good luck with that. She’s too much like you. Never listens.” Alex scoffs, her insult lacking its usual bite.
“What was that?” Christen replies cheekily.
Alex moves to respond only to have the loud thumping of Mia’s descent down the stairs sound through the room.
“Bye Mom!” Mia jumps down the last few stairs and wraps her arms around Alex tightly, unaware that she had broken up one of the most positive interactions Christen and Alex had in years.
“Bye baby.” Alex kisses the top of her head.
Mia is quiet for most of the drive to Christen’s home, something that is fairly unusual for her. Normally, every drive is filled with Mia excitedly explaining whatever thought had drifted into her head. When Christen turns off the car, she turns around to face her daughter before they go inside. “Is everything okay?”
“I guess so.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Mia frowns, biting her lip in a way that looks so much like Alex it’s scary. Mia may be Christen’s biological daughter, but almost all of her mannerisms seem to come from Alex. After a minute, she sighs, “Mom is sad.”
Crap. Christen feels woefully unprepared to deal with this. Pre-teen drama? Sure. But helping her daughter navigate her ex-wife’s mood? That seems like a train wreck waiting to happen. “Mia, I’m sure she’s fine—”
“I think she’s jealous that you have a girlfriend.”
Christen chokes at that. “I don’t think that’s it.”
“She is! She’s sad.”
“I’m sure your mom is fine.” At this point, Christen is mostly just saying that for her own peace of mind. Alex surely isn’t jealous. That would be ridiculous.
“I think she’s lonely.”
Christen cringes. Is this the moment where she has to quash Mia’s dream of them being a happy family again? She’s seen 90s movies about divorced parents. One ended with the parents being locked in the basement. Has Alex been showing her movies like that? Is this where it starts? “Mia, your mom is a wonderful woman and she and I both love you very much. But your mom and I are never going to be together again—”
Mia pulls a face, honestly curious. “Why would you date each other? You’re dating JJ. She gives us doughnuts.”
Christen feels a rush of relief. At least she’s not going to have to worry about some parent trap situation. “And you like doughnuts?”
“Duh.” Mia rolls her eyes. “Obviously. Everybody likes doughnuts.”
Christen chuckles to herself. “Okay then.”
“Can we get some tomorrow morning?”
Christen feels her earlier worry dissipate. She’s kind of anxious to see JJ herself. “Of course we can.”
“But Mom is still sad.”
“Well what do you think should we do about that?” Christen poses the question. If Mia is worried about it, then she is happy to lend a sympathetic ear. Co-parenting with an ex definitely isn’t easy but Christen and Alex have found common ground in Mia. Alex may be a lot of things, but she is a great mother.
“We should find mom a girlfriend!”
Oh shit.