Pity Party

Persephone was sitting in the dealership's waiting area with her eyes transfixed on the phone screen. Thirty minutes after she dropped Micaela off at Chris's home, the baby simulator began reporting crying episodes that registered loud and lengthy.

This let her know Micaela did good on her promise to get Maggie away from her son so he could see what having a child was truly like sans an around-the-clock granny to shoulder the heavy lifting.

Persephone felt her smile overtake her whole face. Schadenfreude at its finest.

However, two hours later, the feeling of elation made way for intense guilt when there were no changes in the real-time reports on her screen. She just wanted Chris to learn a lesson, she didn't want to traumatize the poor guy- at least, she didn't think she did.

When she got a text from the dealership letting her know the vehicle was ready, she immediately went to claim it and headed straight to Chris's home.

As she approached the front door, she heard realistic wailing sounds of a child crying its little head off.

Yikes.

If that was what Chris has been exposed to these past two hours, Persephone understood she may have messed up royally.

She opened the door tentatively and walked in.

Chris was sitting in the living room sofa slumped over with his hands against his forehead looking defeated. His hair was uncharacteristically very poofy.

The doll sat in the carrier on the floor next to him - still shrieking.

She felt awful.

"Love?" She called out gently. "You okay, baby?"

Chris expelled a long sigh before leaning back on the sofa. He slowly shook his head, slowly looking at her.

"Can you do something about the crying?" He pleaded weakly.

Persephone immediately nodded as she made her way next to him. She put her purse on the table and rummaged through it for her smartphone. Once found, she unlocked the screen, immediately logging onto the baby simulator website.

According to the site, the doll had gas.

She reached over Chris's body for the doll, immediately placing it over her shoulder with pressure on the tummy and began patting the back firmly. After a moment several unpleasant sounds came from the doll that were meant to come out from both ends, and then there was complete and utter silence.

"That was disgusting," he said quietly with a chuckle.

Persephone handed him the doll gingerly and ran her hand through his poofy fluffy hair. "What's going on with your hair?" She asked.

As he cradled the doll with one arm, the free hand ran through his locks.

"And by the way, that was realistic," she informed him as she pointed to the doll. "And sometimes those sounds are accompanied with even more unappealing things like vomit and poop," she stood to look over the doll's things that were surprisingly still sitting on the other sofa, reasoning it was probably time for a faux diaper change as well. "Seriously, what's going on with your hair?"

She heard him sigh as her back was turned.

"Long story short, I didn't have time to condition or fix my hair because the baby was crying."

She chuckled as a bit of the guilt subsided. She found what she was looking for and returned to the spot she was sitting in. "That's kids for you, Chris." She placed a padded white vinyl matt on the sofa between her and Chris. "Doll is going to need a diaper change," she told him. "Lay it down and take care of it. Your mom showed you how to change a diaper, right?"

Chris remained quiet. He stared down at the doll and smiled.

"Actually," he said.

He said nothing more.

Persephone scoffed. "Seriously? You let your mom do everything, right?"

He looked at her sheepishly. "She wanted to."

She sighed exasperatedly. Shaking her head, she took the doll from him and began taking care of the diaper change. "So disappointed in you," she said as she undid the snaps on the light blue romper. "You know what, it's fine. You and me, we do this together with no outside influences from now on." She removed the diaper, she wiped, she applied fake ointment and put a clean diaper on before re-dressing the doll."

Once done with the task, she looked at him. "Go to the gym and when you come back, I'll guide you on how to take care of one of...." she waved her hand over the doll, "these things."

Chris's face began to look as guilty as she felt when she walked in.

Her spidey senses were tingling. "What is it?"

"I went to the gym already," he confessed.

Persephone immediately grabbed his wrist to see if maybe the bracelet had a latch she didn't know about. "You took this off?" She demanded to know as she inspected the cuff.

"No, babe, I took my mom and the baby to the gym with me." He explained. "When the baby began to cry, I would put my hand on his back until he calmed down."

She released his hand and stared at him. She slowly shook her head. "Your mom is an enabler."

Chris picked up the baby on his own, immediately cradling it. "One hundred percent," he admitted.