I opened the door. “Kiki, go to your room for a bit and watch some TV, okay? I’ll be right in.”
“Can I have ice cream?”
“Sure. Are you done with your pizza?”
She nodded.
“I’ll bring some in to you,” I said, giving her a hug before she disappeared into her room.
I caught up with Troy back in the dining room.
“Hey,” I said, a bit out of breath.
He looked up from cleaning some of the mess we’d made. “What’s going on?”
“So, unfortunately, it seems she got her period,” I whispered.
His eyes went wide. “What the heck? Really? She’s practically a baby.”
“I know. But it is possible to get it as young as eight. She’s eight and a half.”
“Okay…” He blew out a long breath and stared off. “Well, shit.”
Pulling on the top of my hair, I sighed. “I wasn’t prepared.”
“Yeah, I can understand.”
“I mean, I’m literally not prepared. I don’t have any pads, and she’s too young for tampons. I need to go to the store.”
“I’ll go,” he immediately offered, officially making tonight even more bizarre.
Normally, I would’ve called my mother and asked her to run to the store, but my parents were away. I didn’t want to send Troy, but taking advantage of his offer made the most sense.
“I hate to do that to you, but it would be great. I just need maxi pads. Nothing fancy. Any kind.”
“There’s more than one kind?” Confusion crossed his face.
I suppressed a smile. “There are lots. But just get any kind that’s medium absorbency.” I shook my head. “I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with you.”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything, right?” He lifted his keys from his pocket and tossed them into the air. “This is my first official maxi pad trip. Do you need anything else while I’m out?”
“No, thank you.”
He flew out the door as if there was only one box of maxi pads left in the world, and he needed to rush to seize it. I watched from the window as he drove off.
Then I went to the kitchen to make Kiki’s bowl of ice cream. A few minutes later, I entered her room and placed the bowl on the table next to her as I sat at the edge of the bed. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” She sat up against the headboard, pulling her floral comforter in closer.
“I sent Troy to the store.”
“Did you tell him what happened?”
“I had to. He was worried, thinking you were hurt. It’s okay. He knows what it’s all about, even though he’s a guy. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. It happens to every girl.”
I spent the next twenty minutes answering Kiki’s questions about the monthly cycle.
“You might not be regular in the beginning. But it usually comes every twenty-eight days or so.”
“How do you know exactly when it’s going to come?”
“You don’t.” I frowned. “It’s sort of like a surprise you don’t really want.”
A look of worry flashed across her face. “Like I’ll be in school, and I’ll just start bleeding?”
“Yes. But you can wear something a couple of days ahead of time just to be on the safe side.”
“I wish I could go back to yesterday when my life was simple,” she cried.
I leaned in and kissed her forehead. “You and me both, kiddo. That feeling only gets worse the older you get.”
I sat with her for a little while, watching the cartoon she’d chosen on TV. When the doorbell rang, I placed my hand on her knee. “That’s him. Be right back.”
I went to answer the door and found Troy holding a large bag. “Did you buy out the whole store?”
Looking like he’d just returned from war, he stepped inside and placed the bag on the counter. “Honestly, I didn’t know what kind to choose, even though you told me medium. There were too many choices—long, super long, nighttime, wings, no wings. What, do you women fly away or some shit? Anyway, I got like five different kinds.”
“Five? We might be set till she’s a teenager.” I laughed as I sifted through the bag. I lifted one of the packages. “These are for bladder incontinence.”
He shut his eyes. “Shit.”
“I can return them,” I said.
“Or we can donate them to Horizons,” he suggested. “I’m sure they can use them for someone.”
“Good point.”
The next item in the bag was a stuffed, pink unicorn. “What the heck?” I laughed.
“I didn’t want the cashier to think I had a maxi pad fetish. So, to distract from my collection, I threw that into the mix.”
“I feel like that many maxi pads and a unicorn might have made you come off as even weirder.”
“Solid point. But, hey, it’s cute. It’s for Kiki…obviously.”
“That was very sweet of you.”
I peeked inside and noticed the last item was a bottle of cabernet.
“That’s for you,” he said. “I figured you could use it tonight.”
“Damn right. Thank you.”
“I didn’t think to ask you if you drink wine—with all of your food issues. But you mentioned drinking the night you were out with that Brian tool.”
“I do drink wine, just in moderation. But I will definitely be partaking in this tonight.”
“Would you prefer that I leave and let you relax?”
I paused. Telling him to leave after he’d gone to the store for me didn’t seem right. But more than that, did I want him to leave? I’d been enjoying his company tonight, despite everything.
“Just give me a few minutes while I go tend to her. Make yourself comfortable in the living room.”
“Cool.” He smiled.
I took the supplies Troy had bought to Kiki’s room and had her go to the bathroom and change. After she returned, I gave her the pink, stuffed unicorn.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Troy picked it up from the market.”
“It’s for me?”
“It is.”
Kiki stared down at it before hugging it to her chest. “Tell him I said thank you.”
“You don’t want to tell him yourself?”
She shook her head. “I just wanna go to bed.”
I couldn’t blame her. “Okay.” I kissed her on the head. “I understand. Holler if you need anything, okay?”
“I will.”
Troy was watching TV when I returned to the living room.
He lowered the volume. “Everything okay?”
“Yes. She wants to go to sleep early.” I sat across from him. “Thank you again for going to the store. You saved the day. I really appreciate it.”
“Anytime.” He grinned. “What do you say we crack open the wine?”
“Yeah.” I stood up. “That would be great. We can sit right out back. It’s a nice night.”
“I’ll bring out the special dessert I brought you. It’s something you can eat. At least I hope I got it right.”