The Thursday sun had just begun to shine through the gap in the curtains, but the tension in the apartment was already palpable. Exactly at six-thirty in the morning, Aruna came out of her room dressed neatly and ready to leave for Children Smart School. In the living room, she found Gavin already sitting on the sofa with a haggard face, dark circles under his eyes, and hair sticking out in every direction—nothing like the playboy image he always projected, nicknamed “Bunglon.”
Gavin had deliberately not dared to go back to sleep after dawn prayer. The threat of losing Rendy's company assets and shares had truly wrecked his nervous system.
Aruna placed Adisti's light-blue notebook on the coffee table with an intentionally loud plop. “I'm leaving. All of Kenzie's schedule is in here. She has to take a bath at eight, eat breakfast at nine, and, as it happens, I haven't made any food for Kenzie today. So you'll make her breakfast and lunch today. At eleven, she drinks her milk and then takes a nap. Remember, Gavin, don't even think about stepping outside this door unless you want Mr. Eza to cross your name off the board of directors.”
“Oh, one more thing. All of Kenzie's favorite foods are in that blue notebook too.”
Gavin merely snorted and turned away in annoyance. “Yeah, yeah! You're so freaking naggy. It's just taking care of a kid that tiny! I can win a tender, can't I? How hard can taking care of a kid be?”
Aruna didn't answer Gavin's boast. She only gave him a crooked, meaningful smile that seemed to say, Enjoy your day, Gavin. After kissing Kenzie's forehead as the little girl had just begun to stir awake in her room, Aruna stepped out and closed the apartment door.
The moment the door locked, the real battlefield for Gavin officially began.
8:00 a.m.: The Bathroom Tragedy.
“Come on, Ken... Ken... Kenzie, wake up. It's bath time,” Gavin coaxed in a forcedly sweet voice as he lifted Kenzie from the bed.
Kenzie had just woken up and immediately began whining, her eyes still closed even as her little lips puckered. “No want... Eji no want bath, Uncle Apin...”
“No arguing. Uncle has a promise... I mean, Uncle has to be disciplined, or your Auntie will turn into an angry tiger.” Gavin quickly corrected himself. He carried Kenzie into the bathroom, sat her in a special plastic baby bathtub, and turned on the shower.
Gavin had forgotten to read the note in the blue notebook saying that Kenzie's bathwater had to be lukewarm. As soon as the water hit her little back, Kenzie jerked in shock. It was far too cold for a baby's skin.
“Waaaaah! Cold! Una... Want Una! Waaaaah!” Kenzie's crying erupted instantly, echoing through the bathroom. The toddler thrashed, kicking water in every direction.
Splash! Slosh!
“Hey, hey! Kenzie, stop! Oh, man!” Gavin panicked. Kenzie's frantic movements sent soapy water and cold water spraying everywhere, soaking Gavin's pajamas from head to toe. And because Kenzie was slippery with soap, she nearly slid down before Gavin managed to catch her.
In his panic, Gavin's slippery hand bumped the bottle of baby shampoo on the rack, sending it crashing to the floor and spilling its contents. Unprepared, Gavin immediately slipped.
Crash!
The playboy's defenses collapsed. Gavin landed sitting on the wet bathroom floor, his pants drenched, while Kenzie, seeing her uncle fall, suddenly stopped crying. The one-and-a-half-year-old instead clapped happily.
“Hahaha! Uncle Apin fall! Fall like frog! Hahaha!” Kenzie laughed brightly, pointing at Gavin with her tiny, foam-covered hands.
Gavin helplessly wiped the water splashed across his face. “Be patient, Gav... Be patient... For the sake of the company's shares, Gav... The shares,” he muttered, calming himself down.
9:15 a.m.: Breakfast Time.
After nearly an hour spent solely on bathing and changing clothes—which ended with Gavin having to change as well because he was soaked—he finally moved on to breakfast.
Gavin stood in front of the stove with a furrowed brow, the blue notebook belonging to his late sister-in-law open beside him. “Okay, Adisti wrote here that Kenzie likes butter fried rice. So for breakfast this morning, I'm going to make special butter fried rice for Kenzie.”
Gavin took a nonstick pan from the bottom cabinet of the kitchen set. Then he prepared several ingredients for the butter fried rice, following the recipe Adisti had written in the notebook.
Gavin expertly stirred the fried rice, then tasted it before serving it to Kenzie.
“Not bad. It's not terrible,” Gavin muttered after tasting his own cooking.
After cooling the fried rice with a portable fan, Gavin carried the bowl to the dining table. Kenzie was already sitting sweetly in her high chair, holding the red toy car Leo had given her the day before.
“Come on, sweetie, open up. The airplane's coming in for a landing... vroom...” Gavin imitated an airplane as he guided the spoon toward Kenzie's mouth, trying to get her to open it quickly.
Kenzie looked at the spoon, then shook her head vigorously. “No want nasi oleng. Eji want cokelat!”
“No chocolate first thing in the morning, Kenzie. Come on, eat your fried rice so you can grow big like Uncle,” Gavin coaxed, putting on the charismatic smile he usually used to charm models.
But Gavin's charm had absolutely no effect on the toddler. Kenzie simply snatched the spoon from his hand. Gavin wasn't prepared, and he immediately lost control of it.
Smack! Splatter!
A spoonful of fried rice landed squarely on the apartment's marble floor.
Gavin froze. He stared without blinking at the rice scattered beneath him. Meanwhile, Kenzie—the culprit—looked at her uncle in displeasure. “Eji no want eat Uncle Apin's cooking. Not yummy.”
Gavin drew a deep breath and exhaled through his mouth, holding back the frustration tightening in his chest. “Kenzie... Who says Uncle's fried rice isn't yummy? It's delicious. Look, Uncle will eat it,” Gavin hissed in exasperation. Then he put the fried rice into his own mouth to prove to Kenzie that his cooking was good.
After the exhausting struggle of finishing half a bowl of fried rice—which Kenzie eventually agreed to eat, albeit only a little—it was time to play before her nap. Gavin, exhausted in body and soul, decided to lie down on the fur rug in the living room, hoping Kenzie would play quietly by herself.
But Gavin's expectations were far too high. When Kenzie saw her uncle lying on his back, she decided Gavin's body was a brand-new playground.
“Uncle Apin! Be a horse! Be a horse!” Kenzie shouted excitedly. Without asking permission, the little girl climbed onto Gavin's stomach and began bouncing lightly on it.
“Ow! Kenzie... ow, don't sit there. Uncle's stomach might get a hernia,” Gavin groaned, holding Kenzie around the waist so she wouldn't fall.
Before his stomach had even recovered, Kenzie's tiny hands darted for Gavin's hair. With baby strength that turned out to be considerable, she tugged at the front of Gavin's hair, usually styled neatly with expensive pomade.
“Don't pull Uncle's hair, Ken! Ow, it'll fall out, and then I'll be less handsome!” Gavin cried in panic, carefully trying to free Kenzie's grip without hurting his niece.
“Uncle Apin ugly! Hahaha! His hair looks like an owl!” Kenzie chattered innocently, continuing to muss Gavin's hair until it resembled a bird's nest.
Gavin could only lie helplessly on the rug, his stomach occupied and his hair thoroughly wrecked. In his heart, he screamed for the peace and quiet of his office—or even the most boring board meeting imaginable. It turned out that dealing with one toddler drained far more energy than facing ten fussy corporate clients.
Exactly at one in the afternoon, after being given a bottle of warm milk—which, thankfully, she finished without the slightest drama—Kenzie finally began to yawn and fell sound asleep in Gavin's arms.
Gavin slowly moved his tiny niece into the bed in her room with extreme care, even deliberately holding his breath so Kenzie wouldn't wake up again. After making sure Kenzie was truly fast asleep, Gavin left the room and immediately collapsed onto the living-room sofa.
“Finally, I get to rest too. After spending half a day taking care of that kid,” Gavin muttered.
He stared blankly at the apartment ceiling. His entire body felt broken, his clothes were covered in stains, his hair was a mess, and the smell of baby oil now overpowered his expensive cologne.
Only half a day... and I already feel like I'm dying, Gavin lamented inwardly. At the same time, a faint sense of admiration and guilt suddenly surfaced in the deepest corner of his heart for Aruna. So... Aruna had been handling all this trouble by herself for the past week?
Before Gavin could reflect any further on his guilt, he heard the apartment's front door open.
To be continued...