The three of us settled down together in the den on the huge sectional sofa in front of the giant flat screen. Max chose the first movie and we spent ninety minutes watching the newest popular kids' show, a heartfelt tale about some likeable cartoon dog and his best friend, a very unrealistic looking cartoon flea. I thought the movie was just on the edge of bearable as far as kids' movies went, but at the ending, Ava cried.
“Are you seriously crying?” I teased her and ruffled her hair.
“It was sad.”
“It was not! They were reunited and lived happily ever after as parasite and host, it’s really gross if you think about it.”
Ava wiped an errant tear from the top of her cheek and sniffled. “Blame it on hormones then.”
“I’d say.” I pushed off the sofa.
“Where are you going?”
“I need a drink, I’m gonna grab a glass of water.”
“Ooh, get me something – like an iced tea? Oh, and some popcorn.”
“Popsicle!” Max hollered.
“And bring that bag of peanut butter M&Ms with you, too.”
“Anything else?” I hid a smile.
“Do we still have those salted caramels from the candy shop we went to in Oceanside?”
“I’ll check.”
“Thanks, if not, bring the Oreos.”
“The whole package?”
“Mmm … yeah.” Her head bobbed swiftly.
“Ok, so, one iced tea, popcorn, peanut butter M&Ms, salted caramels and/or a package of Oreos?”
“Popsicle!”
“And a popsicle.”
“You got it. Oh, and don’t forget your water.”
“Right.” My suppressed smile slid up my face into a full grin.
I returned a few minutes later from the kitchen totally loaded down with snacks and drinks.
“You’re the best, Ari.” Ava scooped a handful of buttery popcorn into her mouth with a crunch. “Your turn to pick a movie.”
I perused the movie queue on the TV and thought I picked something we would all enjoy. Turns out, I was wrong. Max was bored within the first ten minutes, moved down to the floor and dumped out a tote full of matchbox cars to play with. Ava finished off the caramels and popcorn then eased her head onto my shoulder. She was asleep with her head in my lap five minutes after that. She woke ten minutes before the movie ended and popped an M&M in her mouth.
“Is it my turn to pick yet?”
“That depends on what you want to watch.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you pick bad movies.”
“Oh, please, whatever – your movie is the one that stinks. Give me the remote.”
She snatched it from my hand and turned off my movie just as the ending was unwinding.
“You’re killing me, Ava.”
“Whatever. You know that guy with the scruffy beard was double crossing the agent and was behind the conspiracy the whole time.”
“I totally did not know that.”
“Oh,” she laughed, “I thought it was obvious, sorry.”
“Yeah, yeah. What’s this movie you want to watch?”
“La Métamorphose.”
“Ehh…” I moaned. “A French thing? Really?”
“Please.”
“I thought you had already seen Le whatever.”
“It’s La, Ari, La ,and I haven’t seen it yet. I was waiting for you to watch it with me. August said it's really, really good.”
“Yeah and Collin said it freaking sucks.”
“I want you to watch it with me. Please.” Her bottom lip jutted out in a pout.
“You know I can’t tell you no so just put the stupid movie on already.”
“Yay.” She pushed up on my leg and kissed my scruffy cheek.
We watched the movie and she laughed at parts that I didn’t know were funny, gasped when things happened that I didn’t understand and in the end, she cried again.
“Wow. Wasn’t that just so good?”
“Uh, I’m not sure. French people are weird.”
“Ari!” She elbowed me energetically in the ribs.
“You aren’t French, you 're Greek -- you can’t take offence to that comment.”
“What didn’t you like about the movie?”
“There was so much going on in the picture that I had a difficult time reading all the subtitles. My eyes didn’t know where to look.”
“You’ll learn.”
“I’d rather not.”
“See what happened was ...” Ava explained, with much enthusiasm, all of the parts I had failed to understand. She is so cute when she's passionate about something. Her hands fly around with excitement, her eyes grow wide and her smile beams. “It was just so sweet. You know, how the couple evolved and changed so much. When they first met they were so young, selfish and naïve. It was hard for them to focus on anything but themselves, but as they matured, their personal needs became less important to them and they focused more on their lives together. In the end, they really lived for one another.”
“Yeah, you could almost say that they each went through a kind of metamorphosis.”
“Exactly!” She didn’t get my joke.
The movie marathon had taken up our whole day and by the time we emerged from the den, it was time for dinner.
“What should we cook?” I pulled open the pantry doors.
“I dunno. I don’t really feel like eating.”
“Imagine that. Well, I do feel like eating. In fact, I'm starving and so is Max and I think it is best that you give that baby some kind of something healthy. You need some proper nourishment and protein. How about meatloaf?”
“Bleh. Gag me. No.”
“Ok, what about a chef salad, then?”
“Ooh, yummy.”
“Good, can you do the lettuce and vegetables and I’ll slice up some turkey and ham? Max can get the dressing.”
“Deal.”
And so, the three of us worked side by side in the kitchen: Ava washed and chopped veggies, I sliced fresh deli meat and Max ferreted items out of the fridge for us and did a great job at finding my favorite croutons in the pantry. Any lingering thoughts of Julia and her strange behavior evaporated as I concentrated on my family. We ate and Ava proposed one more movie, one that both of us actually wanted to watch. Max went down for the night, we wrapped ourselves up in our own bed with the TV on and the movie playing and we both were asleep before the ending credits.