Mooma Takes a Bath
by Arcadia
Copyright© 2026 by Arcadia
The door wouldn’t shut.
Dani slammed it again, rattling the whole shitty old car.
Slowly, tauntingly, the door vibrated and shimmied open again, the yellow-tinted streetlamp overhead a spotlight for its defiance.
She slammed the door again and again and again, far beyond caring if it actually closed anymore.
“CUNTFUCKINGGODDAMNCHRISTFUCKSHITFUCKING CUNTFACEDFUCK FUCKFUCK!!”
Her chest heaved from furious breaths as she stared down the door, fully aware it wasn’t the source of her frustration.
Forcing a calm she couldn’t convince herself of, Dani pulled back on the handle and pushed the door closed with a click.
“Fuck,” she said more measuredly.
Her breaths came slower now, but her brain wasn’t cooperating, determined to run over and over the decision that really hadn’t been much of a decision at all. And the more she thought, the more helpless she felt. There was no other choice she could’ve made.
The frustration won out.
“GOD. FUCKING. CUNTS!!!” Dani slammed the side of her fist against the doorframe, faster and faster, then started kicking the door when her hand hurt too much, leaving smudges in the layers of dust and dirt caking the metal. “ARRRGGGGGHHHHHHAAAAAAAA!!!”
Finally, when she’d run out of words and energy to keep acting out her childish tantrum, she collapsed over the closed driver’s side door, burying her face in the oversized sleeves of her old hoodie.
Footsteps on the pavement. Her cheeks heated. Some neighbor had definitely witnessed her parking lot meltdown.
“Uh, hey Dani, all okay over there?”
She didn’t look up, but tilted her head enough so her response wasn’t completely muffled.
“Yep. Thanks, Rick. Just ... got a new job.” She flashed a thumbs up without raising her head from her makeshift cocoon.
“Err ... well ... better luck next time, I guess...”
His footsteps eventually turned from asphalt to metal, tromping up the stairs to the building next door.
Dani sighed, pulling her head out from the blackness to face reality again. But the night was the same as she’d left it — clouded and dark.
Resigned, she picked up her messenger bag by the strap and trudged up the stairs to her own apartment.
Whatever had been for dinner smelled good — probably one of those soups or stews with the incomprehensible names Dani pretended to understand. She closed the door behind her and added her shoes to the scattered pile strewn everywhere but on the mat.
Another deep breath cleansed the frown that seemed permanently etched into her face most of the time, and she made a conscious effort to replace it with something that could reasonably be mistaken for vaguely positive. At a distance. While squinting. Maybe. That was the best she could do right now.
But that effort proved fleeting, replaced by confusion.
A few steps in and she could see into the living room. Empty. Turning to the kitchen, Kaia was wiping her hands on a towel.
“Where is he?” Dani hadn’t intended to sound so clipped, but she couldn’t help it.
Kaia turned, noticing Dani for the first time, and gave her a warm smile that only made her feel more embarrassed about her tantrum at the car. Kaia never acted that way, no matter what happened. Dani would’ve paid good money to see it if she ever did. Well, if they had good money to spend.
“Still at the Lopezes.” Kaia shrugged, putting the towel back where it went.
Dani hmphed. “Come on, it’s almost 9:30. I thought I was gonna be too late, but he’s not even here!”
She stopped her arms halfway into their show of exasperation, but it was too late. She knew immediately she’d already gone too far.
Kaia arched an eyebrow that was darker than her hair, waiting a silent beat. She didn’t bring attention to Dani’s outburst otherwise, just smiled with only a corner of her mouth and shrugged.
“It’s summer, Dani.”
She reached for Dani’s cheek, her slender fingers instantly loosening the jaw Dani hadn’t realized had been clenched since before the parking lot. Dani felt her whole body follow suit, slackening. Or maybe deflating.
“What, like you aren’t gonna be writing about city council ‘til 1 in the morning anyway?” Kaia asked.
Conceding, Dani blew air out her nose. “Yeah ... Fine.”
Kaia hesitated, trying to catch eye contact where Dani didn’t want to give it.
“Did you hear back?”
Dani didn’t want to answer, dropping the messenger bag to the floor without concern for what happened to the laptop inside. But she’d have to answer sometime. She settled for avoiding Kaia’s gaze.
“Yeah. They ... they aren’t going to budge.”
She dared a quick peek, but Kaia was doing that thing where she kept her face blank, like she was waiting to see how Dani would react before registering her own.
Dani’s reaction was to slide her back down the kitchen wall until she reached the bottom — then hung her head between her knees for good measure. Too much was weighing down on her to stay upright.
“They actually tried to sell me on how they’re gonna start using AI, too. So that way I won’t ‘have to write so much.’” Helplessly, she finally raised her eyes to Kaia, who stifled an oof and took a seat next to her on the kitchen tile. “As if that’s something I’d be excited about.”
Kaia took her hand, holding it silently for a moment.
“Don’t they know how good you are? How many years you’ve been doing this?”
Dani shrugged, just as helplessly. “Maybe that’s the only reason I got an offer at all, even if it’s low. I don’t know. Maybe they just asked ChatGPT how much I should make.”
Neither of them laughed, just sat quietly. Kaia was probably contemplating just as much as Dani was trying not to.
The weariness hit Dani like a wall. She was apparently past the angry stage, ready to enter reluctant resignation. That was good. The faster she came to terms with the new reality, the faster she could ... well, whatever was supposed to come next.
She sighed again.
“I don’t know. I’ll just look for something else.” She glanced over to Kaia. “Maybe I can manage a McDonald’s or something.”
Kaia clearly was keeping a protest inside, instead only letting out a skeptical tsk.
“Oh please. Like they’d hire you straight to manager.”
The kidding twitch at the corners of Kaia’s lips made Dani want to laugh, but she was also right. Dani’s skillset didn’t exactly translate.
When Kaia sighed and rested the back of her head against the wall, the pit at the bottom of Dani’s stomach plummeted into freefall. Kaia never let it show when things were bad, not even a little. And things were pretty much always bad. Even though she hadn’t budged, she clutched Kaia’s hand for balance.
A knock at the front door let Dani wipe her eyes with a little dignity while Kaia levered herself up off the floor. On her way to the hallway, she bent down and kissed Dani on the cheek. There really wasn’t much more to be said anyway.
Muffled voices. A couple of thuds, adding shoes to the pile. The door wasn’t even closed by the time a ball of energy bounded into the room, dressed up as a 6-year-old boy in a T-shirt and shorts.
“Mooma!”
A smile washed over Dani’s face — thin, but there. Even a day like today couldn’t keep him from making her smile.
“Hey bud—oof!”
Xander plowed into her for a hug, unconcerned for the safety of her squished organs. She inhaled his hair brushing at her nose, though the scent wasn’t as pleasant as it used to be when he was younger. Just yesterday he’d been a toddler. Would she wake up tomorrow and he’d be a teenager?
He tried to break the hug, but Dani squeezed him tight for just a beat longer, pressing her cheek to his dusty blond hair.
When he did squirm away, he gave her a disapproving look.
“Mooma, sit in a chair!”
Dani furrowed her brow as Kaia came back in from the hallway.
“A chair? Hmm. I don’t think those are for sitting, are they?”
Xander nodded vociferously, utterly certain that was, in fact, the primary purpose of chairs. “Yes huh! See, look! They’re for your booty!”
He demonstrated with just as much certitude, wiggling his derriere into one of the peeling kitchen chairs Kaia’s mother had gifted them. She wasn’t sure if the chairs were older than Kaia’s mom, but they were close enough to look the part.
“Well, whatdya know.” Dani looked up at Kaia. “Mommy, you hear this noise about booties and chairs?”
Kaia folded her arms, leaning against the doorframe with an amused smile.
“Yeah, you know, I think I read something about that in the paper.”
Creaking up from the floor, Dani scoffed. “Well, you know you can’t trust anything in that rag.”
Xander had already leapt out of the chair again, his attention wandering.
“Mooma! Mooma! Mooma watch! Mooma watch!”
“I’m watching, baby.”
The boy teetered on one leg, arms thrown out to each side to try and keep his balance. He nearly collapsed into the stove after a couple seconds, but managed to stay upright, grinning wildly while he tried again and again.
“Pretty good,” Dani said. “You’re gonna be a natural when your baby legs fall off.”
This time he put his foot back down instead of trying again, shooting a concerned look to Dani.
“Huh?”
“Oh yeah. It’s like baby teeth. How do you think you get taller?” He flinched at her playful pinch of his calf. “When you’re about 9 or 10, your baby legs fall off one at a time, and then you grow bigger ones!”
His alarm only increased — until he tried to confirm with Kaia, who gave him a subtle shake of her head.
“Mooooooomaaaa.” Xander crossed his arms, his grin exposing a missing baby tooth already.
Dani grinned back. How could she not?
“Did you say your pleases and thank yous?” she asked, not kidding this time.
He nodded, and she didn’t doubt him. He was a good kid, especially at other people’s houses. Better than she’d been.
“Mooma,” he blurted before either she or Kaia could say it was time for bed, “what does ‘loudmouth’ mean?”
Dani snorted and exchanged a confused glance with Kaia.
“‘Loudmouth?’ Where’d you hear that?”
“Adam said his dad says you’re a ‘troublemaking loudmouth.’”
Both parents broke into laughs while Xander waited patiently for an answer.
“So you know ‘troublemaker’ already?” Dani asked.
He nodded proudly.
“Not sure if we should be pleased with that or not.” Kaia made a good point.
Dani tapped her chin, trying to figure out how to answer, then leaned down to look her son in the eye.
“Well,” she began, resting a hand on his shoulder, “next time you see Adam, you ask him if his dad can spell ‘embezzlement.’”
Kaia stepped in, but she was too late — Xander was already mouthing the word, trying to get it right.
“Ooookay, buddy boy, time for bed, come on.” Kaia guided him away, casting a glance back at Dani that was equal parts disapproving and amused. “Brush your teeth and put your PJs on. It’s late.”
When he disappeared, Kaia crossed her arms and kept the same expression, just in case Dani had somehow missed it.
“What?” she said, grinning wider. “I know Adam’s dad can do it. I’d just be impressed if he could spell it.”
“Mhm.” Kaia shook her head in what Dani chose to view as only amusement. “You know he’s actually gonna ask that.”
Dani shrugged as impishly as she still could at her age and kissed Kaia in the doorway. Kaia took her wife into her arms, a little tighter than she might have on a different day.
“My troublemaking loudmouth,” she muttered into Dani’s ear, kissing her cheek to let her know that was more of a gold star than a demerit.
The rest of the day came back into focus and Dani let herself melt into Kaia’s embrace.
“I just...” She sighed, mumbling into Kaia’s shoulder. “I was hoping our next place would have a dishwasher.”
Kaia snorted, pulling back enough to look into Dani’s eyes. “When have you ever washed a dish?”
“Well ... if we had a dishwasher, then I would!”
They both knew they were dissembling, trying to make the other smile in any way they could. And they were each eager to oblige.
Xander reappeared in matching yellow Wolverine pajamas that would most certainly play a prominent role in a slideshow at his wedding one day. But the bathroom had stayed suspiciously silent during the short time he’d been gone. Kaia spoke for the both of them.
“Did you brush your teeth?”
He paused, panic crossing his face for too long a moment while he composed himself into giving an unconvincing nod. His mothers just stared at him, though Dani was having trouble keeping a straight face.
“Teeth, young man,” she said instead, as sternly as she could manage.
After he moped off and the bathroom sink sprang to life, Kaia caught Dani’s eyes.
“I could pick up another shift—”
Dani cut Kaia off before she could reach the end of her thought.
“Come on, don’t say that,” Dani pleaded, but the plea was hollow. It was the natural thing to do. It just wouldn’t be any more practical after they moved than it was here. “Besides. What would we do with Xander? If we actually find day care, it’d cost more than what you’d make with an extra shift.”
Kaia sighed this time.
“We’ll do what we have to do,” she said quietly, pulling Dani back into a hug, cradling her head. “If me having to wash dishes is the worst part, then we’ve got it pretty good.”
Dani nuzzled into the crook of Kaia’s neck, letting her take both their weights and then some. Neither of them really believed washing dishes was going to be the least of their problems. But it made Dani feel a little lighter anyway.
When Xander finished in the bathroom, Kaia kissed her on the cheek again.
“We’ll make it,” she said in that same low tone, like it was a secret she was sharing only with Dani.
While Kaia tucked Xander into bed, Dani put her stuff away in the half of the living room that doubled as her study. The awards on the wall seemed more mocking than reassuring now. None of them really meant anything. They’d gotten her nothing in the end.
She sighed, running her eyes over the accolades. As much as she wanted to tell herself that, she couldn’t make it stick. The plaques with her name on them were proof of what she’d spent her life doing. She thought it mattered, at least. The people whose stories she’d told, they probably did too.
But that wouldn’t buy a dishwasher.
Dani held hands briefly with Kaia as they crossed in the hall, Dani following the glow of Xander’s nightlight spilling out into the dark hallway. She couldn’t understand how he ever fell asleep with it so bright, but he preferred it that way.
Xander’s eyes were still alight on their own, wide open as she leaned in to kiss him goodnight.
“‘Night my little X-Man,” she said quietly, kissing him on the forehead. He was tucked under just a sheet, his comforter kicked into a ball at the end of his bed, where it ended up most summer nights.
“Mooma,” he said in a tone that matched hers, “are we moving?”
They hadn’t discussed it in front of him, but it wasn’t like they’d kept it a secret. Kids had a way of picking up on these things no matter what, though.
Dani sighed, depressing the edge of his bed as she sat down.
“Well, maybe, baby,” she conceded, wiping his dark blond hair out of his eyes. It had trended steadily darker as he’d gotten older. Would it be full-on brown in a few more years? “Mooma got offered a new job.”
Right this second at least, she wanted to pretend it was just an offer, that there were still other options on the table, even if she knew better.
Xander perked up, though he probably would’ve perked up at anything if it meant a few more minutes of not having to go to sleep.
“Doing what?”
She tried to cover up a wince, fingering his hair still. “Same thing as before.”
“Oh.”
That seemed to disappoint him a little. He wasn’t the only one, though it wasn’t the work that was disappointing her. That was the part she loved. She had trouble imagining herself doing anything else, really.
For what felt like the millionth time since she’d arrived home, Dani let out a deep sigh, and stretched out next to her son on his twin bed. Xander scooted against her, snuggling up under her outstretched arm.
Even through the sheet, she could feel him radiating heat, like a little furnace burning off the excess energy produced by a heartbeat that wanted to burst free and run around just as much as the rest of him did.
The room wasn’t quite dark enough for the plastic stars stuck on the chipped ceiling to glow. Was Xander old enough yet to look up at them late at night and see what she did? Maybe he was. When it wasn’t cloudy, at least.
“I wanna do lots of jobs,” he said idly, and Dani smiled, returning to earth.
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