Read Online Momfriends by Ariella Papa - Free Book Online

neighborhood. There was always more to people than I suspected at first. Sometimes I could only find out who people were when I looked through the camera lens at them and snapped. I thought of taking a picture of Claudia as she kept nervously peering into the parlor from the kitchen but decided against it. I didn’t think she would take it lightly. She was wound way up.
    Lately, I found myself being envious of the things that other people had. Not their kids, I wouldn’t trade mine for the world. It was things, material things. I never used to care about this. But more and more, as I felt David growing restless, it seemed as if having a little money wouldn’t be so bad. It would mean more freedom.
    Someone like Claudia could probably afford a nanny and a housekeeper. We could barely afford a babysitter. Today David’s mother, Hope, was helping out.
    Thinking of the kids made my breasts ache. Another hour or so and I would become engorged, but I didn’t think it would be cool to stop and pump at Claudia’s house. I figured I would be done in an hour. I wondered if Naomi missed me and what things Sage was saying to terrify Hope. Luckily, Julissa was in school. She was the real handful. The last time Hope watched her, she told me that Julissa needed to be reined in, that she was going to grow up spoiled if we weren’t careful. I thought of throwing back at her that David wasn’t spoiled, but he had grown up repressed and resentful, but I didn’t want to start a war. I couldn’t wait to hear what advice she was going to give me about Sage.
    But it was worth it. This photo shoot was going to cover one eighth of our rent and that was necessary.
    “Everything okay in here?” Claudia said coming back in.
    “It’s going great, I think Emily is quite photogenic. Aren’t you, sweetheart?”
    “Yes.”
    “Do you have a backyard,” I asked Claudia.
    “Yeah, do you want to see it?”
    “I was thinking maybe we could do some back there, if you didn’t mind. I bet the light would be great out there.” And also I was having real estate envy. Prospect Park was great for summer visits, but it would be nice to have a little grass of my own and maybe a garden.
    “Well, it’s not that nice,” Claudia, said nervously.
    “Is there a tree?”
    “A few.”
    “If you don’t want to go, no worries. I thought it would be a nice change of pace.”
    I looked at Claudia. She bit her lip. I had this feeling that it wasn’t the idea of going into the garden that bothered her; it was just that we hadn’t planned it before. She didn’t want to roll with it. It was as if she couldn’t. I imagined she had a job in which she had a lot of control and not a lot of human contact.
    “It’s fine, we can stay in here,” I said lightly.
    “No, no, I want to get the best pictures. Let me just put some sunscreen on them.”
    Twenty minutes later after a thorough application of sunscreen and a small meltdown from Emily, which I distracted by singing my old standby “Five Little Monkeys,” we were outside.
    The garden was unkempt but grassy. There was a giant magnolia tree in the back.
    “Wow, that’s a beautiful, bloom, huh?” I asked. Claudia shrugged and then nodded. I couldn’t stop myself from snapping a few pictures. I switched from digital to film.
    I resumed doing my job, snapping pictures of the twins. And as I did, I heard a baby wailing. It was a newborn cry.
    “Baby fwyin,” Emily said.
    “Da-dwyin,” Jacob said.
    “Yes, a baby is crying. Babies can’t talk the way you two can. You are big, so you can talk. But not babies, they have to cry,” I said, as I snapped some fantastic shots of the two of them in the grass. The baby began to shriek. This went on for at least fifteen minutes. I pressed a hand against my chest. It wasn’t my baby, but my breasts apparently wanted me to wet-nurse the kid. I was probably going to have to figure out a way to pump. I wish I had driven over, but I walked, leaving the car with