"Like Louise." Benjamin replied with a sigh, he was starting to rethink why he had even thought of coming here. His life would obviously have remained much more peaceful had he not decided to come here in the first place.
But he also knew that if he had not come here, Lulu would have remained upset with him, much more upset than she was now, and weighing his options, this anger of hers was better than her directly being upset with him.
"Oh, so that's what you're calling it now? Like a Louise huh?" Lulu asked, she was even more offended now more than before.
"You know what I mean Louise, you're jumping to conclusions, you are being overly upset at me for something someone else did and most importantly you are being unfair and not giving me a chance to explain anything simply because you wish to remain upset." Benjamin frowned, Lulu looked at him clearly upset, she hated it when he was right.
"I didn't upset you, the delivery driver did. And I came all the way here to see you and tell you myself that I was back and I just happen to meet you in a bad mood, it's not fair Louise." Benjamin said, he sounded so serious that Lulu sort of felt bad for him.
He was right, she was not upset with him, she was upset with that idiotic deliver driver that had messed up her day.
"And I know that yes, you do have some right to be upset over the fact that I didn't tell you that I was leaving." He said.
"And because of that... I am sorry, so very sorry." Benjamin said sincerely, the last thing he wanted was for Lulu to be angry with him.
She had been so nice for the past week, she had not called him excessively, she respected his wishes and most importantly, she remained at a distance, he could see that she was trying to change.
She was starting to realize that he needed space and she gave him space, and he had to admit that he missed hearing her talking to him every single day, he missed her loud, high-pitched, voice.
Lulu could see that he was not being spiteful or irritating, he was truly sincere with his apology, she could not help but feel like she was in the wrong.
"It's fine... I forgive you." Lulu replied, she truly did, honestly speaking, she missed him, she missed annoying him, walking into his house unannounced and seeing the sheer annoyance on his face and the was he scowled whenever she did something obnoxious.
"You do?" he asked sounding surprised.
"Yes, of course I do." She replied with a frown. "What did you mean by that? Are you trying to say that I don't forgive easily or what?" she scoffed.
Benjamin simply chuckled, this was typical Lulu, looking for anything and everything to start an unnecessary argument.
"Thanks for forgiving me." He said ignoring her previous question, he knew better than to play with fire after he had already just almost fallen into it.
"Mhmm, you're welcome." Lulu said, it was at that moment that she heard a loud thud come from upstairs and that was when she remembered that she had left Joy at home all alone.
"Oh no!" Lulu shouted instantly, she rushed off leaving Benjamin extremely confused and worried as he rushed after her.
"What's the matter?" he asked as they were both on the stairs.
"I forgot that I left Joy all alone." She replied frantically as she hurried to Joy's bedroom. "Joy, Joy." she called.
"Aunt Lulu." Joy replied in a small still voice.
Lulu looked extremely relieved when she laid her eyes on Joy. "Oh thanks goodness you're alright Joy." She rushed to her and almost slipped on the floor, she had not realized that there was a large puddle of water on the ground.
Luckily for Lulu, Benjamin was there to catch her right before she fell.
She looked up into his eyes and found herself cursing internally, why was he always there to catch her when she fell?
"Be careful, you always do that, running before looking." He said shaking his head. She scoffed and moved away from him, she walked around the puddle and hugged Joy tightly.
"Oh Joy, I'm so sorry, so very sorry that I left you alone." She said hugging her tightly.
"Aunt Lulu, I'm so sorry." Joy said as she bowed her head down, she knew that she would get in serious trouble for the mess she had made. She was just trying to pour the dirty mopping water away and she could not pour it in the bath or in the shower because the water was brown and dirty and it would leave a mark.
So she decided to pour it outside. As she was dragging the bucket, it slipped and poured all the dirty water away.
"What happened here?" Benjamin asked, there was a huge puddle of dirty water on the floor, the entire room smelled like hair conditioner and lastly, there was a chicken clucking and flying around the room.
Lulu glared at Benjamin and looked at Joy, it was her job to ask that, not his. "What happened here?" she asked.
"I was bored Aunt Lulu, so I went to go get Maggie, but she dragged mud all over the house and I didn't notice so, I went to clean it up and caused a bigger mess." Joy sounded like she was on the verge of tears.
"Oh my darling." Lulu said, she felt so guilty, this was her fault, what else did she expect when you leave a child alone unspervised.
"Why would you leave her alone?" Benjamin asked. Lulu turned to look at him and glared, he was not helping one bit, she was already feeling guilty enough as it was, she did not need him adding to her problems.
"I had to leave her alone to go face that idiot delivery man!" Lulu replied.
"But still, you shouldn't have left her alone, this could have been much more dangerous." Benjamin said. "What if she had set the house on fire?" he asked, he would have never left Joy alone had he been Lulu.
"Just shut up, she didn't burn the house down." Lulu shouted at him. Joy on the other hand was extremely sad that Lulu and Benjamin were arguing because of her.
She started to cry. Both Benjamin and Lulu turned to her surprised that she was crying.
"I'm so sorry Aunt Lulu, I'm so sorry Uncle Benjamin, you are arguing because of me." She cried.
"Awww, no, no, no we aren't my darling." Lulu said instantly shaking her head.
"But you are." Joy cried. "It's my fault, I didn't listen to you to stay put." Joy cried.
"Aww princess." Benjamin said, he crossed to the other side of the puddle and carried her.
"It's not your fault at all princess, not at all." He said comforting her.
"Yes, you did make a mistake by not listening to orders, but it's not your fault, you shouldn't have been left alone in the first place." Benjamin coaxed her. Lulu looked at him and frowned, she felt guilty, truly it was her fault for leaving Joy alone.
"It's not your fault, you were bored, at least you didn't get hurt and that's all that matters okay?" he asked as Joy nodded.
"Good." He smiled. Lulu carried Joy from him.
"I'm so sorry Joy, this is my fault, I should have taken you with me." Lulu apologized.
"No, I should have listened to you aunt Lulu." Joy sniffed.
"I'm just glad you're alright." Lulu said hugging her tightly.
"Now, we have to clean up this mess before your mom comes back, because I am going to be in serious trouble if she does come back and sees all this." Lulu said, she was worried about how Natasha would react seeing this mess, not to even talk about finding out that she left her daughter all alone.
"Already on it." Benjamin said, he caught Maggie and handed her to Joy while he used the mop to clean up all the water.
"You just stay here with Maggie while we clean up okay?" Lulu asked, she set Joy down on her bed with Maggie on her lap.
"Okay." Joy nodded. Lulu smiled at her and walked into the bathroom, she picked up the towel from the ground and added it to the rest of the dirty clothes. She scrunched her nose when she got a whiff of bleach.
"Joy." She called from inside the bathroom.
"Yes." Joy answered.
"Did you use bleach?" Lulu asked confused.
"Yes, because Maggie pooped when I locked her in the shower and so I poured a bit of bleach on it and opened the shower to wash it away." Joy was honest, Lulu did not seem angry with her which was a huge relief. There was no need for her to lie.
"Oh my goodness Joy." Lulu sighed, she shook her head. Bleach was really dangerous, really, really dangerous, especially when you didn't know what you were doing.