"Good, good, I was starting to get a little bit jealous that you had other friends." said Lulu with a naughty pout on her face as Natasha laughed.
"Oh Lulu, relax, you're one of my closest friends alright? There's nothing for you to worry about, I always value your opinion, always." said Natasha as she smiled and stood up to give Lulu a hug that cheered Lulu up instantly.
"Good, good, because I'm not even your friend, we are literal sisters now." said Lulu as Natasha laughed.
"Yes, yes of course we are sisters since I married your brother." said Natasha as she laughed.
"Even before then, I always liked you more than Lia." said Lulu as Natasha continued laughing.
"I don't know whether to be happy about that or not." said Natasha as she laughed, she was in a very good mood today, especially with Lulu saying funny things to make her laugh.
"Be happy about it, I've always had an underlying bad feeling about Lia." said Lulu as she scoffed.
"And right I was, that woman is evil." said Lulu.
"She might be, but I don't really blame her, we all had weaknesses and she exploited all of those weaknesses." said Natasha with a shrug.
"So you don't hate her anymore?" asked Lulu as Natasha sat down beside her.
"Well I do not like what she did obviously, but do I hate her? No, not anymore, I've grown past that, such is life, we are bound to have some wins and some loses, the most important thing is that we learn to carry on." said Natasha.
"Yesterday it crossed my mind that if Lia hadn't had done what she had done, I wouldn't have had Joy who is currently my life, pride and literal joy." said Natasha as she giggled causing Lulu to giggle as well.
"That may be true, but you also have to consider that if she hadn't did what she did, you and Dom would have been happily in love and Joy would have come way later down the line when both of you were ready." said Lulu.
"True, but children are a blessing always. I admit that this was certainly not how I pictured my life when I was twenty, but life happened and I can honestly say that I wouldn't change my past for anything in the world. It was painful yes, but it made me who I am today, a mother, which I am most proud of." said Natasha as she smiled.
She had always thought about why she had only been taken five years into the past instead of the full ten years that she had spent married to Dom, and over the course of time that she had grown and changed her life and gotten better she realized that if she had been taken back further she would have made drastic decisions that would change the future she knew.
On one hand it seemed tempting to stop herself from marrying Dom in the first place and to change her life drastically, but she had learnt in time that it was best to be content with what she had and how she was.
If she had changed anything serious back then, the future she knew now would be none existent and she would not want that at all. If she had never married Dom, Joy would have never existed, sure maybe she would have been happy with her life, but she would no doubt feel something was empty.
"Of course, of course, I agree." said Lulu as she smiled.
"Yes." said Natasha as she smiled.
"Anyway, I have to go now Natasha, I'm done with my assignment, see you later and don't cut your hair." said Lulu as she stood up and Natasha laughed.
"I hear you, see you later." said Natasha as she smiled and Lulu left her office.
Natasha smiled and shook her head, she did love talking to Lulu, she always found a way to make her laugh.
...
"Mommy I am done eating lunch can I please go watch tv?" asked Joy as she looked at Natasha who smiled and nodded.
"Yayyy, thank you mommy!!" said Joy as she smiled and rushed out of the dining room into the living room.
Natasha walked into the living room after Joy and sat on the couch beside her while Joy was fully focused on what was showing on the television.
"My darling your hair is getting very long, we need to trim it before the ends start to die." said Natasha as she ran her fingers through Joy's hair while Joy focused on watching tv.
Joy's hair was curly which meant that it needed much more care and attendance than straight hair and Natasha had found out about that the hard way. She remembered when Joy was little and her hair first started to come out, Natasha had been too busy to brush it regularly which caused her hair to tangle so bad that the only solution was to shave it all off and let her grow some new hair.
"Do you want to cut it short again?" asked Natasha as Joy shook her head.
"No I don't mommy." replied Joy.
"Why not darling?" asked Natasha as Joy had her eyes glued to the tv.
"Well because Clarita has very long brown hair and it's very beautiful and shiny so I want long hair to, then me and Clarita can both have beautiful long hair." said Joy as Natasha could not help but giggle at her daughter's reason.
"Ahh I see, okay darling, but we still need to trim the ends so your hair can grown very long and healthy." said Natasha as she smiled.
"Okay mommy." said Joy with a smile.
"So what do you think about my hair darling?" asked Natasha as she smiled.
"I think that your hair is lovely mommy, it's bright and very beautiful, I love it." said Joy sincerely.
"Aww that's so sweet my darling, thank you." said Natasha as she smiled, her darling always said the sweetest things.
"So what do you think if I want to cut my hair short again?" asked Natasha as this time Joy turned around to look at her.
"No, don't cut it short again mommy. I love your hair long, it looks very pretty, more pretty than before. Now I can braid your hair, before I couldn't braid it long because your hair was short, so please don't cut your hair mommy." said Joy as she pleaded and Natasha could not help but laugh and pinch her chubby cheeks.
"Alright my darling. I won't cut my hair, you don't have to worry." said Natasha as she laughed. It seemed that everyone would prefer that she leave her hair the way it was, even Chloe agreed when she spoke to her earlier, and she had nothing against that.
To be honest, she just wanted to know what everyone thought about her hair and she was certainly surprised to hear that they all loved her hair. It kind of made her feel warm inside that they had many nice things to say about her hair.
She had never really cared about her hair before. She had especially not really liked her hair colour which she had got from her mom. To her, she thought that it made her stand out a lot and in high school when someone didn't like her, they often referred to her as the devil because of the colour of her hair.
So she guessed that was why she couldn't care less about her hair, but to hear that so many people admired her hair and actually liked it, she started to feel more confident about it and also learn to love her hair as well.
"Yayyyy." said Joy as she laughed excitedly.
"But we have to go get our ends trimmed before the party first." said Natasha as Joy nodded.
"Okay mommy." said Joy as she smiled.
"So what are you watching?" asked Natasha as she carried Joy onto her lap and hugged her tight causing Joy to giggle.
"I'm watching this puppet show where the green puppet named Johnny just broke up with his girlfriend the purple puppet named Patty, and now Patty is very sad because of the break up." said Joy as she explained seriously and Natasha laughed.
"Umm you already know about break ups my darling?" asked Natasha as she laughed and Joy nodded.
Natasha could clearly see that this was a kids show, but the theme was rather serious, it made her wonder how children's cartoons nowadays were rather very mature.
"Mhmm, it makes you sad and you cry and feel bad, but I'm sure that Patty will get over it because Johnny brought flowers to apologize." said Joy.
"I see, but why did he break up with her in the first place if he was going to apologize later?" asked Natasha as she didn't get it.
"Well because Johnny's mother doesn't like Patty, she thinks that she's mean and that's not true, so she told Johnny to break up with her." said Joy.
"And he did?" asked Natasha.
"Mhmm." replied Joy as she nodded.
"Why?" asked Natasha as she was actually getting interested in the show.
"Because he always listens to his mother since his father died when he was little, but I just think that Johnny is a coward because he never tells his mother how he truly feels." said Joy as Natasha laughed utterly surprised to hear such a big word and explanation come out of Joy's mouth.
"Oh my darling seriously, you seem to have everything in this show figured out." said Natasha as she laughed and Joy giggled as she continued watching the show.