New diapers

Carol lifted Alexa onto the changing table as she undid her wet diaper. “Now, Alexa. I have to warn you. Before the exchange, I had to buy some diapers to replace the ones we used from that woman’s bag, and in the process I also had to get new diapers so… while you were asleep, I did some shopping. Now, I think these are adorable, but… you might have some protest against them. I remember you telling me you didn’t want to feel cute, but these well… here just look at them.”

Carol held up one of the new diapers which Alexa gasped at. They looked bulky and they were pink they had stars and rainbows and pink ponies on them. They were plastic on the outside but had soft cloth on the inside. They crinkled at every touch, every movement. “T-those are…”

“I know,” Carol said. “But it’s all they had and they had a sale on them so I bought them in bulk. At the rate you were going through diapers, I thought it’d be best to get as many as possible.”

“I didn’t go through that many…” Alexa said. “Did I?”

“I don’t think I should give you the exact number,” Carol said. “But if I’m going to give you a reality check, let’s just say if we marked it on a potty chart, it would be covered in frowny faces. Now to be fair, some of those you DID technically make it to the potty, so we’re not counting those ones, but still you’ve gone through a lot. I had to replace an entire package from that woman’s backpack.”

Alexa’s eyes widened. Her face turned into a frown, her cheeks red with embarrassment. “I’m so sorry, Carol… I didn’t even realize… it’s all gone so fast.”

“Hey now, don’t worry about it. But I thought I’d play it safe,” Carol said. “So, I hope you’re not mad at me for buying these ones. Even if they are a bit babyish and a bit… loud… and pink…”

“It’s okay,” Alexa said. “Thank you for being considerate… mom..”

Carol chuckled. “You know if you don’t want to call me mom, then you can just call me Carol. I understand that this is all so new. So if you find it awkward to call me mom or mommy, just call me Carol, I won’t spank you for it.”

“I know…” Alexa said. “But… I want to call you mom, if that’s alright. I just need to get used to it.”

Carol smiled and kissed Alexa on her forehead. “I would love it.”

Alexa blushed as Carol began to wipe her clean. She couldn’t believe she had already gone through so many diapers that Carol had to replace a whole package of them… and as she laid there a bit red down below as Carol rubbed in the anti-rash cream and whatever else she had bought. She went a lot heavier with the baby powder too until there was a snowy mountain forming on Alexa’s crotch. The crinkly pink diaper slid underneath as Carol lifted her legs up and gently put them back down, pulling the front flap up and securing the tapes.

After that, she helped Alexa put on a training bra and a pink dress with a unicorn on the front of the top half and a sparkly skirt at the bottom. “I still don’t know who took that picture,” Carol said. “I’m trying to get an investigator to help us out. It’s not right… you were asleep which means it probably happened when I was asleep too… someone really went out of their way to make sure your company saw that picture… it doesn’t make sense.”

Alexa sighed not wanting to think about it. “I… I don’t think I had enemies… b-but maybe… maybe I did something wrong…”

“No, you didn’t, Lexi. This isn’t your fault. This whole thing doesn’t sit well with me,” Carol said. “You were in a **** position when that photo was taken. It violates your privacy. And it shouldn’t be what determines who has a job and who doesn’t. I wonder if that woman could help us out… the one that shared your company bag right? So she must know someone… maybe she would know who would have it out to pin you like this.”

“Or maybe I shouldn’t bring more attention to myself,” Alexa said. “What’s done is done. It can’t be helped. And I honestly… wasn’t too happy with my job. I mean, I liked it because it was easy and manageable at least at first, but then there was so much pressure for this presentation. And it was all very last minute. The whole thing was. What I don’t understand is why Mr Yawena would call me knowing that they were already discussing my leave from the company… why would he do that? To give me false hope? To… embarrass me?”

“Maybe the whole CFO thing was just a lie,” Carol said. “I mean, why fund a business trip if they know they need a budget cut? They would have known a lot sooner than the day before the presentation if they needed to make such a thing.”

“So maybe… they saw the image and wanted out… or maybe… someone from the company saw me,” Alexa frowned.

“Didn’t your boss say something about old colleagues?” Carol said. “Sorry… I could kind of hear his voice when he talked on your phone.”

“Yeah, but… I just don’t understand,” Alexa said. “I don’t think anyone on that plane would have recognized me… or maybe I’m just stupid. Although… my boss did mention… so for this business trip there wasn’t just me being flown. There were others as well… one of which… we didn’t exactly get along I guess. I didn’t think we were enemies, but we weren’t going to have a sleepover any time soon. I guess it’s possible that they were on the plane and took advantage of my vulnerability… and took a picture without my awareness.”

“What was this colleague’s name?” Carol asked.

“Molly Winston,” Alexa said.

“I’ll have one my contacts look into this. I promise you I will figure this out. If not just to give you some closure. This was so badly handled I can’t believe your boss just threw you out like that. But you know what, you don’t need to worry about that. Let’s go somewhere. You can put those new shoes on, and we can go wherever you want,” Carol said.

Alexa nodded. “Okay…”

“By the way, I got you a new car seat. I found one that should be much more comfortable and doesn’t have nearly the maze of straps,” Carol said as she helped Alexa buckle her Mary Janes and then walked Alexa to the car.

Alexa looked at a much more practical car seat and smiled. “Thank you, mom.”

“So… where do you want to go?” Carol asked.